Closing thoughts: 1. I think if there was a partial-undub of the game, leaving the battle voices in English (so you get those warnings of incoming mega attacks,) and everything outside of combat in Japanese would make this game a lot easier to recommend. If anyone makes this partial undub and sends me a link I'll post it here in the future. 2. Emulate at a higher resolution for the best visual experience. 3. The gameplay is a solid challenge and lots of fun. If you're looking for a "hidden gem" this is it. But it IS a rough gem, so be aware of that going into it.
Do they speak a lot of other stuff during combat? Because usually with stuff like that, you usually get the pattern of the spoken words after a while, right?
Yeah, there's actually quite a lot of battle banter that gets spoken each time you're selecting attacks for a character. Each character of the 10 or so playable characters might say something like, "This doesn't look good!" or "I smell something fishy" etc as a warning, in addition to a dozen or so other lines. And apparently in the undub, each of the characters actually had a couple of different warning phrases, so it might be tough to pick up on the pattern, especially since they only happen during boss fights. And those attacks will usually wipe your party out in a single move unless you're already defending.
Oh, I thought it was just a warning. If they banter during the fight, it would be pretty hard to notice the warning :/ Maybe adding subtitles to the fights would be a more feasible alternative?
Hey @Goavsgo, I played this on a WiiU using HDMI output in 1080p, then upscaled to 4k. If I were to do this again though I would have played it in 480p over HDMI instead, and upscaled that to 4K for an even better picture. :)
This is one game that I absolutely loved. The dev. team grabbed at anything they thought was cool, gave it a surreal 'Tales of' feeling in character interaction and world exploration, and then chucked new battle concepts at you even when you're 70% through the game to keep you on your toes. A.R.F. *never* got dull from start to finish, and few JRPGs have pulled that off. +Sure, the story is pretty predictable (especially if you've played any Tales game like Vesperia), though there *will* be moments that you will not see coming, and other moments that'll hit you like a train wreck, and it's also a very entertaining story to experience. +The voice acting is occasionally piss-poor and occasionally exceptional, but even Niko will grow on you if you let him - Niko is the most annoyingly voiced character in the game bar none, but after awhile I found that I _couldn't_ imagine him voiced any other way - it just _fits_ somehow as the ultimate try-hard dork that actually becomes a friggan powerhouse to go along with his top-tier turn speed. Other VAs, like for L'Arc & Ryfia, actually improve as the game progresses, as though it took the actors a bit to get into the groove or something. +Weapon customization is shockingly deep especially in late-game, as is the magic customization system. I mean, seriously, Tetris as a weapon customization? More JRPGs need to do this! +Bosses are a straight-up threat, unlike MANY JRPG bosses, and the optional bosses will utterly _brutalize you_ if you go in under-prepared in _any_ way. The game goes out of its way to give you the tools you need to succeed, but it's up to you as the player to take advantage of it. Even some normal random encounters can do horrible, horrible things to you if you get sloppy. A.R.F. is NOT "noob" friendly - this is a game designed for those who know JRPGs. +The battle system never stops getting deeper, but never so fast you feel overwhelmed but not so slowly you get bored - and it keeps becoming more intricate even when you're almost 3/4 of the way through the game! Just take your time, read the explanations, and you'll never feel like you're out of your depth (this title has one of the most intricate JRPG battle systems by end game that I've ever played - and I've played upwards of a _thousand_ JRPGs). +Oh, and the fights load _fast._ Remember when load times were a thing? This game pretty well beat it. On the _Wii._ +Music is a straight-up joy with songs that will remind you of everything from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics to Kingdom Hearts. There's at least five different battle pieces that I recall (I think - been awhile), and nearly every song is "catchy as hell". Mitsuda did a marvelous job here. +The graphics are some of the best on the Wii (shocking, I know - a JRPG? From a non-AAA studio? Or Nintendo directly?!), and looks even better on the Wii U - though emulating on a decent rig (which I don't own) via Dolphin looks best. The level of detail paid to everything in the game is astonishing for a Wii game, and the special effects are amazing for the system. The art direction, too, is top notch. +The game controls like a dream with no "waggle" in sight; just grab your favorite controller (Wiimote & Chuck, Game Cube Controller, Classic Controller) and play! +The world is bloody HUGE, with easy-to-miss secrets EVERYWHERE. And thanks to enemies being visible on the overworld you never feel stressed about getting off the "beaten track" as it were. +Side quests (aka Guild Quests). Not nearly as many (or often as mind-numbing) as Xenoblade's (another game I love), but you're almost never left wondering what the heck you're supposed to do, and the rewards for successful completion are usually worth the effort. Especially as the main game is pretty linear, so doing these helps break that up some. You also get Tales of-like arena battles, Dragon quest-like casinos, and a really weird...mascot racing games that's _nothing_ like Final Fantasy VII... +Like I mentioned earlier the character interaction & world exploration feels a LOT like an early 'Tales of' title, what with story beats, character personalities, character interactions/skits, optional costumes (that sadly *don't* appear outside cut scenes - sorry Bikini lovers!), and the general world exploration and enemy encounters (again, especially if you've played Tales of Vesperia - the most recent Tales game at the time of this games' release in 2010). +The only other significant issue with ARF (beyond that unfortunate acronym, the sometimes mediocre writing, and the unbalanced voice acting quality), is that this game borrows from so many other games & media that one can't help BUT to compare it to those it borrows from. I half expected to get into ship-on-ship battles like in Skies of Arcadia at some point as the game progressed, and was mildly disappointed when that didn't actually happen. The other downside, for me personally, is that due to my taking certain classes in University (I won't say which to avoid potential spoilers), I was able to guess pretty accurately early-on where the story was going to end-up. Yet it didn't diminish the experience in any way. If one can look past the occasionally awkward writing and can survive the voice acting for the first few hours (or however long enough to get used to it), one will find a genuinely fantastic-yet-slightly-flawed not-so-hidden gem. That as of this comment runs for about $90 used on Amazon. I got it used at Game Stop in 2013 for $20, and it came with the game (of course), original box & cover, manual, AND the character cards.
