Arc The Lad Collection

We begin with Arc the Lad 1, the first in the Arc the Lad trilogy of games. It would be released in Japan in the summer of 1995. If you were like me in America, you were waiting for it till the system was practically dead. But hey, at least it was everything in one shot. I’ll be going through the whole box one title at a time. So let’s start!

Arc is the series’s main protagonist, and you’ll begin his journey looking for his father, who went missing a decade earlier. Tied to his quest is Kukuru, the protector of the Sacred Flame, who desperately wants her freedom rather than her legacy. From these two, the player’s team will eventually encompass 7 characters, each with their delightful vibe, skills, and move sets. 

Gameplay is rooted in the Strategy RPG genre – players are pawns on a board and must maneuver in and around enemy characters in turn-based combat. Attacking from the sides and behind increases the chance of better damage. One of the game’s first curious applications is revealed here; no shops or rest areas exist. Everything you’ll earn in the game, from weapons to spells and moves to accessories, is all procured from the battles themselves.

This requires the player to keep an eye on treasure chests within the battle maps and how to open them while fending off the opposition. Gleefully, the game allows for some creative angles concerning treasure chests. You don’t have to be next to it to earn its spoils. Hitting it with a rock or a magic spell will produce the desired result. 

Each character has strengths and weaknesses as expected, but I was struck by how well they play off of each other in battle. Arc and Tosh are the swordsmen – the main assault team. Kukuru, Arc’s love interest, joins the old wizard Gogen for healing and magical support. Chongara acts as the monster wrangler who summons creatures with various abilities. He’s the icing on the cake, attack-wise. That leaves drumline member Poco and monk Iga. Iga is used to poking holes in the enemy defenses. His main attacks are minimal, but he can eventually target and attack multiple enemies simultaneously.

It’s Poco, though, where the game’s charm shines. The last standing member of a military patrol sent out by his king, Poco, is found hiding from monsters. Equipped only with his instruments, he fends off his attackers with symbols, horns, harps, and my absolute favorite, his drum. If used, it produces this anime-sized energy beam that annihilates everything. 

That’s where one of Arc’s major highlights is – the graphics and animation are nothing short of pure joy. Every single character, enemy, and NPC exudes animation and creative reactions. Slimes wobble in place, only to stretch into two separate targets. Gloomy zombies breathing with their mouths agape, crumbling to pieces from their death blow. Skeletons fall apart into a pile of parts, and so on. Attack animations have three levels of visual variety based on how successful the assault was. My favorite is likely Iga, who, when super-charged, pulls his opponent in, leaps high, and just body slams them back down to Earth. Saying it’s satisfying is underselling the smile it kept putting on my face.

But the animation goes beyond the battlefield. You will see folks handing items to other characters, taking knees in reverence to their king, and more. Walking animations see clothes bounce, bangs move, with Poco even removing his hat in front of his majesty. It’s the first of two master classes G-Craft gives, with the second one being how much they could do with so little.

Arc the Lad is not a large game for location variety. Grinding levels are often done in the same 2 or three locations per area, but somehow the developers keep it fresh by introducing ever-evolving side quests and what I have dubbed “God Tier” missions. Let’s start with the former. 

You can easily miss important items within otherwise throw-away moments and comments. Once you rescue the Water Guardian. He’ll tell you he’s keeping an eye on your activities and will reward you for cleansing his land of monsters. Under the basics – this means killing off 10 enemies and returning for a useful item. However, if you go back and can slaughter enough monsters wholesale, returning to him, he’ll award Poco his final instrument piece. One accessory is acquired by talking to a character 10 times consecutively. They award you the item as an offer to leave them alone. 

That’s at least on the easy end of things. Let’s talk about those tier-god side missions – the three main ones. Starting with the least offensive but easily failable – Chongara’s sketchbook. During the battles, you can have Chongara search the enemy to get all their information. He’ll jot it down in his book, along with a cute little doodle. The catch is that many enemies are locked in dungeons that disappear once you finish them. So if you miss them, then you miss them forever. Players must sketch light and dark versions of all seven characters, including Chongara himself. Even his call spells need to get sketch treatment.

But that pales in comparison to the other two, The Forbidden Ruins and The Tournament. If we’re talking time sink, we’ll start with the Forbidden Ruins. In a measly 4 to 6-hour adventure, players will need to travel down 50 floors of the ruins, fight what is essentially a hidden boss, acquire them as Chongara’s final call spell, and then fight back up the 50 floors and out. With no save points, no magic or health replenishment outside of items found or had, and do it all in one go.

