Arc the Lad

Arc the Lad was developed by G-Craft and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on June 30, 1995. Notable for being the first game to feature an orchestral soundtrack, Arc the Lad features tactical role-playing game battle elements that combines both tactics and traditional role-playing game elements, which would become a staple for the series. In this first installment, the lead protagonist, Arc, sets off from his small town of Touvil after he learns about a plot involving the destruction of the world during his quest to discover what happened to his missing father 10 years prior to the game's events. During his travels, Arc gathers a band of six other allies: Kukuru, Poco, Gogen, Tosh, Chongara, and Iga, all of whom would go on to appear in later games. Arc the Lad II, developed by ARC Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, was released in Japan on November 1, 1996, and was re-released twice under Sony's 'The Best' brand. Arc the Lad II continues to use the tactical battle format seen in the previous game, this time featuring much more complex mechanics than its predecessor that include leveling systems for weapons and armor for both playable characters and enemies, a redesigned battle system, a more interactive world map including explorable towns, and a longer game length. first as part of Arc the Lad Collection (where it was known as Arc Arena: Monster Tournament), and again when it was released on the Japanese PlayStation Store as a PSone Classic on December 12, 2007. This spinoff for Arc the Lad II consists of the Monster Game allowing the player to raise up the stats of recruitable Monsters gathered in Arc the Lad II, as well as the stats of the playable characters by pitting them in fighting arenas, and the Casino Game, an unrelated set of gambling minigames featuring Chongara, who runs his own Casino House in the hopes of finding a gambling champion. So far, the Casino Game is the only Arc the Lad game that has yet to be translated into English. Arc the Lad III, developed by ARC Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, was the final Arc game for the PlayStation and was released on October 28, 1999. It was the only PlayStation Arc the Lad game to be on two discs. Similarly to the first two games, this Arc the Lad title uses tactical battles and basic RPG elements based on the one from Arc the Lad II. Arc the Lad: Kishin Fukkatsu ( is a Wonderswan Color game developed by Bandai and released in 2002 in Japan. Set after Arc the Lad III, this game features similar combat and gameplay to the previous installments. In this spinoff, Elc returns as the main character alongside a mysterious girl named Finia, who was sent from the future to his time due to a hostile robot takeover that occurred in her time. Finia, Elc, and several of Elc's friends return once again to save humanity from the robots that have now begun to travel to the past. While this title was only released in Japan, a fan translation is currently in the works. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is the first PlayStation 2 game in the Arc the Lad series, and the first 3D game in the series. It was developed by Cattle Call, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and was released in Japan on March 20, 2003 and in North America on June 25 of the same year by Sony Computer Entertainment America. This was also the only Arc the Lad game to date to come out in Europe, released by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe the following year. Set 1,000 years after Arc the Lad III, Twilight of the Spirits takes place in the same world amid striving tensions between humans and a new race of humanoid monsters known as Deimos . The game follows an intersecting storyline involving a pair of hybrid human and Deimos twins named Kharg and Darc, who set out on a journey to collect five magical stones for their own ambitions and for the future of their retrospective races, all while trying to take down the autocratic Empire of Dilzweld who longs for those very same stones and a mysterious girl who carries one of the stones. Twilight of the Spirits redos the original grid based battle system in favor of allowing characters to move freely in circular ranges across fields during combat. Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is the second Arc the Lad game to be released on the PS2. Developed by Cattle Call and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, the game was released in Japan on November 3, 2004. Namco then published the game for its North American release. Taking place five years after Twilight of the Spirits, End of Darkness follows an exorcist named Edda who becomes a hunter and has to defeat a group of monsters called Malademons, who can only be destroyed with his exorcist powers. While previous gameplay elements such as the Hunter's Guild and Synthesis returns, this game does not follow the tactical style of the previous games, instead using action RPG based combat. This game also has the distinction of being the first crossover in the Arc the Lad series, allowing players to play as select characters from the original PlayStation trilogy, as well all playable characters from Twilight of the Spirits. is the latest Arc game, released on August 25, 2018 for iOS and Android in Japan, later getting a Chinese localization by Boltrend Games in 2019, with the company announcing an English localization in 2020 and released on May 11, 2021. Developed by AltPlus and published by ForwardWorks, Sony's mobile gaming division, Arc the Lad R was developed by many key members of the first two Arc the Lad games, including creator Toshiro Tsuchida, world planner Hiroshi Hayashi, character artist Ryuichi Kunisue, graphic and field artist Eiji Koyama, and composer Masahiro Andoh. It returns to the tactical grid-based gameplay of the original trilogy while including a new gacha based system to obtain characters. Taking place 10 years after the events of Arc the Lad II in a new timeline (Retconning the series after Arc the Lad II, however, characters from III appear in R), Arc the Lad R follows two new protagonists named Halt and Mizuha, who attempt to stop the Empire of Aldia from taking Mizuha for unknown purposes, as well as the Divine Beasts, monsters which threaten the world as society currently tries to rebuild from the events of the Great Disaster caused during the ending of Arc the Lad II. On April 26, 2021, it was announced that the Japanese servers for Arc the Lad R was going to be discontinued on June 30, 2021, however, existing players are still able to play the game via an offline-only update offered on the day of the server's shutdown. The English servers would later shutdown on June 14, 2022, with no offline version offered. ==Development==