Rough hidden gems are the best hidden gems. That's where you find the truly unique and overlooked games. Ones where the many flaws are outshined by the unique, creative elements.
RIP Imageepoch. Happy to see Ryoie Mikage at least is trying to continue his work now (After having gone missing for a number of years) at Mikage LLC. Lets hope he can get that company swinging so we can get back to more interesting titles like this one.
didn't expect you here, I wonder why you didnt get around to talk about this gem, as you seem to be familiar with Image Epoch, and I'd like your spin on this game :)
@@Evilriku13 Time. The issue is always time haha. Hard to make much time to go back and talk about some older games when I'm struggling to keep up with just a handful of the new ones.
When I first played this game, I had heard about the critique of the terrible voice acting already and thought I was prepared for it. “I grew up with video game voice acting from the 90’s, it can’t be that bad. I’ll be fine.” ...or so I thought. Oh how I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
easiest way to get shard for elemental gems is destroying the elemental pillars (forgot the name) in combat with a chance for it to drop. best way to go through it is having leslie or niko shoot it while having others killing off mobs or use up spell slots if an enemy is within range of it edit: as a side note, I still remember that every time I replay this game, I end up dying to dynos cause of his infinite undead spam cause I somehow forget about that XD
I absolutely LOVE this game, for all its frustrating deaths (and trying to figure out the upgrade system), it just felt so fresh at the time, but it also really had the "vibe" of classic PS2-era RPGs. I think it suffered coming out in the RPG Dark Age of the late 2000s/early 2010s. If this game every does get that miracle modern console rerelease, I really hope XSEED gets a chance to re-localize it. I would buy again right away
One day I'll finish this game. I've started it 3 times. For some reason at the 30 hours mark I just trail off. (I suspect is the lack of a couch to play it on.) It's battle system is so great and nice.
Playing it right now, it's a good game once you get over the voice acting. Enjoying the weapon system and the turn based battles with it's AP and force skills.
It's odd to me that more jrpg developers didn't flock to the Wii. The thing was inexpensive to develop for and had a huge install base. Missed opportunity.
Cause the Wii was seen as a low cost cash grab console by Game Developer. I remember back then that the Wii got a lot of attention by non gamer especialy by the eldery people that loved the Wii Remote for its Motion Control to play Wii Sports thats why you have alot of low budget cash grab games on the Wii and with that i mean ALOT. The numbers proved them right as games actualy designed for gamers like Muramasa or Pandoras Tower didnt sold as well as for example Just Dance or the other Party Minigames trash games (especialy Ubisoft made alot of money with low budget cash grab games in the Wii era(Rabbits for example)). That discouraged alot of Developer to create some serious games for the Wii and they stayed with XBOX and PS as the "hardcore gamer" consoles.
@@Olpyhon That's not true, the DS also was seen as a low-cost cashgrab but it had many JRPGs developed for. The Wii was seen as casual console (which is true since most ppl bought it for Wii sports), hence why many JRPG devs didn't bother developing games for it.
Omg I remember playing this! The VAs was questionable but overall I really enjoyed it! I really hope this game gets remastered or something on the switch someday
Interesting that you note the game's complexity and difficulty. I've played through it three times over the years since release and I don't recall those things standing out to me. Then again, I like that kind of complexity and I also tend to run over-leveled in RPGs. Nice to see the game get some attention, though. Deeply flawed as it is, I still love it for having been an actual turn-based JRPG at a time when everyone was acting like that style of JRPG was dead and gone, for the better, by both devs and gamers alike. So glad the style has made a comeback!
@@SuperDerek It is super fantastic! Feels like the studio of an adventurer and the cabin of a pirate-explorer combinated! Your videos keep getting better and so your production value; amazing!
This is a game I've always wanted to give a try. I still hope to someday. I love the art direction as well as the music, and the combat sounds really fun.
Arc Rise Fantasia reminds me a lot of Grandia 3. Great game play, mediocre story and character development. But, just like with Grandia 3, I was still compelled to play on and finish (twice) and consider this a great game (and Grandia 3 too). Not every game has to be a classic or a masterpiece, it just has to entertain and this certainly did for me.
Just finished this game for the first time and I genuinely loved it. The challenge, the music, the characters, the weapon system, the world map.....So much of it was solid. Easily stands with the golden age RPGs of the SNES/PS1 era.
One of my favourite modern JRPGs in spite of the laughably bad voice work. I must of had Stockholm syndrome by the time I finished it, because I eventually enjoyed the voice work by late game. Man, some of those boss battles were a great challenge though. So sick of games that are too easy. The weapon and magic systems were fun to work with and weren't tedious like so many games and they left out the insane crafting nonsense that plagues so many games. Also, that music. Needs a sequel! We need to know what happened at the end!
By the end, I was definitely numb to the voice acting. Except Niko was always jarring. Once you get past the rough parts, there's some solid gameplay to enjoy! :)
OddRocker Ristyo it was back in the day, the fact that the game got an official localisation was a miracle in itself! Then when it got released only in UK, Wii was at the end of it’s life time.
@@roxarioerebus4679 No it wasn't. Did you forget how massively viral project rainfall got. The reason these game almost didn't got released is because Nintendo just figured"oh the West doesn't care about RPGs" Honestly if we're talking about underrated Wii jrpgs how about some love for The Last Story aka the real Final Fantasy XIII
OddRocker Ristyo i’m not mentioning a whole list of games. I just mentioned the one’s that i played and enjoyed. I did not play the last story yet, which is why i won’t talk about it.
Wow! Your game dungeon has reached new levels of maximum comfy! Looks incredible. You sum up thoughts well and don't bog the video down with too many spoilers. Fantastic review. You should check out the Arc the Lad series someday. Playing through the second and I'm curious to know your thoughts.
Solid review. The combat system in this game is phenomenal and has some of the most engaging bossfights in any JRPG I've ever played. You really need to be on top of your shit to beat some of these fights and coming out on top gives such a sense of satisfaction. I played the undub and as long as you keep in the back of your mind that your party members will call out powerful attacks, it wasn't too hard for me to realize when they were calling that out despite not speaking japanese. "When they say something that makes them sound like they have an anime sweat bead, have your entire party block' usually got me through it. The spell effects and summons are also really gorgeous on Arc Rise Fantasia.