What’s your reward for all of this? Choko. An adorable little girl who can only be used in specific maps but packs quite a wallop. 

But the granddaddy of them all, which is surprisingly helpful, is the Tournament Challenge. Once you get the story-related battle out of the way, the ultimate challenge unlocks. For every set of wins won, you’ll be granted your choice of a prize. The gimmick is that it is strictly a one-on-one match, and the enemy scales up with your character’s experience level. It starts with just needing to win 10 fights. Then 30…and then eventually 1,000 wins. One thousand one-one-one wins. Now, this is ridiculous, to begin with, but it does have a funny strategic advantage. Because fights are one-on-one, you can focus on leveling up your characters in a controlled environment. I started with Arc, got him maxed out, moved to Kukuru, and kept going. By the time I successfully conquered the 1000th fight, Chongara was the only character not hilariously maxed out. Every enemy became a 1-hit kill. 

There are two rewards for achieving this monumental task. The first is copious amounts of usable items, and two new accessories to add to the collection. The second is Working Designs calling you out for spending all that time to do the deed. The game tells you to save, turn off the system, and go outside. Thanks, Uncle Vic!

The time sink for all of that? An average game of Arc the Lad is 11 hours. With these side quests tacked on…33 hours. So… yeah. 

Back to the standard review bullet points, which leave music and story. The music is great. Battle tunes are fast-paced and rhythmic, cinematic orchestrations are moody and inspirational. It is never lost in the background or buried under sound effects. Perfect execution there. Controls are fine, but there are a few oddities in how information is displayed. While in the accessories menu, you’ll need to hold down a button to see what each accessory does. In the heat of battle, each option is assigned to a different button; it can sometimes trip you up and accidentally skip that character’s turn. 

With the story, there’s a bit of a letdown, but it would have been a known factor at the time. The game was planned as a continuing story – Arc II was released only six months after Arc I in Japan. While the usual tropes are carted out, there’s nice chemistry between characters. The disappointment hits when you don’t realize you have fought your last fight before the credits roll. There’s no big bad guy, no alarming crescendo to hype up a fight. Players plow through a wave of two enemy types, and the credits roll. I half expected Arc to tell Gogen he was here to “finish the fight”. 

That isn’t to say it’s bad, especially here in America, which got everything at once. But it did feel off enough to ding the overall score. 

For being the first step in a greater journey, Arc the Lad I is a great run with plenty to offer the completionist and the casual fan. With a standard runtime that can be done in a week or less, it’s a sort of appetizer to the main meal that awaits in Arc the Lad II. Don’t let the game’s soft ending detour you from heading into the second disc. I’ve had a few hours in, and Arc the Lad II is worth the trip.

On the review scale, it’s a “Solid “ 7 out of 10. Arc’s beginnings are worthy of anyone’s time, even if you don’t try for the 1000 battles.  

Final Score: 7/10 – Solid

Despite not sticking to its landing, Arc The Lad 1 is a fantastic strategy RPG for casual and hardcore fans. That Americans got it as the first step in a box set is icing on the cake. Plus, your save file transfers to Arc The Lad II.

Arc the Lad II opens up with two new characters, Elc the Hunter and Lieza the Beast Talker. Elc is the final descendant of a race known as the Pyrenians, people who could wield the power of fire in various forms. Hunted to their own village and slaughtered by the empire that Arc has been fighting against, the then child Elc is captured and placed into an experimental observation lab called the White House.

Escaping his tormentors, the young protagonist is rescued by the hunter Shu. Shu is the resident bad as ninja-assassin type. He takes Elc under his wing and teaches him the skills of both hunter and assassin. As Elc matures, these survival skills will be put to the test in more ways than three. 

Lieza becomes Elc’s unintentional partner after he rescues her from a terrible situation. Her ability to talk to and control animals makes her the target of downright horrible scientists and villainous overlords. Eventually revealed as the Chimera program, the network of scum and villainy will come face-to-face with Elc and a host of other characters, both new and old. 

Before we go any further, a vital piece of context needs to be in place to properly underscore my first reaction to the game. During the initial release in Japan, there was a decent amount of time between releases. The shock of what was new in the sequel wouldn’t hit as hard as it would if you played it right afterwards, like here in America with the box set. That said, I was floored by how much the visuals improved. Characters are more refined, slimmer, with copious amounts of added animations and animation frames. There are layers to the details and creativity applied to every single one of those animation frames.

