Arc the Lad

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Arc the Lad 2:  Hojo, Is That You?


This segment of the game almost took 1 1/2 hours to complete, without being able to save for most of it.  Arc the Lad 2 has no respect for your time.  This is odd considering you can beat Arc 1 in 10-15 hours, including most of the optional content.



Tosh and Shu had to set up bombs to derail the Romalian train.  This sequence started with a solo Tosh battle.  He had to hold out for about 19 turns before using an item to leave the fight.  Since Arc 1 bonuses leveled him to 60, this was quite easy with a few healing items.  Tosh didn't have much range, but any sword slash dealt major damage.  I made use of his counterattack skill, which has a long Japanese name that I can't remember.

Then Shu had to beat up a few enemies to turn on the bombs.  An FMV of the train played, and now they could go inside the next dungeon.  The problem was that gargoyle statues blocked the way out. 


The Chimera Lab was a cutscene heavy place that often switched between different parties' perspective.  The dungeon itself was surprisingly linear compared to previous ones.  My characters had to kill various imposters with all the skills of the real versions.  (But not level, fortunately.)  Faux Gogen's spells were especially dangerous.

After all were defeated, I could assemble my own party and take on zombies.  This granted access to the healing beds.  However, they respawned if I returned after leaving.  This wasted some time.  At the end, Gallarno taunted the party and opened doors filled with Elc and Tosh clones.  To avoid confusion, I wasn't allowed to use Elc in the fake Elc battle, or Tosh in the faux Tosh room.  Fighting Toshes without my level 60 Tosh was difficult.  Poco's buffs and healing helped out quite a bit.


At the end of the Chimera Lab was Gallarno, who had transformed himself into a mutant like Hojo did in Final Fantasy 7.  Did Square spy on the Arc 2 development team?  Anyway, it worked much like the Gunhed battle.  Arc, Elc, Tosh, and Iga attacked the various parts, while Poco buffed and healed.  Offensive spells were disappointing, so most of the damage was dealt with regular melee attacks.  There were two scythe-wielding undead minions at the sides of the arena, but they respawned as soon as they were killed, so there was no point in attacking them.


Once Gallarno was defeated, Elc and Arc's parties joined for good.  I could leave Romalia now, but there were a few side missions to do.  Apparently I could fail them if I took too long, since the one about Lieza finding a missing kid was marked as incomplete.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Arc the Lad 2:  Romancing the Stone


After all the negative things I've said about Arc the Lad 2 in previous updates, it's time for some good news.


Romalia was prepared to invade Iga's home country of Greyshinne, and Arc and company had to stop it.  But first, they had to go through a mildly tedious quest involving asking a bunch of identical-looking NPCs if they had seen Greyshinne's sacred scroll.  This had to have been a joke on the part of the original developers, since the visual element means that it wasn't added to the Working Designs translation.  Imagine if you had to talk to every Youngster in one of the old Pokemon games to continue with the plot, and you'll get the idea.

It turned out that the scroll was in a battlefield outside of town.  My overleveled Arc 1 characters (and Elc) beat up the generic monsters without too much trouble.  When they retrieved the scroll, a Guardian gave Iga a new ability that was supposedly strong enough to destroy the planet if misused.  Chances are it won't be any stronger than his other skills.


The fun part came when Romalian troops were about to cross the Greyshinne border.  But the cruel general of the region had no regard for his own troops' survival, and deployed a giant cannon to try to kill Arc.  This made for a good fight.  Occasionally, the cannon would aim at a set of tiles on the map, and then hit everyone inside that radius for significant damage if they didn't move out of the way in time.  The story scene wasn't lying either, because the cannon could hurt enemies too.


The threat of the cannon was a good incentive to move my party around the map and use Poco's Agility buff.  Elc, Arc, Tosh, and Iga used their melee for the most part, although Elc once cast Fire Storm to pick off a skeleton while staying out of the cannon's range.  The enemy variety for this mission was no better than before, but the gimmick made it much more interesting than the average battle.


Once the border mission was completed, the world map opened up.  I could now take the airship to any place I had previously been, along with some areas from Arc 1 that Elc hadn't seen yet.  The first stop was Chongara's Shop in Alatos.  Chongara was a party member in the previous game, but was now demoted to an information NPC on the airship.  Since Chongara was only good for his summons in Arc 1, it wasn't much of a loss.


Chongara's Shop was full of treasure chests containing my transferred items from Arc 1.  All 4 Romancing Stones made it through, ensuring that I could beat the game no matter how bad the final dungeon was.  Once Arc and friends were through ransacking Chongara's Shop, they went to Yagos Isle.  Its Combine Shop created the Romancing Stone accessory from the Arc 1 items, as well as several new elemental swords.  I then tested out the Romancing Stone in a skirmish inside the Sealed Ruins with Elc.

