Arc the Lad, here I come.

[GarrIguess]

   I'm a PS1 RPG nut, it made up most of my teenage....well all my teenage years. I never played Arc the Lad and now I have it.  Am I gonna enjoy this? Anyone out there still have the itch for the game? Looks like, from most of the forum posts, that I'm behind the times by a decade or 2. Also, I just signed on, been a lurker forever but now I'm official.

[Starmongoose]

I didn't like the first Arc the Lad. Also, welcome to the forums, not many 127 year olds on here.

[RPGRocker]

The first Arc the Lad is kinda mediocre, but you'll still want to play it anyway. It leads directly into Arc the Lad II, which remains one of my favorite strategy RPGs ever.

[Tomara]

I like the first one, but I have a soft spot for strategy RPG that let me use 10+ units. It's kind of like... Shining Force Light? Plus, it's fairly short. You can finish it in 10 hours or so.

The second one is a great game, but also a great timesink. I took me over 60 hours to finish and there were still many things left to do!

The third one is basically took all the not-so-good parts from the second game and put them all together to form a mediocre RPG.

[Sagacious-T]

I beat Twilight of Spirits and it was one of the most forgettable and boring games I ever forced myself through

[badsanta]

I beat Twilight of Spirits and it was one of the most forgettable and boring games I ever forced myself through

Ever try II?

[Der Jermeister]

Your mileage might vary. I thought the first game was okay, thought the second wasn't that good (high miss rate for normal attacks), and liked the third.

[Yoda]

   I'm a PS1 RPG nut, it made up most of my teenage....well all my teenage years. I never played Arc the Lad and now I have it.  Am I gonna enjoy this? Anyone out there still have the itch for the game? Looks like, from most of the forum posts, that I'm behind the times by a decade or 2. Also, I just signed on, been a lurker forever but now I'm official.

I remember reading on Arc in gamefan and EGM and seeing it in stores, wanting it.


Sadly, it never came to be.

[darcthelad]

I beat Twilight of Spirits and it was one of the most forgettable and boring games I ever forced myself through

I can see this, because its gameplay is far too easy, save for a handful of fights (and unfortunately, one of those fights is very early in the game). I do think the story is stellar though.

Arc 2 is probably the best overall, but it drags on and on at several points. I saw on the documentary disc that comes with the collection that players complained about the first one's length, so the designers made the second very repititious - stupid motherfucking players/designers >:( ! I still like it a lot though.

Arc 1 is fast and worth doing because you'll get to know characters that return in Arc 2. I find the gameplay fun after you have more than 3 characters on your team.

I agree with Tomara on Arc 3. It's good except for the lack of difficulty, the excessive amount of dialogue/text/fetch quests, and the redundancy of revisiting the guild after every task. My tip is to always do the highest numbered mission first - that way you'll beat it while doing as few fetch quests as possible. Oh yeah - the graphical change stunk too.

I'm also not a fan of the dungeon design used in Arc 3's final dungeon and optional dungeon, and Arc TotS final dungeon. I had to use a FAQ for all three of those. I've never been a fan of this dungeon design; it needs to be done away with forever or the player needs better hints like in Mario RPG's forest where you follow Geno.

[Tomara]

Your mileage might vary. I thought the first game was okay, thought the second wasn't that good (high miss rate for normal attacks), and liked the third.

Yeah, I think that was actually some kind of bug. My copy gave me hitrates of like 1%, making the game virtually unplayable. Since it was an imported game (I paid €100 for it - the dollar was still strong back then...), there was no warranty or any way to get a replacement disc. Later on I played a copy of my friend's on an older PlayStation instead of my PSone and had no such trouble. It was weird...

[GarrIguess]

I didn't like the first Arc the Lad. Also, welcome to the forums, not many 127 year olds on here.

   Thanks for the welcome and the age has been fixed, lol. I started the first one yesterday, only about a half hour into it. I like the way battles work we will see.

[Darilon]

I liked the first Arc the Lad for the most part. The only thing I really disliked was the romance. You will know what I am talking about when you come to it.

[Vanguard]

Yeah, the first Arc the Lad is pretty mediocre. I think I went through it in about ten hours. Arc II is great however, and worth going through one for the added content.

[GarrIguess]

I'm about 2 hours into the first one. I really like it so far, it's nothing to go nuts over but I have enjoyed it. Really anxious for the second part though, my best friend keeps urging me on to get through one. Sounds like it'll be awesome.

[badsanta]

I'm about 2 hours into the first one. I really like it so far, it's nothing to go nuts over but I have enjoyed it. Really anxious for the second part though, my best friend keeps urging me on to get through one. Sounds like it'll be awesome.

Oh yeah. ;)