Arc the Lad II

"One fantastic RPG"

When I played the first Arc the Lad game, I found myself feeling somewhat cheated out of my time. I had spent 15 hours only on the game (about half of which was spent leveling up my characters and exploring the bonus dungeon) only to find a very unsatisfying ending. I mean, to be continued? Who does that in a game?

Yet, when I gave the second game a chance, the first thing I found is that it would allow me to bring over my old save from the first game into the second (like the Suikoden series does). Moreover, the story started out by focusing on someone new, rather than showing what Arc had been up to. That was the strongest point of the game, at first. As it went along, though, the characters from the first game join up. But what's more, instead of just summoning Chongara's monsters, you now get to play with them. As it turns out, Fujin and Raijin are incredibly powerful. Those two by themselves can decimate anybody. Another strong point of the game that I enjoyed is that there are bounty missions and a lot more optional dungeons, which means you might be visiting the same place repeatedly for bounty points and money. You can also hunt down wanted monsters if you don't feel like advancing the story.

Here is my breakdown of the game:

Music: 6/10
There are a lot of new tracks added, but they carried over the songs from the first game, which really weren't that good to begin with. The battle theme is somewhat uninspiring, although I didn't really notice it after a while. It's the sort of song that goes into the back of your mind, which is a good thing in this case. The dungeon themes are rather average, too. The only parts of this game that shine are the plot-related music and the town music. Most of these are brand new.

Sound: 9/10
The best part about the sound of the game is that they kept the original Japanese voice-overs, which make a lot more sense in this case then putting the literal translation of the words there in English (ie, Star Ocean 2). The characters will say something in battle if they slay a monster or dodge an attack or block an attack- things like that. The sounds for the spells aren't overly impressive, but it's just enough to get by. I mean, if someone casts a spell that creates a puddle of liquid flame, what kind of sound are you supposed to use anyway?

Characterization: 10/10
The game focuses a lot more on characters than the first game did. Each character will have their own little scenario that reveals a little more about themselves then would have otherwise been seen. You can also recruit monsters into your party, track down Chongara's summon monsters and get a robot to join up. Chongara doesn't enter into battle, which was a huge relief to me because he did absolutely nothing in the first game and was largely useless because he couldn't level up. All the other characters (which amount to quite a few) each get their own time to show what kind of person they are, which is the opposite of the first game where someone would join up and you'd never hear anything about them after that.

Battles: 10/10
The battles are much better this time around because you have a weapons and armor system that allows you to power up your items through a smithy or add different effects to them. It's still a tactical turn-based system, but now you can fight in any location, instead of just in fields or dungeons. Fights will occur in airships, in bars, in a sewer and in the middle of towns. You don't get to have every single character in each fight- only five people- which sort of limits the speed at which individuals can level up. Also, there is a place in the game where you can add skills to your fighters and monsters that they didn't have before. In my case, I gave Iga a cure spell, which he wouldn't have had otherwise. You can also advance the class of your monsters provided they have been leveled up sufficiently. There are two battle arenas in this game, not just one, in which you can try a few silly fight-related things.

Story: 10/10
The story is very good to me because it takes so long to complete all the bounties and hunt the wanted monsters that you'll be spending a lot of time with this game to get everything done. The story is not only a continuation from the first game, it's an expansion. A lot more is explained in this game that wasn't shown the first time around. Even as you complete all the plot events, it becomes very clear that the people you are fighting, difficult though they are, are driven by an enemy that hasn't been revealed yet. The story's biggest strength is that it depends on the individuals characters to drive it forward, rather than random things happening just because you show up in a certain place. A lot of thought was put into the story and it really shows.

Overall: 10/10
Not only is this game vastly improved over the first one that came before, but when compared to other tactical fantasy games such as Vandal Hearts, it measures up quite well. There's an enormous amount of side quests to complete, there's a long and involved plot and there are a lot of characters, each of whom are explored in their own time. If you're looking for an RPG to sink your teeth into, you won't have to look much further than this. Even the game's most annoying dungeon- the volcano- is worth putting up with because it's a training opportunity every time out. If there is a single thing that would make me want to turn this game off, I haven't found it yet.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/08

Game Release: Arc the Lad II (JP, 06/20/96)