ARF!

I've spent the weekend playing this one. I've got to admit, I'm liking it a lot. The game seems to be made up of all the possible RPG clichés, and looks to be designed to be as convoluted as possible, but at the end of the day, the player can just tap the A button and come out on top. It has the complexity if the player wants to get their hands dirty with micro-managing everything, or if he just wants to kill some Gr.Imps he can hit the auto-battle option. The (turn-based) battles themselves are very fast, with most enemies taking only a single hit from the sword fighters, or two from the girls' staves. With up to four characters in a party (but only three being playable, with the fourth acting only on AI) field encounters are never much of a challenge. The enemies are also always visible on the map, so they can be skipped altogether if the player chooses. That's the ticket here, choice.

The biggest controversy about this game has surrounded the voice dubbing for the localization. I've never sampled any of the YouTube clips available before lunch, so the first time I heard this game was through my headphones in Dolby Digital. Bottom line is that the internet is full of shit, as usual. While the dialog does often sound unnatural, it's not for lack of talent on the actors part, or the quality of the writing (which is actually quite well written). I'd lay the blame entirely at the feet of the VO director. There isn't anything wrong with this game that couldn't be solved by another take. The shoestring budget that UTV likely provided obviously didn't help. The odd delivery of the dialog matches the awkwardly jerky character animation, and uneven technical performance, with framerates ranging from 15 to 60 FPS. The dialog is actually very well written, and entertaining, with the characters trading verbal jabs during battle. It all is quite charming. If you're old enough to remember playing RPG's on the Sega CD or Turbografx CD, (or Star "80 points" Ocean 2) there is nothing here that would surprise you.

The music has been attributed to Yasunori Mitsuda. From the stuff I heard so far, I can't really tell. There has been only one recognizable Mitsuda-ism that I've heard, with most themes reminding me more of Motoi Sakuraba than Mitsuda. The whole game feels like it wants to be Tales, and the music definitely fits, which is a complete waste of Mitsuda's talents.

After the high-falutin' bullshit of Final Fantasy XIII, and the overbearing technicality of Resonance Of Fate, Arc Rise Fantasia is the perfect antidote. It's the Saturday morning cartoon to the prime-time movie school of game design.