Arc rise fantasia is phenominal. I have played it at least once a year since i first bought it 11 years ago. The voice acting is not good but getting sick of people claiming they hate the game just because of that. This is actually my 2nd favourite game of all time and my favourite jrpg ever. Let's also note the OST. Wow!!
updated opening spinning coin thingey, Spinning game review case on cool little circular thingey, I see what your doing super dereck! I like it. keep it up :D
One of my top 10 games of all time. It's huge and has a lot of content. Because I live in Europe, I had to import this game and american wii so I can play it. It has never been localized here.
The credits list four people under "Scenario," so those are clearly the ones who wrote the script. Among them, Takumi Miyajima is also credited as the scenario supervisor, so I think it's safe to assume the story is primarily his brainchild. He was the writer of Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss.
In this game I really liked how you could control positioning (and how it mattered) and that boss fights were actually fun and challenging. My only regret is taking a break and not finishing the postgame dungeon.
Really enjoyed this review! I haven't tuned into your reviews since some of your earlier ones and I think it's awesome to see the improvement in production quality! Great work! You've really sold me on Arc Rise Fantasia if only for its combat! I remember really wanting to play it when I was a pre-teen but ultimately decided not to ask for it for Christmas because the review scores on amazon were very mixed. Now that I'm older I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate it in all its rough glory :)
What also made this game really tough is the fact that when you rest at an inn your magic doesn't get restored only restored with magical up items and you cannot buy them you have to steal them or find them in the chest the showing you just how overpowered the magic is in that game
@@roasttoast154 i played it all the time as a kid. It would be really cool to see that kind of combat system somewhere. Same whit grandia love that combat, thou Trails of cold steel has pretty similiar system to that.
Spectrobes Origins is a standout on the wii, though without any proper marketing by Disney Interactive, it went largely ignored and quickly forgotten. That's an absolute shame. It's very polished, unique and enjoyable. Its a shame the devs, Genki, only ever made the Jade Cocoon games and Spectrobes on Wii (not even the DS ones) - they could really crank out a nice RPG when they were given a shot. Anyway, nice to see you tackling Wii RPGs in general starting, with ArcRise. There really _isn't_ much on the platform, but it's got Last Story so it doesn't need much more ;) The important thing is there's some gems to be uncovered and games like ARF here that deserve some defending, so it's cool to see you be the man to do it! Show off that Wii RPG library, Derek!
Nice review...I picked this game up long ago in the discount bin at best buy but never got around to playing it...seemed to be trend with my Wii collection..I'll have to give it a go
One thing I noticed at the start of that generation of systems just how few jrpgs were being released even on the PS3 it took about 4 years for many to start coming out and ironically up until that point the Xbox 360 had the majority of them and by that point the Wii was entering its final year or so and despite its popularity few Japanese publishers were interested in investing resources in releasing any jrpgs since it too many years to get just one out by that point.
Definitely a hidden gem (expensive too last I saw) and one of my favorite RPGs. As for the voice acting....your mileage may vary. I've heard worse(chaos wars) but its up to the players. (some VA's was better than others) Absolutely love the combat. The pacing of newer mechanics is done rather well cause they give you enough time to use it before giving you another one to stack on top. Good review though! Always glad to see more reviews for this game pop up.
Every few months I come back to thinking about this game... now that I don't have a Wii or a copy of the game I remember that for some reason I loved it, but could never finish it because of how you could fail some boss fight ala Tales of Symphonia DoTNW. Now I just want a chance to beat it but that day may never come since it will probably never get a port.
This was the game that got me into gaming TH-cam. I wanted to find a review but IGN didn't have one so I Google'd "Arc Rise Fantasia review" and I found a pretty funny review from the WiiViewr. It was all down hill from there
I contend It is not a medieval setting; it's Early Modern. The army's uniforms (and guns) are definitely more 3 Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo than King Arthur. Yes History buffs acknowledge that it's akward that what commonly is called the Modern era isn't the present (2020). Post Scriptum: this was the second game that I realized said historical era in video games. The first was the Deception series.
I just started playing but already like it, it seems a bit generic jrpg at first sight ,but as soon as you move a little further, it becomes clear that not everything is as bad as it might seem, it is very similar to Tales, and the Japanese voice acting is simply gorgeous.
Imagine if N64 wasn't a barren waste land. I would of loved to have gotten that graphic style in piles and piles of games, or piles and piles of innovative titles for WiiU. Thankfully we did get piles and piles of greatness on Wii
I remember buying this game from my old local gamestop in South Carolina. The store leader know JRPGS were my thing and said it looked like my kind of thing....also it was there only copy so he even gave me the pre order thing. (Cuz the guy never showed up) and the small marketing post card for the game on his computer. I do like the game but yeah it is hard also......"MR. L'ARK!! MR.L'ARK!!" (Yelled in Nikos voice) lol
12:57 okay but that isn’t the players fault there’s no save cube in front of the boss it’s so stupid. i died like 10 times there bc i was young and dumb 😭
This game is amazing. I don’t remember the bad voice acting as much I just remember the cool costumes you got. It reminds me of a tales game. I thought it was kind of cool. I still have it. I bet if I want to put it in my WiiU the voice acting would probably be bad.
This game is very good but if you do play it get ready to spam that fast forward button because during the mid and late game bosses are going to make you feel like you have to reset as they will do certain actions that make you want to punch your screen
this is one of the very few obscure games i regularly think back on. i don't even remember much of it, other than ryfia is adorably cute. i think that's all it takes for me to care about a game. a bit of cuteness! would make sense since i don't even buy a game nowadays if there's no cuteness in it :O no dark souls but code vein. no monster hunter but god eater. make it cute and i buy it. make it all dark and depressing and i can't even play it if you gift it to me. welp. i'm all about glitter and sparkles i guess!
Yo Derek. Ever play Radiata Stories on the PS2? It's a very charming action RPG by tri-Ace made in 2005. Kind of a flop here but it was successful in Japan.
