"This what happens when a game is made based on the fans request"

This game is the third installment of the Arc the Lad series. Much more simplistic than its predecessor, this game brings the concluded story to yet another conclusion for better or worst.

Story: 6/10
Arc the Lad series ended with the second game. But due to lots of requests from the fans, the third unexpected installment came about. This was a big mistake, because all the sudden the story is unplanned, unprepared and loses its muster quickly through the game. We pick up years after the conclusion of Arc the Lad II. The events that occurred are labeled the Great Disaster. People are basically trying to move on with their lives to make ends meet. The great technology has regressed. You are Alec, a boy who was rescued by a Hunter from a sure death years ago. He is a dreamer trying to become just like his rescuer. Alec has a companion - Lutz, a joker and clumsy fool who keeps some entertainment alive as you progress. After their village is attacked by thieves, the boys summon a hunter who saves the people. Astonished by the actions of the hunter, the boys decide to join the Hunter's Guild and their adventure starts. There is really no clear direction of where the story goes, which is unorthodox for the Arc the Lad series. The boys do a number of jobs for the guild and one of them happen to advance the story, which for a good many hours is not even clear.

Graphics: 8/10
Graphically this is the best looking Arc the Lad game. Not the best looking PS game but pleasant to look at. There are no slow downs, characters look very detailed and this time the heads are not oversized. There is no camera movement as basically you are always presented with an top down view, about 90% of the time. There are two ways of traveling. On foot, where you walk on the world map, or by transportation where you basically select places you want to go on a big map. You will appreciate to see the old familiar places from the previous games. When main characters are communicating, you do not see their face, but instead there is a comics bubble to know who is talking or thinking. The CGI movies are beautiful and very enjoyable to watch.

Sound: 9/10
Sound is excellent, great music all around. During a battle depending on the action, characters shout in Japanese. There is also a singing instance of a beautiful song. Enjoy it.

Game-play: 7/10
I will break it down to few sections.
BATTLE SYSTEM: It is a turn based SRPG and the battle system is very similar to Arc the Lad I, and much more simpler than Arc the Lad II. There are no random encounters. You are fighting on a grid, and depending on your move level you can move x number of spaces in any directions. The order of who acts first depends on how high is one's agility attribute. If your foe is within your physical damage reach you can attack it, and the reach depends on the weapon that you are using. Physical hits rarely get countered by enemies. Matter of fact, only Alec in my party was able to counter attacks about 30% of the time. The ranged attack is only done with explosives and some of the damage is one of the highest the game. You can also cast magic magic/ability which can effect a single square or multiple squares. You have to kill all the foes in an area to advance, but you can retrieve most of the time and you deal with one area at a time. 95% of the time when you are navigating a dungeon and come back to the area where you killed all the monsters, the monster will reappear. Exiting a battle does not fill your HP and MP same like part II unlike in the original. On the beginning of each battle you get prompted to choose which party members you want to use. If you get KO in the battle you respawn in the same area but unlike Arc the Lad II you won't lose 1/2 of your money. Frankly there is no penalty for dying and it restores your HP and MP to the fullest.

MONSTER CARDING: It is not the same as monster capturing in Arc the Lad II. One of your characters has the ability called Cardhish and what it does it can turn none humanoid monsters into cards. A maximum of 5 cards can be on a character at any given time. When a card is used in the battle it is gone and it uses an area attack that can cause a wide damage or impose statuses on enemies. Unlike monster capturing in the previous game, it is highly successful and the rate of success can increase based on certain weapons you can acquire later in the game. Carted monsters CANNOT gain levels and you can have more than one of the same monster card.

LEVELING: Experience points are earned on the individual level only, so you don't level as a party. You get experience points when you cast a spell, get hit or attack, and get this when you move. Other than your base level your spells/abilities level as well - those max out at 3. No such thing here as equipment, weapons and boost leveling unlike in Arc the Lad II. Converting of your safe file from previous game does not impact levels.

THE GUILD SYSTEM: You are an employee of the hunter's guild. The hunter guild provides you with requests: wanted monsters and jobs and a successful completion of a job or capture of a wanted monsters grants you Merits. The more merits you have the higher is your standing with the guild. Unlike Arc the Lad II where 95% of those jobs are not story driven, in here the story advances strictly by doing requests for the guild. This process gets very tedious as lots of those jobs are dumb and pointless. What is worst to some of them are nothing but hit and miss mini games featuring a lengthy dialogue which you cannot skip, so imagine listening to that over and over. Very painful. Some jobs are situational so you have to be in the right place at the right time to get a certain job, and YES those ones are missable.

THE MONSTER, WEAPON, AND ITEM SOCIETIES:
These are organizations that provide the player with guidance and unique experiences. Monster society is a place where you can trade in your monster cards, and be able to trade with other NPCs to acquire the whole set. Weapon society is a place that offers the synthesis of weapons and equipment. You basically gather synthesis material from chests and from monster drops and you can create yourself a new more powerful weapons and equipment (if you played Chrono Cross, that is almost an identical system). Item society does exactly the same thing but for items and accessories. There is also a mini game with Choco, but it requires some connectivity to an external PSX device, which I do not have so I cannot tell you what it is.

EVERYTHING ELSE: there are shops in this game which means you can buy equipment, weapons, and accessories. Characters can use different weapons, so they are not married to one type. You have one slot for a weapon, one for equipment and two for accessories. There are only 2 slots for accessories. There is something unique here called the Dangerous Dome, which is a place where basically you make a bet and fight. If you win most of the time you get +1 in terms of quality of the original item that you bit. You get notified what item you get ahead of time so you can make a decision whether to fight or not. As mentioned before this game offers an option to convert your file from ATLII - but other than some new story line elements, nothing else happens.

Final Impression
Compared to the other games this game strikes out. It is very easy, and lengthy offering no satisfaction upon completion, and the story takes forever to get going. If you do all the guild jobs and capture all the monster you can clock around 70+ hours. It is desired that you play Arc the Lad I and II so you can see what your effort in the other two accomplished, plus you will appreciate to see familiar faces in this one. The replay value is none existing, because this game can get you tired. You can get your hands on this game as part of the Arc the Lad collection new for $115 and used for $32, or the import.
I'll give it 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/07

Game Release: Arc the Lad III (JP, 10/28/99)