When the Arc games were originally released in Japan years before a North American release, SCEA hardly considered bringing them to the U.S., thinking that the role-playing video game market was not an important one. Working Designs, then known in the U.S. for publishing RPGs, actually tried to license Arc the Lad, but Sony of America turned them down. Years later, SCEA came under new management, and with the popularity of other RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, Working Designs was able to publish all three games at once with the Japanese release of Arc the Lad III. ==Reception==

Each of the Arc games has received decent reception. Arc the Lad Collection has an 80.77% on GameRankings. When the collection was released, the first two games' graphics seemed a bit outdated, Arc the Lad: End of Darkness, the second Arc game for the PS2, is generally rated much lower than the other games, receiving a 57% on GameRankings.com. As of 2018, the series has sold over 3.7 million copies worldwide. ==Anime==

}} }} An anime adaptation of the series titled Arc the Lad was produced by Bee Train and directed by Itsuro Kawasaki. Despite its name, it is an adaptation of Arc the Lad II instead of the original game. The series ran on Japan's WOWOW satellite network for 26 episodes from April 5, 1999, to October 11, 1999 as part of the Anime Complex omnibus series. A North American release was produced by ADV Films and aired on the Anime Network, three years before said game would be released internationally through Arc the Lad Collection. Plot Arc the Lad loosely follows the story of Arc the Lad II, notably introducing new characters and settings and omitting others from the original games. Like the game, the anime follows a young man named Elc, the last member of a tribe of firecasters who were all massacred by the Empire of Romaila, who secretly controls the world and produces powerful monstrous (sometimes human) creations known as Chimera. After a hunter mission that goes haywire, Elc gets caught up in a major conflict when he rescues a young female beast tamer named Lieza and her pet wolf, Paundit, not realizing that Lieza is currently being hunted by Romalia. Simutaniously, the anime also follows Arc and his allies, who are in an ongoing war with Romalia as Kukuru attempts her best to subdue the power of darkness within the Sabatico Shrine, which Romalia seeks. At the core of the conflict is a man named Clive, who seeks a bigger interest in Lieza as its soon realized that she may be the key to get closer to the five Great Spirits of the world. Voice actors Episode list Music The opening theme for the anime series was Arc the Lad Main Theme by Masahiro Andoh. Two ending themes were sung by NiNa: Happy Tomorrow (episodes 01–12, 26) and Rest in Peace (episodes 13–26). ==See also==