Line #10 YMMV/ArcTheLad


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: While not very well-known, the series' soundtracks have a few really good themes, like the boss theme of the Romalian generals, the anthem of the Academy in ''Arc'' 3, ''Arc'' 2's end credits theme (chances are you'd be [[TearJerker weeping so much]], you wouldn't hear it properly while you were playing) and, of course, the series' main theme.
2	* BreatherLevel: In Arc 3 Elbow Cape, for job 76, is a completely monster free dungeon with nothing but puzzles and a trove of stat boosting items as a reward. Also, after the [[MarathonLevel trek]] that is the sealed ruins for the Eternal Tree, the next two story dungeons for the Eternal Ice and Fire are both much shorter and with fewer enemies.
3	* GameBreaker:
4	** The Romancing Stones allow anyone who equips all four of them to use magic without spending MP. Find them and the protagonist can solo his way to the end credits.
5	** There's also Choko, the insanely powerful optional character you can acquire in several of the games. In Arc 2, if you power her up in a sidequest she can pretty much single handily win the rest of the game, and it becomes even easier if you give her the Romancing Stone.
6	** Healing spells grant XP upon a successful casting, which grows further when they can affect multiple targets. Go to any battlefield with a stationary enemy, gather all your units in a cluster, and just spend turns spamming the heal for easy leveling.
7	** In Arc 3, Lutz's Fatal Knife skill. It works on almost everything and [[HPTo1 reduces the enemies HP to 1/10th of the current value]], instantly putting almost any enemy one attack away from death. Also very useful in tandem with Theo, as his cardish ability is more effective the lower the enemy's HP is.
8	** Monster cards can also be extremely powerful, as they target the entire field and can often do massive damage or inflict status effects. Theo will also rake in the experience, and likely leave your other characters in the dust as far as levels go by the end of the game, assuming you use cards frequently.
9	** Velhart's Omega Buster is easily the strongest attack in the game due to how its damage is calculated; it increases in strength the lower Velhart's HP is. Even just a small drop in HP will have him doing several hundred points of damage per use, and if he's in critical condition the damage skyrockets to insane levels. if you let him die in battle without being revived, he'll begin the next fight with only 1 HP, and the ability to do max damage with the attack.
10	* GoddamnBats: Any enemies that use buff spells frequently in Arc 2. Besides the advantage it gives the enemy, it also just gets old very fast watching the same spell animations over and over every battle. Additionally, enemies that buff themselves will often cast the first buff without moving from their starting position, so they stay out of range for longer, and usually end up separated from the other enemies on the field, avoiding your attempts lure them together for easier targeting, and prolonging the battles.
11	* GoodBadBugs: In the first game, turning a skeleton enemy into a Hemo-ji using Chongara's summon allows you to whale on the enemy without killing it, ensuring lots of free EXP.
12	* GrowingTheBeard: The second game is a lot more impressive than the first.
13	%%* HoYay: Tosh and Shu.
14	* MoralEventHorizon: Seyra commits a genocide during the ''first scene'' of ''Arc'' 2, then we learn about the experiments done by Romalia to turn [[spoiler: children into monsters used for warfare and to create mind control devices]], then we see Gallarno [[spoiler: forcing Elc to kill his childhood friend]]... and that's only the first fifth of the game: the MoralEventHorizon is crossed on a daily basis here.
15	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Ravishing a monster in 2.
16	* PlayerPunch: Present in every game in the series, but in ''Arc'' 2 it is taken to a form of art. Between the constant crossing of the MoralEventHorizon and the fact that ''every single playable character'' is a [[TheWoobie Woobie]] (yes, even Choko), it almost seems like the story writers were trying to break a record (and probably succeeded).
17	** First, when Elc has to kill [[spoiler: Mariel, his first love interest, right below the playground where they played together as children. Even worse is the HopeSpot where she breaks free from her mind control, only for a bomb wired inside her to detonate and kill her anyway.]]
18	** Then there is the fact that Arc finally found his father, after literally YEARS spent looking for him, [[spoiler: going into exile while being framed as a terrorist, and he dies 4 minutes after that.]] Finding his father was the reason he started his quest.
19	** Then you can add the utterly screwed up backstories of most playable characters, and finally the events before the last boss: [[spoiler: the characters have destroyed bit by bit the Romalian War Machine, freed most if not all of their puppet states, and have conquered its capital. Cue the king of Romalia breaking the seal of the Big Bad: it turns out that the key of the final seal was that a human being had to willingly choose to free him. Cue the king snapping because his kingdom is collapsing under his feet and pushing the red button. The Big Bad then proceeds to kill the King of Romalia (no big deal), kills Arc's girlfriend (a big deal), and unleashes the apocalypse over the world. Then you see a scene of the cities explored by the heroes being flooded and burned down, while most of the world's population dies.]]
