Arc the Lad
In Search of the Ark

Review by Chi Phan

After more than 5 years since it first came out in Japan, Arc the Lad 1 finally makes it's way over here as part of the collection that is known as Arc the Lad Collection. This game is without a doubt, probably the real first rpg game ever made for the Playstation system. Unfortunately being the first rpg game made for the Playstation doesn't translate to being a good rpg game. When playing this game, you can clearly see why this game never got any chance of making it's way over here. Only in a bundle with other games does it see any hopes of coming over here after 5 long years. Let's break down the points in this game.

I am the Forest Spirit I shall return father. Okay, now for the story or should I say lack of story. The story begins with a girl name Kukuru who's mission is to go to the top of Mt. Cion to extinguish the flame in a shrine there. At the same time, Arc who's father had disappeared 10 years old on that same mountain decided to go to the top of the mountain to find out what happened to his dad. As Kukuru extinguished the flames, a snowstorm appeared and a monster was releashed. Arc arrived at the mountain and ran into the monster that was released. He was then attacked by the monster and was left for dead. Suddenly while lying unconscious, a spirit appeared and bestow upon him the power of the Guardians. The spirit also inform him that the world will soon perish because mankind is greedy and evil. And that it is Arc's destiny to save the world from destruction. Inorder for Arc to save the world, he must seek out and release the elemental spirits of the world inorder to gain their power orbs. Once that's done, he must search out and find the Ark for it is the Ark that will save the world from destruction. After being granted powers from the spirit that had informed him of this, Arc climb down the mountain and ran into Kukuru. Here the 2 realizes that the snowstorm and the monster must've appear when the flames at the shrine was extinguished. So Arc climbed back up to the mountain to light up the flames again. With this mission accomplished, Arc and Kukuru set about traveling around the world to find the elemental spirits and to find the Ark to save the world from destruction. Of course along the way they meet up with numerous characters that will join up to help you. Despite the brief description, the story is very plain. The story doesn't take any time to really introduce to us the back drop or history of the world that is Arc the Lad. Here you are traveling around the world but you don't know anything about the world itself. The story is also base on Arc looking for his dad but it doesn't shred any light on what happened to his dad at all. Another problem is that we are told that we need to find the Ark but it doesn't tell us the importance of the Ark itself. Even the ending is a big let down and leaves the gamers confused about the story. In the end, it is reveal that the country of Romalia is behind all of the evil deeds. But the problem is that the story shed no light whatsoever on what the country of Romalia is or where it is. The entire story itself is underdeveloped. I understand that this is nothing more than an introduction or prologue to the real story that begins in Arc the Lad 2 but the game needs to do a better job introducing us to the world of Arc the Lad. I was very disappointed in the story. When you spend only about 10 hours or less developing a storyline, you're not going to get any high marks here.

You think you can beat me? There are a total of 7 characters feature in this game. Each character has their own unique look and special abilities. Too bad that's all they got. Cause the game doesn't spend much time showcasing their personalities or background. I mean the depth of the character developement is next to zero here. Each character is introduced to us during a story scene. You get maybe a couple of dialogue beforehand letting us know a little history on how they got here but that's it. A few dialogue which last for a few minutes before they officially joined the party. That's about it. That's as far as you will get in terms of character developement. Here's an example of poor character developement. Near the end of the game, Arc the main hero kisses Kukuru, the lead female character. Now the funny thing is that throughout the game, there's no mention, hint, or sign of any love interest between those two characters. So how is it near the end of the game, these characters kiss one another and express their undying love for one another out of the blue? Makes little sense here. Characters and story go hand in hand. If the story is too short and not very good then chances are that the characters are going to be undeveloped and uninteresting. That's how it is here. Too bad too as the artwork of these characters show much promise in them. Especially Arc who looks like he could be a very cool character.

And the winner is...... Well you can clearly see that this game is a very early Playstation game where the developers hasn't really grasp the full potential and power of the Playstation graphics specs yet. The game has a little bit of 3D feature that you won't see in any 16 bit console but overall the game uses a 2D background world with small short sprites characters much like most old school 16 bit rpg game. The problem here is that the 16 bit graphics aren't very good 16 bit graphics at all. The 16 bit graphics are kind of muddy and choppy at the sametime while the colors are kind of dull. There are some bright spots where some scenary look very good. Like the background graphics when you visit the Forests Spirits and near the ending when the party is standing over a sunsets. But having some bright spots where the scenary and graphics look very good doesn't mean the overall graphics are good. If you're going to make a game base on 16 bit graphic on a Playstation console then at least make it a good 16 bit graphics. Here the 16 bit graphics are worst then some of the 16 bit graphics on a 16 bit console system. And that's just plain bad.

Feel the power of my magic! Another disappointing point in the game. Music can only be as good as the presentation of the story. Remember that it's the music that gives the emotion to the story and sets the gamers in the mood of the story. But if the story is lacking and short then you're not going to get alot out from the music. As it is here. There's not alot of musical tunes from this rpg game, but can you really expect alot of musical tunes from a game that will only last between 10 - 15 hours of gameplay?? The tunes aren't unforgettable ones too. Then again there aren't many tunes to begin with that can be unforgettable. LOL. Average at best.

