Arc the Lad

[Anonymous No.2637532]

Never seen anyone discuss this series on 4chan ever. Checked out some gameplay vids of the first game and it looks pretty cool, albeit a bit simplistic by SRPG standards. Is it any good, or should I get Disgaea instead?

[Anonymous No.2637542]

>>2637532
Aw shit, don't ask about disgaea here unless you want to start a torrent of shitposting.
But yeah it's pretty great, 3 games for the price of one, can't go wrong.

[Anonymous No.2637591]

>>2637542
>Aw shit, don't ask about disgaea here unless you want to start a torrent of shitposting.

Oh yeah, my bad.

>But yeah it's pretty great, 3 games for the price of one, can't go wrong.

Alright thanks.

[Anonymous No.2637625]

>>2637532
>a bit simplistic by SRPG standards
It's not so much a SRPG as it is a JRPG with some battlefield positioning. They're pretty decent and best of all, on the shorter side. I enjoyed the first two, need to get and round to the third one at some point.

It's not mentioned much because they were released pretty far at the end of the PS1 life span years after their Japanese release. Not many people actually played it then.

[Anonymous No.2637632]

>>2637532
All of the Fatlus stuff is just grinding and living your power fantasy.

Theres very little strategy involved except on a handful of maps which Geo-tiles that are specifically designed to fuck you.

Probably the single worst SRPG series honestly, say what you will about TO and FFT being "easy" but Disgaea is literally just grinding to the point of being overpowered. There are some things you can do like lifting bosses and having your weak dudes die so bosses don't get turns, but thats about the "depth" of the strategy.

[Anonymous No.2637637]

>>2637632
lel and here we go.

[Anonymous No.2637640]

>>2637632
To be clear, you're talking about Disgea.

But yeah, Arc The Lad was largely ignored in the West because by the time it ws released in 2002, it was a 7 year old game that looked like a SNES JRPG.

[Anonymous No.2637678]

>>2637625
>They're pretty decent and best of all, on the shorter side.


Arc 2 is insanely long

[Anonymous No.2637682]

Only one I've played is Twilight of the Spirits, which I like a lot.

[Anonymous No.2637707]

>>2637682
>tsundere monster Jennifer Hale

good times

[Anonymous No.2637739]

yes they're all ridiculously gigantic timesinks

like they're good games

the plot isn't shit, the battle system is good

but holy shit each game and all the extra content

I think I played for like 300 hours and I was like halfway through arc 2 and barely scratching arc arena

I was like fuck I have to start college soon

I will never finish these games ever

the hunter jobs and arena and secret dungones and endless secret characters and monster forms and evolutions

shit is ridiculous

[Anonymous No.2637827]

>>2637632
>All of the Fatlus stuff is just grinding and living your power fantasy.

Is that including Persona? Because I was considering getting into that next.

[Anonymous No.2637834]

>>2637827
You don't need to grind in Persona 3 or 4 unless you're bad at it and don't understand it.

Persona and Persona 2 are pretty grindy though

like even playing through the games at all feels grindy, random battles are frequent and as fun as the conversations system is, it's basically too much and hard to withstand the test of patience to finish them.

[Anonymous No.2637836]

>>2637827
He was talking about Atlus the american publisher, not Atlus the developer. Also, no Persona takes a bit more of strategizing.

[Anonymous No.2637873]

>>2637682
That game was baaaaaaaaaaad.
>>2637532
I finished 1, one of my fav JRPGs ever and I don't really like that genre.
Didn't finish two, jumped onto it right after the 1st game which already took me a long time so about half-way through I was tired of the genre and just stopped.
Since then I wanted to go back a few times but got my saves no longer so I'd have to play both games again which would probably result in the same scenario.

[Anonymous No.2637924]

>>2637625
Arc 1 is short, 2 and 3 are pretty lengthy games...

[Anonymous No.2637996]

The PS2 games were godawful, especially the last one.

[Anonymous No.2638010]

>>2637873
>>2637996
What's so bad about them?

[Anonymous No.2638013]

>>2637827
Persona 3 and 4 are practically non-RPGs. Levels don't really matter, and it's more of a waifu simulator than anything else. A lot of people love it for that reason, but if you prefer your RPGs traditional then stay well away.

[Anonymous No.2638025]

>>2638013
You're fucking dumb. They're not retro but your level matters because you can only create personas up to your level, then you want social links for the arcanas that you favor so they level up beyond your level at creation. Mechanically, the dungeon portions are traditional, technical RPGs - just as technical as main SMT games just a little different because of how you get the demons and create new ones.

They all just have a high-school ass story that they force you to go through an hour or more of before you GET to the dungeons, which runs off anyone who's not at all interested in that sort of thing.

[Anonymous No.2638575]

Arc the Lad felt like the perfect SRPG for people who hated SRPGs, like me.

[Anonymous No.2638584]

>>2638025
Albet I prefer the other Personas, this is something I thought to be interesting from 3 and 4, specially 3. That is, taking it easy throughout the day, making social links and messing around, and later on exploring a huge dungeon and battling against enemies. It felt to me though that the dungeons could have been explored in better ways.

