Arc Rise Fantasia

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Arc Rise Fantasia
Arf wii.jpg
Developer(s) Imageepoch
Marvelous Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Designer(s) Hiroyuki Kanemaru (director)
Kenichi Yoshida (character designer)
Composer(s) Yasunori Mitsuda
Shunsuke Tsuchiya
Yuki Harada
Yui Makino
Platform(s) Wii
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player
Rating(s)
Media/distribution Wii optical disc

Arc Rise Fantasia (アークライズファンタジア Āku Raizu Fantajia?) is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by imageepoch and published by Marvelous Entertainment for the Wii. It is imageepoch's first game not developed for a handheld game console. Arc Rise Fantasia was released in Japan on June 4, 2009, and in North America on July 20, 2010.[2]

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

The game is a turn-based role-playing game. The player and the enemy both move and fight during the same phase of battle, but the turn order is determined by the actions taken. Parties consist of three characters who each share a single AP gauge, which empties as various actions are performed. During certain parts of the game, the active team may be made up of four members instead of three, though the fourth can only be controlled by the AI. Multiple attacks can be chained together in combos, and the player may execute a special attack called a Trinity Act when each of three characters uses a certain ability. There are also summon beasts in the game called Rogress (ログレス Roguresu?).[3]

[edit] Plot

Arc Rise Fantasia is set in the world of Fulheim. Creatures called "Feldragons" are causing a lot of trouble as they pass the Meridian Empire 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.[4]

[edit] Characters

L'Arc Bright Lagoon
The main character of the video game and the 1st Child of Eesa. The son of Rex and Elena Lagoon, he is a seventeen year old mercenary who works to get enough money to take care of his sick mother. Despite his normally serious attitude, he has been known to lighten up from time to time, especially when he talks to Ryfia. He is also someone who holds onto his beliefs or where he stands, even when others disagree.
Ryfia
The main female character of the game who is sixteen years old. She is a Diva from a foreign country that is an enemy nation to L'Arc's country. L'Arc is her Child of Eesa, and she believes that it is her destiny to meet him. Her mother was attacked and killed by a Deathchanter, and she was instructed to visit Jada, to see Simmah, and to find her Child of Eesa. She is very ignorant of Meridian culture, and she has not had much experience in the outside world. Ryfia has strong magical abilities and proves to be a useful asset to L'Arc's team. She has the ability to sing sacred songs, this powers is named Hymmomancy.
Alf
The second prince of the Meridian empire and is also the second Child of Eesa for most of the game, he is eighteen and is a a good friend of L'Arc and Adele. At the beginning of the game, he travels to Jada to search for L'Arc, who had gone missing after defeating a Feldragon. He then decides to travel with him, to the Skywalk under Weiss's commands, and is a useful ally. He is very kind, and hates when one attacks an innocent woman.
Adele
She is a childhood friend of L'Arc, who was orphaned at a young age, but she was adopted by a friend of L'Arc's father, Zamuel. Adele is sixteen and states that she thinks of L'Arc as an older brother, though certain reactions imply otherwise. She is normally a kind person, until she is jealous of Ryfia. In Antrax, it's discovered that she is the daughter of the Real's Diva, so, Dynos convice her to take her mother's place after she dies, murdered by Weiss. After being hit by both Simmah and Girtab, she became crazy and decided that L'Arc should die.
Niko
A young redhead sharpshooter who is a member of the Meridian army. He is twenty years old, but still treats L'Arc as though he is older. After Niko meets L'Arc for the first time, he follows L'Arc like a lost brother, and even refers to L'Arc as "aniki" (brother) in the Japanese version and "Mr. L'Arc in the English version. He has a bad habit of running away during difficult times.
Serge
An orange-haired dagger fighter. He makes his first appearance when he saves L'Arc's group from a battle that was going downhill, he was actually one of the Great lord knights "Sir Leon". He is very knowledgeable and passes on messages to each group. He also loves the company of women.
Cecille
A twelve year old girl, who has been traveling in search of her family. Cecille is much stronger than she looks, and she takes great pride in being a warrior. She does not get along much with Niko because he insults her when they first meet. Cecille believes firmly in justice, and travels down what she calls "the Path of Valor".
Rastan
A thirty-nine year old, dual sword wielding warrior, who makes his first appearance at the beginning of the game, but he does not become fully playable until later. For the greater duration of the game, L'Arc and the others are convinced that he is Leon, the master swordsman and the Lord Knights. He was once part of the 'Divine Race' that was put to sleep a 1000 years ago, he was also the reason Rex Lagoon died.
Leslie Ferrarti
A pink-haired gunslinger that first meets L'Arc's group at the moon inn near Antrax Parish. Throughout the course of the game she switches from being a part of L'Arc's group and Alf's group.
Dynos
He makes his first appearance as the first boss of the game under the title of Deathchanter. He is the first character to be called of the 'Divine Race' and is the younger brother of Cecille, they along with the entire 'Divine race' were put to deep slumber a 1000 years ago by Eesa to save them from extinction by Hozone pollution. It was later revealed that he was awoken years before the start of the game thereby explaining the fact why he looks older than his sister Cecille.
Clyde
A 48 year old general who wields an axe and is extremely loyal to Prince Alf. He was formerly Alf's caretaker, but was then moved to Jada for guarding purposes. He joins Alf's group in the game. He opposes you as a boss character at certain points.
Weiss
Weiss is the crown prince of the Empire. He is seen as cold, cunning and calculating, the polar opposite of Alf. His actions as a ruthless war mongrel believe his true intentions. He is Alf's half-brother through their father and L'Arc half-brother through their mother. He also bears Eesa's curse which turned his left arm into a grostuque claw with a wing attached.
Freya
Freya is a general in the Meridian Empire. She is never used in battle, but aids the party throughout the game. She is first encountered at Diamant, where she apprehends L'arc, Ryfia and Alf for breaking into Dragon Prison. Later on in the story, she apprehends the party again when they try to deliver a message to Weiss, but sets them free later. She is a very strict officer who can get angry at Niko a lot, but really enjoys the stories he told her of L'arc's adventures.