I don't remember the game play mechanics being difficult to learn. I finished this game years ago when I was a complete noob at jrpgs. The bosses are hard though. But the main story took me about 50-60 hours to complete. 70-80 for the secret dragon boss and the secret cameo team battle. Even though I have beaten more jrpgs since then. I should go and replay this just to see how difficult it was.
Huh, not sure why I missed this video in my Queue. From the brief amount of your streams I was able to catch, this game definitely seemed rough around the edges (and maybe a bit of a slog). I think I can now safely say that this is not a game for me, but it definitely has some interesting ideas/mechanics. Also damn, your gameroom/set is starting look REAL nice!
Great review! Eventually it was the complex combat and ridiculous difficulty that ground me to a halt. Being a pretty bad JRPG and WRPG player I simply got to the point that I couldn't progress. But I loved it's art style and character design. Particularly because it uses full sized character models. I dislike chibi characters in games in general. I need to dive into it again and see if I can somehow come to grips with the combat.
Having to walk back to the boss fights is probably one of the worst parts of the game. RE-playing it on dolphin emulator let me load a save state which was a hell of a lot better.
Save state is a godsend feature. I couldn't beat Megaman games (except Megaman 8 and Powered Up that I played eon ago), with save states I can finally make progress on X series.
The battle system is really good and if they explained it a bit more early on it wpuld be good, i feel that the first boss fight is definitely a little too much if your new to more complex rpgs, even for me which has played the beginning of the game loads of times and know all the little tricks can die, it needs a little grind in the start to get through smoothly
I’m late but is this a good rpg for someone who isn’t a big fan of the genre? The restarting dungeons aspect sounds daunting but the combat system sounds like it might hold my attention.
This definitely isn't what I'd call an entry level game. For something more similar though, maybe look into Tales of Arise? Its a bit more welcoming and polished, generally speaking. :)
Possible answer 1: Local tavern poltergeist Possible answer 2: I accidentally knocked it by accident while scooching behind the workbench to record that segment Possible answer 3: A highly localized geological phenomena caused my lamp to resonate with a nearby low-frequency lay-line
Well thanks a bunch for checking out my channel Clay! And thanks for watching! Naticus is a really cool dude, isn't he? Best not say that too loud though, don't want it going to his head! xD
It's obviously a plainly rough gem, In all seriousness it took me a while to really get into the game, but once it hit, man...I had a hard time putting the wiimote down. And damn, that soundtrack, not to mention the character designs.
Someone hasn't played Nocturne judging by the list of games that could cause rage quitting. Heh. It's a shame it never got a port. I love turn based games and would have liked to give it a shot.
Correct! I want to play through mainline eventually, but last time I tried I got so many music claims I figured a review would never see the light of day. Might just have to dive into the upcoming Nocturne remake and cut my losses with the first 3 SMT titles (SMT1, SMT2, and SMT If...)
Never knew about this game. Sounds like a mix of Children of Mana and the Trails games, or maybe Xenosaga. I did play Luminous Arc, and rather liked it. I was kinda miffed when they didn't localize the third one. The story was pretty meh, though. So it seems like that trend continues here. It does sound like a game I might enjoy, though. If I ever get enough free time to check it out.
Nah, I said I can only think of a handful of standouts off the top of my head, which mainly include games from operation rainfall. Trust me, I know about Xenoblade! xD
Closing thoughts:
1. I think if there was a partial-undub of the game, leaving the battle voices in English (so you get those warnings of incoming mega attacks,) and everything outside of combat in Japanese would make this game a lot easier to recommend. If anyone makes this partial undub and sends me a link I'll post it here in the future.
2. Emulate at a higher resolution for the best visual experience.
3. The gameplay is a solid challenge and lots of fun. If you're looking for a "hidden gem" this is it. But it IS a rough gem, so be aware of that going into it.
Do they speak a lot of other stuff during combat? Because usually with stuff like that, you usually get the pattern of the spoken words after a while, right?
Yeah, there's actually quite a lot of battle banter that gets spoken each time you're selecting attacks for a character. Each character of the 10 or so playable characters might say something like, "This doesn't look good!" or "I smell something fishy" etc as a warning, in addition to a dozen or so other lines. And apparently in the undub, each of the characters actually had a couple of different warning phrases, so it might be tough to pick up on the pattern, especially since they only happen during boss fights. And those attacks will usually wipe your party out in a single move unless you're already defending.
Oh, I thought it was just a warning. If they banter during the fight, it would be pretty hard to notice the warning :/
Maybe adding subtitles to the fights would be a more feasible alternative?
Hi Derek, are you using an upscaler when you play this or is it PC emulation? Thanks!
Hey @Goavsgo, I played this on a WiiU using HDMI output in 1080p, then upscaled to 4k. If I were to do this again though I would have played it in 480p over HDMI instead, and upscaled that to 4K for an even better picture. :)
This is one game that I absolutely loved. The dev. team grabbed at anything they thought was cool, gave it a surreal 'Tales of' feeling in character interaction and world exploration, and then chucked new battle concepts at you even when you're 70% through the game to keep you on your toes. A.R.F. *never* got dull from start to finish, and few JRPGs have pulled that off.
+Sure, the story is pretty predictable (especially if you've played any Tales game like Vesperia), though there *will* be moments that you will not see coming, and other moments that'll hit you like a train wreck, and it's also a very entertaining story to experience.
+The voice acting is occasionally piss-poor and occasionally exceptional, but even Niko will grow on you if you let him - Niko is the most annoyingly voiced character in the game bar none, but after awhile I found that I _couldn't_ imagine him voiced any other way - it just _fits_ somehow as the ultimate try-hard dork that actually becomes a friggan powerhouse to go along with his top-tier turn speed. Other VAs, like for L'Arc & Ryfia, actually improve as the game progresses, as though it took the actors a bit to get into the groove or something.
+Weapon customization is shockingly deep especially in late-game, as is the magic customization system. I mean, seriously, Tetris as a weapon customization? More JRPGs need to do this!
