about Arc the lad collection.....

[WTFer420]

let me get this straight so the 1st was a straegy game & the 2nd was a nomal rpg?

the 2nd one is it a action rpg ot a turn based one?
In the arc the lad collection is there any other games included or is it only Arc 1 & 2?

& a small tidbit, in the issue of gamefan Feb. 97 they say Arc the lad one was the 2nd best selling psx game of all time

[amerlop]

Well, I've played the first and it seems to be a strat-rpg with turn-based battles...but that's as far as I've gotten because of big stupid finals!

[ssbomberman]

Originally posted by WTFer420
let me get this straight so the 1st was a straegy game & the 2nd was a nomal rpg?

the 2nd one is it a action rpg ot a turn based one?
In the arc the lad collection is there any other games included or is it only Arc 1 & 2?

& a small tidbit, in the issue of gamefan Feb. 97 they say Arc the lad one was the 2nd best selling psx game of all time

Well, I'm 10 hours into the 2nd one. The second one still uses the grid fighting system like Shining Force, etc., but you can now visit towns and buy and equip different weapons. Plus the enemies are a bit more intelligent and toughe (not too much though). Like the enemies actually go behind you and attack now to cause more damage and more enemies have to be killed twice, like the skeletons in the first one. Knock them down once and then destroy their bones before they regenerate--there are alot more enemies that have this feature and some regenerate rather quickly.

Also each character can master different weapons, which brings in another cool feature. Weapons can level up also and each character can level up their mastery of certain weapons. For example, the main character Elc begins the game with a spear. But later on you can buy a sword for him and equip that instead. You can check the status of each in the "status" menu. So for me, I have Elc's sword level at 7 and spear level at 5 because I find the sword more effective. There isn't much to it, all you have to do is equip whichever weapon you prefer and they will level up in normal combat.

Another thing you can do is take your weapon to blacksmiths and have them enhanced with effects or pay to level them up. My Elc has a sword enhanced with +hp on attack, so whenever I attack a creature, I gain life. There are tons of things you can do with weapons, which is cool.

You can also go to combine shops where you can join multiple items and weapons to make new, more powerful ones.

The game is much improved over the first. You have a basic storyline that includes characters from the first, but your main team is all new people. There are also side quests that you can voluntarily do by going to "guilds" and accepting jobs--you earn money and merits for completing them. Also when you are just fighting creatures in the normal world, you'll sometimes come across "wanted" enemies. Kill them and then you can go to the guild and collect a bounty and merits (eventually the merits let you do certain things, not sure what yet).

So I'd say the second one is much more the standard role-playing game than the first because you have much more variety and control over where you go and what you equip.

As far as the collection, there are 6 discs total--Arc 1,2,3 and Arena tournament (which works with Arc 2--your one character Lieza in Arc 2 can use a spell "ravish" to capture monsters during battle, you can then use them on your side and in the arena).

it also has a making of CD--all in all the collection is worth it for Arc 2 alone.