Sooooo I read a bit about the development of Arc 3 and simply put it wasn't meant to exist. Arc 1 and 2 was meant to be a closed loop so to speak but in Japan (and really only Japan) they were shockingly popular to the point that public demand mandated a third game. That the team didn't have much idea what to do for. Yeah Twilight of spirits is pretty flawed but it does more with its premise then this one.
I'm seething that I found that out as I was uploading the video. It seems like a very important piece to this puzzle, and I'm gonna pin your comment. They even say it in the interview I put IN THIS VIDEO but I must've just blanked at that part.
this is a common thing with game series. a game has an ending but they want to continue the series so do a soft reboot but won't let the old characters go. ace attorney had this happen and currently yakuza is going through this.
Always nice to see reviews of these older games like this. Honestly, I've been mostly watching videos/reviews on games that don't get that much attention, and it's always a joy to see someone dive into the nitty gritty of games most people wouldn't even spare a 5 minute video on.
That's the direction I want to go in the future. More videos on lesser-covered titles, as obscure as I can possibly go on conventional, mainstream gaming consoles. You can only watch a video on Mario 64 so many times before you go looking for new stuff, at least I think so.
Legit, while editing, I was still surprised by how good the FMVs look. It doesn't quite command the same mastery over the 3D elements that other games of the genre do, but it does look damn good.
I actually liked this one allot. The main story was nothing, but the focus on storytelling via sidequests was done quite well. Lots of character interactions would change depending on whether you did some other sidequests and could be different depending on the result (like if you failed to complete the quest). The tone of the game was much more bright and friendshipy but I think it fit nicely with the concept of humanity rebuilding after a near apocalypse and trying to work together towards greater good, which is why there's such an emphasis on sidequests. But yeah Arc the Lad 3 was absolutely an afterthought and I kinda respect the dev's decision to not try to add too much to the completed saga of 1 and 2. I should add I played it on my PSP when traveling which may have affected my experience.
This was the one Arc The Lad collection game I never finished I got bored with the story midway through. I feel that some of the ideas presented would later be used to create to the first entry in The Legend of Heroes: Trails In The Sky which is ironic cause Arc 3 released in 1999 and Trails In The Sky released in 2004. Sky uses the same ideas present in Arc The Lad 3 your main characters want to be top rank Bracers so you do jobs for all the branches of the Bracer guild in the country only the world building and characters development is so much better especially because the dialouge for all NPCs (who are living their own lives as well) changes after each major story even needless to say the script is massive. Also the series is 9 game long and still ongoing it’s basically the MCU of JRPGs. If you want to see Arc The Lad 3 done exceptionally well play the Trails series. Edit: Don’t know why but I still love the intro theme for Arc 3 it just feels epic.
tbh, the third entry was my favorite in this series. i look back with shame now upon the devastation i caused to this beautiful cd set. i'd be able to buy so many lbs of jelly bellies with that kind of dough
Hey to each their own, we're all entitled to our opinions. I happen to love Arc 3 and it was a big part of my childhood growing up. The OST is boppin and the characters and gameplay were interesting. I can admit that the story did fall flat in some places but overall I had a very good time playing it as a kid and I enjoyed my recent re-playthrough of the whole game. It brought back a lot of memories and in my eyes still holds up after all these years. Arc 2 was (to me) so long and boring itself and it seemed to drag on for ages and ages, while Arc 1 was short and sweet but to the point. I dunno I feel like maybe you were a bit too harsh on this game. That said, as a sequel to the previous two, its not really that good. But on it's own and as a first entry to the series (which is how I was first introduced to the og3) its pretty cool.
best improvement Arc 3 made was that you don't have to center an enemy or character in the middle square of the targeting area like you did in Arc 1 and 2, so there is more freedom on how you can hit your enemies or allies with a spell I'm probably the only person on earth who LOVED Arc 3, and thought it was the best of the series. I thought everything about it was an improvement over the first 2 games, and enjoyed the more leisurely story, the slice of life elements with less world ending stakes (at least at first), the world building, the quirky cast of characters, both in the party and many recurring (the Rainbow Bridge Gang always made me think of Team Rocket), and getting to see how past characters had moved on after Arc 2 and the way the world changed after the Dark One's defeat. and I was CRAZY about the cardish system. I actually always go out of my way to try and cardish every enemy in the game and see every possible summon. Theo rocked.
I played Twilight of Spirits growing up and while the game wasn't anything amazing, I remember thinking it was a decent enough RPG. When I found out there were other games in the series, I was mildly curious about them, but since they were always stupid expensive, I kind of forgot about them. Thanks to these videos, I can see I truly did not miss much, apparently the sequel to Twilight of Spirits was also pretty lame.
I got started the same way! Absolutely adored Twilight of the Spirits but never played any of the others. I think I might've lucked out and hit the best one to start with, but I'm incredibly worried my memory hasn't held up and it's gonna be bad too. Still, it won't be as bad as End of Darkness but that's not making me feel any better.
@@Caspicum Twilight of the Spirits is one of those lesser known PS2 crown jewels. The console had so many RPG hits that it gets overshadowed by the competition. It wasn't an original JRPG by any means, but the gameplay was engaging enough + the story/world/music/voice acting was fantastic enough that I think it still holds up even today.
I like the visual style, it's really crisp and it works. It's a shame that as soon as more power came along visual styles like this were dropped whole sale, as if developers just unanimously decided that there was no future there.
