Tactical jRPG maintained in old-school 2D graphics. One of the first representatives of the genre released on PlayStation 1. The production tells the story of a group of heroes who try to save the world from the forces of darkness.
Arc the Lad is the first installment of a series of tactical jRPGs. Compared to other PS1 representatives of the genre, the work from G-Craft features a much simpler system of character progression, world exploration and combat.
Story
Brave Arc sets out to look for his father, who disappeared ten years ago. He accidentally meets a young girl, Kukuru, who belongs to one of the clans guarding the magical flame. Trying to save her from monsters, he loses her life. However, he is revived by the Guardian, who gives him extraordinary power and commissions a task to save the world from the coming forces of darkness. In this way, a long adventure begins, during which he learns the truth about his parent and gains a chance to save the whole land. A number of characters he meets along the way help him on the expedition.
Mechanics
Arc the Lad is a tactical jRPG based on proven mechanics, which, however, have been greatly simplified in some aspects. The players explore the game world by selecting subsequent locations on the map. Depending on the nature of the area, we ecnounter battles or animations depicting new events. Combat take place in a turn-based system and consist of selecting the fields on the map where a given character is to move and the actions they are to perform. In addition to simple physical attacks, the creators offer a number of spells and special skills that vary from character to character. One of the unique elements of the title is the ability to develop not only the abilities of individual heroes, but also the Guardians summoned by one of them. However, all this is based on simple and limited rules - for example, players can arm their heroes with only four types of equipment.
The length of the game is influenced by attractions such as the chgance to try our heroes in a special tournament with prizes. The devs have also prepared something for fans of challenges - a fifty-storey ruin to explore, where players can expect very strong monsters, numerous traps and dozens of treasures.
Technical aspects
Arc the Lad, uses simple 2D visuals with few animations and effects. Thus, their title resembles the jRPGs released for the previous generation of consoles. The game enables us to save the state of the game after its completion and then move some data to the sequel. Originally the game was released only in Japan - it reached the Western markets with the launch of the collection of three installments of the series, titled the Arc the Lad Collection. This release is distinguished e.g. by the use of the vibration system in the DualShock controller.
Last updated on March 17, 2020
Arc the Lad Summary
Platforms:
PlayStation 1
Developer: G-Craft
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Age restrictions: 12+
