Arc Rise Fantasia

 Wii
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
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  1. 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 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.Graphics 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!!… Expand
  2. 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 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.
  3. Future
    Dec 3, 2010
    9
    For those looking for an RPG with a battle system (turn based) with a choice of strategy, evolved system of spells and weapons customization, will have great fun.

    The story is original and interesting, involving a bit of politics and religion.

    Misses RPG on the Wii? Give him a chance.
  4. Ayreos
    Sep 5, 2013
    6
    The skilled artwork, great presentation, charming characters and interesting combat really rose my hopes up for this game. Unfortunately, the sometimes awkward voice acting, the unforgivably unpolished cutscenes and the blandness of the setting have quickly crushed most expectations. Granted, it is not hard to play through this RPG and get away some entertainment from it, Arc Rise FantasiaThe skilled artwork, great presentation, charming characters and interesting combat really rose my hopes up for this game. Unfortunately, the sometimes awkward voice acting, the unforgivably unpolished cutscenes and the blandness of the setting have quickly crushed most expectations. Granted, it is not hard to play through this RPG and get away some entertainment from it, Arc Rise Fantasia will hardly provide starved RPG fans with the depth and memorable moments they are looking for.… Expand
  5. bigjohn13
    Aug 22, 2012
    8
    this is a good game with a great storyline but the problem for me was the strategy based fighting other than that it was a good game .i would recommend playing it
  6. 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 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    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 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.    … Expand
  7. TheCoffeeTalker
    Sep 24, 2016
    7
    So I bought this game hoping for some cool RPG gameplay. I found it, except the voice acting..... If it wasn't for the horrible voice acting and the inaccurate animation on people's mouths. This game would have gotten a 9/10 instead. It just isn't appealing to the eye or the ear.
  8. ariashadow
    Apr 29, 2011
    9
    this is a great turn base RPG with a story that has a good amount of twists, it has color full graphics and flashy attacks but the game suffers from bad voice acting
  9. Lancepimi
    Aug 29, 2011
    8
    Un JRPG clásico en el sentido más estricto de la palabra. Combates por turnos, personajes pintorescos y una buena historia apocaliptica. No innova pero precisamente eso le hace especial. Recupera todo lo bueno de los antiguos juegos de rol e introduce un poco de estrategia a los combates y armas. Un imprescindible para los amantes del jrpg.
  10. helena23
    Nov 18, 2011
    9
    classic japanese style rpg with a few nice innovations (weapon upgrade and magic orb system) nice story, stylish graphic (although the lack of antialias really hurts) and challengin boss battles make this the best FF style rpg ive played since dq VIII...............great PD: terrible voice acting is not enough argument to put this game down
  11. VonSeux
    Jun 28, 2012
    8
    Better story, battle system and item management than 95% RPGs out there, ignore the bad voice acting and have fun! The game is quite lenghty and challanging, you'll sure die a lot on boss fights! =)
  12. ZombieAxeHero
    Feb 13, 2013
    5
    When I first bought this game, I was really hoping for a great RPG experience like the one I got from Tales of Symphonia. Sadly, that's not what happened. Granted, I had a little fun with strategic combat that the game provided and the graphics are quite nice (for the Wii, anyway), but as I played the game longer, the faults began to surface. While I did enjoy the combat system, it seemsWhen I first bought this game, I was really hoping for a great RPG experience like the one I got from Tales of Symphonia. Sadly, that's not what happened. Granted, I had a little fun with strategic combat that the game provided and the graphics are quite nice (for the Wii, anyway), but as I played the game longer, the faults began to surface. While I did enjoy the combat system, it seems that console-based RPGs are more suited to real-time. Second is that while standard enemies are no problem, the bosses are unforgivable and force you to grind levels to even stand a chance agianst them. The last two things, however, are what really killed it for me. The story (for the most part) is very shallow and too similar to Tales of Symphonia to be bragged about, and I couldn't find one character in this game who wasn't either irrelevant to what was going on or just cliche as all hell, especially Adele and Ryfia. And of course there's what everybody else has touched on: the English voice acting is absolutely horrendous (not helped by the fact you can't change it to Japanese). The bottom line is that if you're looking for a good RPG on the Wii, Arc Rise Fantasia isn't the last game to look for, but it's certainly not the first.… Expand
  13. Nyrholnen
    Jul 29, 2013
    9
    This game is fantastic!, the battle system is innovative and charming, good for strategy plans and more powerfull attacks.
    the charaters had their good moments,i liked the voice action at least they gave the game more emotion,the final was pretty cool too.
    the difficulty wasn´t very bad, you just had to plan more and level up a little bit before the bosses.