[Anonymous No.2638595]

>>2637532
They're fairly unremarkable and predictably descend into shit as you cross into modern from retro.

[Anonymous No.2638625]

>>2638013
>Levels don't really matter
Do a low-level run and tell us how hard you get assraped.

[Anonymous No.2638635]

>>2638584
Did you play 4? Even though both games clearly use the exact same engine the dungeons in 4, though still rather boring, were a bit more solid. I'm fairly sure 3 used procedural generation for its and 4 seems to at least partly be premapped. I'm only getting to Dungeon 3 in 4 right now though so that may change.

I guess Persona 5 has been announced and the usual suspects are getting hype. Maybe we'll all get lucky and all of the focus will have been on dungeon dressing which the main series could also use a boost in.

I haven't played Digital Devil Saga though are its dungeons better?

[Anonymous No.2638641]

>>2638013
actually people bitched so much about the difficulty in P3 they had to include manual partner controlling in all following releases.

[Anonymous No.2638851]

>>2637678
I was joking about the length, but I guess that didn't come across.

[Anonymous No.2638902]

>>2638635
DDS has a really solid metagame. The dungeons are pretty much what you expect from any SMT game, though they feel more like actual environments. The highlight of the game is the gauntlet of optional content and bosses, there's lots of them and beating them is rewarding.

There's an annoying mechanic where you get asked questions and stuff in the two games, and if you answer right, you get special spells for your characters and get to keep a pretty likable character in the second game. If you answer wrong you just get nothing, there's no alternative plot reward or anything. Use a guide for that because the cool answers are often not the correct ones.

[Anonymous No.2638930]

>>2638851

sarcasm doesn't convey well via text

[Anonymous No.2639017]

>>2638625
>tell us how hard you get assraped
You mean not at all, because that's exactly what I did.

>>2638025
>you want social links for the arcanas that you favor so they level up beyond your level at creation
Exactly. Your level is irrelevant, and grinding is irrelevant. It's all about going on pointless waifu simulation rather then doing something of actual worth. The "dungeons" can barely be cared that, and are simply there to bridge the gap between other waifu shit.

If you like it, then back to /v/ you go, and fucking stay there.

[Anonymous No.2639039]

KYWA

[Anonymous No.2639054]

>>2637640
Working Designs always seemed more into creating nice pieces for collectors rather than actually the selling the games.

[Anonymous No.2639098]

>>2637532
>Is it any good, or should I get Disgaea instead?
Arc and Arc 2 have a pretty good cast and story, the gameplay is as you said a very simplistic SRPG, but it's fairly well done and pretty nice overall.
Arc 1 is a prelude to Arc 2 o the story is pretty short but you have a nice optional dungeon to complete.
Arc 2 is huge, like, easily 100 hours long if you want o 100% everything though you'll probably need a guide since a lot of things are missable, it has wonderful 2D graphics though and the story, especially a few twists is really nice, you must be prepared for a lot of suffering and bitch tears though.
Arc 3 is a bit of a disappointment in terms of cast but it fixed quite a few problems Arc 2 had in terms of gameplay and while the transition to 3D maps isn't really that good in terms of look the game is much more fluid than Arc 2, there's still a lot to do in the game and while the main plot isn't that hot the world building is pretty good.

Do get them if you want a well done, standard JRPG, even the Working Design's translation isn't that bad this time except some really suspicious stuff like pic related.

Fun stuff, the games' voices are the Jap ones and Shu, a character in Arc 2 is voiced by Shuichi Ikeda, so if you like Char that's a nice plus, you can also import the data from the previous games you completed in the sequels from some carryover and nice extra stuff.

Disgaea is shit, don't buy that unless you like grinding for the sake of grinding.

[Anonymous No.2639103]

>>2639017
whoa, bro, chill, you brought it up in the first place

[Anonymous No.2639129]

>>2639098
>that pic

[Anonymous No.2639140]

>>2639129
I know right?

I still can't decide whether it was intentional or not.

[Anonymous No.2639259]

>>2639140

It was

[Anonymous No.2639269]

>>2639103
Actually he should get as angry as possible since he's full of shit.

>>2639017
Social links max at level 10 so yeah you're full of shit.

[Anonymous No.2639324]

>>2637640
That was mostly the fault of SCEA's anti 2D policy. Had to jump through hoops just to get a game localize or in Capcom's case threaten that RE2 will be a Saturn exclusive if Mega Man 8 was not allowed on the PS1.

[Anonymous No.2639342]

>>2639324
Regardless of whose fault it was getting localized, it came out after the PS1 JRPG boom, at a time when most people were interested in 3D games on the PS2.

[Anonymous No.2639926]

>>2639342
I was always under the impression the collection was meant purely for the hardcore JRPG fan. If I recall correctly, the suggested retail price for it was nearly 75 dollars.

[Anonymous No.2640540]

>>2637625
If anything it's a story-heavy SRPG, as the game is basically shuttling you from cutscene to battle to more cutscenes and more battles etc. - no towns, dungeons or world to explore whatsoever, so it fails as a RPG but as a strategy game it's not really bad, but not great either. I'd certainly rate it higher than shit like Legend of Dragoon but not by much, and it doesn't help that it focuses way too much on its uninteresting and cliche as fuck story.