Every character has its own distinctive vibe, from Shu’s heroic stances to Shante’s hilarious throwing of her shoe. Each character has roughly 4 to 5 stages of animation per attack, spanning across every weapon in the game. If Lieza is equipped with a whip and lands a powerful attack, she will whip, pirouette, and multi-whip all in one animation. It’s mind-blowing to see the first time, and every new weapon type you acquire fuels the need to see every sequence. In fact, let’s slow this roll a bit and shift to what’s truly new in the gameplay. Brace for a stream of consciousness. 

One of the first game’s issues was that while it was fun, it was also super simple. Aside from trying to figure out the best kits for each character, there wasn’t much else to worry about. Arc The Lad II, however, obliterates that foundation and rebuilds it into one of the most robust, jaw-dropping, and frighteningly addictive experiences in a strategy RPG. All it took was allowing you to upgrade, well…anything…and damn near everything. 

In general, every weapon, armor, and item now has levels they can earn. A sword that only does 10 damage to start at level 0 out of 12, but use it enough in battle to max out 12 out of 12, and you could see it start doing 23 to 30 damage. This simple application turns upgrading on its head. When you find a new weapon to use, it may have a higher potential level, but you’d be losing attack power by swapping to it. Not swapping to it means you’re wasting vital experience points on the current weapon, but you might not care, knowing its damage is consistent. This back-and-forth also plays into the economy. Better, leveled material goods are worth more to shops, allowing you a little bit of positive investment in using them for so long. But it doesn’t stop there. 

Early in the game, players will find shops that can create new weapons with the proper item list or add new elements to existing weapons. These locations, while a refreshing new addition to the universe, are grossly underused and, personally, poorly explained. The problem stems from many of the ingredient lists needing more weapons, which wouldn’t be an issue except that your inventory is limited in space. Between trying to find a random weapon to make one that a future upgrade will just outperform, or having an extra heal item, I’m going with the heal item. 

A similar situation arises with Lieza and her beast companions. Likely due to the shared experience with the Monster Arena disc, there is a literal hidden character found inside a cave. Reachable only by the beasts, Sister Claire can upgrade your beasts, give them new abilities, and more. However, I realized I spent most of my time just trying to upgrade my human characters. The thought of taking time away from that to power up the beast never crossed my mind. We’ll see if this regretful decision will affect the next game, but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. More on that later, though, as I have a theory why.

On top of the fantastic item leveling system, Arc the Lad II introduces the Hunter system. Shu and Elc’s trade is on full display at the Hunter Guild locations. Each of these locations offers the player monster bounties and townsfolk bounties. Monster bounties require you to go to specific locations, sometimes at specific times, and defeat them alongside their companions. It’s a fantastic concept that turns the usual RPG grind into a valid time sink. Townsfolk offer battle quests that throw a spanner into the works every so often. 

One of these quests requires you to stop monsters from invading a researcher’s space while he works on three separate ruins. It’s a test of space management skills, as the enemy can easily weave around you. When either version of the bounty is done, you head back to the guild to claim your financial prize, get rated on your performance, and then earn merits. These merits play a crucial role in a smaller side quest. Earning 250 of them allows you to enter the guild manager’s office for some well-earned items. 

Speaking of, there’s a peculiar new party member who will no doubt give challenge seekers a run for their money. A robot named Diekbeck can be found in a sacred ruin, left behind from a previous great war. He is one of the wackiest characters to ever grace a video game. He only has 1 health and 1 magic point to his name. To unlock its full potential, players will need to seek out other sealed ruins in a specific order to recover its power units. These power units, once installed, will give him health, magic, offensive moves, and a better chance at surviving the fight. 

Why is he so unique? Rather than earn experience points, it absorbs and stores them. If you return Diekbeck to his station back on the island, you can then transfer his experience points to any of the other characters. It’s a great way to bring one character into a fight, but keep other characters moving along their levels by proxy. 

Speaking of ruins, the sequel does offer a crazy spin on two of the originals’ most diabolical features – the Battle Arena and the Forbidden Ruins. Rather than the repetitious slog of the 1000 battles, Arc II provides a game show-like environment. There are three different types of mini games to be played at the arena, including an ingenious take on the cage fight. It’s intended to be used with magic casters. The enemies are inside the cage, but you are locked outside the cage. You will need to use far-reaching spells to negate the monsters. If you try to cheat by teleporting into the cage, you’re called out, and the match is over. 

Playing these games earns you special currency that can be traded for other items and collectables. It’s a much more rewarding way to keep earning experience while having something to show for it. 