[edit] References to other RPGs

A few references can be identified in Arc Rise Fantasia that resembles those off other RPGs.

  • Super Mario RPG: Fake treasure box enemies called Mimics resemble the Box Boy enemies. And like the Box Boys, the Mimics also pretend to be real treasure chests, are only fought once and are stronger than most enemies.
  • Tales of Symphonia: L'Arc has some similarities to Lloyd and Emil: All three use swords as their main weapon and have sacred titles in order to save the world. Ryfia and Collete also have similarities as they are both oblivious to some points. Serge's appearance is similar to Richter and Serge's personality is similar to Zelos. The Rogress are also similar to Summon Spirits.
  • Pokémon: Shining items can be picked off the ground just like in Pokémon Coliseum. In the Resolvent Iceberg, L'Arc maneauvers on ice the same way the Pokémon Trainer does. The Rogress Squill bears a resemblance to the legendary Pokémon Kyogre.
  • Luminous Arc: Kopins make a return in Arc Rise Fantasia. Saki, Lucia and Vennesa also return as cameos and can be fought in the Carbunculus Arena.

[edit] Music

The music in this game was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, Shunsuke Tsuchiya and Yuki Harada. The opening theme is Negai Boshi by Nami Tamaki,and the ending theme is Tenshi no Hashigo ~crepuscular rays~ by Yui Makino.

The soundtrack album is released on 3 March 2010 which contains 3 disk. The soundtracks are composed and arranged by Yasunori Mitsuda, Shunsuke Tsuchiya, Yuki Harada, Yoko Shimomura and also Ryfia's Japanese voice actress, Yui Makino. The album not only contains BGMs in the game, but also the songs that Ryfia and Adele usually sings, which are sung by their voice actress, Yui Makino (Ryfia) and Emiri Kato. The ending song for the game, Tenshi no Hashigo, is also included in the 3rd disk of the album.

Track listing

Track listing

Track listing

At disk 3, a piano piece called Awakening, To A World Protected is the piano version of Tenshi no Hashigo, which played and made by Yui Makino. The lyrics and music for Tenshi no Hashigo are made by Yui Makino too.

[edit] Development

The game was previously known as Project Ray, and was known to exist as early as September 4, 2007.[citation needed] As Project Ray, it was also shown to exist with Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS.[5]

The game was unveiled on June 25, 2008 in the popular Japanese magazine Famitsū.[citation needed] Hiroyuki Kanemaru, the director of Fantasia, previously worked at Telenet Japan and then moved to Namco Tales Studio, where he worked as scenario script director and level concept designer on Tales of Symphonia. Kanemaru stated that Project Ray would be influenced by old-school RPGs from systems such as the TurboGrafx-16.

[edit] Reception

The game has received mixed reviews. Famitsū magazine scored the game a 32 out of 40.[6] The U.S. localization of the game received much criticism directed towards its weak voice acting.[citation needed] It received an aggregate review score of 64 on Metacritic.[citation needed]

The game was later released under Nintendo’s "Everyone’s Recommendation Selection" of budget titles in Japan.[7] The game's localization was heavily criticised as "lazy" with "terrible voice acting" by the media.

Arc Rise Fantasia was the fourth best-selling game in Japan during the week of its release at 26,000 copies.[8] Approximately 21,000 copies were sold in the first week following its North American release.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.utvignition.com/us/news/2010/detail_20100720.html
  2. ^ http://www.utvignition.com/us/news/2010/detail_20100720.html
  3. ^ GoNintendo » Blog Archive » Famitsu news - Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii RPG)
  4. ^ ARC Rise Fantasia Relieves Wii RPG Drought news from 1UP.com
  5. ^ C3 Reviews :: Nintendo News | Original Japanese RPGs coming to DS & Wii
  6. ^ RawmeatCowboy (2009-05-27). "GoNintendo - Famitsu scores". GoNintendo.com. http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=83918. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
  7. ^ Spencer (2010-01-20). "Nintendo Channel Voters Pick Budget Wii Games". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2010/01/20/nintendo-channel-voters-pick-budget-wii-games/. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
  8. ^ Graft, Kris (2009-06-11). "Japanese Charts: Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Leads For Second Week". Gamasutra. http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24002. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 

[edit] External links

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