    i would recomend to everyone.
  14. midipon
    Apr 26, 2014
    9
    While I admit ARF has its problems (mostly with the easy level-hard boss setup) this is still one of my favorite games ever. The bosses are challenging but extremely rewarding, the story is contrived but interesting, the characters are written well, and the battle system is absorbing. Depending on how you play, the boss battles can and will last up to an hour, but you'll never be bored inWhile I admit ARF has its problems (mostly with the easy level-hard boss setup) this is still one of my favorite games ever. The bosses are challenging but extremely rewarding, the story is contrived but interesting, the characters are written well, and the battle system is absorbing. Depending on how you play, the boss battles can and will last up to an hour, but you'll never be bored in your attempt to survive and win. The bosses don't have a set pattern that gets boring after two rounds, but keep you on your toes as they will continually shave off your remaining health. If you love JRPGs, can tolerate some of the smaller things, and have a Wii, this game is a MUST!… Expand
  15. Daniel_x2
    Jan 9, 2015
    9
    Arc rise fantasia es uno de los grandes títulos que vistieron al Wii durante su tiempo ya que nos presenta una historia muy solida con uno cambios de argumento geniales y situaciones inesperadas que harán que la historia te mantenga al filo de asiento; asi mismo este jueggo nos presenta un gameplay innovador en muchas facetas con un hermosa aroma a los Rpg´s de la vieja escuela. SiendoArc rise fantasia es uno de los grandes títulos que vistieron al Wii durante su tiempo ya que nos presenta una historia muy solida con uno cambios de argumento geniales y situaciones inesperadas que harán que la historia te mantenga al filo de asiento; asi mismo este jueggo nos presenta un gameplay innovador en muchas facetas con un hermosa aroma a los Rpg´s de la vieja escuela. Siendo honestos este titulo parece una fusión entre Final Fantasy VII y Tales of Shymponias por muchas cosas en su desarrollo.
    El replay value es otra de las cosas buenas, ya que hay mucho lugares que es necesario re explorar para que puedas encontrar armas especiales, diálogos comicos y algo que no podía faltar: jefes especiales los cuales tienen alto nivel de dificultad.
    Con todo esto podemos concluir que Arc Rise Fantasia es un gran juego que desafortunadamente fue poco conocido gracias a la exagerada critica negativa e injusta que recibió.
    Afortunadamente este título se cruzó en el camino de este servidores para re valorarlo y darle el trato que se merecer
    La calficación que le otorgo a este titulo es de: 9.5    … Expand
  16. Mr_Eleganto
    Jul 26, 2021
    8
    It took me around 3 months to beat it, with pauses, omg... 90 freaking hours, 2 grindwalls (well, I probably played it the wrong way), but I totally agree with the user score - it's a hidden gem and I'm not regretting of buying a Wii for this Imageepoch's great title out here. The adventure was so good: there were good story, also characters, world building, different kinds of situations,It took me around 3 months to beat it, with pauses, omg... 90 freaking hours, 2 grindwalls (well, I probably played it the wrong way), but I totally agree with the user score - it's a hidden gem and I'm not regretting of buying a Wii for this Imageepoch's great title out here. The adventure was so good: there were good story, also characters, world building, different kinds of situations, fun skits, decent dialogues and much more. If you see this review - please try this game, you probably won't regret this either! I was playing undub version, it's something to be aware of, for starters, English VO was bad, sadly.… Expand
  17. mmert138
    Sep 11, 2021
    9
    The game is one of the best rpgs on the wii, top 3 if I may say. Has a great story, has great art style, drawn by the guy who drew Eureka 7 anime, has a great voice cast (if you play the undub version, otherwise do not bother turning the volume of voices), and an amazing soundtrack. Though the plot has to be its main selling point. It's such a shame the company went bankrupt, because thisThe game is one of the best rpgs on the wii, top 3 if I may say. Has a great story, has great art style, drawn by the guy who drew Eureka 7 anime, has a great voice cast (if you play the undub version, otherwise do not bother turning the volume of voices), and an amazing soundtrack. Though the plot has to be its main selling point. It's such a shame the company went bankrupt, because this game really deserves a remaster on newer platforms, to get played by more people.… Expand
  18. trailsomagnolia
    Jul 29, 2020
    9
    My biggest concern playing this game were the voice actors. They just.. didn't sound authentic or good to me. It felt like they were just basically reading the script for the first time and going along that way for the entire game. I may be the only person who feels this way, their words just never tied in uniformly to whatever emotions they were supposed to be portraying. Nonetheless, IMy biggest concern playing this game were the voice actors. They just.. didn't sound authentic or good to me. It felt like they were just basically reading the script for the first time and going along that way for the entire game. I may be the only person who feels this way, their words just never tied in uniformly to whatever emotions they were supposed to be portraying. Nonetheless, I pushed through. The rest of the game was overall enjoyable. The storyline was better than I imagined it to be, and the battle system was really quite good once I got the hang of it. It was definitely different than other battle systems I was used to playing within the JRPG universe. Though what really made me stay was the music. It was well done and beautiful, it even brought a tear or two to my eyes during my 75 hours playing this. I never felt like it was repetitive or annoying, it was enjoyable and even sometimes relaxing. Sometimes I'd stay in a specific place just to hear a certain piece over and over again. I felt like they really pushed the boundaries with this game and did pretty well!

    it was a solid game for it's time, I'd give this a 8.5/10, would definitely play it again!    … Expand
  19. Haku76
    Aug 5, 2020
    9
    One of my favorite RPGs, the story was great and full of twists, the soundtrack is one of my favorites, the gameplay is fun and interesting, and the magic and weapon system are fun to set up. The bosses can be a bit of a grind but I have a habit of grinding anyway. I just with the localization was handled better, their work was just horrible for such a great game.

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

Critic Reviews

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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
  1. Cubed3
    Feb 26, 2011
    70
    Minor technical issues, wasted opportunities and dreadful voice acting bring Arc Rise Fantasia down, but there's still plenty of enjoyment to be found as long as you know what to expect.
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  2. Nintendojo
    Oct 21, 2010
    67
    Even with those drawbacks, though, Imageepoch gets serious props for doing what no developer has yet seen fit to do; namely, give Wii owners a party-based RPG free of gimmicks.
    Read full review
  3. Destructoid
    70
    Arc Rise Fantasia is the perfect RPG to play "between" RPGs. Something to pick up before the next big AAA experience hits and scratch an itch that one gets during the genre's common dry periods.
    Read full review
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