Props to square for realizing the potential of this style with HD2D, Octopath looks great and I've got high hopes for DQ3make, Live A Live and Triangle Strategy
@@rkraccoons It's nice that they have come back around to this and that they are making bank, but HD2D is a more garish interpretation of this, and I'd like to see more devs swing back around and try something, shameful that everyone wants to do a port of PSX games to Switch and PC and nobody wants to put in effort to them. I'm looking at you Grandia "HD".
yeah look i'm not a fan of octopath's art style but I'd take it over most HD remasters any day. Whoever thought filtering the sharp pixel look out of the 2D sprites was a bad person. Square removed the filters for Chrono TRigger but Grandia HD is still disgusting to look at.
@@Caspicum I mean..to be fair, even Vandal Hearts is like.."this gameplay barely exists, I can break the mandatory loss battles with no effort...but man this is still fun" 🤣
Yeah. I always thought this game was a letdown. My best friend and his older brother played through the first two games when I brought the game over and later lent them the game (though the first game is not too long of an ordeal, obviously). My mom and I did play this one just to complete the collection and because we did not have that many games at the time. Damn when I think about it, my copy of the game basically got gang-banged.
hated lending my shit to people but I was so desperate for people to talk with final fantasy about, that I'd practically give my copies away. tough lesson learned hey. also that's sick that you played through arc with your mum. I'd imagine that'd make them a pretty comfy experience going back to.
Look, at this point in time, we can't definitively say that Arc is, or is not, a mad lad. However, what we can say is that the allegation is out, and we'll just have to see how the case resolves.
@@Caspicum and yet japan finds a way to just make it work, like Escaflowne amd Magical Knight Rayearth where you have this fantasy setting and then BAM! have some robots.
Did you like Twilight of the Spirits? I really like that game and think both the leads have great development. My only complaint with it after coming back to it after so long is that that combat, while fun, is slow. Most battles are fine but if you want to do the arena for the good rewards, you have to set aside like...2 hours.
I love Twilight, but you're right, the actual *game* isn't amazing. It's passable, it's okay, but the narrative is really where it's at. I've been struggling with the script because I rarely focus on the story in games, I'm more of a gameplay kind of guy, but writing the script (which is coming out soon) has killed me, and been mostly narrative-related. I've fully written End of Darkness and even a video on the mobile game, but Twilight script has really set me back because I love it, but I don't want to be boring and just talk about the story.
@@Caspicum I really enjoyed finagling the attack radius to JUST hit that extra opponent or the fact that the game rewards exploring the battlefield with actually really good rewards. If only you could play at 2 or 3 times speed. Also, the soundtrack is great. I am a sucker for the Deimos battle theme that has the bagpipes.
I completely understand the hate for working design translation I was playing lunar 2 on the Sega CD and a npc makes a bill Clinton( or maybe a bush) joke it took me out of the game and made the game feel extremely dated.
Wow this was a quick turnaround from the last vid. Was the Naruto one a smaller project overall? Arc the Lad 3 isn’t the only 3rd game I haven’t played. (Guess the other)
Carl on Duty 3: Black Cops. Also I've had Arc scripted since mid 2021, it was faster because I didn't play it or write it this month. :^) I spent 2021 writing and cataloging certain things to make future videos a bit quicker though, I'll have another out early March at the latest, and hopefully a fourth by the end of March.
I dabbled in 3D design a few years back and making anything not look uncanny is very, very difficult. I can't even imagine the lengths these poor bastards with their room-sized computers and VHS tapes.
@@Caspicum honestely its still crazy how gaming was a thing in the past seeing how weak pc's and consoles were They had some crazy optimization The fact that most ps1 style horror games need a relatively buff pc to run well is crazy
13:44 this reminds me of epic battle fantasy 5 where you can do the exact same thing as you mentioned here i wonder if the developer knew the existence of this game you can also capture bosses
i never played that because i assume all flash(?) games are garbo except the ones where you rocket or drive across a map and slowly upgrade your shit. I might have to change that.
@@Caspicum I should say this before you try them don’t expect a captivating story they are mostly focused on combat When comes to turn based RPGs these 3 are the best flash games series with different focus short like mardek chapter 1-3 (it’s story is decent gameplay is the least engaging) Sonny 1 and 2 (pure gameplay and some story progress every few battles) You buy epic battle fantasy 4 and 5 on steam for significantly extra content and 3rd game is free in steam You can also play them on the internet since the series began as a flash game series so even the newest title have been released on websites it has less content overall but it’s good for seeing if you would like it and recommending it I would recommend playing Epic battle Fantasy series as an whole on epic difficulty I have played plenty of good quality flash games I can recommend more if you would like there are a lot of trash but there are some rough diamonds
@@Caspicum I've finished all of em except 3. I've just replayed twilight and from a gameplay perspective it has the best gameplay. Story can be cheesy, characters are one dimensional. But over all it's my favorite and of course 2 is a solid choice as well.
I honestly made it through the first couple hours before I couldn’t find it in me to keep going. I really try to finish stuff, but this game just did not have a good hook or any real gameplay innovation. It just very felt slow to me. Maybe one day I’ll go back, but yeah. The first two might’ve been enough for me
Sucks to hear that, but I agree. I hear a lot of people defend Arc 3, and I appreciate their input, I just don't see it myself. Twilight, or Arc 4, is a gem, highly recommend if a narrative through line is important to you, which it sounds like it is. A bit over the top, very early PS2 in terms of animation and voice work, and nothing to do with the first 3, but still an absolute treat. Stop there though, do NOT play End of Darkness. You have been warned.
