Arc the Lad Collection

"This can last you a long time"

Gameplay - All 4 of the games are similar in their battle systems. If you've ever played a game like Shining Force or Final Fantasy Tactics and liked it, you'll love this. Though the 1st game is totally a SRPG, Arc the Lad 2 and 3 let you explore towns and such. You can also use your previous save from the last game to start the new game. This can be very helpful so you want to play the game in the right order. In addition to the 3 games they also give you the monster arena where you can battle your friends or the computer and earn items while leveling up. Because of all the features in the game, I give this section 10/10

Story - In the 1st game you are a young man names Arc who wants to look for his father who disappeared 10 years ago. On the way you meet up with people and are also given the quest to find the guardians. It all builds up to the 2nd game. Arc the Lad 2 starts off right where the 1st game ended with a different view point. You have a young man named Elc who was rescued from a hunter named Shu. Elc grows up to be a hunter himself. After accepting a job one night the story builds up at a steady pace. You will have to join up with Arc and his crew to defeat the Dark One. Arc the Lad takes place a few years after Arc the Lad 2 and has a story that bases off being a hunter more than a hero. Alec is a young man who after being saved by a hunter when he was young wants to be a hunter and help people. He had an accomplish named Lutz who is his best friend that he has known most of his life. Arc the Lad 3's story may be a bit weaker than the 1st 2 games of the series but is still good none the less. 10/10

Sound - Arc the Lad collection has a great sound selection. The 2nd game uses some music from the 1st game but also has a ton of new music scores. The 3rd game seems to have the best music score out of all the games. The music is very fitting to the series and never gets old. The music is well done for the most part. The battle voices are all right, but for the most part weren't translated. It didn't matter to me either way but you can't understand what they are saying. Sound gets 9/10

Graphics - You have to understand that Arc the Lad was made in 1995 (The same year as Chrono Trigger) and Arc the Lad 2 was made in 1996. So I would have to compare the graphics to games made in that time rather then compare them to a game like FFX (that wouldn't be fair would it?). Arc the Lad didn't have much to show rather than battle maps. The battle animation was great in all games. Arc the Lad 2 had very beautiful graphics. For 1996 that game does better than some psx games made this past year. The towns are designed very nicely and it is easy on the eyes. Arc the Lad 3 went for a 3D look which didn't look as good as it could have (this game was made in 1999). I preferred the look of Arc 2 over Arc 3. Arc the Lad 3 had the best FMVs out of all and could rival the fmvs in the Final Fantasy series. I give Graphics 10/10

Replayability - Most people would only play through a massive rpg once or twice. But the Monster Arena is where the replayability comes in. In Arc 1 you could only get to level 60 where as in Arc 2 you can get to level 999. If you have a lot of friends that own this game the replay value can be very high. There are many side quests and you can always try to get all the hunter missions in the 2nd and 3rd games perfectly and get all the monsters as well. I could see myself playing the entire series over again. I give the replay value 9/10

Rent or buy? Well I don't think you can rent this anywhere but if you can you might want to if you're not a big stragety rpg fan. But if you are, or you think that 4 games for 70$ is a good deal, then by all means, BUY!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/02, Updated 07/08/02