Arc Rise Fantasia

In this thread, I bring up half-year-old RPGS! Whoo!

Anyway, just got access to this game for Christmas, and I feel like talking about it.

I must say, when I first saw it, it looked to me like a poor-man's Tales Of Symphonia, but it's really grown on me. I love the customizable magic and weapons systems, and I adore any plot that can throw me a serious curveball like this one did after Adelle gets kidnapped.

Plus, I love the way the battle system lends itself towards a very large number of possible approaches to battle.

Sure, the voice acting sucks in places, and I wish costumes had more of an impact, but otherwise, I think this is a fine game, and worth talking about.

If you please, try to keep things that happen after the major wham moment spoilered.

I have a message from another time...

I have this game, but I haven't played it in a while. I'm on the bit where you fight Adelle, Alf, and Leslie. That's basically the reason I haven't played in a while - I was having so much trouble with that.

I'd like to get back to it sometime, though, since it was quite a bit better than I'd expected. Yes, the voice acting was terrible, but it actually seemed to get better as the game went on. It really is a good game.

I was originally somewhat interested in it because it's by the Luminous Arc guys, but as soon as i heard the english voice acting i dropped it like a hot potato. There a japanese voice track?

No, there isn't a Japanese voice option.

And yeah, the voice acting is pretty bad sometimes, but I've gotten used to it, I think.

Are they fighting you on a beach, and trying to summon a Rogress by stirring up Hozone? Because that particular fight with them is a Hopeless Boss Fight.

I have a message from another time...

And now that I've learned a bit more, I have some strategy ideas for that battle on the beach:

Take down either Alf or Adelle first. I'd suggest Alf: his Rogress summons are brutal, his physical attacks are much worse than Adelle's or Leslie's, and he becomes stupidly hard to take out later on into the battle. If Ryfia has the Resist Code weapon or the Coder's Staff, use one of those and activate its weapon secret. Meanwhile, give L'Arc the Zweihander (if you have it), with its weapon secret active. As for the tird guy, well, I used Rastan, and gave him that sword that gives him +500 HP. Target Alf with Trinity Acts whenever possible to deal lots of damage to him. Make sure that L'Arc starts the battle with a full Rogress bar, and drop Gula whenever it's convinient to do so.

They actually follow a set pattern. On the first round, they'll Trinity Act the person with the least HP. Then, Alf and Leslie attack while Adele uses Concentrate. Then, they use Burning Drive to kill the guy with the highest HP, then they do random attacks, then Adele and Leslie use Earth Protection on Alf while he drops Girtab. Try to take out Alf before that happens. If you can get Ryfia to have level 3 Earth magic on top of her Fast Casting, she can target that person (usually herself) with an auto-life spell before they pull off the trinity. Or you cna just attack Alf that first round and revive her on the next. Whenever you do a Trinity Act, try using the lowest-cost Excel Acts you can to trigger it: you'll still get Mystic Fortune, and have more AP for the next round. Just do everything you can to take out Alf before he drops Girtab. I think you might be able to break his Frantic Defense if someone has the Block Defence Arm Force.

Once Alf is down, concentrate on Adele. She's still quite dangerous with her spells (especially since she has Leslie for sync backup), and she's got her very nasty Decadent Song move. Just heal like crazy and be thankful she's squishier than Alf was.

Leslie will go down much easier. Just make sure everyone splits up so that she can't get everyone with her Sonic slash kick thing. Watch out for her level 3 wind attack, that one surprised me. She can be annoying to finish off, since she has Auto Liquid and Resist KO, but keep at it and you'll take her out. She's much less threatening without Alf and Adelle.

It took me a long time, even with a strategy, but it's totally worth it.

On another note, anyone else think that some of the Logoses are kinda lame? I mean, Logos of "Surging"?

I have a message from another time...

There's no Japanese track, but you can turn the voice acting off. Unfortunately, Ignition's text translations aren't much better.

They could be turned off?! Although it'll still be weaker than the original product, atleast I could play the game without listening to their voices!...

I...didn't know it could be turned OFF...

awww...but I sold the game to my friend.

edited 16th Jan '11 11:05:05 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Indeed, they can. In fact, Ignition actually used it as a selling point.

edited 17th Jan '11 10:12:48 AM by Rebochan

Hehe, this game is fun. I beat it back in August.