Gotta be a real RPG fan to delve this far into the feces bin for some not so quality gaming. Maybe Arc 3 should have been a Beat 'em up: side scrolling fighter
Oh bucko, you have no idea how much I hate myself. I actually can't help how much I love JRPGs that I'm willing to play all sorts of garbage. Please send help.
Does this mean 'Twilight of the Spirits' [spoilers] is also a massive retcon troll of AtL 3? I seem to remember there being some vauge references to only the first two games. That, and the fact they could market the PAL version as a new series.
To be honest, nah. Arc 3 is still good and deserves to exist. I felt that it being basically a longass slice-of-hunter-life epilogue about a recovering world fresh out of the Arc 2 ending was kinda interesting, and it made me think back on Arc main plot, actions and consequences as I wandered around the continents amid a group of who were pretty much the side NPCs-little-people to the whole epic and seen the familiar locations reshaped and affected by the main plot and important-characters-with-grande-destinies having already happened and moved on. It's not Arc 2 and it can't be as big as Arc 2, it's a sweep-up after it, and that's not a knock against it.
That makes me happy! I re-write my scripts too many times, so I'm glad it's paying off. I never tried to be 'funny' necessarily but if I can make people even smirk or exhale from my asides, that means it's working. Also watch for those cars, they can be deadly
I really enjoyed this game though for real lol. I understand it's not that great but still had enough fun for me to not get bored. I still like the second game the best though.
It's one of those things where, even a horrendously bad game is still enjoyable because it's so bad it's more of a spectacle. When it's just a bland 5/10 game, you feel like you've wasted your time. I'm *HOPING* with End of Darkness to at least be so sickened that it fuels my hatred, instead of just incredibly bored. The worst thing you can do is be boring.
I disagree with just about this entire review...but it was still interesting to see in how someone who got a lot less out of this game thought of some of the features I actually quite enjoyed. I liked the Guild System, as it allowed you to proceed the plot at your own pace. You don't have to do everything to advance it, and it linearly takes you through every major area in part 1/disk 1, so you get to know each region, and in all of them recruit 1 new party member that represents them in some way, before moving onto the next, slowly uncovering the world in its current state. And I think that's important to note. There's not nearly as many cities or regions as in the prior, but each one feels purpose built, since it is. This is a world recovering. None of these cities are quite as refined as what one would expect, they're more fallout type cities, each one taking on a role, not only narratively, but also in terms of the world, each one produces one type of good or service, because that's just what each area made easiest to work with. I also liked the combat. It's not as...expansive I'm going to say, as Arc 2, which had that fantastic Beast Taming system, and the absolutely huge cast of characters besides those you could catch with your pokewhip. Still, this meant there were no duplicates(The monsters were often duplicated), and since it knew what you'd have access to in terms of power level, the game actually had the ability to build the challenge around that. Sure, if you grind/do everything, it's easier, but it's able to challenge you if you try to storm straight through. That and I liked the side plots, as there's about 8 throughout the game. From Spicy and the Rainbow Bridge Gang's comedy, to Alba's whole dead parent backstory, to just a few general plots that take time to develop. And if you don't want to engage with something? Well, after the first mission in a plotline, you don't have to bother, as there's more than enough missions to activate the next story one, and it's rare past the Forest Village to really be confused on what the next plot mission is. And then there's the secrets and dungeons. Nothing is quite so...arduous as the assault on the train, that locked you into, I think, 10 battles once you started that part of the game. Instead, the most a dungeon has is five battles, and there's almost always a way to recover somewhere in there. Heck, the Fountains of saving and healing are more common, but again, optional difficulty, see how far you can get without them. Mind, I also like that there's no level scaled areas, outside of the arenas, something that carries over to Game 4. Not saying they're terrible, but I've never enjoyed an RPG that tries to directly level scale the opponent, as the CPU usually gets better stat growth than the player. Mind, you can eventually max out stats in some of this...Chongara Bomb on Hemo-Ji at rank 3 and more than 200 in his magic stat, means EVERYTHING dies in one-three rounds. Fun times in Arc 2. Oh, and I do like that you get a secret character, earned through special actions throughout the game, and she's...not OP at first. She's in fact, rather weak, but that's the point, you can level her up, and slowly make her OP if you want, and thanks to her specials, she can fulfill just about any combat role, making her worth it in the long run.
Arc 3 really is wasted potential. It could have been JRPG Fallout and deal with hope and despair after the apocalypse. Instead, it turned out to be a cashgrab sequel with a simple, shounen anime plot.
@@Caspicum On the bright side, it's easier to make games now than it was when Arc 3 originally released. Maybe someday a mad lad or lass will take the game's best ideas and make something better with it.
Great review, man. 😄I have found a lot of people give this game at eight or nine out of 10. But I'm really happy you gave this game your honest opinion. It makes for an awesome review. 👍👍Instead of just calling this game a masterpiece.And I'm really happy I have not played this game. I think I would have fallen asleep for that boring story. And slow gameplay.
I was told this game sucked before I tried it, but I assumed people were just comparing it to 2, which overall, was a pretty solid experience. I actually don't think I've ever seen anyone say they enjoy it, but I'm going almost solely from my comment section. I should find some videos now that I've finished my script.