>>2639324
They also had an anti-JRPG policy as well, fortunately it didn't last very long, as the idiot responsible for that shit was rightfully given his walking papers within a couple of years.

However, even if they did release Arc the Lad internationally back when it first came out I doubt it would have garnered anything more than a modest cult following.

[Anonymous No.2640551]

>>2640540
>no towns, dungeons or world to explore whatsoever
Did you even play anything past Arc 1?
Because it certainly doesn't seem so.

[Anonymous No.2640562]

>>2640551
Not yet, I'm playing through them in order.

And I really hope things improve by the next game.

[Anonymous No.2640579]

>>2640562
>And I really hope things improve by the next game.
They do, a lot.
As I've said before, Arc 1 is just a prelude, it's more like a demo disc than anything.

[Anonymous No.2640592]

>>2640579
Alright, guess I'll plow my way through this game since it's apparently so short anyway, but the next game better be worth it.

[Anonymous No.2640612]

>>2640592
I warmly suggest you to complete the sealed dungeon and get Choco, because the items you get there and your character levels will be carried over to Arc 2, making your life a lot easier, not to mention that you'll unlock a new quest if you get Choco in Arc 1, I won't spoiler though.

[Anonymous No.2640649]

>>2640612
Thanks for the tip.

[Anonymous No.2640690]

>>2640649
I almost forgot, try to get all the Romancing Stones, when you get all four they can be turned into an accessory that gives you unlimited MP.

[Anonymous No.2640909]

>>2640540
>They also had an anti-JRPG policy as well
How was Beyond the Beyond a launch title then?

[Anonymous No.2640962]

>>2640909
Must have slipped under the radar.

[Anonymous No.2640973]

Kids today have no attention span today.I played this game when it came to the us in 2002, I was 14 years old and the collection lasted me 3 1/2 months as I only played on weekends and days off from school.


I am going to sound like an oldfag, but back in my day roms and free to play games weren't as available for last gen's platform (only had Snes and, GBA and lower roms then) and I only got 10 bucks allowance unless holidays and birthdays were accounted for.. Games also cost 50 dollars, RPGS were godsend, back then.

So don't tell me about how long that game is
The first one only took me 12 hours and I got everything..... All four romancing stones, Choko, the works
The second took about 60-70 hours, and I did everything, hunter's missions, diekbeck and choko side quests the works.

The Third took around 50 I liked it the least out of the three.

This collection was an RPG masterpiece.

Twighlight of the Spirits and end of darkness were assy though

also cool ass arc 1 +2 ost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzd_3UmBuRY

[Anonymous No.2640980]

>>2640909

https://web.archive.org/web/20050211144901/http://www.vidgames.com/ps/press/rpg.txt

Sony originally announced in early 1996 that they were bringing over Arc the Lad (and Beyond the Beyond) and to the US.

I don't why they changed their minds.

[Anonymous No.2640997]

>>2640973
More like if your game is over 30 hours long, it better be a damn good one.

Most JRPG's are trite, uninspired and generally bland. Most of them usually have a redeeming quality or two, but it always devolves into the same formula. When you add excessive length to it as well (PS1 was king at doing this) it really starts to grate on you.

I can't game for you know, 8-10 hours a day anymore. I usually average an hour or two daily, and then maybe like a 4-5 hour session on weekends.

14 hours is a big investment. Thats a week of 2 hours per day. 30 hours is just over 2 weeks of 2 hours per day. Much less 30+ hour JRPG's.

80 hour games were great when we were kids. When you were only getting a handful of games early you got a lot of bang for your buck. Now my backlog is so huge I did a rough calculation and its probably going to take me ~5 years to get through it all (although some games are what I would deem "unbeatable" types).

They used to be my favorite genre, but JRPG's are really my first choice when going for downsizing. I'll keep my favorites, but I honestly couldn't give less of a shit about games like Beyond the Beyond, Xenogears, Suikoden, and Legend of Dragoon.

[Anonymous No.2641007]

>>2640997
But Suikoden is good though and Xenogears is okay for a half-finished game.

[Anonymous No.2641030]

>>2641007
Xenogears is EVA for consoles.

Its all talking. Its boring. After 20 hours I dropped it. You go from an hour of dialogue to cutscenes, run to your next place, for another hour or dialogue and cutscenes.

Its not interesting enough to warrant playing it. It tries to be different by having the mech battles and regular battles but all that comes down to a different skin on the same combat.

[Anonymous No.2642732]

>>2637632
Arc 1 is pretty heavy on the grindery.

[Anonymous No.2642813]

>>2641030

[Anonymous No.2643225]

>>2639098
>Sucking Diek
>In an official Playstation manual
http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.6943
I'm speechless!

[Anonymous No.2643229]

>>2641030
people used to have longer attention spans

I like what it tries to do, but there are very very few games that have seamless narratives and perspective

[Anonymous No.2644951]

>>2640980
>I don't why they changed their minds.

[Anonymous No.2645821]

>>2643225
Did you think it was a fake shot?