+Bosses are a straight-up threat, unlike MANY JRPG bosses, and the optional bosses will utterly _brutalize you_ if you go in under-prepared in _any_ way. The game goes out of its way to give you the tools you need to succeed, but it's up to you as the player to take advantage of it. Even some normal random encounters can do horrible, horrible things to you if you get sloppy. A.R.F. is NOT "noob" friendly - this is a game designed for those who know JRPGs.
+The battle system never stops getting deeper, but never so fast you feel overwhelmed but not so slowly you get bored - and it keeps becoming more intricate even when you're almost 3/4 of the way through the game! Just take your time, read the explanations, and you'll never feel like you're out of your depth (this title has one of the most intricate JRPG battle systems by end game that I've ever played - and I've played upwards of a _thousand_ JRPGs).
+Oh, and the fights load _fast._ Remember when load times were a thing? This game pretty well beat it. On the _Wii._
+Music is a straight-up joy with songs that will remind you of everything from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics to Kingdom Hearts. There's at least five different battle pieces that I recall (I think - been awhile), and nearly every song is "catchy as hell". Mitsuda did a marvelous job here.
+The graphics are some of the best on the Wii (shocking, I know - a JRPG? From a non-AAA studio? Or Nintendo directly?!), and looks even better on the Wii U - though emulating on a decent rig (which I don't own) via Dolphin looks best. The level of detail paid to everything in the game is astonishing for a Wii game, and the special effects are amazing for the system. The art direction, too, is top notch.
+The game controls like a dream with no "waggle" in sight; just grab your favorite controller (Wiimote & Chuck, Game Cube Controller, Classic Controller) and play!
+The world is bloody HUGE, with easy-to-miss secrets EVERYWHERE. And thanks to enemies being visible on the overworld you never feel stressed about getting off the "beaten track" as it were.
+Side quests (aka Guild Quests). Not nearly as many (or often as mind-numbing) as Xenoblade's (another game I love), but you're almost never left wondering what the heck you're supposed to do, and the rewards for successful completion are usually worth the effort. Especially as the main game is pretty linear, so doing these helps break that up some. You also get Tales of-like arena battles, Dragon quest-like casinos, and a really weird...mascot racing games that's _nothing_ like Final Fantasy VII...
+Like I mentioned earlier the character interaction & world exploration feels a LOT like an early 'Tales of' title, what with story beats, character personalities, character interactions/skits, optional costumes (that sadly *don't* appear outside cut scenes - sorry Bikini lovers!), and the general world exploration and enemy encounters (again, especially if you've played Tales of Vesperia - the most recent Tales game at the time of this games' release in 2010).
+The only other significant issue with ARF (beyond that unfortunate acronym, the sometimes mediocre writing, and the unbalanced voice acting quality), is that this game borrows from so many other games & media that one can't help BUT to compare it to those it borrows from. I half expected to get into ship-on-ship battles like in Skies of Arcadia at some point as the game progressed, and was mildly disappointed when that didn't actually happen. The other downside, for me personally, is that due to my taking certain classes in University (I won't say which to avoid potential spoilers), I was able to guess pretty accurately early-on where the story was going to end-up. Yet it didn't diminish the experience in any way.
If one can look past the occasionally awkward writing and can survive the voice acting for the first few hours (or however long enough to get used to it), one will find a genuinely fantastic-yet-slightly-flawed not-so-hidden gem. That as of this comment runs for about $90 used on Amazon. I got it used at Game Stop in 2013 for $20, and it came with the game (of course), original box & cover, manual, AND the character cards.
Arc Rise Fantasia is my favorite game of all time. This RPG means so much to me, and I absolutely adore the world building and characters in it.
Rough hidden gems are the best hidden gems. That's where you find the truly unique and overlooked games. Ones where the many flaws are outshined by the unique, creative elements.
RIP Imageepoch. Happy to see Ryoie Mikage at least is trying to continue his work now (After having gone missing for a number of years) at Mikage LLC. Lets hope he can get that company swinging so we can get back to more interesting titles like this one.
didn't expect you here, I wonder why you didnt get around to talk about this gem, as you seem to be familiar with Image Epoch, and I'd like your spin on this game :)
@@Evilriku13 Time. The issue is always time haha. Hard to make much time to go back and talk about some older games when I'm struggling to keep up with just a handful of the new ones.
When I first played this game, I had heard about the critique of the terrible voice acting already and thought I was prepared for it.
“I grew up with video game voice acting from the 90’s, it can’t be that bad. I’ll be fine.” ...or so I thought.
Oh how I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
easiest way to get shard for elemental gems is destroying the elemental pillars (forgot the name) in combat with a chance for it to drop. best way to go through it is having leslie or niko shoot it while having others killing off mobs or use up spell slots if an enemy is within range of it
edit: as a side note, I still remember that every time I replay this game, I end up dying to dynos cause of his infinite undead spam cause I somehow forget about that XD
Didn't realize I needed a SuperDerekrpg review until I started watching. Definitely was the best way to start the day 🤙
I absolutely LOVE this game, for all its frustrating deaths (and trying to figure out the upgrade system), it just felt so fresh at the time, but it also really had the "vibe" of classic PS2-era RPGs. I think it suffered coming out in the RPG Dark Age of the late 2000s/early 2010s.
If this game every does get that miracle modern console rerelease, I really hope XSEED gets a chance to re-localize it. I would buy again right away
One day I'll finish this game. I've started it 3 times. For some reason at the 30 hours mark I just trail off. (I suspect is the lack of a couch to play it on.) It's battle system is so great and nice.
Anytime I hear Arc Rise Fantasia after 2010, I *WAKE*
Playing it right now, it's a good game once you get over the voice acting. Enjoying the weapon system and the turn based battles with it's AP and force skills.
Whats wrong with the voice acting? It sounded fine to me.
It's odd to me that more jrpg developers didn't flock to the Wii. The thing was inexpensive to develop for and had a huge install base. Missed opportunity.
Cause the Wii was seen as a low cost cash grab console by Game Developer.
I remember back then that the Wii got a lot of attention by non gamer especialy by the eldery people that loved the Wii Remote for its Motion Control to play Wii Sports thats why you have alot of low budget cash grab games on the Wii and with that i mean ALOT.
