Post by DM on Sept 16, 2010 22:19:45 GMT
(The following is for comedy purposes only)
Dispite the negative reviews of what EVERYONE has said online, I decided to pick up Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii last week, an RPG no less and DM is a sucker for a good RPG with story and depth. Screw the graphics, Earthbound for the SNES is one of my favorites and that didn't have a lot of 'life' graphics, as is Chorno Trigger...but I digress.
So the game opens up and you're apparently some kind of Legionare, I guess that's a high ranking military fighter with a sword (Typical) and you battle a felddragon. You win, engines fail, you fall to your death. Fast forward, you're saved by a girl whom was looking for a 'child of eesa' (Oh gee I wonder if that's you) and she follows you on your travels. Main character, typical smart ass, don't care type, girl, typical 'defenseless' 'I know nothing of the outside world' type, (Geeze how many times are we going to see THIS sterotype in RPG's. I mean it's nice but damn...we can practically SEE them fucking in the bushes..I digress.)
Travel battle, travel battle, rest up in town, travel battle, arrive home, get new member, best friend, long lost friend, uses sword, etc etc, again, typical story (by the way he's a Prince). Save a town from demons, run into new character called Niko (he uses a gun and is clumsy..the comic relief of it all...he annoys me already), battle battle, battle, level up, wait..your weapons have interited powers? Interesting, you can add abilities to your weapons...I like this. Magic is based upon orbs and slots..hmm..confusing but...eh it works. Turn based system..oh I hate turn based...oh..it's based upon 'ability' points, hmm, I'm mixed on this. Hmm...it's actually STILL quite challenging...I like.
Battle battle, boss battle...TOUGH boss battle I should say, barely win. Plan B, run into a tower to hide from Boss whom is alive and summoning monters.
Run through tower, fight fight fight, enter a room with a...'head' like thing that talks to you. The Boss Baddie breaks in and comes after you, causes a problem, both Hero and Ryfia (the mindless one) somehow create a huge field of light, etc etc, he's the child of eesa, she was looking for him (it's only been an hour in and already they're giving the OBVIOUS away...wow) The head talks further, tells me to except Imaginals Law, you accept and gain his powers...battle time...where the hell is he?
Search through battle commands, atk, mgk, def, run, item....where the FUCK is that power while I'm getting MANGLED from this guy. Heal heal defend heal fight fight, revive, running out of items, getting aggitated, should have leveled up, hating life right now, get him down to half health, took me close to twenty minutes, about to die....L'Arc (Hero) says something about 'it building inside me' and explodes and summons OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??? I JUST SUMMONED THE GOD OF GUNDAMS, HE JUST SHOT A FUCKING KAMEHAMEHA/HADOKEN AND OBLITERATED EVERYTHING. WHERE THE HELL WAS THAT AT THE START OF THIS FIGHT??
Villian runs away all scared, you now have that power (Called Simmah) and you can only use it when your RP meter is risen (so it's a summon you're lucky to use...interesting...a pain in the ass..I like.) Return back home, get yelled at by King (whom is the Prince's brother...go figure), tells you that you fucked up by making a bond with the 'Rogress' cutting their power of Ray (Mana/Magic/Life) make a penance by doing a mission. Typical.
Equip, stock up, explore, level up, new characters, more story, moving on. Have another boss battle with two girls, they nearly win, I win, moving on. Get on a ship from a thief/pirate, okay typical lines here, get to next town. Move around, travel around, do your thing, complete the mission after two or three other side missions, lose one of your companions, you go to save her, turns out she's on the side of evil (by the way, she's ALSO a childhood friend) she has powers like your White Mage girl, she wants to kill you. Double Cross...No..the Pirate is against you...and so is another character you pick up...Oh no...even your BEST FUCKING FRIEND IS AGAINST YOU? Well I"ll just use my God of...WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? HE JUST SUMMONED THE SATAN OF GUNDAMS. OH COME ON NOW!!!
You get the shit kicked out of you, HALF you're party that you spent building and leveling up are on the side of evil...or are they, I just now realize, this is a story loosely based on it's own 'religion' in a sense and people are at war over it. Essentially there is One god Called Eesa whom created two sub gods, Real (Destruction) and Imaginal (Creation) and based upon which law is presented to Eesa will determine the fate of the world.
