Arc Rise Fantasia

by Ignition Entertainment

Product Features

• From the developers who created the highly lauded Luminous Arc
• Combines high quality 3D graphics and modern gameplay
• Classic Japanese high fantasy role-playing
• Music by legendary composer Yasunori Mutsuda
• Over 20 hours of gameplay

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001NCARPW
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: July 27, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,940 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #16 in Video Games > Wii > Role-Playing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Jump into the shoes of L'Arc, a calm and composed mercenary, who sets out to defend the Meridian Empire from an impending invasion of ferocious creatures. Assemble a party of friends, each with a unique set of abilities, players will embark on a perilous journey across an overworld filled with deadly enemies and treacherous dungeons. While strategically queuing up attacks, players can summon mystical creatures and work with their party members to execute massive attacks.

Over 20 hours of gameplay!View larger.

Classic Japanese high fantasy role-playing action! View larger.

Combines high quality 3D graphics and modern gameplay. View larger.

An epic role-playing game. View larger.

Synopsis Arc Rise Fantasia is set in the Meridian Empire. Creatures called "Contaminant Dragons" are causing a lot of trouble as they pass the Meridian in flocks. If one is killed, the resulting explosion poisons the local area. When the empire receives word that a massive horde has its sights on the capital of Diamant, it immediately sends out an army to fight them, including L'Arc, a cool and collected novice mercenary, and his friend Alf, the beloved prince and second in line for the throne. L'Arc is severely injured during the battle, but is saved by a girl named Ryfia, who has secrets in her past and possesses the power to control "ley squalls," naturally occurring storms of no magic that usually take the form of luminous rain. A young woman named Adele, who has been a friend of L'Arc since childhood, renders assistance to the party through use of her unique form of combat, Luminomancy. Features: From the developers who created the highly lauded Luminous Arc, comes their next epic role-playing game exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. Combines high quality 3D graphics and modern gameplay to push the envelope of the Wii’s capabilities Classic Japanese high fantasy role-playing action involving airships, dragons, and a huge cast of characters. Music by legendary composer Yasunori Mutsuda (Chrono Trigger, Tobal No.1, Xenogears, and more) Progressive scan and true 16:9 widescreen support Over 20 hours of gameplay

Product Description

Arc Rise Fantasia is a new turn-based RPG with a beautiful, anime-inspired Japanese art style. Players will jump into the shoes of L’Arc, a calm and composed mercenary, who sets out to defend the Meridian Empire from an impending invasion of ferocious creatures. After assembling a party of friends, each with a unique set of abilities, players will embark on a perilous journey across an overworld filled with deadly enemies and treacherous dungeons. While strategically queuing up attacks, players can summon mystical creatures and work with their party members to execute massive attacks. Arc Rise Fantasia features deep gameplay, top-notch production values, and an unforgettable story line. Wii owners who have been pining for a massive fantasy epic will definitely have their patience rewarded.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Refreshing Tribute to What JRPGs are SUPPOSED to be... and Bad Voice Acting, July 28, 2010

By 

Kyle Slayzar (Bismarck, ND) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Arc Rise Fantasia (Video Game)

As a child of the 80s, I grew up with traditional Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGs) such as Final Fantasy II and III (aka IV and VI respectively), Lufia I and II, Xenogears, Phantasy Star, Breath of Fire III, and many more. These were the golden JRPGs that made most of us older RPG fans hooked on most things Japanese. They maintained a good story that didn't require a mastery of Jungian and Fruedian psychology, characters a player could actually relate to and understand, simplistic game play that didn't involve 14-different styles of useless upgrades, and were generally fun and relaxing to play enough to make the phrase, "let's all go on an adventure," actually fun to yell!

HOWEVER, in the past 8-10 years, JRPGs have gone... well, weird. With hair and clothing styles birthed from cross-breeding members of Depeche Mode and Lady Gaga, along with the self-loathing characters that suffer from more inner-turmoil than a Coldplay album, JRPGs have just gotten terrible lately. Sure, there have been some notable good ones in recent years such as Tales of Vesperia and... uh... *flips through collection*... Tales of Vesperia, but the vast majority of JRPGs for the console systems have really sunken to new lows (Magna Carta II anyone?). If anything, North American RPGs have really come into their own with titles such as Fallout 3, Mass Effect I and II, Knights of the Old Republic, Fable I and II, and, dare I say it, World of Warcraft.

With all this in mind, Arc Rise Fantasia was a complete breath of fresh air. When first announced and featured back in 2008, software developer Imageepoch promised a classic-style JRPG that went back to combating evil nations, airships, flying dragons, and crystals without weird hair or emo characters. While Arc Rise Fantasia has a very simply story and set of characters, Imageepoch advertises it as such as they know EXACTLY what they created.

This is good as Arc Rise Fantasia will treat traditional JRPG fans with a game they can actually enjoy and not feel weirded out while playing it. Speaking of enjoyment, while RPGs on the XBox360 and PSXIII have advanced graphics and in-game achievements/trophies, it is also for this reason that Arc Rise Fantasia is also a breath of fresh air. While playing the game for the past two days, I found myself considerably more relaxed than usual while playing through say Lost Odyssey or Infinite Undiscovery. This is probably because I'm not constantly staring at a player's guide or trying to do ridiculous tasks to get any achievements or get the better ending.

I was able to sit back, enjoy an iced raspberry 7UP, and relax as I played through the game akin to how I felt while playing Final Fantasy VI or Breath of Fire IV not having to worry about missing something that you only get if you preordered the game from somewhere or have to download a patch to get 100%.

