Arc Rise Fantasia

 Wii
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 26
  3. Negative: 1 out of 26
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  1. RPG Fan
    82
    Flawed? Sure. Is Arc Rise Fantasia the best RPG I've played? Far from it. However, Arc Rise Fantasia captures the heart and soul of the JRPG so wonderfully that it will be easy enough to overlook the flaws.
  2. GamingTrend
    77
    While the game doesn't break any new ground in the JRPG genre, it does help to the fill the JRPG void that the Wii suffers from.
  3. Digital Chumps
    76
    Looking for a solid JRPG this summer? This isn't a bad choice at all. For Wii owners, or JRPG fans, this makes a fine addition to your library.
  5. Nintendo Power
    75
    Despite its flaws, though, I ultimately enjoyed my time with Arc Rise Fantasia. [July 2010, p.84]
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Awards & Rankings

79
#79 Best Wii Game of 2010
18
#18 Most Discussed Wii Game of 2010
14
#14 Most Shared Wii Game of 2010

User Reviews

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User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 53 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 53
  3. Negative: 4 out of 53
  1. ArcanaThe4th
    May 29, 2019
    9
    This game is one of my favorites of the Wii, and definitely a lost gem in my opinion. Although the characters and plot may be a little clichédThis game is one of my favorites of the Wii, and definitely a lost gem in my opinion. Although the characters and plot may be a little clichéd if you play a lot of JRPG, but there's a lot of charm to it. The gameplay though is my favorite part. I greatly miss it and wish more games would have this strategic take on JRPGs.… Full Review »
  2. JenJen387
    Jun 13, 2013
    9
    Graphics are just beautiful as well as the story. The characters are fully developed, despite the awful voice acting. In my opinion, the gameGraphics are just beautiful as well as the story. The characters are fully developed, despite the awful voice acting. In my opinion, the game would've been perfect if it weren't for the terrible voice acting. After you finish the story there are many reasons to keep playing, though I'm not gonna spoil it. There are a variety of detailed weapons. Customizing armforce adds to the strategy. The game encourages you to level up and unlock armforce, though it can be very time consuming. I cried so much on a few parts.. especially the ending. The OST is amazing and flawless!! Currently in my music lists. I recommend this game to all rpg players out there. This game needs more credit and should have a sequel!!… Full Review »
  3. sora0hearts
    Jun 19, 2017
    9
    It took me almost 7 years to pick the game up and decided to start from the beginning. I can still look behind and see my younger self hopingIt took me almost 7 years to pick the game up and decided to start from the beginning. I can still look behind and see my younger self hoping this to be a good JRPG that would be even better than Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Well today I can say that YES it is in my opinion one of the most underrated JRPG's of the last 10 years.
    Some reviews point for some flaws of the game but they actually ignore completelly what is good in this game.
    Let's begin with the graphics. They are really good for Wii standarts and I believe if the game had an HD remaster it would still look good, The battle effects, expec arts, rogress summons, magic effects, they all look stunning (once again for Wii standarts). Some animations out of battle seem a little bit "lazy-made", by this I mean that when its not a cutscene or a battle there are almost no animations for most of the characters other than walk, run, punch, even when someone hands you something you don't see any sort of animation that supports the act. For the characters, all of them are easy to recognize (not counting with the NPC's that keep repeting themselvs through nearly every main city or town), you know Rastan like that bad ass adult that really shakes a tough atmosphere, Leslie the sexy shooter with somehow a very strong sense of duty and responsability and yet teasing personality. All of them are easy to keep in mind and all of them have a very good development but I'll leave that for a path more ahead on this review. The monsters have models that repeat in at least the first half of the game, only having a slight recolor to distinguish the weaker ones from the stronger ones, a critical thing to point yes, but in an anime like JRPG its a very common practice, but that doesn't erase the fact that is bad.

    Music:
    Not the worst game for the soundtrack, yet not the best too. What can I say? It has some tracks that really catch the moment that we're living on the game, and others just keep repeating (ex: the dungeon track).
    I've noticed something really curious too, imagine that you just got a cutscene by getting to a point on the game and something really dramatic is shown, the music reflects that dramatic event even when the cutscene ended, however if you go out of that "room" or "zone" of the town or dungeon to fullfill what that dramatic event caused the music just changes to the normal one all of the sudden.
    Some of you may be scratching your heads now, but think a little with me here, if someone important is killed in the game and the killer is close, you will run to catch him, but while you're at that small chase the music that makes the player feel the pressure still goes on until you face the killer (im not saying this happened, just using it as an example of normal game design), so its like "omg this is happening" in one zone and "oh its all normal now" as soon as you leave the zone or the room.
    The rest, its pretty decent for a tradicional JRPG.

    Gameplay:
    Oh boy, this is what i personally consider the most important thing in a game. The gameplay is kinda of a complex one yet very nice to experiment with. Everytime you buy a weapon you get those gems attached to them that if you train enough you can actually take them off and equip in other weapons, this is a good thing to make the grinding being not only for XP purpose because this game is kinda hard and requires a good share of grinding for levels because every boss fight will get you mini-heart attacks every time that the boss turn is on.
    The Orb system is not a hard one to learn weither but one thing in this game is kinda out of place and that is the WP, that's a thing that just shouldn't be there, it isn't necessary, its use is soully make the game harder. Overall think it like the materia system from FFVII turned into a small puzzle that awakens your weapon's secret power.

    Story:
    Well, there are good points and bad points here, I'll start with the bad ones.
    The map is huge they could have made at least 20 more locations but instead the story makes you go to the same places multiple times in different orders again and again, I lost count of how many times I've visited the republic's capital only to be sent to a small town for the party to have a small conversarion at the entrance and then "let's get back to the capital". Dungeon recycling is also present, sometimes its justifiable and sometimes just seems that the game designers were out of places to visit.
    Now the good part, the Story kinda keeps you going with the mystery and triggering your curiosity to look for more rogress and has an ending that made me kinda cry because of 2 things, and one of them is that there will be no sequel (the other would be spoiler). The character developing is there too and evolves with the pacing gone just right.

    Problems: Horrible english dub (Just play undub please), low score reviews because it wasn't a big game company that made it.    … Full Review »
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