There are a few gems int he voice acting. Like a few badass battle quotes.

"Wanna see me... really try? Think you can live to tell? So long, sweet dreams!"

I have a message from another time...

THREAD NEGROMANCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah I'm necroing a thread just to ask questions......both regarding the So Bad, It's Good / Horrible english voices...

• There are hundreds of guides that tells you how to replace the english voice acting with japanese ones...I don't care how weaboo it sounds, but the english is definately the inferior voice in this game...especially noticeable since I just finished watching a LP of .Hack//GU, and the english voices were decent*
  ^{oh Atoli, I can listen to you talk aaallllll day}
  ....

So...do I need to hack my Wii or something? I'm not too savvy regarding these hacking and technical stuff...do I need to do something sneaky to replace the english voice with the japanese ones? Or is it something built into the game or something?

• First, watch this clip, listen to the voice acting during the battle fight, and then the voice acting during off-battle dialogues in 7:04. The in battle voices are passable, sometimes bad*
  ^{the girls don't sound like girls at all}
  , sometimes good even*
  ^{BEHOLD!! THOSE WHO ARE BORN IN SIN! COME TO CHAOS!}
  . But it's after the battle ends that the dialogue jumps back to So Bad, It's Good / Horrible territory.

So...since there is an option to turn off voices in the english version, will that turn off all voices? Or just the off-battle dialogues? The battle voices are bearable, and turning them off will make the game too quite. But I really can not stand the voice acting when not in battle.

• How long and hard is this game? It's hard to find a game that satisfies me anymore. They either finish too fast, or they just kill off any epicness or tension by making all fights a joke....I want my money back dammnit.

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Upon further reflection on question #2, I don't even know if that's even considered "good" voice acting.

Maybe I just have a thing for Large Hams...but can those even be considered good acting? Large Ham is when it's unintentionally good right? Not funny good, but amusingly good.

For example, I "enjoyed" certain parts of Dungeons and Dragons. Is that good acting?

edited 13th Apr '11 6:03:46 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

A Large Ham is when someone overacts. When they're overly dramatic and all that. It can indeed be good, because it can be cool or funny or whatnot, or it can just be really bad. There's a fair deal of ham in this game, mainly during huge attacks.

In any case, I am, as you probably already know, OK with the voices in this game. I'm not going to lie and say that the voice acting is particularly good, but it's not, you know atrocious. And honestly, I sort of think it gets a bit better over the course of the game itself. It's not great voice acting, but not something I feel like muting the game over. It's mediocre, is what it is. I can handle mediocre.

As for challenge, I most certainly think you'll find yourself challenged by this game. You may notice that the person fighting that first boss had to devote an action every round to healing. That's rather how it is for most of the game. Bosses hit very hard in this game; each boss fight is a struggle. And I just dare you to win the battle on the beach for Rufunga. Random encounters aren't quite as bad, but the bosses are brutal. Which is not to say that you don't get very powerful. There's a lot of combo moves, like chaining basic attacks together, comboing Excel Acts with each other, and layering spells. Plus, if you do the Arm Force Grid properly, you'll have cool stuff like super-strong physical attackers dropping status effects with each swing, or spellcasters who can throw out a Level 4 spell before anyone else can move. Which is good, because you need all the help you can get.

As for game length... Let's see, I'm at least... I want to say 10 hours in? Maybe 8 or something, I don't have the game with me right now. Anyway, I'm about that far in, and the end is not in sight. I think I'm maybe halfway through?

edited 14th Apr '11 2:50:33 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

With the exception of games like Final Fantasy(especially tactics) and very soft RPG's, isn't this sort of the case for all RP Gs?

...I don't consider The Legend Of Zelda and Kingdom Hearts as RP Gs.

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But back to the my question, have you ever turned off the voices just for fun or anything? When you do, do all the voices get turned off? Or just the off-battle dialogues?

I'd like to keep the voices in battle since the acting there is actually tolerable to me.

Now that I think about it, the main problem with the voices is actually Niku or whatshis name...the guy that goes "gaah" in a dead monotone voice, and anyone who ever screams.

edited 14th Apr '11 2:10:08 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Niko, I think it was. The gunner, right?

And no, I've never turned the voices off, so I can't tell you.

I have a message from another time...

You know Singed if you have to do that during a fight it means the game is harder not "softer" or easy, having to heal every round means you need to pay attention or get your ass kicked.

