Ark the Lad

Aurongroove

An AMAZING tactical RPG I missed the first time round which recently appeared on PSN store.

I've been addicted to it like crack.

Except for the charming animation and voices, the tactics system/battle system itself is really clunky and not very likeable i.e. getting your turn but being stuck behind team mates, and having to skip your go and wait AGES for the next opportunity to move (once you play something like Disgaea or some of the better FF tactics most of these game systems just piss you off anyway)

The characters themselves are oozing with fun and personality and the story isn't bad so far. The stupid excuses for "go here, now there, then there, then there" is done in a sort of sweet but at the same time roll your eyes sort of way and the game is littered with visual mistakes, oversights in design and little quirks.

It's as if the game was produced by the "Oh you!" Dog and that you the player are the "Oh you" guy. It's still pure joy to play.


I've just beaten it now and I'm going back to do all the optional dungeons. It's quite a short game, but I'm led to believe the sequels follow directly, ala Golden Sun, and you can transfer character status via save file to the sequil (also ala Golden Sun).

The best fiver I ever spent.

seraphimvc

hahaha so much nostalgia when i see the thread title. I remember there is some glitch bug (not sure in the 2 or 3rd game) that can stuck you in some stage. The game is not too easy at all iirc!

That reminds me of chocobo dungeon which i would recommend it if you liked srpg (from ps1 era thats it). And of course these 'old' srpg all suffer from the clunky system design so be warned!

Aurongroove

The one problem I had was I was lead to believe the game was going to be difficult based on some of the areas that appear in the first province after a certain point in the story. So I did some of the side quests as they appeared(thinking they would be just about sufficient to keep me strong enough to contend). I went to floor thirty something in the forbidden ruins, before running out with my tail between my legs, then took all the challenges at the martial arts place start to finish.

I didn't realise these challenged were harder then the fights end game, and when I found out it was too late.

I got yer one (Kukuru?) up to a levels equalling Arc, and gave her an increase agility item, a dodge charm, increased defence and increased magic. I liked her but she was too weak up front and kept dying and she had resurrect spell (which resurrects partly members with full mp,) but I liked to use her up front running around jumping over ****.

holy ****... she'd start the round and literally lay waste to everything on the screen with her divide spell and constant attacks and counter attacks. she even started getting two goes in before the slower team mates and began racing ahead of Arc by about 10 levels.

She was God and she destroyed any hint of a challenge past the 3/5ths mark of the game unless I literally chose to put her in a corner and let the rest have a go.