The Forbidden Ruins is more of a curiosity. Its data is part of the memory card transfer, and the results are amusing. If you did the ruins and secured Choko in the first game, not only is she not on the 50th floor, but the game remembers what treasure you secured, so all the chests are empty. The floors are the same, but now with more powerful enemies. If you rescued Choko, this is now more of a right of passage and bragging to travel down to the depths and back up. But there is a catch. 

Folks who transferred their save with her will find her in a new location, and after a quest or two, she’ll bring you to floors beneath the original 50. It’s a great payoff for having done the hard work before. 

In a broader sense, the game introduces new locations, both within and surrounding the original countries, including an oil rig. There are so many places that once you hit the halfway point of the story, you begin to realize just how large a canvas developer G-Craft has painted. If you treat the Silver Noah as fast travel, the world is huge, especially with how well the developers reuse certain locations. If you’re like me and can get easily turned around, bring a pen and paper to write down what towns are in what countries. It makes dialogue clues so much easier to map out.

Supporting elements like music do their own thing well, but I noticed in some battles the music can start to repeat just a little too often. The special effects and voice quips are really well done, especially for headphone users. There’s just something about hearing a sword slice in this game that makes it that much more satisfying.

Rounding out this review with the story, I can tell you it’s not what you would expect. G-Craft pulls no punches with their timelines, and characters old and new will go through some of the most horrific and traumatic experiences I have ever seen in a role-playing game from this era. To comment without spoilers, Elc and Lieza will face demons no character their age should. Tosh’s lineage is one of regret and stubbornness; other characters find solace in each other, while one related NPC watches one of your party members’ hardest trials. This overall sense of dread, regret, and hopelessness is carried over from the original game, and where it lands will likely divide players across the community. Watching the final cut scenes left me in a state of shock, questioning everything I had done up to that point, realizing that it was the only way forward. It was so powerful that it made me add a point back into the score I had taken away for an earlier complaint. 

Which brings us full circle to the real question: just how good is this game? That answer is complicated, based on what you’re looking for in your role-playing game. When Arc The Lad II finally brings the original cast in, it’s like a celebration. Watching Tosh walk in out of nowhere and perform a 300 damage attack when my current party could barely do 30 was like finding out who Arch Angel was in Mass Effect 2. I shouted with glee, no lie. The BioWare reference is more on point than you think. Once both parties are under your one roof to command, you realize that Elc doesn’t have to be in your party most of the time. If you want to play as Arc for the majority of the game, you can. It would be akin to starting up Mass Effect 2 and just kicking Shepard to the curb. 

More important is the theory I previously mentioned, about not being bothered to do certain side quests. Arc the Lad II is an extensive game, more than twice the time sink of the first game, even without doing everything I could have. It could give the player 100 hours or more, going over every inch of every bounty, side quest, and monster capture. Under normal circumstances, I’d likely still be playing it, or starting from scratch, because I’d better understand how certain things work. However, I have a wall of games to get through for the website, and every hour is precious. That stress to move on turns massive collecting quests into torturous excursions rather than enjoyable romps. 

I know that vibe is on me, and I would not dock points from the game for it. It is the PlayStation One’s Fallout, Skyrim, or Horizon Zero Dawn. When I play those games, I know most of the PS5’s library is already played through, so I can spend however long I want in each world’s experience. If you don’t have a huge backlog to go through, Arc the Lad II by itself would provide you with months of quests and enjoyment. It would pay for itself multiple times over, and still give you three other games to play. 

If there were any true irksome moments with Arc the Lad II, they are minor, but worth pointing out. It suffers from the ‘you can’t do that’ problem. That is, if you see an obvious item that you should be able to take with you, it won’t allow it until the story demands it. This is stacked on the reset problem, where once you leave a dungeon, it resets enemy encounters and puzzles. I meme’d this on social media when I realized just how many times I had to go through the volcano’s track system puzzles for the various bounties.

Those annoyances, while gut-wrenching in a play session, quickly fade into the background. Sometime in the future, I will return to this game and give it my full attention, just as I would to Fallout or Horizon. It’s just that good.

On Game-Rave’s review scale, it’s an Excellent 9 out of 10. Arc the Lad II, on its own, is a testament to the strategy RPG genre. Combined with the original game’s data transfer, it’s a love letter to story-driven characters, world-building, and human emotion.

Final Score: 9/10 – Excellent

Buried in a box of goodies, Arc The Lad II is a cornerstone in the PlayStation’s strategy RPG library.