It only took about 65 hours, more if you include all the times I got wiped out and had to redo a boss fight. I had a good run, all things considered. Arc Rise Fantasia is the sort of game that makes me want to go back and start afresh with all the knowledge I’ve gained on how to manipulate the battle system in my favor. If I had to play again, I would definitely:

– Reset and reconfigure my magic orbs way earlier. Once you have even one level 3-4 magic orb, it’s time to think about upgrading and ditching lvls 1 and 2 magic. How much easier the Verct Skywalk boss battles would have been if I’d known this.
– Take whatever weapon does the job best into battle and not worry too much about letting WP go to waste.
– Fight to the death for Rufunga on the beach. I had no idea that battle was winnable. “Darn it!” as L’arc would say.
– Fight Eesa before Allul. Eesa was a cakewalk in comparison, which greatly lessened the euphoria I felt after the final battle.
– Abuse the Above and Beyond spell (double-cast of Life Force) to hell and back. Battles get so much better when you’re not stuck in an endless loop of defending and healing.
– Steal more from bosses. I bet they had all kinds of good stuff, but I was too obsessed with staying alive to try.
– Actually use those status-preventing, mag-def boosting accessories much earlier. Focusing on stat-raising accessories for so long was a big mistake.
– Learn about Excel Trinities earlier. Because I’m a psychic and can figure out things the game absolutely does not tell you about unless you pore through the glossary.

And so on and so forth. The game does lend itself to at least one more replay. I would do it if only they’d let me skip all the walking and talking and just warp me from boss battle to boss battle.

Having played and finished the game for myself, I must say that while I enjoyed myself, I don’t think the criticisms of Arc Rise Fantasia are completely off the mark. The voice-acting is atrociously bad, and the battles are fiendishly difficult even when you know what you’re doing. The story is good when taken as a whole, imho, but many of the twists and turns along the way are either poorly planned, poorly executed or just plain stupid. Let’s take these one by one.

Voice acting: It’s terrible through and through, no excuses. I got used to it, but I wager it was more due to Stockholm Syndrome of the Ears than to any actual improvement. Until I played ARF, I’d always been a little irritated by the tendency of game/anime companies to use the same seasoned (and tired) voice actors for every series. Diversify. Give newbies a chance, I thought to myself. I’m sorry, pro VAs. I will never look down on your noble profession again.

Combat difficulty: It’s hard, no way around that. There are ways to mitigate that (spread out your party, defend a lot, heal like crazy) but that doesn’t change the basic truth. Still, it’s not such a bad thing, is it? Sure the bosses are a bit cheap with their overpowered attacks, but you’re no honorable warrior yourself, you know? Ganging up on a defenseless stone with your entire party, not to mention the Rogress and all those broken magic attacks.

What I liked most was the way the battle system reinvented itself halfway through. Many RPGs keep their systems fresh by introducing new functions in drips and drabs. ARF lays everything out almost immediately and it’s decent to begin with, but the system really comes alive about 20 hours in. That’s when you get a better variety of magic orbs, weapon abilities, excel acts, items and a better everything, really. From Lascarde onwards, you also get field enemies that have an actual ‘edge’ and require you to pay attention instead of just auto-battling. The pace of field battles remains as brisk as ever, and while boss battles can take over 30 minutes at their worst, it’s an active, suspenseful 30 minutes.

That said, you still have to wait 20 hours for the system to really get going. I can’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to wait that long. Especially if you wait that long only to discover that nope, it’s still not for you.

Story: One of the better “We don’t need gods!” stories, imho. Some of the other games I’ve played take it for granted that gods aren’t necessary. “Of course we don’t need gods. I mean, duh!” they virtually roll their eyes at you. Arc Rise Fantasia at least articulated the problem (pollution, two races that can’t live side by side) considered Option A, then Option B, finally Option C and D, and only went ahead with the god-slaying thing when they had no other choice. It helps that the god was a sympathetic figure as well.

So like I said, the overarching story was good. I liked the ending too. Bittersweet, but full of hope. It’s all the other stuff they did along the way that made me shake my head in despair. R, I am your father! L, I am your brother! Your dad knocked up my sick, poisoned mom, but somehow he’s still a hero! Unnecessary reveals like that didn’t add anything to the story.

Then there’s all the plot elements that never led anywhere. The whole Aion Unit/Senate conspiracy/encrypted CD brouhaha was too long drawn-out, didn’t make much sense, and the payoff wasn’t very satisfactory. Was there any payoff, in fact? Ignacy and Hosea were so over-the-top in their blatant villainy that they were more jokes than serious threats. The feldragon/human experiments business seemed so important at first and then just fizzled out along the way. The whole Adele/Alf/L’arc love triangle was poorly resolved as well. Adele especially was acting very out of character at that point. I could go on and on in this vein. So everything goes well in the end, but you’ll have to wait 60-65 hours and slog through a lot of stupidity to get there. Again, not everyone has that kind of patience, and not everyone might be equally satisfied once they get there.

Music, graphics, all that other stuff: The Diamant city theme was horrible, but all the other music was decent to great. The quiet town music in places like Topazion and the Zeifellet tower theme were my favorites. Graphics-wise, I didn’t notice anything remarkable. Dungeon design was good, but each dungeon needed at least one more save point, or at least a quicksave function. At the very, very least, an item or a spell that lets you warp out at will. Loading times were barely noticeable. ARF passes muster in all these categories.

Overall conclusion

To cut a long post short, seeing as I’ve already written more than enough about this game, your mileage may vary on Arc Rise Fantasia. You can watch trailers, you can read reviews, but you still won’t know whether you’ll like it or hate it or remain merely indifferent until you actually play it. The same goes for all other games, but ARF seems to have suffered particularly from a rash of early bad reviews that put a lot of people (including me) off playing it for a while. I can’t say all those reviews were entirely wrong, but if any game deserves a second chance, it’s Arc Rise Fantasia. I won’t tell you to run off and get it immediately, but give it a shot if you get the chance. You might be very pleasantly surprised.