The numbers proved them right as games actualy designed for gamers like Muramasa or Pandoras Tower didnt sold as well as for example Just Dance or the other Party Minigames trash games (especialy Ubisoft made alot of money with low budget cash grab games in the Wii era(Rabbits for example)). That discouraged alot of Developer to create some serious games for the Wii and they stayed with XBOX and PS as the "hardcore gamer" consoles.
@@Olpyhon That's not true, the DS also was seen as a low-cost cashgrab but it had many JRPGs developed for.
The Wii was seen as casual console (which is true since most ppl bought it for Wii sports), hence why many JRPG devs didn't bother developing games for it.
Omg I remember playing this! The VAs was questionable but overall I really enjoyed it! I really hope this game gets remastered or something on the switch someday
Interesting that you note the game's complexity and difficulty. I've played through it three times over the years since release and I don't recall those things standing out to me. Then again, I like that kind of complexity and I also tend to run over-leveled in RPGs.
Nice to see the game get some attention, though. Deeply flawed as it is, I still love it for having been an actual turn-based JRPG at a time when everyone was acting like that style of JRPG was dead and gone, for the better, by both devs and gamers alike. So glad the style has made a comeback!
Love the set and the intro. Hope this becomes the new standard. Keep up the awesome content, you are my JRPG guru!
That's my plan! :)
Agreed, no one is a better JRPG master than SuperDerek
Your set looks amazing!
Thanks man! Been working hard on getting it just right! :)
I was about the say the same thing. Wow!
@@SuperDerek It is super fantastic! Feels like the studio of an adventurer and the cabin of a pirate-explorer combinated! Your videos keep getting better and so your production value; amazing!
This is a game I've always wanted to give a try. I still hope to someday. I love the art direction as well as the music, and the combat sounds really fun.
This game is awesome I love this game
one of those rare occasions where i prefer the 3d models over the 2d character art
Hey Derek, Sakura Wars: So long, my love for Wii is pretty cool. It would be good to see if it's worth of the game collection
True. A great JRPG
Yup
Arc Rise Fantasia reminds me a lot of Grandia 3. Great game play, mediocre story and character development. But, just like with Grandia 3, I was still compelled to play on and finish (twice) and consider this a great game (and Grandia 3 too). Not every game has to be a classic or a masterpiece, it just has to entertain and this certainly did for me.
Arc rise Fantasia was great.
Haha: playing quest 64 to get through the barren n64 times. 👌 kudos from belgium
I didn't think Orge Battle 64 was that bad lol
Excellent production quality! Absolutely top notch writing and delivery.
Thank you, dude! :D
Just finished this game for the first time and I genuinely loved it. The challenge, the music, the characters, the weapon system, the world map.....So much of it was solid. Easily stands with the golden age RPGs of the SNES/PS1 era.
I always look forward to your reviews and I am never disappointed. Great job as always Derek.
Thanks Billy! :)
One of my favourite modern JRPGs in spite of the laughably bad voice work. I must of had Stockholm syndrome by the time I finished it, because I eventually enjoyed the voice work by late game. Man, some of those boss battles were a great challenge though. So sick of games that are too easy. The weapon and magic systems were fun to work with and weren't tedious like so many games and they left out the insane crafting nonsense that plagues so many games. Also, that music.
Needs a sequel! We need to know what happened at the end!
By the end, I was definitely numb to the voice acting. Except Niko was always jarring. Once you get past the rough parts, there's some solid gameplay to enjoy! :)
This game is one of Wii's hidden gems along with Xenoblade Chronicles and Zack & Wiki.
Had so much fun with em .
There's also Zangeki no Reginleiv, Opoona, Pandora's tower.
Oh so Xenoblade is considered hidden gem huh?
OddRocker Ristyo it was back in the day, the fact that the game got an official localisation was a miracle in itself! Then when it got released only in UK, Wii was at the end of it’s life time.
@@roxarioerebus4679
No it wasn't.
Did you forget how massively viral project rainfall got.
The reason these game almost didn't got released is because Nintendo just figured"oh the West doesn't care about RPGs"
Honestly if we're talking about underrated Wii jrpgs how about some love for The Last Story aka the real Final Fantasy XIII
OddRocker Ristyo i’m not mentioning a whole list of games. I just mentioned the one’s that i played and enjoyed. I did not play the last story yet, which is why i won’t talk about it.
Wow! Your game dungeon has reached new levels of maximum comfy! Looks incredible. You sum up thoughts well and don't bog the video down with too many spoilers. Fantastic review. You should check out the Arc the Lad series someday. Playing through the second and I'm curious to know your thoughts.
I'll second that recommendation- Arc the Lad Collection on the PS1 is quite good, specifically Arc the Lad 2.
Solid review. The combat system in this game is phenomenal and has some of the most engaging bossfights in any JRPG I've ever played. You really need to be on top of your shit to beat some of these fights and coming out on top gives such a sense of satisfaction.
I played the undub and as long as you keep in the back of your mind that your party members will call out powerful attacks, it wasn't too hard for me to realize when they were calling that out despite not speaking japanese. "When they say something that makes them sound like they have an anime sweat bead, have your entire party block' usually got me through it.
The spell effects and summons are also really gorgeous on Arc Rise Fantasia.
This games combat is amazing. Very few games give me this complete love of micromanagement, kind of reminds me the joy I got for Tales of Graces.
Surprisingly..I really enjoyed this game entirely with zero boring moment for me with many unique aspects
Arc rise fantasia is phenominal. I have played it at least once a year since i first bought it 11 years ago. The voice acting is not good but getting sick of people claiming they hate the game just because of that. This is actually my 2nd favourite game of all time and my favourite jrpg ever. Let's also note the OST. Wow!!
updated opening spinning coin thingey, Spinning game review case on cool little circular thingey, I see what your doing super dereck! I like it. keep it up :D
This channel is underappreciated
Thanks man!
One of my top 10 games of all time. It's huge and has a lot of content. Because I live in Europe, I had to import this game and american wii so I can play it. It has never been localized here.
