ArcTheLad

[Tommy]

Anyone else play this series? I heard it was the first of it`s genre but I`m pretty sure that was Fire Emblem, but who knows?

Anyones here`s what I`ve gathered from Scale from 1 to 10.

ArcTheLad: 6
ArcTheLad 2: 10
ArcTheLad 3: 5
ArcTheLad-Twilight of the Spirits: 4.5
ArcTheLad- End Of Darkness: 4

Ok, these people must have played VERY god games to make up with that conclusion.

I have "Twighlight of The Spirits" for PS2 and I give it an "8". As a matter of face, I think this game beats "Fire Emblem: Blazing Swords". Can someone explain why they think the 4th one sucked and what made the 2nd one so great?

[Azier the Swordsman]

I haven't played terribly far into them (I own the first three) due to lack of time; they are fun though, the plots just happen to suffer from quite a few cliches, often making the plot quite predictable.

I would say that 2 was definately the most interesting from my perspective. 1 was decent, and 3 I've barely touched and can't comment on.

[MasterDias]

The only game in that series that virtually everyone who played it agrees it's terrible is the latest entry, Arc the Lad: End of Darkness.

Twilight of the Spirits got a Great/8.0 score from Gamespot and IGN gave it an 8.2 so I would imagine it would be pretty good.

I haven't played any of the games in the series so I can't really offer my own opinion.

I heard it was the first of it`s genre but I`m pretty sure that was Fire Emblem, but who knows?

As far as first TRPGs are concerned, several series beat Arc the Lad:
Fire Emblem(NES) came out in 1990, Langrisser/Warsong(GEN) in 1991, and Shining Force(GEN) in 1992.

The first Arc the Lad didn't come out in Japan until 1995 on the Playstation.

[Tommy]

Yeah, I know. The cool thing about ArcTheLad is that your character is surrounded by a huge blue circle and you move around with the analog stick instead of selecting a panel so you get more freedom. Plus you walk around towns and the series overall feels like this for gameplay on Twighlight of the Spirits:

Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, and Fire Emblem combined. You have to play to understand. It`s a great game and is not rare at all and it`s for $9.99 Pre-played.

[Azier the Swordsman]

ArcTheLad: 6
ArcTheLad 2: 10
ArcTheLad 3: 5
ArcTheLad-Twilight of the Spirits: 4.5
ArcTheLad- End Of Darkness: 4

I managed to find time to play a little more of ATL 1 today... somehow I believe I'm going to disagree with those scores when I eventually finish the series. (In a good way)

[Nate]

The first one was pretty good, I admit. Not the best I've played, but not the worst. The nature of the game prohibited you from going to towns and the like, but that's understandable for most tactical RPGs. The real treat in AtL was the storyline.

AtL II was the best for a lot of reasons. It allowed for free roaming towns, the Bounty System was quite good (though nothing special these days, it was still a good addition), and the voice acting and graphics were excellent. It further expanded on the original, giving the original characters even more depth. Elc thinks Arc killed his parents when he was little, and hates Arc...how will the two ever join forces? Will Arc find his missing father? Will his mother be rescued? Even Choko, a nondescript summon from Arc 1, was given an interesting and detailed background...and she KICKS BUTT. Make SURE you transfer the save data from the end of Arc 1 over to Arc 2.

AtL III...wasn't that great. The graphics were nothing to write home about, and the storyline wasn't that great. Instead of making the Bounty System optional like in the second one, it's mandatory now, so that you have to do ridiculous things like find some old guy's breakfast before you can advance the plot.

Four was okay, my biggest problem was the translation clashes Cattle Call made, instead of using the preestablished people/place names that Working Designs had used. The voice acting was REALLY bad (though hearing Darc yell "I WILL SAVE THE DEIMOS!" every time he killed a turtle was kinda funny). So bad that they used one of the people from RUGRATS to do Choko's voice. You know the twins, Phil and Lil? Yeah, that's who does Choko's voice. UGH. I liked Choko's Japanese voice.

Not only that, they have the nerve to MISPRONOUNCE HER NAME. It's CHOKO. Rhymes with "cocoa." But no, this idiot pronounces it like "Choco," like "chocolate." It makes my ears bleed when I hear, "Choco's trying hard!" in Lil's voice from Rugrats. Makes me want to beat down the people who work for Cattle Call.

[Tommy]

The voice acting was okay. It wasn`t like bad or anything. I don`t even know who the heck Choko is.

Fharg is actually cool. From looking at him, I thought he was going to be dumb.

One thing I don`t get....are Darc and Fharg both part Deimos?... That`s a gross thought.

Even though, I won`t buy the collection since it`s expensive. I think ArcTheLad is over.