Games like Mario platformers, Pokemon ports, or shooters tend to get noticed and advertised well to gamers. As a niche fan, I always look for out of the radar from popular games. For better or worse, this leads me to a gamble of something different and unique. JRPGs that aren’t made by Square Enix or Namco-Bandai tend to fall in this category, and a lot of my favorite games of the last few years. Looking for niche titles is how I found out about Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii.

“Wish upon a Star”

Thinking back, I haven’t played Arc Rise Fantasia since beating the main story, despite having more game content to follow after. The story stars L’arc, a mercenary for the army on a routine (Fel)dragon hunt when he is thrown off the airship. He’s saved from the dragon’s explosion when the heroine, Ryfia, sings and neutralizes it. They immediately form a uncommon dynamic between the level-headed hero and the air-headed heroine and fight their way to town. Things get more complicated when L’arc finds out that Ryfia is a Diva for Imaginal, the God of Creation, and that he’s also a Child of Eesa. Meaning, he’s not only the guardian of Ryfia, but he’s to collect all the Rogress and save the world from crystallized death.

Like most JRPGs, Arc Rise Fantasia comes with its own set of plot twists. Without giving too much away, there’s another Child of Eesa, as well as another Diva, that L’arc and Ryfia have to fight on their race to collect the Rogress. Other opposition comes in a war between countries, an evil mercenary who has killed L’arc’s father, and moral dilemmas of which way is the right one. I fondly remembered the story for being so thought-provoking on top of just the right difficulty between fun and challenging. There are also so many other details and character arcs that it would be a difficult to explain them all.

Remember my review on Skies of Arcadia Legends? The gameplay is similar to that, where three party members borrow from the same pool of energy that recovers each turn. The difference is that you can freely decide which character acts and when, like have L’arc use up all his points attacking the enemies while his allies either defend or do nothing. This adds a layer of strategy beyond just level grinding because you have to decide when to use damaging combos between your three members, or defend and heal while your enemies use their own devastating attacks.

Probably the best hallmark of Arc Rise Fantasia is its soundtrack, and how amazing it is. “Vast Land” is my all time favorite overworld theme of any game because it just fills you with a sense of immense adventure to the wide world ahead. The overworld map also benefits of having just as detailed graphics as the rest of the game art. You can feel a sense of scale with the towns and dungeons you enter the first time, as opposed to simple sprites where the proportions are off.

Never before had digital trees look so beautiful.

Speaking of sprites, a close follow-up to Arc Rise Fantasia’s best features are its graphics. The 3D polygons are so detailed you can read their facial expressions easy whenever playing a cutscene or seeing their close-ups during battle. For most other scenes, you see stills of character’s 2D anime styled portraits, which sort of makes up for not seeing more of the 3D close-ups. Still, in this writer’s personal opinion, such graphic detail isn’t normally seen in a Wii title.

However, the localized voice cast chosen by Ignition leaves a lot to be desired. It was so bad it actually encouraged gamers not to buy it. I admit, I didn’t like them very well either, considering that they all sounded dull, uninspired, and possibly new to the acting career. At the very least, the voice acting grew on me. It kind of have to, since this game is long, not including the side quests of optional bosses and other rewards.

The dialogue is, sadly, much drier when voiced…