This review is so good and detailed! Such a hidden gem 💎 please do more :)
I'm glad your enjoyed the review! Thanks for watching! :)
The credits list four people under "Scenario," so those are clearly the ones who wrote the script. Among them, Takumi Miyajima is also credited as the scenario supervisor, so I think it's safe to assume the story is primarily his brainchild. He was the writer of Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss.
In this game I really liked how you could control positioning (and how it mattered) and that boss fights were actually fun and challenging. My only regret is taking a break and not finishing the postgame dungeon.
Really enjoyed this review! I haven't tuned into your reviews since some of your earlier ones and I think it's awesome to see the improvement in production quality! Great work! You've really sold me on Arc Rise Fantasia if only for its combat! I remember really wanting to play it when I was a pre-teen but ultimately decided not to ask for it for Christmas because the review scores on amazon were very mixed. Now that I'm older I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate it in all its rough glory :)
Thanks so much! This is my 93rd RPG review, so I've had a bit more practice since the earlier days. I'm really glad it shows!
Beautiful and classy set, Derek. Nice look back at ARF too, which I hardly knew anything about. This video convinced me to subscribe.
What also made this game really tough is the fact that when you rest at an inn your magic doesn't get restored only restored with magical up items and you cannot buy them you have to steal them or find them in the chest the showing you just how overpowered the magic is in that game
Hey, could you review Infinite Undiscovery?
Derek have you ever played jrpg called Legaia 2: Duel saga i think you would find combat in that interesting.
That game had a really innovative turn-based combat system with directional inputs and combos (and a great crafting/accessory system)!
@@roasttoast154 i played it all the time as a kid. It would be really cool to see that kind of combat system somewhere. Same whit grandia love that combat, thou Trails of cold steel has pretty similiar system to that.
You don't need the English dub for the enemy warnings. It's in the cards. The color of the cards
Spectrobes Origins is a standout on the wii, though without any proper marketing by Disney Interactive, it went largely ignored and quickly forgotten. That's an absolute shame. It's very polished, unique and enjoyable. Its a shame the devs, Genki, only ever made the Jade Cocoon games and Spectrobes on Wii (not even the DS ones) - they could really crank out a nice RPG when they were given a shot.
Anyway, nice to see you tackling Wii RPGs in general starting, with ArcRise. There really _isn't_ much on the platform, but it's got Last Story so it doesn't need much more ;) The important thing is there's some gems to be uncovered and games like ARF here that deserve some defending, so it's cool to see you be the man to do it! Show off that Wii RPG library, Derek!
My favourite game of all time. Played it at least once a year since i have bought it.
Nice review...I picked this game up long ago in the discount bin at best buy but never got around to playing it...seemed to be trend with my Wii collection..I'll have to give it a go
One of my favourite game JRPG still want play again if have time
One thing I noticed at the start of that generation of systems just how few jrpgs were being released even on the PS3 it took about 4 years for many to start coming out and ironically up until that point the Xbox 360 had the majority of them and by that point the Wii was entering its final year or so and despite its popularity few Japanese publishers were interested in investing resources in releasing any jrpgs since it too many years to get just one out by that point.
Great review, and love the nautical theme of your review room!
Definitely a hidden gem (expensive too last I saw) and one of my favorite RPGs.
As for the voice acting....your mileage may vary. I've heard worse(chaos wars) but its up to the players. (some VA's was better than others)
Absolutely love the combat. The pacing of newer mechanics is done rather well cause they give you enough time to use it before giving you another one to stack on top.
Good review though! Always glad to see more reviews for this game pop up.
Every few months I come back to thinking about this game... now that I don't have a Wii or a copy of the game I remember that for some reason I loved it, but could never finish it because of how you could fail some boss fight ala Tales of Symphonia DoTNW. Now I just want a chance to beat it but that day may never come since it will probably never get a port.
This was the game that got me into gaming TH-cam. I wanted to find a review but IGN didn't have one so I Google'd "Arc Rise Fantasia review" and I found a pretty funny review from the WiiViewr. It was all down hill from there
I contend It is not a medieval setting; it's Early Modern. The army's uniforms (and guns) are definitely more 3 Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo than King Arthur. Yes History buffs acknowledge that it's akward that what commonly is called the Modern era isn't the present (2020).
Post Scriptum: this was the second game that I realized said historical era in video games. The first was the Deception series.
I just started playing but already like it, it seems a bit generic jrpg at first sight ,but as soon as you move a little further, it becomes clear that not everything is as bad as it might seem, it is very similar to Tales, and the Japanese voice acting is simply gorgeous.
Imagine if N64 wasn't a barren waste land. I would of loved to have gotten that graphic style in piles and piles of games, or piles and piles of innovative titles for WiiU. Thankfully we did get piles and piles of greatness on Wii
I remember buying this game from my old local gamestop in South Carolina. The store leader know JRPGS were my thing and said it looked like my kind of thing....also it was there only copy so he even gave me the pre order thing. (Cuz the guy never showed up) and the small marketing post card for the game on his computer. I do like the game but yeah it is hard also......"MR. L'ARK!! MR.L'ARK!!" (Yelled in Nikos voice) lol
Love that "HAHAHAHAHAhehehe" Niko does after his ultimate attack xD
@@SuperDerek I honestly thought everyone's voice acting got better throughout the game. Nikos voice just got on my nerves.
Yeah, I'm not sure if it got better, or if I just became more numb to it... Maybe both. But Niko never got any less jarring, I think.
12:57 okay but that isn’t the players fault there’s no save cube in front of the boss it’s so stupid. i died like 10 times there bc i was young and dumb 😭
This game is amazing. I don’t remember the bad voice acting as much I just remember the cool costumes you got. It reminds me of a tales game. I thought it was kind of cool. I still have it. I bet if I want to put it in my WiiU the voice acting would probably be bad.
Is Tartaria Indicated on that big map ofyours behind you ? :P DIVA= could also be a reference to the DEVA'S
Can it be played using the Wii's classic controller pro?