20	** [[spoiler: [[ShaggyDogStory Not only were all the good deeds of Arc, Elc & co for nothing,]] but you are at the end of the game. No opportunity to fix anything, and if this was not enough, Arc commits a heroic sacrifice after the last battle.]]
21	* ScrappyMechanic: for Arcs 1 and 2-
22	** For a game where character position and direction can be very important to battle, it is odd that there is no way to have your characters change the direction they are facing without moving them.
23	** Magic Spells must have a character or enemy centered in the middle of the targeting area to cast, leading to many situations with less than optimal enemy or ally coverage. This was actually changed in later games in the series, where a spell can be cast as long as a valid target is within the spell target area, not just the very center.
24	** In Arc 2 when multiple enemies are killed with a single attack, their death animations play out one by one, which can start to get pretty tedious later in the game, once you have more enemy clearing and multitarget attacks to use.
25	** Enemy spells have the same animations as character spells, which start to get really annoying later in the game, as you encounter more enemies that use buffs. Besides the advantage it gives enemies, sitting through the same buff spells over and over gets old fast.
26	* {{Sequelitis}}: ''Arc the Lad: End of Darkness'', due to [[ScrappyMechanic Scrappy Mechanics]] and a flawed storyline. The game was also a FranchiseKiller, leaving the series on a long hiatus, until a new mobile game was announced in 2016.
27	* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: While not a bad game, the first Arc the Lad was criticized for being short, underwhelming and for its cliffhanger ending. The second game improves over it in every way, [[SequelEscalation lasting over 60 hours, having more characters and sidequests]], a more interesting plot and for giving a proper conclusion to Arc's journey.
28	* ThatOneSidequest:
29	** ''Arc'' 1 contains one of the most ridiculous sidequest goals ever: win 1,000 Arena battles. The battles are easy, and by the time you've gotten even halfway to 1,000 wins, you'll have earned enough experience points to bring your entire team to the level cap several times over. The primary challenge involved in getting to 1,000 wins is simply being obsessed enough to keep fighting the same enemies, over and over again, for hour after hour, in spite of the sheer tedium involved in doing so. If you're actually insane enough to reach 1,000 wins, the Arena manager will reward you with a huge supply of the game's best accessories for you to [[OldSaveBonus take with you into the sequel]], then tell you to [[BreakingTheFourthWall turn off the console, go outside, and get a life!]]
30	** The first two jobs involving the Heap Cave-in location in Arc 2 are very challenging if you choose to tackle them with just Shu and Tosh. Be sure to stock up on a ton of healing items. the second job is particularly annoying as the enemies you fight respawn, so you will have to fight them all going in and coming back out.
31	** Most of the job sidequests in Arc 2 are decent, but then there are the FIVE jobs that require you to head into the Banza mountains. You'll be forced to tediously kill the same monster groups over and over again each time you re-enter the mountain.
32	** The 5 Feathers job in Arc 2: the monster that drops the feathers is a rare spawn in one area of the world map, and only one can appear per battle, making collecting five feathers very tedious.
33	** If you are the type of player who likes to try all possible dialogue trees and outcomes for a mission, then job 47 in Arc 3 will be a nightmare, as there are over a dozen different outcomes to the mystery you can get, depending on who you accuse (including any of the five suspects, anyone in your party, or even YOURSELF).
34	** Job 78 in Arc 3: Raia's Dream, isn't particular hard, being just a simple rhythm mini-game, but it begins with THE LONGEST lead up of any mission in the entire game, as you must sit through pages and pages of dialogue, a practice tutorial, and four rounds of the other contestants competing in the talent show before you actually get to Arc's team and the real gameplay of the mission. Woe to anyone who messes the mini game up and needs to start over, you'll have to wade through the entire tournament again. MANY of the side jobs in Arc 3 have a similar issue, as the game contains A LOT of dialogue.
35	** Job 93, Eternal Love Final Confession: take our advice and SAVE before returning to the vacant house to help Spicy. The second task Spicy must undertake is one of the most challenging mini games in the story, involves Arc and company having to shield Spicy from being seen by a bunch of kids as he crosses the screen in the Ruined City; there are four children and they move very erratically, and you only get three tries before failing the mission. to add insult to injury, restarting forces you to do the box moving task again and suffer through a ton of repeated dialogue.
36	** Job 97 Protect Raia During the Show, is almost [[LuckBasedMission a luck based mission]] due to the random movement and speeds of the customers who rush the stage. It is possible to have two customers so close together it is impossible to stop them both, and you fail if even one gets past you.
37	* ToughActToFollow: Both ''Arc the Lad III'' and ''VideoGame/ArcTheLadTwilightOfTheSpirits'' are good games, but they had the misfortune of being set after Arc 2.
38	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Despite the games having cute graphics, the hero of the first episode is a terrorist whose uncle committed genocide against the people of the hero of the second episode before turning said hero into the prototype of bioweapons made by turning children into bloodthirsty monsters. And that is just the beginning, for it gets worse after that.

Context YMMV / ArcTheLad