...Come to think of it, I spent most of my boss battles having to revive people almost every turn.

One consolation the game does give you is that the team has special voice clips for when the opponent's turn is something really bad.

I have a message from another time...

You misread.

"With the exception of games like blah blah blah"

As in with the exception of the today's Final Fantasy games and the casual RP Gs where you can beat the last boss by just rushing ahead, requiring you to heal and reviving your party members each turn is pretty standard for a boss fight.

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That said, I AM happy to hear that Arc Rise Fantasia is known for...it's more challenging boss fights.

Too bad it's regular random encounters are a mindless breeze(that's what the reviews say).

Shouldn't be too hard to locate this game, unlike...Etrian Odyssey.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Well, sometimes the random encounters can be dangerous, but for the most part they're pretty easy. Which is actually fine with me: gotta have something to grind using.

I have a message from another time...

Finally bought the game....

First imprssions

• impressive collection of..."facts" and background information. You can't complain about the game's world not being deep, unless you're illiterate.

• I hate Niko. Does he die? Does he die anytime soon?

• Ryfia and L'Arc's characters clearly had much more energetic and younger Voice Actors in mind...or japanese VA's. Or VA's that know how to emote. Rastan's pretty good though. He reminds me of Saix.

• on second thought, maybe I hate Niko because he has by far the worse voice actor...is he as bad as it gets?

• What's SP and DC? How do I get more of them?

• on third thought, maybe it's because of how over the top scared Niko always is. He's way stronger than both my characters, and he's still constantly scared.

• turning off the voices includes turning off voices in-battle

• the games a bit easy, I'm not feeling anything...when does it start getting hard on me?

edited 18th Apr '11 5:59:33 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

I'd say the second Deathchanter fight. Can't quite remember the boss battles right after that, but it does get quite hard, at least when you're fighting bosses.

And sorry, Niko's gonna be with you for a while.

SP is used for special skills called Excel Acts. You build it up during battle, once you're taught about it, by attacking, being attacked, etc.

DP is special points you have to spend in addition to money to upgrade a character's Orb for magic casting. Expanding slots, upgrading the various elements, more MP, etc. You can never get more DP, it's fixed. However, if you choose to Reset your orb, it'll go back to 1 slot and no upgrades, and you're refunded all your DP, so you can build from the ground up again.

I have a message from another time...

Ah...cool.

Because I think I wasted a buncha Ricos and and DP's upgrading MP...only to realize the "different levels of MP" mean something entirely different from what I expected. I thought the different levels just mean I gain more MP for buying the higher level ones.

One thing that makes me sad about this game though*

, it's the movements. From the gameplay clips, I thought we could select where to move, not run around in set places on the field.

Does hitting a monster from behind hurt more?

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

You can select where to move. Under Wait/Move you can choose from a number of spots to position yourself. It's very useful for splitting the team to avoid area attacks, or bunching the team up for a group heal.

And yeah, save your money for now. Once you get more Gems and can create higher Level magic, you'll want to get higher MP. For now, maybe just increase Level 1. More healing is always nice.

I don't think hitting from behind hurts more, no.

Also: Make sure you're unlocking the Arm Force Frame on your weapons. The usefulness of that grid cannot be understated.

I have a message from another time...

No idea how I unlock them. They just unlock as I level up...

Also, that's not what I meant about moving. From the gameplay clip, I thought I would be able to make my characters move anywhere freely, not restricted to a few designated points like a chessboard.

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As for now...I'll be prudent about random encounters. Getting more money and items is nice and all. But I do not want to overlevel myself for boss fights.

PS-most importantly, do monster components and loots have any use? Do they come in handy later on or are they just for selling at vendors?

edited 18th Apr '11 6:41:44 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Some of that stuff can be traded in once you gain access to the Guild, who gives you Quests.

And yeah, unlocking Arm Force Frames isn't more complicated then that. Just keep earning those W Ps.

I have a message from another time...

Urgh...now I have to balance myself between unlocking as many force arms while not overlevelling at the same time.

As for exeperience. My party is pretty unbalanced. Does everyone share experience? Or is it based on who did the most? And do new members have levels that match your characters? Or are they set?

I have this obsession with keeping every member of a party to be as close together as possible. In fact, I reset a game if a single member of my party died right before the battle ends, making him the sole member not to get the experience point.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."