Yes
Yes and Gamecube Too
This game is very good but if you do play it get ready to spam that fast forward button because during the mid and late game bosses are going to make you feel like you have to reset as they will do certain actions that make you want to punch your screen
Great video my man
I remember playing this game when it first came out I love arc rise fantasia
this is one of the very few obscure games i regularly think back on.
i don't even remember much of it, other than ryfia is adorably cute. i think that's all it takes for me to care about a game.
a bit of cuteness! would make sense since i don't even buy a game nowadays if there's no cuteness in it :O
no dark souls but code vein. no monster hunter but god eater.
make it cute and i buy it. make it all dark and depressing and i can't even play it if you gift it to me.
welp. i'm all about glitter and sparkles i guess!
Yo Derek. Ever play Radiata Stories on the PS2? It's a very charming action RPG by tri-Ace made in 2005. Kind of a flop here but it was successful in Japan.
I don't remember the game play mechanics being difficult to learn. I finished this game years ago when I was a complete noob at jrpgs. The bosses are hard though. But the main story took me about 50-60 hours to complete. 70-80 for the secret dragon boss and the secret cameo team battle.
Even though I have beaten more jrpgs since then. I should go and replay this just to see how difficult it was.
Lookin good Derek!
When are we going to get a port or remaster if this game? Seriously!!!
Great review buddy!
This was an Amazing game and needs a remake.
Huh, not sure why I missed this video in my Queue. From the brief amount of your streams I was able to catch, this game definitely seemed rough around the edges (and maybe a bit of a slog). I think I can now safely say that this is not a game for me, but it definitely has some interesting ideas/mechanics. Also damn, your gameroom/set is starting look REAL nice!
Great review!
Eventually it was the complex combat and ridiculous difficulty that ground me to a halt.
Being a pretty bad JRPG and WRPG player I simply got to the point that I couldn't progress.
But I loved it's art style and character design. Particularly because it uses full sized character models. I dislike chibi characters in games in general.
I need to dive into it again and see if I can somehow come to grips with the combat.
I remember playing this game on my Wii. But I cannot finish it because some bug got me stuck midway of the story and I could not continue the game.
Having to walk back to the boss fights is probably one of the worst parts of the game. RE-playing it on dolphin emulator let me load a save state which was a hell of a lot better.
Save state is a godsend feature. I couldn't beat Megaman games (except Megaman 8 and Powered Up that I played eon ago), with save states I can finally make progress on X series.
The battle system is really good and if they explained it a bit more early on it wpuld be good, i feel that the first boss fight is definitely a little too much if your new to more complex rpgs, even for me which has played the beginning of the game loads of times and know all the little tricks can die, it needs a little grind in the start to get through smoothly
Arc Rise Fantasia is really graphically impressive game for the Wii, shame the total package is a mixed bag.
Its still worth playing
It's worth playing
Whoaaa the setting became incredibly comfy, you should rebrand as the RPGTherapist!
The undub on emulator is worth it. Love this game quite a lot. Probably my second favorite on Wii after Fragile Dreams.
Just picked up Fragile Dreams recently, and plan to cover it in 2021 :)
I didn't even form a single gem through gem shards, throughout my 200h play through
Yep. Those really should have been far more common to find. >.
I’m late but is this a good rpg for someone who isn’t a big fan of the genre? The restarting dungeons aspect sounds daunting but the combat system sounds like it might hold my attention.
This definitely isn't what I'd call an entry level game. For something more similar though, maybe look into Tales of Arise? Its a bit more welcoming and polished, generally speaking. :)
Have you ever played Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers for the Wii. It is a fun but short Action RPG. It is Final Fantasy meets Zelda in some ways.
Nice Hair Derek!
Hey Sups!
What's with the spooky lamp on minute 17:50?
Possible answer 1: Local tavern poltergeist
Possible answer 2: I accidentally knocked it by accident while scooching behind the workbench to record that segment
Possible answer 3: A highly localized geological phenomena caused my lamp to resonate with a nearby low-frequency lay-line
Nice review! My buddy Naticus suggested I check you out. He has good tastes ;)
Well thanks a bunch for checking out my channel Clay! And thanks for watching! Naticus is a really cool dude, isn't he? Best not say that too loud though, don't want it going to his head! xD
@@SuperDerek You get it. You def get it with him LOL I am gonna check out some of your other reviews. I love me some JRPG goodness ;)
I can possibly seeing this game getting a port remaster i mean if it happened with xenoblade and tales of vesperia, it will happen to this to.
Definitely a game you wanna play with voices off
It's obviously a plainly rough gem,
In all seriousness it took me a while to really get into the game, but once it hit, man...I had a hard time putting the wiimote down.
And damn, that soundtrack, not to mention the character designs.
Someone hasn't played Nocturne judging by the list of games that could cause rage quitting. Heh. It's a shame it never got a port. I love turn based games and would have liked to give it a shot.
Correct! I want to play through mainline eventually, but last time I tried I got so many music claims I figured a review would never see the light of day. Might just have to dive into the upcoming Nocturne remake and cut my losses with the first 3 SMT titles (SMT1, SMT2, and SMT If...)
Playing Quest 64 just to survive hahaha. The N64 had no rpg cause the Sony Playstation stole ALL the rpgs from the snes.
Never knew about this game. Sounds like a mix of Children of Mana and the Trails games, or maybe Xenosaga. I did play Luminous Arc, and rather liked it. I was kinda miffed when they didn't localize the third one. The story was pretty meh, though. So it seems like that trend continues here. It does sound like a game I might enjoy, though. If I ever get enough free time to check it out.
Id check it out if i didnt have such a big back log already
Can't think of a RPG standout on the Wii? How about Xenoblade Chronicles? I also really enojoyed The Last Story.
Nah, I said I can only think of a handful of standouts off the top of my head, which mainly include games from operation rainfall. Trust me, I know about Xenoblade! xD
I was very excited for this game but after about 10 hours or so i was let down quite a bit. That localization was sooo bad.
This looks like I need to play it, unfortunately JRPGs for the Wii are pretty scare and decent ones to boot
Always wanted this but no PAL release oh well
Just hack your wii
If only Niko were alive to see this review...
NIKO NOOOOOOOOO
it was a game i wanted to play but never arrived in europe :(
Yup.......I played Quest 64 just to play an rpg
Those were some dark days, as an N64-only owner.
Nice review. "Merry band of narcissists" ha