Lord of Arcana

Lord of Arcana will be liked by a very specific public who knows exactly what to expect from this game and its genre. It offers just what it promised, and nothing else: combat and hunting, and also exploration to find better items.

All in all, if you enjoy the idea of spending tons of time fighting, collecting and grinding your way to power, you should definitely give this game a shot. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea though, skipping it may be a better option.

Lord of Arcana is a Monster Hunter like action game. A right tittle if you like this specific JRPG genre.

Lord of Arcana, at its core, is a solid title with lots of potential.

Carves its own identity. [Mar 2011, p.98]

In the end, Lord of Arcana doesn't break out of the traditional RPG formula and has quite a few parallels with Monster Hunter, although Monster Hunter was far superior in terms of an overall gaming experience.

It's the hulking great monsters that steal the show. [Issue#106, p.108]

As negative as I might sound about Arcana's problems, there is probably a niche group of gamers that could enjoy this game. However, it should only be considered for veterans of the genre that simply can't wait for the next Monster Hunter Portable iteration to come to the West.

It's online dungeon crawling by the numbers and could get dull quite quickly. [Issue#202, p.92]

If you have friends who love the role-playing/action sub-genre and have already played through the other games of this type, give this one a try, as there is some genuine fun to be had. If you're a solo player who's just looking for a few creatures to slash, feel free to skip this one.

Lord of Arcana tries to follow in the footsteps of Monster Hunter, but without success. The plot, which revolves around a magical stone and the "chosen one" who must retrieve it, fails to deliver, while the controls make cumbersome and uninspiring both the exploration and the combat.

Fans of Monster Hunter are in for a decent alternative to their favourite action RPG, but a lack of imagination traps Lords Of Arcana on a plane of relative mediocrity when compared to its bigger cousin.

Lord of Arcana has the same mechanic like Monster Hunter, but it's too simple and has a frustrating experience on single play.

Lord of Arcana is a Monster Hunter like action game. The Capcom franchise, anyway, looks much better than this Square Enix experiment. Lord of Arcana is graphically flat, and the lack of a wi-fi multiplayer is a huge problem for this kind of title.

A basic hack-'n'-slasher that won't keep you entertained for long. [Mar 2011, p.97]

Lord of Arcana is one of those games that you probably either love or hate. If you like this specific JRPG genre, you should definitely give it a look. But if you don't, there isn't anything about Lord of Arcana that will change your mind.

Best stick to Monster Hunter. [Mar 2011, p.96]

As amazing as having a lock-on option is, it just can't save Lord of Arcana from the depths of mediocrity. The "warp battles," lack of online play, a slightly boring grind system and some just plain weird design and control choices keep this one from being great.

Lord Of Arcana is a title that betrays its own philosophy. The fun is directly proportional to the PSP and copies of the game available. Buy it only if you have friends to play whit it, and if you love games like Monster Hunter.

Mediocrity is a death knell for a game that is very shallow to start with. Lord of Arcana copies a lot from the Monster Hunter series, but failed to understand that the depth of combat was always the focus and thus fails at being fun.

Lord of Arcana has got more problems than being a clone of a better game can account for. It's boring, repetitive, tedious, and only rarely fun.

Although it uses a tried and successful gameplay design - that of the Monster Hunter series - Lord of Arcana feels like a rushed, poor-man's version of Capcom's games. There's almost nothing original here and the few and far between clever ideas are wasted by some awkward design choices.

Lord of Arcana tries a little too hard to be Monster Hunter, and ends up as a repetetive, soulless grinding feast. You may appreciate the game if you really love the genre, but there are way better alternatives out there.

For a portable game, it's a time sink that shouldn't be because there's really nothing to it but the pure grind.

It's barely got any good ideas, and the few it does have are not its own. It could have been a Monster Hunter Lite, with more emphasis on big bosses and gory finishing moves and less on collecting raptor talons and moss to make into a hat – but instead it's just a hollow, characterless echo of the game it's trying to be.

Without additional players, it's extremely tough to enjoy the game or make much progress, so I can't quite recommend it in place of the far better offerings out there.

In the end, Lord of Arcana becomes sadly boring and repetitive, due to some controls and balancing issue.

Often more frustrating than pleasant.

Lords of Arcana is the most fun when you have a couple of friends at hand that play the game as well. On your own, the game feels unbalanced and repetitive.

Tedious quests and dull, infuriating combat make this one fantasy adventure whose monsters you won't want to hunt.

Lord of Arcana commits the cardinal sin of game design: Beyond being painfully lacking in variety or original ideas, it outright wastes your time, and then punishes you for your determination to not give up.

For gamers that are fascinated by the Monster Hunter Portable phenomenon our advice is to forget the imitator and head straight for the real deal.

Access Games' take on the Monster Hunter formula attempts little beyond a straightforward recreation of that series' structure. [Mar 2011, p.107]

It tries to compete with Monster Hunter, but fails on almost every aspect.

An exercise in tedium. [Spring 2011, p.117]

It's not Monster Hunter, but it's desperately trying to be. If you like RPGs will little story, even less of a battle system and an endless amount of missions, this one's for you.

Even though its game system works, and you're the type of gamer that is patient and motivated, Lord of Arcana doesn't win from the comparison with Monster Hunter, from which it draws most of its design without trying to conceal it. Let's be clear : it doesn't match its model, in terms of fun nor content or variety, nor even in terms of combat or richness. We'd need to completely forget about Capcom's franchise in order to enjoy Lord of Arcana despite its shortcomings.

Arcana, save for a few inventive designs, looks like every other fantasy adventure that didn't go to the trouble, which is the root of its problems. [March 2011, p.79]

A Monster Hunter clone that copies most of the key features but fails to properly balance any of them - or add any proper new ideas of its own.

Lord of Arcana is one of those games where the amount of fun you're having is directly proportional to how many people you play with. But there's the catch: if you're playing by yourself, you'll have little to no fun at all, and the lack of online play makes getting a party together unnecessarily difficult. Online play should be standard for this kind of experience, and the game suffers immensely for it.

Clearly, the guys at Access Games understand that games in the Monster Hunter vein are supposed to be punishingly difficult. What they didn't get was that the soul-crushing challenge should come from the gameplay and not poor design decisions. Throwing down your PSP in anger because a boss has outsmarted you is acceptable. Tossing it aside because a fight revolves more around beating the bad game design than the actual enemy is not.

Lord of Arcana isn't completely broken, but it's just a flop. No ambition, no uniqueness, and little if any appeal even to its target audience.

Ultimately, Lord of Arcana does not succeed as a viable Monster Hunter clone, both because of the broken battle system or the lack of variation in the missions available, there's enough to turn people off from the title.