Now...that is ONLY the first....five or so hours of gameplay, needless to say, the voice acting...is a bit to be desired and the battle system on having to level your weapons up is a bit annoying yes, but, actually, the fact Magic is actually an art rather a skill, you can link (yes link) magic/atk/special attacks together a do a FUCK load of damage and your summon spirits are summoned ONLY when a meter is full, there are more of them that I have to find and the 'opposing' forces are actually competing against me is different.
Yes there is a bit of story to it, again it's based on a 'religion' but hell FF7/Chorno Trigger have little 'things' like this, hell even one of my most favorite RPG's Tales of Symphonia is based on stuff like this, only adds to it a little bit I guess, gives you more story to really follow rather "oh well this god did this and it's man vs god.'
Now, the reason behind this post is simply the fact that I was told 'by online sources' that this game is an annoying pain in the ass that'll make your ears bleed from the Voice Acting. At first I was going to pull away, but then I remember, there are options to turn OFF the voices and you can read along (like how we used to BEFORE FFX destroyed that rule) and it's not about cut scenes or high intense graphics or the hours and hours of gameplay you'll spend, it's about two things, story and playability. At first I wasn't happy with the 'command' system which is what they used in FFX, BUT, they really changed things around to make it a lot EASIER and Harder at the same time limiting your turns to a 'point' system and attacks/item usage/defending costs point. It's almost as if they tried to make it command style and almost tactics based (yes you can actually move out of the way and spread your party out during mid play).
So in conclusion, as I'm still only just starting, I am SO glad that I didn't listen to the online reviewers constantly bashing the hell out of the game, yeah it's 'anime' style but that actually doesn't bother me (Since Tales of Symphonia, SMRPG, Skies of Arcadia, Fire Emblem, and dare I say Lunar 2 and Chorno Trigger) so I'm used to this type of style. If you're an RPGer, I say, check it out, you just might like it and SCREW what the internet tells you. Screw the graphics and screw the 'voice acting' and 'special effects.' A good game is based upon fun factor, not cosmetics.
Dispite the negative reviews of what EVERYONE has said online, I decided to pick up Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii last week, an RPG no less and DM is a sucker for a good RPG with story and depth. Screw the graphics, Earthbound for the SNES is one of my favorites and that didn't have a lot of 'life' graphics, as is Chorno Trigger...but I digress.
So the game opens up and you're apparently some kind of Legionare, I guess that's a high ranking military fighter with a sword (Typical) and you battle a felddragon. You win, engines fail, you fall to your death. Fast forward, you're saved by a girl whom was looking for a 'child of eesa' (Oh gee I wonder if that's you) and she follows you on your travels. Main character, typical smart ass, don't care type, girl, typical 'defenseless' 'I know nothing of the outside world' type, (Geeze how many times are we going to see THIS sterotype in RPG's. I mean it's nice but damn...we can practically SEE them fucking in the bushes..I digress.)
Travel battle, travel battle, rest up in town, travel battle, arrive home, get new member, best friend, long lost friend, uses sword, etc etc, again, typical story (by the way he's a Prince). Save a town from demons, run into new character called Niko (he uses a gun and is clumsy..the comic relief of it all...he annoys me already), battle battle, battle, level up, wait..your weapons have interited powers? Interesting, you can add abilities to your weapons...I like this. Magic is based upon orbs and slots..hmm..confusing but...eh it works. Turn based system..oh I hate turn based...oh..it's based upon 'ability' points, hmm, I'm mixed on this. Hmm...it's actually STILL quite challenging...I like.
Battle battle, boss battle...TOUGH boss battle I should say, barely win. Plan B, run into a tower to hide from Boss whom is alive and summoning monters.
Run through tower, fight fight fight, enter a room with a...'head' like thing that talks to you. The Boss Baddie breaks in and comes after you, causes a problem, both Hero and Ryfia (the mindless one) somehow create a huge field of light, etc etc, he's the child of eesa, she was looking for him (it's only been an hour in and already they're giving the OBVIOUS away...wow) The head talks further, tells me to except Imaginals Law, you accept and gain his powers...battle time...where the hell is he?
