You know, Jim Sterling is right. The Wii really has become a hardcore, go-to console for some very interesting titles. This includes games like epic JRPGs, so it’s not surprising that the Wii is now home to many upcoming titles of that genre. One is Arc Rise Fantasia, a JRPG through and through.
I had a chance to play the game recently, all the way to the first major boss fight, and it was an interesting experience. I know some interest has been had to see how it stands up to other games of this type, and I can confirm, yep, if you like JRPGs, you’re certainly going to like this. So with that, I suppose you should have your parents killed, your village burned down, meet some outlandish characters, discover the power within and follow me to the jump.
Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
Developer: imageepoch/Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
To be released: June 22, 2010
Unlike many other JRPGs, Arc Rise Fantasia isn’t afraid to throw the actual game at you. After a flashy CGI intro of flying ships and the mercenary L’Arc daring to battle with an evil “feldragon,” the game forces you into your first battle within minutes. Since the player can’t do much other than attack, the battle ends shortly, followed by the feldragon falling off the airship, taking L’Arc with it. They land in some forest, and some girl shows up and makes the feldragon disappear…magically.
What then passes is your typical JRPG stuff. L’Arc meets the female lead, named Ryfia, who is confused and constantly questions L’Arc about basic things. She says she’s a Diva (a magical priestess), and that she comes from the enemy nation of the Republic. She’s also completely ignorant to most things in the world, and she and L’Arc have awkward moments that suggest there will be some romance between the two. L’Arc wants to help her out, so they go to a nearby town and meet up with his buddy, Prince Alf of the Meridian Empire. There we learn about the source of power in the world of Arc Rise Fantasia, called “Ray,” as well as god-like figures named Rogress that are the source of this power. The three then go off to an even bigger town, whereupon everyone is attacked by skeletons, and everything falls apart. It’s a little complicated, and will surely become even more so as the plot progresses.
Plenty of characters we are introduced to are obviously future party members, and the game is wise in that it lets the player control up to three members, and during important moments, a fourth will join in to help. I’m promised that there will be ten or so party members that will join you during this 60-hour game, so while the story seemed a little spotty during this first part, all the plot twists you’ve come to expect will be here.
For the battle system, the entire team is given a certain number of Action Points, or AP, and the more members you have, the more points you get. Actions like Move (so that area of effect spells do no less damage to a spread-out group) and Item usages obviously require fewer points than something like a massive magic spell. Since the game is turn-based, you’ll have plenty of time to figure everything out before you select all your actions. However, while you set up the entire team for actions, once the fighting actually starts, it doesn’t stop until every character and enemy has done their commands. Even though the order in which you issue the commands doesn’t matter, individual character speeds determine the order in which the actions actually take place.
Follow-up attacks mix things up, so if you do a particularly effective team combo, the game will reward you with a second round of attacks, which can sometimes take out the enemy teams in what amounts to one round. Also, there are Excel Attacks, which are sort of limit-break attacks that can be performed manually given the right situation, or randomly through normal attack commands. Later in the game, certain characters will be able to summon the Rogress to battle with them, although I didn’t get to see this happen. Magic attacks require both AP and SP, so while they are powerful in themselves, they are costly to use. Since damage and SP usage is retained outside of battle, be ready to stay at a lot of inns and go shopping often.
The battle system is one of the most hands-on I have ever played in an JRPG. You’ll be using every button on the Wiimote/Nunchuk, or Classic Controller, and it took me a while to stop fiddling with the commands and get things right. Thankfully, there is an optional command setup that works pretty will. Taking a note from the battle systems of Persona 3 and Final Fantasy XII, you can select pre-ordained group battle commands. For example, I can set Ryfia to always heal this round, with Alf and L’Arc attacking right away, and if there is nothing to heal, she’s smart enough to attack instead. Even better, this Tactics mode can be edited mid-battle, and is a much faster way of dealing with lower-level enemies. I loved this feature.
Characters upgrade through a simple level-up system, but the weapons and equipment are much more complicated. At the end of each battle, you’ll be earning XP and WP (weapon experience points). Associated with each weapon is a grid of slots. As weapons level up, more areas of these grids will open up, allowing you to slot in more crystals to modify the weapons. Later in the game, a tailor will be able to make new clothing for each character. It’s rather in-depth. Magic, too, has an upgrade system where you have to buy magic slots for each character, and the more slots you have, the more magic choices you’ll be afforded. Different magic will fuse with this system, so if you slot someone with Fire and Water magic, you might also gain Lightning magic as a side effect.
In many JRPGs, the voice acting and localization can be a little wonky. Arc Rise Fantasia is, unfortunately, no different. I was honestly surprised about how wooden the voice work for this game is. Ryfia declares, “I’m a Diva,” with about as much enthusiasm and intonation as a digital mailbox, and I’m surprised she doesn’t start talking about FK in her coffee. L’Arc’s incredulity at such an inane person is just as bad, with a forced “What! You don’t know! Feldragon! Diva? Republic?! Empire!?!,” which is usually followed by a grumble. Never mind that the voice acting doesn’t really fit the characters, as both L’Arc and Alf are pretty-boy warriors with the deep manly vocal enthusiasm of dudes half as pretty and three times more badass. The voice acting is so forced and over-the-top that I suspect fans of this genre may like the game more, laughing at every awkwardly acted plot twist.
This game apparently has no localization other than a straight translation, so all the silly “I’m going to defeat you!” and “Thanks a bunch!” shouts are straight from the original game, just in English. Sometimes, the voice work didn’t even match the written dialogue. The first boss character you fight summons skeletons, and every time it happens, this Kingdom Hearts reject chants, “Those who live in sin, come forth,” with all of the expected runes and sparkly stuff flashing around him. He does this about every 15 seconds. Oh. My. God. Does all this voice work make the game bad? I ultimately found it charming, and I presume I’d be cracking up through a complete play-through. This voice work could very well be bad in a good way, but you can never tell with a 60-hour game. The music, which was composed by Yasunori Mutsuda (of Chrono Trigger fame) was at times fantastic-sounding, and sometimes completely forgettable.
The game itself looks lovely, with bright, bold colors and well-animated main characters. Battles are dynamic and flashy. The towns and overworld are decently populated. Even better, the game doesn’t use in-game graphics for conversations and skits; instead, it goes with really nice 2D art, which in my opinion looks even better than the CG cutscenes. The enemies are varied, and besides the inherent weakness of the Wii and all that it entails, the game is rather nice to look at. Sure, it’s not Tales of Vesperia, but it at least has a distinctive art style, a major plus for a genre filled with bland and generic visuals. The CGI scenes were serviceable, but they felt “off,” with the characters matching their voice work even less. At least with the 2D art they can look cool. In CGI, they just looked…pretty, but in a weird way. For example, Ryfia in CGI (an example I’ve posted above) looks alien compared to her in-game and anime self. It’s hard to explain, but I would have rather had anime cutscenes considering how good the 2D art is.
I bet you might be wondering if I think you should be paying attention to this game. Well, it depends. If you are the type of person who loves JRPGs, and can appreciate their quirks, then check it out. Other than the battle system, which is pretty unique in some ways, the game doesn’t look like it will be breaking any molds. Everyone else might just want to wait and see.