The Romancing Stone's descriptions says it reduces MP costs, but what it really means is that you can cast any spell for free.  This includes Invincible.  Arc 2's Romancing Stone may be the most overpowered RPG equipment since Super Mario RPG's Lazy Shell armor.


Dieckbeck's stored experience leveled Poco to 50 thanks to the King's Image accessory boost.  He wasn't on par with level 60 Arc or Tosh, but it placed him above Elc and almost even with Iga.  Chances are Lieza and Shante won't see too much action from this point on.  Why use a weak dedicated healer when Arc or Poco can heal and fight or buff as well?  (Whoever programmed the stats and movesets for Arc the Lad games didn't have much regard for the female characters.  Kukuru from Arc 1 can't be used at all because she's stuck at the Sabatico Shrine.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Arc the Lad 2:  Where's the Enemy Variety?


Some of the side missions in Prodias were amusing.  One required me to pick a decoy character, so I chose Tosh.  He fought one generic soldier enemy and then hauled him off to the authorities.


Dieckbeck felt left out because he didn't get any Arc 1 accessories.  So I took the Gyroid to the Greyshinne Sealed Ruins to pick up two new Power Units.  It was a slog through 8 floors with only two types of enemies:  Ghosts, and Living Armors.  Living Armors were annoying when they attacked with Paralyze Wind, but were generic monsters if their AI decided to be stupid.  One major complaint I have about this game is the lack of enemy variety.  (The game with the most enemy variety is probably Yoshi's Island.)  The Power Units only gave minor boosts, but maybe the new spells will be useful later on.


At the end of that dungeon, I gave the Romancing Stone to Poco.  Poco uses spells far more often than my other characters, and can have a good offensive presence with Lion Drum and Atrophy Horn if he doesn't have to worry about MP costs.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Arc the Lad 2:  Are You Sick of Sealed Ruins Yet?


There were still more Dieckbeck Power Units to get, so Arc and friends slogged through the Sealed Ruins in Alatos and Brakia.  Each had the usual Arc 2 design problem of taking two kinds of enemies and using Control + V to flood the dungeon with them.  The robots in the Brakia ruins could hit multiple characters from a long range with their guns, and Poco's free Romancing Stone healing spells were essential.  The wolves in the Alatos ruins attacked with paralyzing breath like many other Arc 2 enemies.

One other problem with the Sealed Ruins levels was that the areas were too big for battles.  Many turns were wasted just moving my characters around, or waiting for enemies to advance.  Overall, Arc 2 feels like it wastes your time more than Arc 1.

Elc noticeably fell behind because he wasn't dealing as much damage as Tosh or Arc.  Perhaps I should give him the Romancing Stone and have him solo a dungeon with Invincible to make him catch up.

Future updates may be more sporadic.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Arc the Lad 2:  Wait, There's Plot Advancement In This Game?!


Where we last left off, Arc and friends were slashing generic enemies in Sealed Ruins to get equipment for Dieckbeck.  In this segment, they were. . .slashing generic enemies to resolve Gruga's storyline.  At least it was progress. . .


Romalia's next target was Gruga's country Brakia.  He was already a local hero for winning a war of independence in some backstory I don't care about.  After beating up some ghosts in Gruga's village, there was some discussion about a new lord in the manor who was oppressing the people.  This turned out to be none other than Gruga's old nemesis, the evil Rygar!  No relation to the beloved NES game.  Rygar's master plan involved building another Romalian mind control machine in a volcano, because geologically unstable locations are the perfect place for such things.


In order to speed through Banza Mountain, I gave Elc the Romancing Stone and the King's Image accessories so he could solo the dungeon.  Invincible level 2 allowed Elc to take one action before having to cast the spell again.  Most of the time, he cast the wide range Fire spell Explosion.  Sword counterattacks dealt damage during enemy turns.  The enemies were palette swapped fat gargoyle demons (?) and goblins, so it was clear the developers were phoning it in.  Navigating the dungeon itself involved moving mine cart tracks with switches, just like in Dragon Quest 5.


Rygar waited for the party at the end of the dungeon and summoned generic gas clouds to fight for him.  I didn't do this part solo, although I easily could have.  Elc cast Invincible for safety's sake.  Poco was the designated healer.  Gruga attacked with his generic melee, which surprisingly managed to kill one of the gas clouds.  Arc's Gale Flash (Light, not Wind!) hit a group of enemies.  Tosh couldn't do much more than slash with his sword, but he was good at that.


Arc and company ran out as an FMV showed a cloud of smoke coming out of the volcano.  Now we know where Arc the Lad 2's budget went.


All this took about an hour.  Arc 2 is best played in shorter sessions spread out over a long time.