Pertaining to non-abstracts, the graphics are toned down compared to console RPGs but this is also a breath of fresh air as the designers didn't disproportionately allocate all their funding to graphics and not actual development. For the Wii, the environments are quite pleasing if not soothing. Several times I found myself wishing I was back on the west coast sipping on the same raspberry 7Up on a beach or near the harbor where I grew up. It was quite nostalgic. The in-game graphics are not so bad although mouth/lip syncing seriously leaves something to be desired.

The game play itself is fairly simplistic. Your battle party has a collective action points pool allowing some character to attack more than once per turn while others stand by. This allows for more developed tactics as you can easily tailor a strategy of attack for each individual battle. Also, battles go by considerably quicker than traditional JRPGs. At level 14 I found myself skimming what were supposed to be moderately difficult fights in under 20 seconds and gaining a decent amount of experience. This makes the game play bearable as it avoids becoming monotonous and repetitive.

Outside of battle, you can customize your weapons with gems that unlock with experience. This allows you to more-or-less keep the kewl looking weapons while maintaining up-to-date attack power and attributes. I still cannot quite figure out how to get the magic orb thingy to work right, but I have not yet needed to get it going since I rely more on items and brute force rather than magic. You can also somewhat change the appearances of the party members via tailors and other clothing items found throughout the game. A nice little side-thingy, but not truly relevant to game play or the plot.

The music is something truly to behold. Yasunori Mitsuda, famed composer of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears has graced Arc Rise Fantasia with a wonderful soundtrack that has a striking resemblance to Eternal Sonata and Skies of Arcadia, but still maintaining its own signature. I personally loved every piano sonata and suite there was. I hope to find and obtain the soundtrack.

Now onto the one big complaint we all have; voice acting.

To put it bluntly, it's beyond bad. How these voice actors stay employed it beyond me. However, this is solvable by simply turning the voice volume off, but then it means you can't have voice acting. Oh well.

All in all, Arc Rise Fantasia is a wonderful break from contemporary JRPGs as it gives fans a nostalgic feeling while new fans can enjoy a good game without worrying about gamer score or trophies.

Now, if you all will excuse me. I'm gonna fill up my 7UP and go play some more!

95%, a solid A-!

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An awesome game with a horrible drawback: voices, July 27, 2010

By 

J. Gomez "Toya Chikage" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Arc Rise Fantasia (Video Game)

This game is amazing. The graphics are a sight to see and pleasant to the eyes. The characters all stand out and aren't horrible to look at. For those of you who like anime, the artist/studio is the infamous Bones. One of their animes? Eureka Seven. See the resemblance?

Anyways, here's my Pros and Cons

Pros:
The graphics are amazing.
The music was done by the famous Yasunori Mitsuda (he did the Xenosaga series, Shadow Hearts series, and the Chrono series), and is pleasant to the ears and gets good when in a battle and when some dramatic scene is played.
The controls are simple and can be used with the Wii Remote w/ Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and GameCube Controller.
The battle is interesting as there's an AP system, which is a lot like Skies of Arcadia, and can be diverse throughout the party.
The overworld is a lot like the Tales Of Games and is vibrant.
Many things to do, like upgrading weapons during battle and then using transferring the power from the weapon to another.
The magic system is like the ORIGINAL Final Fantasy, where you use a point system (which is your MP) and can upgrade it in shops
They have on-screen monsters, so no random battles (though I'm used to that due to Final Fantasy)

Cons:
It's slow in the beginning and the battle system is a little hard to get use to, but is way easier than you think.
I haven't played the game far enough to get the cons, but I'm sure there are some that can be obvious.
The voices...........THE VOICES!!!!!!!!!

The biggest drawback in this game is the voices. About 90-99% of you reading this will agree on the voices. They are horrendous. In fact, this is some of the worse voice acting I've ever heard....EVER!!!! L'Arc is below average (He could have been voiced by Johnny Young Bosch and it'll be better). Alf's voice is wayyyyy too deep, like he chained smoked before he came into the game (his voice acting though is better than some of the other characters). This new guy I met, Niko, sounds like he has a horrible cold and has a sinus problem, and the worse of them all........the main girl, Ryfia. She is literally THE worst voice in the game. She was voiced by Yui Makino. For those of you who don't know her, she has a very cute voice and fits extremely well with Ryfia. But seriously, her English voice actor!?!?!? Monotonous, sounds too old for a 16 year old character (sounds like a 25 year old), doesn't fit her character, her fighting voice is crap....I can go on and on about her and you'll believe everything I just said.

Anyways, this game is good. No joke. The battles, story, graphics, and controls are awesome and isn't something to be shunned about. Seriously, if you can get past the voices (seriously, the old Speed Racer cartoon sounded better than this), you're in for a good game.

4/5 stars. -1 because of the voices.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing game!, December 14, 2010

By 

Butterball "Jaime" (CA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Arc Rise Fantasia (Video Game)

I'm going to start by saying that the voice acting isn't really that bad. Before I bought the game I was worried because that was what everyone was talking but I decided to give it a shot and I have to say that I have no regrets. When you first start the game you'll see why people don't like the voice acting, however, I got over it within thirty minutes. If you are looking for a game with a captivating story and challenging boss battles which are very satisfying then this game is for you. Don't let the one thing that everyone else is complaining about be the reason you don't get this game. You will not regret getting it.