Gotta be honest I feel like the japanese fans of the series like 3 more than the later games considering how much fanart there is of it compared to the later games so not that weird what my previous comment said. well, the mobile game is the most popular one, obviously.(for me the only thing i liked about that game in relation to this is what they did to alec) for me the music in this is really really good and on that point at least I think most people would agree. This games version of the theme song is the best one imo and all of the versions of the vocal song is so good. Fck spotify for not having the butchered soundtrack on there. thanks for finishing the trilogy though looking forward to the next one
I'M NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THIS VIDEO SERIES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA It's weird how different the trends and likes are in Japan. That said, Japanese people also think Jojo part 5 is the best, so clearly they can't be trusted. Apparently they've already shut down the servers for the Japanese mobile game, so I gotta get on that before they do it in the West. It only launched this year, but I feel like the Western market has far more paypigs than Japan. Playing Breath of Fire 6 before they took those servers down was a great decision, and I hope to hit that same stride with Arc R, even if it's mobile gacha garbage.
Can’t help but feel you are one of those “final fantasy remake” people that think that the old jrpgs are awful. Yes there are many short comings and yes the story needs work but can’t help but love this game. Again, like to hear what makes a perfect game to you? What’s a good story? The mechanics? The way battle flows etc. I just hear a person with an ego just bashing on a series that’s not popular in the US.
But I liked Arcs 1, 2, and 4. I also hate what they did to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I stopped playing at a certain point because it was a shitty action game. I also (also) just put out a video on the original Final Fantasy 7 jerking it off, in a series full of old JRPGs that I love, where I try to beat them with consumable items only. I don't know how you can make a full character assessment of a person based on one video game they didn't like, but I can tell you it's not an accurate method. Like, I've definitely got an ego, but I don't need to leverage that to dislike media.
I doubt you are going to do it...but can you please someday talk about the other Nippon Ichi PS2 RPG's, like La Pucell Tactics or Makai Kingdom, hell Soul Nomad the Soul eater is on Steam so you could do that. Also if you want something a little samey and yet not, Metal Saga which is one of two rpgs we got from the Metal Max series of rpgs (dating all the way back to the Famicom) This game...the best way I can describe it...you won't talk about the story since its not there, but you will talk about everything else, like the giant walking sexy legs with missile launchers, the dogs with gattling guns strapped to their backs and of course the speedo wearing machoman church... I love it and hate it all at the same time
I've had Metal Saga and Metal Max in my line of sight for a while, but the series is so big and we all know how long it takes me to do even a short series. When I saw tanks in fish nets I definitely bumped it up the priority list though. I will 100% cover more PS2/PSP-era NIS stuff though, those games are unappreciated gems.
@@Caspicum oh yeah defientally, it was because of those gems that opened my eyes to the wonderful library of the ps2 which in my opinion has the best rpg line up since the SNES Also Metal Max Xeno I thought was pretty good...though a lot of fan service despite being a literal war against machinery...not complainin just weird LOL but yeah thanks for replying and can't wait for the next video
Sooooo I read a bit about the development of Arc 3 and simply put it wasn't meant to exist. Arc 1 and 2 was meant to be a closed loop so to speak but in Japan (and really only Japan) they were shockingly popular to the point that public demand mandated a third game. That the team didn't have much idea what to do for. Yeah Twilight of spirits is pretty flawed but it does more with its premise then this one.
I'm seething that I found that out as I was uploading the video. It seems like a very important piece to this puzzle, and I'm gonna pin your comment. They even say it in the interview I put IN THIS VIDEO but I must've just blanked at that part.
this is a common thing with game series. a game has an ending but they want to continue the series so do a soft reboot but won't let the old characters go.
ace attorney had this happen and currently yakuza is going through this.
@@megamike15 thankfully persona doesn't do it
@@nattalavyapari unless you count spin offs like strikers.
Always nice to see reviews of these older games like this. Honestly, I've been mostly watching videos/reviews on games that don't get that much attention, and it's always a joy to see someone dive into the nitty gritty of games most people wouldn't even spare a 5 minute video on.
That's the direction I want to go in the future. More videos on lesser-covered titles, as obscure as I can possibly go on conventional, mainstream gaming consoles. You can only watch a video on Mario 64 so many times before you go looking for new stuff, at least I think so.
@@Caspicummama mia
OMFG your line about mining lithium batteries cracked me up
They earn their 13 cents an hour, I tell you what.
Gotta say, for all the faults, the game looks great visually.
Really nice use of 2D and 3D
Legit, while editing, I was still surprised by how good the FMVs look. It doesn't quite command the same mastery over the 3D elements that other games of the genre do, but it does look damn good.
I actually liked this one allot. The main story was nothing, but the focus on storytelling via sidequests was done quite well. Lots of character interactions would change depending on whether you did some other sidequests and could be different depending on the result (like if you failed to complete the quest). The tone of the game was much more bright and friendshipy but I think it fit nicely with the concept of humanity rebuilding after a near apocalypse and trying to work together towards greater good, which is why there's such an emphasis on sidequests.
But yeah Arc the Lad 3 was absolutely an afterthought and I kinda respect the dev's decision to not try to add too much to the completed saga of 1 and 2.
I should add I played it on my PSP when traveling which may have affected my experience.
I love that you had to clarify on its maybe not Sephiroth, but hey it’s a large multiverse XD
i can't be 100% but his sword is thicker and not as long. he'd slay, but not as hard.
