Arc Rise Fantasia: A Wonderful Surprise

Walking through Game Stop I’m always looking for great Wii titles. Over the past four years I’ve managed to collect over a hundred Wii titles. Some may say there aren’t a hundred good games for the Wii but I would kindly disagree.

While I bought many Wii games I always avoided the RPG called Arc Rise Fantasia with the fear that it was just another anime style RPG trying to cash in. It wasn’t long before I finally broke down and bought the game used with a gift card I had received for Christmas. I can say 20 hours into Arc Rise Fantasia that it is an RPG worth owning.

Here are the reasons you should consider buying Arc Rise Fantasia

• Character development is very detailed because as you walk throughout the world there are optional conversations you can read between characters in your party.


• The quotes made by characters in battle are funny and are riddled with inside jokes between characters in your party. “Piece of Cake” –“Is this what you call… A Piece of Cake?”


• Great turn based style combat, Combat is quick an effective, encounter rate is not random so you can avoid fights if you want too.


• Cool weapon design that allows you to unlock and customize each weapon but configuring abilities to each weapon.


• The villages in the game are beautiful and detailed with a rich soundtrack that is second to none.


• The storyline has some twists and has some great plot points that made me go WHAAAA!!!


• The status screens are beautiful and the optional clothing that you can equip to characters adds a unique detail to the personality of each character.


• Boss battles are challenging but the battle system makes it fun even when you’re losing

Here are the reasons you might want to stay away from Arc Rise Fantasia

• Used the game still sells for $19.99.


• The voice acting is sub-par, and the storyline is confusing due to unnecessary terminology.


• The story hangs on a very religious plot, which personally has never interested me as a storyline.


• The game maps are not bad but locations on the map sometimes feel like the game is holding your hand.


• Power moves given to each character are pretty cool but not as epic as I usually prefer.

So next time you see Arc Rise Fantasia at your local game store you’ll have to decide if you’re looking to give it a shot. I hope this mini-review was helpful and have a great day!

My Rating: 8/10