Arc the Lad

Overview

Arc the Lad is a 1995 tactical role-playing video game developed by G-Craft and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. Despite a heavy push for a North American release from RPG fans, the video game media, and third party publishers, Arc the Lad was never released on its own outside of Japan. However, years later it was included in the North American compilation Arc the Lad Collection.

Arc the Lad is a tactical RPG. In battle, the player has an area where each character may move, much like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. The areas the player can move to are marked by blue tiles, and when using a melee attack on an enemy, the player can attack them at any reachable side. A cursor appears above enemies which can be attacked. If the player uses magic or special abilities to attack the enemy, a red set of tiles mark the range in which the spell or attack will reach.

The game begins with a girl named Kukuru who is a member of the Sacred Clan in Seirya, a clan that protects the Flame Cion. She is sent by the mayor of her town to extinguish this flame, but once she does, a monster called an Ark Ghoul appears and Kukuru flees. Meanwhile, a boy named Arc prepares to look for his father Yoshua, who has been missing for ten years. He stumbles upon Kukuru and they both defeat the pursuing monsters. Arc makes a promise to Kukuru to reignite the flame for her, but he is quickly struck down by the powerful Ark Ghoul.

Arc the Lad was released on June 30, 1995 for the PlayStation in Japan. A critic for Next Generation (a USA magazine reviewing the game as an import) gave it four out of five stars, applauding its "deeply-involved storyline", highly attractive graphics, attention to detail, "grand soundtrack which rivals any big-budget Hollywood production", and the overall sense of epic importance conveyed by the game's experience.

Official trailer

Gameplay Video. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Tactical, Adventure

Developer

G-Craft

Publisher

Sony Computer Entertainment, MonkeyPaw Games

Series

Arc the Lad

Platforms

PlayStation 3, PlayStation, PlayStation Portable

Age rating

ESRB E

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Age ratings

ESRB

E

CERO

A

Release dates

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single-player only, with no online features.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Credits

Region

US