@@Caspicum worst case scenario is he’s cloud and sephiroth’s love child in a universe where somehow that’s possible
This was the one Arc The Lad collection game I never finished I got bored with the story midway through. I feel that some of the ideas presented would later be used to create to the first entry in The Legend of Heroes: Trails In The Sky which is ironic cause Arc 3 released in 1999 and Trails In The Sky released in 2004. Sky uses the same ideas present in Arc The Lad 3 your main characters want to be top rank Bracers so you do jobs for all the branches of the Bracer guild in the country only the world building and characters development is so much better especially because the dialouge for all NPCs (who are living their own lives as well) changes after each major story even needless to say the script is massive. Also the series is 9 game long and still ongoing it’s basically the MCU of JRPGs. If you want to see Arc The Lad 3 done exceptionally well play the Trails series.
Edit: Don’t know why but I still love the intro theme for Arc 3 it just feels epic.
tbh, the third entry was my favorite in this series. i look back with shame now upon the devastation i caused to this beautiful cd set. i'd be able to buy so many lbs of jelly bellies with that kind of dough
Hey to each their own, we're all entitled to our opinions. I happen to love Arc 3 and it was a big part of my childhood growing up. The OST is boppin and the characters and gameplay were interesting. I can admit that the story did fall flat in some places but overall I had a very good time playing it as a kid and I enjoyed my recent re-playthrough of the whole game. It brought back a lot of memories and in my eyes still holds up after all these years. Arc 2 was (to me) so long and boring itself and it seemed to drag on for ages and ages, while Arc 1 was short and sweet but to the point. I dunno I feel like maybe you were a bit too harsh on this game. That said, as a sequel to the previous two, its not really that good. But on it's own and as a first entry to the series (which is how I was first introduced to the og3) its pretty cool.
best improvement Arc 3 made was that you don't have to center an enemy or character in the middle square of the targeting area like you did in Arc 1 and 2, so there is more freedom on how you can hit your enemies or allies with a spell
I'm probably the only person on earth who LOVED Arc 3, and thought it was the best of the series. I thought everything about it was an improvement over the first 2 games, and enjoyed the more leisurely story, the slice of life elements with less world ending stakes (at least at first), the world building, the quirky cast of characters, both in the party and many recurring (the Rainbow Bridge Gang always made me think of Team Rocket), and getting to see how past characters had moved on after Arc 2 and the way the world changed after the Dark One's defeat. and I was CRAZY about the cardish system. I actually always go out of my way to try and cardish every enemy in the game and see every possible summon. Theo rocked.
Great video on Arc the Lad 3. I've only played one of the Arc games (i think it was on ps2).
Also i love your sense of humor. XD
That's high praise coming from the most pornographed sailor moon character. thank you thank you.
I played Twilight of Spirits growing up and while the game wasn't anything amazing, I remember thinking it was a decent enough RPG. When I found out there were other games in the series, I was mildly curious about them, but since they were always stupid expensive, I kind of forgot about them. Thanks to these videos, I can see I truly did not miss much, apparently the sequel to Twilight of Spirits was also pretty lame.
I got started the same way! Absolutely adored Twilight of the Spirits but never played any of the others. I think I might've lucked out and hit the best one to start with, but I'm incredibly worried my memory hasn't held up and it's gonna be bad too. Still, it won't be as bad as End of Darkness but that's not making me feel any better.
@@Caspicum Here's hoping Twilight of the Spirits holds up!
@@Caspicum Twilight of the Spirits is one of those lesser known PS2 crown jewels. The console had so many RPG hits that it gets overshadowed by the competition. It wasn't an original JRPG by any means, but the gameplay was engaging enough + the story/world/music/voice acting was fantastic enough that I think it still holds up even today.
Arc the lad 2 was ready good tho
I like the visual style, it's really crisp and it works. It's a shame that as soon as more power came along visual styles like this were dropped whole sale, as if developers just unanimously decided that there was no future there.
Props to square for realizing the potential of this style with HD2D, Octopath looks great and I've got high hopes for DQ3make, Live A Live and Triangle Strategy
@@rkraccoons It's nice that they have come back around to this and that they are making bank, but HD2D is a more garish interpretation of this, and I'd like to see more devs swing back around and try something, shameful that everyone wants to do a port of PSX games to Switch and PC and nobody wants to put in effort to them. I'm looking at you Grandia "HD".
yeah look i'm not a fan of octopath's art style but I'd take it over most HD remasters any day. Whoever thought filtering the sharp pixel look out of the 2D sprites was a bad person. Square removed the filters for Chrono TRigger but Grandia HD is still disgusting to look at.
Welp, that's 3 games worth of time saved. Now to binge the entire channel.
There's some questionable shit the further back you go, but thanks for being here, babe.
@@Caspicum I mean..to be fair, even Vandal Hearts is like.."this gameplay barely exists, I can break the mandatory loss battles with no effort...but man this is still fun" 🤣
Yeah. I always thought this game was a letdown. My best friend and his older brother played through the first two games when I brought the game over and later lent them the game (though the first game is not too long of an ordeal, obviously). My mom and I did play this one just to complete the collection and because we did not have that many games at the time. Damn when I think about it, my copy of the game basically got gang-banged.
