Arc Rise Fantasia | 
| From: Ignition Entertainment Ltd
Category: Video Games
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $31.99
as of 9/10/2010 06:50 CDT details
You Save: $8.00 (20%)
New (15) Used (6) from $28.99
Seller: Gamebrain
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,296
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo Wii
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 400047
Model: 400047
UPC: 893384000472
EAN: 0893384000472
ASIN: B001NCARPW
Publication Date: June 30, 2010
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| 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 |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Arc Rise Fantasia, winner of the Best Wii RPG" from IGN at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2009, 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. Normal and Expert game modes ESRB Rated E for Everyone
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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 A Truly Refreshing Tribute to What JRPGs are SUPPOSED to be... and Bad Voice Acting July 28, 2010
Kyle Slayzar (Bismarck, ND)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
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-!
The killer app of the Wii, in terms of exclusive RPG's. August 3, 2010
Steven Bonner (Augusta, GA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This game is brilliant. Not full of cliche's, it's got everything a true RPG fan could ask for. Add it to your collection as it will probably go out of print soon, as most RPG's do.
Return to a Simpler Time August 5, 2010
Arek
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Arc Rise Fantasia is truly a return to the classic Role Playing game, the games I grew up with in the late 80's and early 90's. The game keeps being compared to the Tales of series, but after racking in close to 60 hours with the game from start to finish and even through the bonus dungeon I see very little in resemblance to the Tales of series. The game is overall charming and has a very nice story. For those that say the story is cliche they probably only played the first 4-5 hours of the game. The story has many twists and turns and for the longest time you don't know if the protagonist's party is representing that of good or evil. Besides a certain prince letting out a spoiler quite early in the game, that your main character is either too dense to realize or doesn't really care about until much later in the game. The story is about the God Eesa and the two lesser Gods Real and Imaginal. The side your protagonist L'Arc accepts early on is that of Imaginal in hopes of saving the world. If that was the full direction of the story then yes it would be cliched but that's only the beginning of this epic tale that involves betrayals, trust, and plot twists.
Game play: The game play is very akin to that of Skies of Arcadia. Differences are you can move your character around the battle field which will cost 1 action point or AP. The AP of your three battle characters are pooled together so say you want L'Arc to attack twice, Ryfia to do nothing and Alf to attack you can do this. Later in the game you gain the ability to chain attacks which would make having L'Arc attack twice to a combo instead of waiting for his second attack turn to come up. Likewise you can chain magic together with your three characters to perform supreme magic. Supreme magic also allows you to regain more AP per turn which allows you to do more actions in your next turn. There also are attacks called Excel attacks that use up your character's SP bar that is underneath their portrait in battle. Sp is used up in percentages anywhere from 25%-100% of your SP bar and can take up between 3-9 AP. Also about midway through the game you get the option to chain Excel attacks to create a Trinity attack. Trinity Attacks also have a bonus if you use high level excel attacks in that you will use an Excel Trinity attack. So the battle system can be very deep and gives you many options at your disposal.
Magic: Magic is broken into an Orb system and does have some limits in how many upgrades that can be made since magic upgrades use up DP. DP is limited, but if you want to change your character's magic up, but run out of DP you can reset the characters ORB and start from square one. MP is purchased from the workshop and hearkens back to the day of early RPG's like Wizardry in that you have spell levels and can have up to 9 points per spell level. There are four levels of Spells in ARF. To gain new levels for spells you can either find or repair higher level orbs or you can place 2 or more lower level orbs next to one another. In total you can have up to 5 orb slots so it would be possible to create level 4 spells with four level 1 Gems. Gems come in 4 elements plus there are combined elements. The four normal elements are Water/Fire/Wind/Earth. The combined elements are created by placing complimentary elements next to one another. Be warned though that placing opposing elements Fire/Water and Earth/Wind next to one another will reduce the level of both elemental spells.
Weapon system: The weapon system is unique in that weapons gain WP and also level up. Weapons themselves do not effect stats. Instead weapons hold skills and secret skills. The secret skill is unlocked by filling in your weapon grid with other skills. Skills are unlocked back leveling up another weapon. Weapons also usually have a built in skill also that can't be removed. So really the weapon system comes down to mixing and matching weapon pieces and deciding on which weapon secret you like best to use. So even an early weapon like L'Arc's Balmug can be effective late game with it's hidden skill which is Dragon Bane+.
Sound: The voice acting isn't as bad as everyone harps on about. The VA is actually decent.I feel a lot of people complain because localization teams changed a few times so instead of being grateful the game finally got released overseas they whine that this team or that team didn't localize it. The Voice actors do their job quite well for all the dialog in the game. Some voices may seem bland and unemotional such as L'Arc, but if you look at his character that type of voice acting fits him. Ryfia is a confused girl and again her actress hits that spot on. Sure some minor townspeople that have voices aren't the greatest, but you only hear them once or twice. There is nothing wrong with the VA and for the budget this game had I'd say they got actors that fit the bill perfectly.
Music: Most of the music is very nicely composed. The one battle theme that you only hear for a short time is probably the best piece in the game. The world map theme has that exploration feel to it. The boss theme makes you feel that you are fighting for your life. I especially like some of the late game music also.
Conclusion: Arc Rise Fantasia for me brought back memories of playing Dragon Warrior on the NES and later to the Lufia series on the SNES. I feel it's a travesty that a lot of people will pass up on this gem because they believe the voice acting is horrendous. This IMO is a once in a decade RPG, it may borrow loosely from other series, but it places everything together nicely and creates a unique atmosphere. The game truly does bring you back to the core of what an RPG use to be. It has a moving story, likable characters, and catchy music. It will surely keep you entertained for at least 40 hours, but mileage may vary. There are also secret weapons hidden in dungeons and a good amount of optional bosses. Again don't let the VA scare you away as IMO it is not as bad as everyone claims and can actually provide some humor.
Great Game, Most have for any Wii RPG fan August 17, 2010
A. Oltean
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As most have pointed out the voice acting is not the greatest but it grows on you after a while. Overall this is a great game espically for $40. I still haven't beat the game yet and would guess 60 - 70 hours of game play. Currently LVL 50 with 50 hours into the game, and what seems like plently to do still. I recommend this to any RPG strave Wii owner.
A truly amazing RPG August 24, 2010
Rogu3 Knigh7
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an excellent RPG for the Wii. Only thing I fault is the voice acting. Its funny but when you look at most of the characters its just not the type of voice you'd envison them having. Then again it might just be me. Other than that great gameplay. A must by for an RPG collector or those who enjoy a good story.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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