The Wii has very few RPGs as it is in its inventory and any new addition is a welcome one to the library of games for the system. Arc Rise Fantasia is a traditional JRPG that is similar in vein to the Tales of 'xxx' games that are popular recently, even down to the individual skits characters have with each other over the course of the game. Before my review, I want to get out of the way the two major gripes I have with this game: the voice acting is terrible and completely experience ruining. Its a good thing they included the option to turn off voices completely, so it honestly doesn't affect the game's score any. The second gripe is the completely predictable plot. Other than a early (within 2 hours) story twist that wasn't expecting, every other plot turn was quite visible a few hours out before it happened and you could just see the ending of the game half way through. Not to say it isn't a bad story, it is just cliched and overly predictable, but it keeps the game moving and the player moving through.
The battle system is honestly where the game shines the most and where my biggest attention will be directed to. It is turned based with a order timeline of both player and enemy actions to give you a better sense of how each round will play out once you hit 'action.' You will utilize this bar immensely to decide how best to use your characters to acheive the desired results before the enemy can hop in and ruin your carefully laid plans. To understand what you can do, you must first understand AP, (action points), every action you do including just standing and waiting requires AP which is shared among the team. So this can limit and further strategize your overall gameplan for each round. Magic, Excel Acts, Attacking, Defending all require AP and you must carefully balance each character's action to get the most out of each round of battle.
Magic is a bit more involved and revolves around a specific orb each character possesses. You can upgrade to add more magic slots to fill in different types of magic spheres to get magic spells. Depending on where you put magic in those slots, you can combine elements to form new ones/spells. Using like-minded spheres and placing them next to each other can improve your spell levels and enable you to cast higher level spells. Combine your magic casting with special arm forces that strengthen or improve your spells puts an even more dynamic wrinkle in the strategy of utilizing this asset.
Speaking of Arm Forces, every weapon has an Arm Force you can unlock after using it for a certain amount of time that you can then take off and equip onto another weapon for any character. These abilities range from simple stat/element resistances, to special abilities like steal or master mage that increase magic effectiveness. By customizing your weapons as you see fit, you can basically 'define' a character in battle by the arm forces they have equipped. Its a very effective way of customizing a character to your specific preferences. This becomes very important when bosses start utilizing arm forces of their own, including ones that nullify yours.
Excel Acts and Rogress summoning are simply icing on the battle system cake when it comes to choices on the battlefield. The Excel acts are specific to each individual character and can range from attack to healing to buffing and are typically quite good. You can combine excel acts on a single enemy if timed right to unlock a third, more powerful final finishing excel act involving all three characters. The same goes for magic, you can sync up similar spells on one enemy (or character) and create a more powerful spell with boosted results. Add in summoning and the ability to team attack, and sync up multiple hits for combos and you got yourself a excellent tactical battle system to have fun in.
So what does this all boil down to? The enemy battles are nothing to really get worried over and indeed complete understanding of the battle system will make short work of most enemy parties. It is the boss battles that truly demand your full strategic attention and what will most likely get you killed. The bosses in this game will eat you up, and spit you out without giving you much of a chance to realize what happened! The battle system was basically designed around the bosses and this isn't more true than when going up against the final bosses or the myriad of optional bosses that populate the final areas of the game. If you're look for a deep battle system, you can't go too wrong with the one found in Arc Rise Fantasia.
Now that I've finished gushing about the battle system, the rest of the game presentation is actually quite good. The dungeon areas are amazingly short and this is actually a good thing. It keeps the flow going and speeds along the game faster. It can also be bad because of the boss battles which can stop your progress short. If you are unable to fully utilize the system to your advantage to beat the boss, you're probably left to grind a bit before trying again which can be annoying after grinding for the 15th boss in a row. (each boss doesn't give you a break, there are no true 'easy' bosses) Graphics are nice and do their job well as does the sound. Music is very vague and there are only a few times where I actively noticed that there was any playing at all. So as far as soundtrack goes, its quite unremarkable.
After 80+ hours and all quests and bosses finished, I dare say I really enjoyed this game, not so much for the overall story, presentation of it, but for the truly immersive battle system. It starts off simple, I'll admit, but once all aspects are fully unlocked (about 4-5 hours in), it really starts getting interesting and quite fun to play. I'd honestly say it was the battle system alone that tugged me through the entire game from beginning to finish rather than story or characters. So despite all this good praise, the game can only get 4 stars, because a battle system alone shouldn't be the sole defining feature of a game. The rest has to match too, but it gets a solid 4 for being a worthy entry in the Wii RPG library.
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