Just like Casp's mom eight months before his birth
you play games with your mom cool
hated lending my shit to people but I was so desperate for people to talk with final fantasy about, that I'd practically give my copies away. tough lesson learned hey. also that's sick that you played through arc with your mum. I'd imagine that'd make them a pretty comfy experience going back to.
Can you confirm or debunk if Arc is, in fact, a mad lad?
Look, at this point in time, we can't definitively say that Arc is, or is not, a mad lad. However, what we can say is that the allegation is out, and we'll just have to see how the case resolves.
a gun in a world where magic exist will always stick out like a sore thumb for me.
I think I've been conditioned by JRPGs who insist that guns and magic can co-exist, but you're definitely right.
@@Caspicum and yet japan finds a way to just make it work, like Escaflowne amd Magical Knight Rayearth where you have this fantasy setting and then BAM! have some robots.
Did you like Twilight of the Spirits? I really like that game and think both the leads have great development. My only complaint with it after coming back to it after so long is that that combat, while fun, is slow. Most battles are fine but if you want to do the arena for the good rewards, you have to set aside like...2 hours.
I love Twilight, but you're right, the actual *game* isn't amazing. It's passable, it's okay, but the narrative is really where it's at. I've been struggling with the script because I rarely focus on the story in games, I'm more of a gameplay kind of guy, but writing the script (which is coming out soon) has killed me, and been mostly narrative-related.
I've fully written End of Darkness and even a video on the mobile game, but Twilight script has really set me back because I love it, but I don't want to be boring and just talk about the story.
@@Caspicum I really enjoyed finagling the attack radius to JUST hit that extra opponent or the fact that the game rewards exploring the battlefield with actually really good rewards. If only you could play at 2 or 3 times speed. Also, the soundtrack is great. I am a sucker for the Deimos battle theme that has the bagpipes.
holy moly, a new casp video!
The moon must be blue!
Far from home through the ark, where your dreams come true
I completely understand the hate for working design translation I was playing lunar 2 on the Sega CD and a npc makes a bill Clinton( or maybe a bush) joke it took me out of the game and made the game feel extremely dated.
wew lad. who would be silly enough to insert a reference to modern politics into a game? only a very, very silly person.
Wow this was a quick turnaround from the last vid. Was the Naruto one a smaller project overall?
Arc the Lad 3 isn’t the only 3rd game I haven’t played. (Guess the other)
Carl on Duty 3: Black Cops.
Also I've had Arc scripted since mid 2021, it was faster because I didn't play it or write it this month. :^) I spent 2021 writing and cataloging certain things to make future videos a bit quicker though, I'll have another out early March at the latest, and hopefully a fourth by the end of March.
As someone who is learning 3d
Yea even today 3d characters is really hard to do well
I dabbled in 3D design a few years back and making anything not look uncanny is very, very difficult. I can't even imagine the lengths these poor bastards with their room-sized computers and VHS tapes.
@@Caspicum honestely its still crazy how gaming was a thing in the past seeing how weak pc's and consoles were
They had some crazy optimization
The fact that most ps1 style horror games need a relatively buff pc to run well is crazy
13:44 this reminds me of epic battle fantasy 5 where you can do the exact same thing as you mentioned here i wonder if the developer knew the existence of this game you can also capture bosses
i never played that because i assume all flash(?) games are garbo except the ones where you rocket or drive across a map and slowly upgrade your shit. I might have to change that.
@@Caspicum I should say this before you try them don’t expect a captivating story they are mostly focused on combat
When comes to turn based RPGs these 3 are the best flash games series with different focus
short like mardek chapter 1-3 (it’s story is decent gameplay is the least engaging)
Sonny 1 and 2 (pure gameplay and some story progress every few battles)
You buy epic battle fantasy 4 and 5 on steam for significantly extra content and 3rd game is free in steam
You can also play them on the internet since the series began as a flash game series so even the newest title have been released on websites it has less content overall but it’s good for seeing if you would like it and recommending it
I would recommend playing Epic battle Fantasy series as an whole on epic difficulty
I have played plenty of good quality flash games I can recommend more if you would like there are a lot of trash but there are some rough diamonds
I'm actually trying to give this game another chance right now. I know it's bad but after twilight I need more lol.
How good is Twilight though? I finally got around to finishing my script the other day. It's such a great game.
@@Caspicum I've finished all of em except 3. I've just replayed twilight and from a gameplay perspective it has the best gameplay. Story can be cheesy, characters are one dimensional. But over all it's my favorite and of course 2 is a solid choice as well.
I honestly made it through the first couple hours before I couldn’t find it in me to keep going. I really try to finish stuff, but this game just did not have a good hook or any real gameplay innovation. It just very felt slow to me. Maybe one day I’ll go back, but yeah. The first two might’ve been enough for me
Sucks to hear that, but I agree. I hear a lot of people defend Arc 3, and I appreciate their input, I just don't see it myself. Twilight, or Arc 4, is a gem, highly recommend if a narrative through line is important to you, which it sounds like it is. A bit over the top, very early PS2 in terms of animation and voice work, and nothing to do with the first 3, but still an absolute treat. Stop there though, do NOT play End of Darkness. You have been warned.
Is that a 4th video in the Arc playlist I see hidden?
n...no! DON'T PEEK!!!
You know I'm on the toilet and 10 seconds in it's already shit.
based
Gotta be a real RPG fan to delve this far into the feces bin for some not so quality gaming. Maybe Arc 3 should have been a Beat 'em up: side scrolling fighter
Oh bucko, you have no idea how much I hate myself. I actually can't help how much I love JRPGs that I'm willing to play all sorts of garbage. Please send help.
