Arc the Lad II - Part 18/19 - PS1 - アークザラッド II ~ One Final Job
7Choko! Choko Choko Choko Choko Choko Choko Choko!!!
*ahem* Direct sequel to the first Arc the Lad game, Arc the Lad II is bigger and better in every way. The game is at least three times longer than its predecessor, and it's also way more polished. There is a plethora of characters that will join you on your quest as you progress, including most characters from the first game, and you can even capture enemy monsters if you'd rather play with them instead. The story is interesting, Working Designs' localization is surprisingly good, the music is generally pretty sweet, and the pixel art and animation is off the charts.
There is, however, one major flaw to this game. And I couldn't find any info online as to whether this was one of Working Designs' typical troll moves or if it was that way in the Japanese original: the final area and final bosses of the game spike the difficulty so much that if you don't have secret character Choko in your party, you'll have a bad, bad time. So much so that you may just give up on the game altogether.
If you recruited Choko as soon as you could and kept her in your party since you got her, the game easily gets an 8/10 from me. If you didn't get Choko, that rating would probably have dropped to a 6. That's too bad, because otherwise for most of the game, the challenge is fair and fun. Another annoyance that's worth mentioning is your inventory. You have a single one, and it's not nearly big enough to accommodate the ridiculously high amount of items and weapons you can obtain in this game. You always have to make hard decisions and get rid of stuff. And no, there are no bank-like places where you can dump everything. Sure, you can somewhat "cheat" with Arc Arena if you have it, but it's still a very tedious process.
The other thing that's cool but could also be disappointing to some is that it rewards players who've played the first game first. Indeed, there are a few extra story scenes and battles to fight if you carried your save file from the first game over. In addition, there's one section in the game you get to that will just drop a gazillion items from the first game on you... have fun sorting through it all and figuring out which ones you want with your limited inventory size!
I used the official strategy guide to play the game, and it helped greatly. Thank you, Henry LaPierre! Thanks to his guide, I managed to finish all jobs and hunt all monsters. Jobs and monster hunting are side quests you can undertake for extra money. They don't serve much purpose beyond that, except to access that special door with special items in Indigos (or Prodias?) which requires 250 stars. This also let me discover all the secrets in the game, including finding out about a deleted scene due to a memory issue and getting an item I couldn't find any info about online. I also go through all of the characters' story scenes in the final dungeon. I go through every Sealed Ruins, but I do NOT complete all of the arenas' mini-games. As for the 70-floor dungeon, I had already cleared the first 50 floors in the first game (you can see those in my playthrough of the first game, link below), so here I just go through floors 51-70. At the end of the final part, I check out Arc Arena briefly.
Ultimately, Arc the Lad II is a great game and I loved it. I was pushing back my playthrough of it because I was afraid of how long the game would be, but I'm so glad I finally played it. It's a very dark game with lots of pain and suffering and character deaths, and I had NOT seen that ending coming! It's an emotional ride for sure -- one that will stay with me for a long time. On to the third game!
Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjd3BsQQrwAOs6mHl7Lee2Qs7ngzGjdfD
My playthrough of the first Arc the Lad game: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbPO1AdRPwHsylvN6-SUXC1cpn6EzGYXZ
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