This is the end for you all. The end but only the beginning.. Game Information    Genre: Traditional Rpg    Publisher: Working Designs    Disc: 1 Disc CD    Memory: 1 Memory Block    Players: 1 Player Mode    Vibration: Yes    Dual Analog: Yes    Digital Control: No    Rating: Teen    Release: April 2002 The gameplay is very easy, straightforward with the usually standard strategy rpg flare. There's nothing really special about the gameplay so I'll make this short. Basically you have a very very short story cut scene. Once the story cut scene is over, it's usually followed up with a battle. The battle is made up of a backgroud area where the enemies are place in different areas. Your party members are also distributed in different areas on the battle map. Now you take turn moving your members around the battle map and attacking the enemies. Once the enemies is entirely wipe out, the battle is over. You move your fighters in a chest board movement. Meaning going from square to square. Each characters comes with his/her own unique abilites from magic to special attack skills. So obviously you choose which methods you want to attack the enemy with. One other feature is that you can also throw stuff at the enemies. Now you cannot equip weapons and armours in this game. You can only equip accessories. There's really no town exploration in this game and since there's no town exploration, there's no shops to be had. So you can only gain accessories during battles when monster drop them or from treasure chests. Now the game is too easy where all you really need is to have 1 or 2 fighters do all the killing and level them up. Then you just need those 2 fighters to kill all the enemies for the rest of the game. This is what you call the bare essential when it comes to strategy rpg game. It's not bad but it's not good either. It's.... well average. You defeat all the enemies and move onto the next area. Problem here is that the gameplay or overall gameplay is very short for an rpg game. While most rpg game average about 40 hours of gameplay, here Arc the Lad 1 average only 10 hours of real gameplay time. You can add an extra 5 hours onto the 10 hours if you decide to do all the mini-sidequests. This is very disappointing. I can live with the basic gameplay but for an rpg game, I need way more than just 15 hours of gameplay. Case in point you can probably finish this game in just 2 or 3 days of hard gaming. That's no lie.

Score: 5/10

The Silver Noah! Replay value...none. It's that simple. The game is too short and ends too quickly to have any real replay value. It's just a straightforward rpg game that can be finish in a couple of days. Extras is probably the only strong point in this game. It's not alot but compare it to the regular gameplay, the extras is more of a challenge. There are tournaments in the game that you can take part in to win accessories for your characters. But the biggest extra is the 50 floor dungeon. Basically in this 50 floor dungeon, you will need to make your way all the way down without saving to fight a Summon boss inorder to recruit that Summon plus get a key rare accessory then make all the way back up. It takes over 3 hours to complete and is really the only challenge in the game. Probably the only part of this game that I really enjoy doing. But the dungeon itself can be pretty easy as all you really need to do is use the same tactics in the regular gameplay and have 2 or 3 of your strong fighters at a high level to to all the killing to make the dungeon easy. With no replay value and only one really good extra in the 50 floor dungeon, I say a 5. That 5 alone comes from the the 50 floor dungeon.

Personnally I think this game is surrounded by alot of hype and promises due to the fact that it took so long to finally be ported over here to North America that alot of people seem to brainwashed themselve into thinking that it must be good. But in the end, once the hype dies down and you look at this game on it's own as a stand alone rpg game, much like the way it was first released some 5 years ago in Japan, it's a very disappointing rpg game that only last for 10-15 hours with a lacklustre gameplay, story, and graphics. Rumour has it that Arc the Lad 1 was really only a Prologue to the real rpg story in Arc the Lad 2. If that's the case then it would've been better off to actually include the entire short Arc the Lad 1 storyline as part of the Arc the Lad 2 story then to sell Arc the Lad 1 as a stand alone game. The gamemakers had the right idea with making a mini-series that continues directly off the previous game. I give them credit for doing something that's never been done before and I like the idea. Problem is that if you're going to make a Chapter 1 introduction then you should at least take the effort and introduce us to the characters, settings and story plotline properly. I feel sorry for the suckers in Japan who had to pay full price for this 10-15 hours rpg game when it first came out. As part of a collection it's okay but then again, we're not reviewing the entire collection here but the one single game that's called Arc the Lad. Final Score: 4.8/10 Time to complete: about 10 hours for the story game. Difficulty: easy Favorite character: Tosh Waste of good character: Arc Most annoying magic: Sleep Spell Best fighter: Tosh Worst fighter: Kukuru Best summon: Choko Best advice: Find Choko Also try: Arc the Lad 2 Up next: Arc the Lad 2

STORY A very short story that can be told in 2 paragraphs. Weak plot developement as well. 4 CHARACTERS Nice selection of characters in the game but the game provides little character developement or interaction between characters. 5 GRAPHICS Short sprites in a 2-D world. The graphics is a drawback from the 16 bit graphics but with weaker results. You've seen better 16 bit graphics. 5 MUSIC An average, small collection of tunes for this very short rpg game. Some tunes you might like but in all quite forgettable tunes once you finish playing the game. 5 GAMEPLAY Average fare for a strategy game. Too easy and way too short of a gameplay. Nothing cutting edge here. 5 EXTRAS/REPLAY Only one real extra available to do and that's the 50 floor dungeon. Replay? No replay value. 5