Best I can send is a small list of hit or miss JRPGs like Arc Rise Fantasia, or Xenoblade Chronicles. Although it's usually more miss than hit
Does this mean 'Twilight of the Spirits' [spoilers] is also a massive retcon troll of AtL 3? I seem to remember there being some vauge references to only the first two games.
That, and the fact they could market the PAL version as a new series.
I think Twilight is a sequel, but it takes place hundreds of years later, effectively a sequel in name alone.
You're someone's reason to smile.
You too, sweetie
i love your vids casp
i love you baby
To be honest, nah.
Arc 3 is still good and deserves to exist. I felt that it being basically a longass slice-of-hunter-life epilogue about a recovering world fresh out of the Arc 2 ending was kinda interesting, and it made me think back on Arc main plot, actions and consequences as I wandered around the continents amid a group of who were pretty much the side NPCs-little-people to the whole epic and seen the familiar locations reshaped and affected by the main plot and important-characters-with-grande-destinies having already happened and moved on. It's not Arc 2 and it can't be as big as Arc 2, it's a sweep-up after it, and that's not a knock against it.
I love your sense of humor and great delivery. Makes me smile with a few actual chuckle moments as I dodge oncoming traffic.
That makes me happy! I re-write my scripts too many times, so I'm glad it's paying off. I never tried to be 'funny' necessarily but if I can make people even smirk or exhale from my asides, that means it's working. Also watch for those cars, they can be deadly
I really enjoyed this game though for real lol. I understand it's not that great but still had enough fun for me to not get bored. I still like the second game the best though.
"One of the worst RPGs I've always played" still looking forward to that Arc the Lad: End of Darkness review when you get to it :P
Looking forward to him taking back his opinion on this game after.
Or we might all be surprised and he'll love it
It's one of those things where, even a horrendously bad game is still enjoyable because it's so bad it's more of a spectacle. When it's just a bland 5/10 game, you feel like you've wasted your time. I'm *HOPING* with End of Darkness to at least be so sickened that it fuels my hatred, instead of just incredibly bored. The worst thing you can do is be boring.
@@Caspicum is 3 just bland, or is it spectacle bad?
I disagree with just about this entire review...but it was still interesting to see in how someone who got a lot less out of this game thought of some of the features I actually quite enjoyed.
I liked the Guild System, as it allowed you to proceed the plot at your own pace. You don't have to do everything to advance it, and it linearly takes you through every major area in part 1/disk 1, so you get to know each region, and in all of them recruit 1 new party member that represents them in some way, before moving onto the next, slowly uncovering the world in its current state.
And I think that's important to note. There's not nearly as many cities or regions as in the prior, but each one feels purpose built, since it is. This is a world recovering. None of these cities are quite as refined as what one would expect, they're more fallout type cities, each one taking on a role, not only narratively, but also in terms of the world, each one produces one type of good or service, because that's just what each area made easiest to work with.
I also liked the combat. It's not as...expansive I'm going to say, as Arc 2, which had that fantastic Beast Taming system, and the absolutely huge cast of characters besides those you could catch with your pokewhip. Still, this meant there were no duplicates(The monsters were often duplicated), and since it knew what you'd have access to in terms of power level, the game actually had the ability to build the challenge around that. Sure, if you grind/do everything, it's easier, but it's able to challenge you if you try to storm straight through.
That and I liked the side plots, as there's about 8 throughout the game. From Spicy and the Rainbow Bridge Gang's comedy, to Alba's whole dead parent backstory, to just a few general plots that take time to develop. And if you don't want to engage with something? Well, after the first mission in a plotline, you don't have to bother, as there's more than enough missions to activate the next story one, and it's rare past the Forest Village to really be confused on what the next plot mission is.
And then there's the secrets and dungeons. Nothing is quite so...arduous as the assault on the train, that locked you into, I think, 10 battles once you started that part of the game. Instead, the most a dungeon has is five battles, and there's almost always a way to recover somewhere in there. Heck, the Fountains of saving and healing are more common, but again, optional difficulty, see how far you can get without them.
Mind, I also like that there's no level scaled areas, outside of the arenas, something that carries over to Game 4. Not saying they're terrible, but I've never enjoyed an RPG that tries to directly level scale the opponent, as the CPU usually gets better stat growth than the player. Mind, you can eventually max out stats in some of this...Chongara Bomb on Hemo-Ji at rank 3 and more than 200 in his magic stat, means EVERYTHING dies in one-three rounds. Fun times in Arc 2.
Oh, and I do like that you get a secret character, earned through special actions throughout the game, and she's...not OP at first. She's in fact, rather weak, but that's the point, you can level her up, and slowly make her OP if you want, and thanks to her specials, she can fulfill just about any combat role, making her worth it in the long run.
Setherop the bootleg sephiroth
steppyroths
Arc Arc Arc Arc Arc Arc Arc Arc
i just realised how fucked it is that a guy in the next game is called Darc. what a cock tease
I see a Casp video, i immediately click. It's not much but it's honest work. 🙂
Love your videos man. Hope you continue making them when ever you can.
I'm gonna try and accelerate production, but I appreciate you stickin around during the slower times!
Arc 3 really is wasted potential. It could have been JRPG Fallout and deal with hope and despair after the apocalypse. Instead, it turned out to be a cashgrab sequel with a simple, shounen anime plot.
