Name: Arc The Lad 2 (80.00% in 13 votes)
Type: RPG
Platform: PSX
Company: Sony
Release date: 1996
Reviewed by: Tamahome
Hi. Recently I did a review on Arc the Lad 1 which was released in 1995 with the production of the PSX. It was considered a success since it was the first RPG game to be out for the psx. However, the length of the game was the most disappointing part about it. 7 hours of gameplay just does not hit the spot for a traditional RPG game and being a hardcore RPG gamer, I found it rather sad that it is considered an RPG.
However, Sony Computer Entertainment redeemed themself with the release of Arc The Lad 2 two years after the release of Arc The Lad 1. Although much of the graphics and spell remained the same, the story line and the exploration maps are more abundant and a lot better.
The story begins with Elk, who was an orphan who was kidnapped after his village was destroyed by the imperial forces. He was used along with other children with extraordinary powers for reasearch. He managed to escape out of the laboratory and he started a new life as a bounty hunter until he met the main female character who was being chased.
Thus their story begins. Later on in the game, the main characters of this game will also join forces with Arc and his pals from the first game who were now being chased by imperial forces as bandits. The main feature of this game is probably the ability to port over the items and character statistics from the first game into this one. If you take the time to max out the characters from the first game, then Arc, Kukuru and the other characters would be very powerful.
Saying more about the game will probably do nothing more, so I recommend getting the game yourself to see. There are no US version to this game so you'll have to get the imported version, but I think it is worth it.
Here are the ratings I give to this game:
Gameplay: 7/10 -- The gameplay did not improve much from the first game. The only difference in the gameplay is probably the fact that there are dungeons instead of individual battles as in the first game.
Music: 8/10 -- The music tracks are mostly the same track as the first game, with a few added ones, so I don't think there is much more to say about the music.
Story: 8/10 -- Very good story. Very touching in some parts and funny in others. The ending was kinda expected, but acceptable.
Graphics: 8/10 -- Not much improvement from the first game, but there is now a map where you could walk to different scenes in the game instead of the plain old red spot on map thingy from the first game. I must make another remark on the fact that the backgrounds are still very high quality. The added FMVs to the game is also a nice addition.
Overall: 7.9/10 -- This game is definitely an improvement from the first installement of the game. It has a good story and an acceptable length of 50 hours or so, which makes it more of an RPG :). Too bad I deleted my save files when I finished the game, because sony just released another version of Arc The Lad where you could use the character saves from the second installment. I guess I'll just have to replay the game later :)
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