Search through battle commands, atk, mgk, def, run, item....where the FUCK is that power while I'm getting MANGLED from this guy. Heal heal defend heal fight fight, revive, running out of items, getting aggitated, should have leveled up, hating life right now, get him down to half health, took me close to twenty minutes, about to die....L'Arc (Hero) says something about 'it building inside me' and explodes and summons OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??? I JUST SUMMONED THE GOD OF GUNDAMS, HE JUST SHOT A FUCKING KAMEHAMEHA/HADOKEN AND OBLITERATED EVERYTHING. WHERE THE HELL WAS THAT AT THE START OF THIS FIGHT??
Villian runs away all scared, you now have that power (Called Simmah) and you can only use it when your RP meter is risen (so it's a summon you're lucky to use...interesting...a pain in the ass..I like.) Return back home, get yelled at by King (whom is the Prince's brother...go figure), tells you that you fucked up by making a bond with the 'Rogress' cutting their power of Ray (Mana/Magic/Life) make a penance by doing a mission. Typical.
Equip, stock up, explore, level up, new characters, more story, moving on. Have another boss battle with two girls, they nearly win, I win, moving on. Get on a ship from a thief/pirate, okay typical lines here, get to next town. Move around, travel around, do your thing, complete the mission after two or three other side missions, lose one of your companions, you go to save her, turns out she's on the side of evil (by the way, she's ALSO a childhood friend) she has powers like your White Mage girl, she wants to kill you. Double Cross...No..the Pirate is against you...and so is another character you pick up...Oh no...even your BEST FUCKING FRIEND IS AGAINST YOU? Well I"ll just use my God of...WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? HE JUST SUMMONED THE SATAN OF GUNDAMS. OH COME ON NOW!!!
You get the shit kicked out of you, HALF you're party that you spent building and leveling up are on the side of evil...or are they, I just now realize, this is a story loosely based on it's own 'religion' in a sense and people are at war over it. Essentially there is One god Called Eesa whom created two sub gods, Real (Destruction) and Imaginal (Creation) and based upon which law is presented to Eesa will determine the fate of the world.
Now...that is ONLY the first....five or so hours of gameplay, needless to say, the voice acting...is a bit to be desired and the battle system on having to level your weapons up is a bit annoying yes, but, actually, the fact Magic is actually an art rather a skill, you can link (yes link) magic/atk/special attacks together a do a FUCK load of damage and your summon spirits are summoned ONLY when a meter is full, there are more of them that I have to find and the 'opposing' forces are actually competing against me is different.
Yes there is a bit of story to it, again it's based on a 'religion' but hell FF7/Chorno Trigger have little 'things' like this, hell even one of my most favorite RPG's Tales of Symphonia is based on stuff like this, only adds to it a little bit I guess, gives you more story to really follow rather "oh well this god did this and it's man vs god.'
Now, the reason behind this post is simply the fact that I was told 'by online sources' that this game is an annoying pain in the ass that'll make your ears bleed from the Voice Acting. At first I was going to pull away, but then I remember, there are options to turn OFF the voices and you can read along (like how we used to BEFORE FFX destroyed that rule) and it's not about cut scenes or high intense graphics or the hours and hours of gameplay you'll spend, it's about two things, story and playability. At first I wasn't happy with the 'command' system which is what they used in FFX, BUT, they really changed things around to make it a lot EASIER and Harder at the same time limiting your turns to a 'point' system and attacks/item usage/defending costs point. It's almost as if they tried to make it command style and almost tactics based (yes you can actually move out of the way and spread your party out during mid play).
So in conclusion, as I'm still only just starting, I am SO glad that I didn't listen to the online reviewers constantly bashing the hell out of the game, yeah it's 'anime' style but that actually doesn't bother me (Since Tales of Symphonia, SMRPG, Skies of Arcadia, Fire Emblem, and dare I say Lunar 2 and Chorno Trigger) so I'm used to this type of style. If you're an RPGer, I say, check it out, you just might like it and SCREW what the internet tells you. Screw the graphics and screw the 'voice acting' and 'special effects.' A good game is based upon fun factor, not cosmetics.