I respect the hustle but god damn it's such a disappointment.
@@Caspicum On the bright side, it's easier to make games now than it was when Arc 3 originally released. Maybe someday a mad lad or lass will take the game's best ideas and make something better with it.
No1 has every playd an arc the lad game so its good to know wer not misn much
If anyone has, I've never met them.
I like the lore of this universe better then the games.
based
How is that not sephiroth?
bro i replied to this and youtube said NEIN! so mad
Wow, been a while hope all is well.
All is good! Sending my well wishes to you too, brother.
@@Caspicum Thanks man. College is rough but I think it's worth it. Glad you're doing well! And thanks again!
Yo is that Psaro the Manslayer!?
It's my completely original character Zephirot
Great review, man. 😄I have found a lot of people give this game at eight or nine out of 10. But I'm really happy you gave this game your honest opinion. It makes for an awesome review. 👍👍Instead of just calling this game a masterpiece.And I'm really happy I have not played this game. I think I would have fallen asleep for that boring story. And slow gameplay.
Im surprised i always thought everyone hated this game
I was told this game sucked before I tried it, but I assumed people were just comparing it to 2, which overall, was a pretty solid experience. I actually don't think I've ever seen anyone say they enjoy it, but I'm going almost solely from my comment section. I should find some videos now that I've finished my script.
10:33 if you ever play lunar you're gonna have a bad time
I gotta make time for that at some point hey.
@@Caspicum and whenever you get around to star ocean i can see you having faults with everything except the graphics, music and gameplay
arc the lad? more like arc the child.
arc the young lad
Why does that one character look like Sephiroth Jr.
It is!
Gotta be honest I feel like the japanese fans of the series like 3 more than the later games considering how much fanart there is of it compared to the later games so not that weird what my previous comment said.
well, the mobile game is the most popular one, obviously.(for me the only thing i liked about that game in relation to this is what they did to alec)
for me the music in this is really really good and on that point at least I think most people would agree. This games version of the theme song is the best one imo and all of the versions of the vocal song is so good. Fck spotify for not having the butchered soundtrack on there.
thanks for finishing the trilogy though
looking forward to the next one
I'M NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THIS VIDEO SERIES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
It's weird how different the trends and likes are in Japan. That said, Japanese people also think Jojo part 5 is the best, so clearly they can't be trusted. Apparently they've already shut down the servers for the Japanese mobile game, so I gotta get on that before they do it in the West. It only launched this year, but I feel like the Western market has far more paypigs than Japan. Playing Breath of Fire 6 before they took those servers down was a great decision, and I hope to hit that same stride with Arc R, even if it's mobile gacha garbage.
Arc the lad more like arc the fad
Well you see, he's uhh... He's just not, okay?
Isn't the mobile game called Arc the Lad Hard R or something?
Hard N
It can be both! I gotta play Hard R before they pull the servers, like they've already done in Japan.
Arc the Laddest
Arc the Fourth: Mad Laddest
So this game can be summed up as generic anime
That's honestly not a bad way to look at it.
Gonna go over the anime?
If everything lines up, sooner than you think :^)
Can’t help but feel you are one of those “final fantasy remake” people that think that the old jrpgs are awful. Yes there are many short comings and yes the story needs work but can’t help but love this game. Again, like to hear what makes a perfect game to you? What’s a good story? The mechanics? The way battle flows etc.
I just hear a person with an ego just bashing on a series that’s not popular in the US.
But I liked Arcs 1, 2, and 4. I also hate what they did to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I stopped playing at a certain point because it was a shitty action game. I also (also) just put out a video on the original Final Fantasy 7 jerking it off, in a series full of old JRPGs that I love, where I try to beat them with consumable items only.
I don't know how you can make a full character assessment of a person based on one video game they didn't like, but I can tell you it's not an accurate method. Like, I've definitely got an ego, but I don't need to leverage that to dislike media.
It's not sephiroth. It's sefibroth
I doubt you are going to do it...but can you please someday talk about the other Nippon Ichi PS2 RPG's, like La Pucell Tactics or Makai Kingdom, hell Soul Nomad the Soul eater is on Steam so you could do that.
Also if you want something a little samey and yet not, Metal Saga which is one of two rpgs we got from the Metal Max series of rpgs (dating all the way back to the Famicom)
This game...the best way I can describe it...you won't talk about the story since its not there, but you will talk about everything else, like the giant walking sexy legs with missile launchers, the dogs with gattling guns strapped to their backs and of course the speedo wearing machoman church...
I love it and hate it all at the same time
I've had Metal Saga and Metal Max in my line of sight for a while, but the series is so big and we all know how long it takes me to do even a short series. When I saw tanks in fish nets I definitely bumped it up the priority list though. I will 100% cover more PS2/PSP-era NIS stuff though, those games are unappreciated gems.
@@Caspicum oh yeah defientally, it was because of those gems that opened my eyes to the wonderful library of the ps2 which in my opinion has the best rpg line up since the SNES
Also Metal Max Xeno I thought was pretty good...though a lot of fan service despite being a literal war against machinery...not complainin just weird LOL
but yeah thanks for replying and can't wait for the next video
Still better than twilight of the spirits
jk?
hopefully jk :^)
I'm so furious that I'm not first
but are you teh
Game looks good visually, shame the story is so poor
PS1's got a lot of them. Damn shame too.