Arcana

"The highest compliment I could give it is 'potential for potential'. And your hero has a funny hat too."

You're gonna have a hard time caring about a game like Arcana. I have never played a game so utterly devoid of soul in my life. The game itself is decently fun, and it looks and sounds unobjectionable, but...wow. It's so EMPTY. I almost feel sorry for this game. Between its fairly unknown existence and the utter lack of care that was put into it, this game is just an unloved shambles.

Granted, a lot of it could easily have been lost in translation. Then again, it's not likely. There are absolutely no NPCs in towns for you to talk to; forget having light shed on your current situation or on the environs, because the only interaction you'll be getting is a few traded lines between you and other PCs and buying stuff from the shopkeepers. Your characters have almost no personality whatsoever, taking whatever comes at them with something of an "oh, okay" reaction. The gameplay is exclusively linear, with no sidequests or detours; there is no one to talk to on the way from destination to destination. It's completely lifeless. Like...a ghost game. And without any support for the already flimsy and non-existent plot, the writing of Arcana becomes a totally shameful debacle.

It's fortunate, then, that the gameplay can at least carry the game for a while. Arcana is not an easy game, to its credit. Enemies can prove fairly damaging to your party and bosses are always a threat (even more when you take the fact that you can't actually see them until they attack you into account). The encounter rate is noticeably higher than a lot of RPGs, which can get quite frustrating because the battles are not fast-paced. The enemies are always very boring too, with intimidating names such as "Bee" or "Wolf". Worse still is that if either of your human characters dies, then your quest automatically ends; also, it's in order to mention that spells cost an insane amount of MP. Your basic Heal spell? 16 MP. Graduating to Heal 2? Kiss 24 of those suckers goodbye. Battle isn't a total drag, though -- the card system makes it fairly unique and adds a bit of strategy to your play, and the challenge certainly keeps you on your toes.

Unfortunately, the passable combat is all but ruined by the incredibly repetitive dungeon crawling. The game is utterly deprived of anything except combat in its dungeons; no puzzles, no encounters with strangers, no plot exposition, no character building, and only a scattered few treasure chests to grant the locales uniqueness. Every level is basically the same as the one preceding it besides a different-looking tile set, so basically you're spending the entire game edging through all of these tragically uninteresting basements and towers. Boring...much like the rest of Arcana. It's really a shame that the game has so little dimension, because it really makes saying anything about it very difficult.

What do work surprisingly well in Arcana, however, are the visual and audio factors. The music is actually surprisingly good, and while the graphics lack a certain flair they certainly don't look too bad. At any rate, these are the least offensive parts of Arcana, an otherwise-weak game that very well deserves the obscurity it has sunk into. Some might find this entertaining, but others will take the rather short length as a welcome blessing.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/05