Topic: Arc Rise Fantasia

Has anyone here heard of Arc Rise Fantasia for the wii? If not the game is an rpg that is similar to a tales of series game.

You should really just have one thread called "Random Thoughts That Pop Into My Head." It could even be a feature.

Well, it's not an action RPG like Tales, but the art style and generic-anime-ness are similar at least.

I rented it once. The battle system was alright, but the voice acting was attrocious, the world felt too small, and I got tired of the story and characters after about 8 hours. Squandered potential, just like every other Imageepoch game...

As CanisWolfred said, the art style is very similar to the Tales of series as is the progression (classic worldmap/town/dungeon JRPG thingy) and the voerall game design (they even have skits if I recall) but the combat system is completely different (turn based with an emphasis on positioning, quite good from what I recall). The characters and story are pretty forgettable but the mechanics of the game and especially the combat motivated me to reach the end.
Beware of the voice acting though, it is one of the worst I ever heard in a game and every cutscene is dubbed! I even dropped the game after a few hours because of that and managed to "find" a japanese dubbed version of the game so that my ears don't bleed every time a character opens his mouth.

Honestly I'm not sure why people hate the voice acting so much, sure it isn't as good as the voice acting in a Tales Of game or Final Fantasy, but it's still above average. You've got to keep in mind that ARF was an A budget game whereas the other titles I mentioned had a AAA budget.

Thanks for reminding me that the voice acting in this game is indeed horrendous.
@Neko_Rukiafan You must be very tolerant because I truly believe the voice acting is very very bad. When it is so bad it hurts the game, I don't think they should even allocate budget for english voices. At least I think you can turn the voice volume down in the game if you can't get a Japanese dubbed version.

I have a copy of this game but never opened it (region locked so didn't bother). However I recently acquired an extra second hand Wii with which I will use to play this game (with a little JP Dub insertion patch) as well as Castle of Shikigami 3.

Hope I don't screw it up.

I don't think budget has anything to do with the vocal talent sounding like a bunch of people with no interest or knowledge of the material reading off a page while half asleep. If the actors sound bored, I get bored. It really doesn't cost a lot to hire actors that while maybe not A-list talent, genuinely enjoy this kind of stuff and have a passion for it. NIS does it all the time. Disgaea has cheesy voice acting too, but it's charming because the actors sound like they're having fun.