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SCMP Reporter

The world of Arc The Lad is divided into halves made up of human and monsters. The existence of both species hinges on the possession of the elf stone. Players take it in turns to be a human price-Kharg and monster-Darc to fight for the elf stone.

Tester 01

Name: Hole

Age: 23

Console: PS2

Gameplay: Despite the storyline, the battle mode is the backbone of a RPG game and Arc The Lad's battle mode is one of the best I have seen: clear and direct command keys with a fancy attack mode, and it is all in Chinese! No more mistakes made by a wrong guess of a command bar.

Graphics: Not as great as the RPG marvel- Final Fantasy series - but was fancy enough to amaze me. Players who suffered from the edgy computer graphics and freeze-frame background of the earlier version will be satisfied to see the solid and smooth computer graphics in this enhanced version.

Overall: The legendary RPG in PS 1 is now in PS 2, not only with a Chinese translation but with greatly enhanced graphics and control mode. The translation sticks to the original story as it appeared in PS 1 and it's a real joy to play the game using the language I understand. No more guessing which command key to use in battle mode. It is a dream for every RPG fans who can't read Japanese.

Tester 02

Name: Ernie

Age: 24

Console: PS2

Gameplay: The loading speed of the game is much improved. No more  waiting between various scenes.

Graphics: The computer graphics used in this game may not be the most original and creative on the market, but all the colours are robust and the lines are silk-smooth, which is enough to beat most of the other games in this genre.

Overall: Japanese RPG game always turn me off, despite the fabulous computer graphics, as I prize the storyline the most in these kind of games. But it is usually impossible to follow the story without referring to the poorly translated unofficial Chinese text. I have also played a number of translated versions of Japanese RPG games available on a PC platform, but all of them were poorly translated by the low-budget Taiwanese software company that produced them. Sony's efforts in bringing out this game are not only shown in the smoother edges of the computer graphics but also in a smoother Chinese translation of the instructions.  I also like the fact that they have kept the voice of the Japanese narrator for a sense of originality.



Arc the Lad