Arc Of Alchemist Review – Into the Unknown

While often overshadowed by the PS One ‘Golden Age’ of JRPGs, it’s often easy to forget just how good the PS2 generation was; taking advantage of the hardware advances to create more believable characters and more robust worlds. Today’s featured game pays homage to this time, taking inspiration from respected games of the era, including Dark Cloud, and the early Atelier games and Wild Arms series.

Introduction

Arc of Alchemist is an action-RPG developed by Compile Heart and Galapagos RPG, and published by Idea Factory International on January 31st, 2020, for PlayStation 4. The game’s retro theme and lower-budget production values compared to other more vibrant Compile Heart properties have resulted in some misunderstandings regarding the game’s premise, along with some mixed reviews elsewhere. Fortunately, we’re here to clear things up.

Story

The game is set in a world once covered by vast oceans but is now a shadow of its former self; now little more than an endlessly sprawling desert, overrun by hostile machines. In order to compensate for depleting resources, humanity rediscovered alchemy, though this would only buy humanity so much time before resources would near depletion. Wars would be waged to selfishly seize what little remained.

This struggle was ultimately fruitless, and so, nearly all resources were consumed, loved ones perished, and despair grew within the hearts of the survivors. Soon, humanity was on the brink of extinction, and in desperation, turned to the ancient myths and legends for some faint glimmer of hope. An old tale was rediscovered: Within the Desert of Beginnings, there slept a legendary “Great Power” capable of saving humanity.

The identity of this Great Power is unknown, however it was not beyond the realms of possibility for something to sleep within that endless desert, buried beneath those ancient sands. The small nations each sent teams to investigate the Desert of Beginnings, though one by one, each team was either wiped out or forced to withdraw.

Now, a small kingdom, no more than a hundred years old, is preparing its own investigation into the Desert of Beginnings. The king has declared that he would send a large-scale expedition team into the unknown, led by a young commander and daring tactician named Quinn Bravesford, for the sake of their country, leading their soldiers into battle against the swath of rival nations and hostile machines.

Though originally Quinn couldn’t help but doubt the existence of the Great Power, she begins to question the validity of the old stories upon her acquisition of the Lunagear, an ancient alchemic device. According to the legends of old, once the Lunagear is equipped with four Orbs, it will unlock the Great Power that will save humanity, Orbs which Quinn and her team will need to find during their quest.

Gameplay

We begin taking the first steps into the vast, intimidating desert, controlling Quinn, and aided by two additional party members. If you run into an enemy while exploring, you’ll automatically enter battle mode. You’ll be able to perform two different ‘Actions’, depending on which weapon is equipped by Quinn, allowing some level of experimentation.

Your party members will perform actions automatically with pre-assigned commands given prior to battle. Orders can be assigned to allies in the menu screen, as well as actions and formations. Construct your own battle-style by mastering the various combat elements, such as keeping your formation while firing projectile-based magic, or by attacking with a relentless offense.

The Lunagear is a special device which only Quinn can use. By incorporating Orbs, its wearer can control the elements of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. The Lunagear corresponds with whichever Orb is equipped. With the Fire Orb, you can blast flames to damage enemies, whereas with the Earth Orb, a slab of rock can be summoned to form a barrier against damage. By equipping different orbs into the Lunagear, you can combine any of the four elements to deal even stronger attacks.

Quinn’s Lunagear will also be required to solve puzzles. Whenever machines block exploration paths, players can use one of the four elements to progress, and some more challenging puzzles require combining elements to solve. Mechanical gimmicks can block your path and cause you to lose your way. Some gimmicks can damage the party as well, however other gimmicks can be used to your advantage in battle.

Quinn and her party can make use of building bases to prepare for their journey. Within the base, one can set party formations, train, construct buildings, and rest. Players can also buy, sell, and swap out new costumes, weapons, and equipment to strengthen the team. Players can select inventory load-outs, change abilities, and select party members to explore the desert from the Formation menu.

By constructing a selection of new facilities, you can boost your base’s rank. Facilities can be freely placed all around the base. Increasing rank yields bonuses for new provisions, higher training stat bonuses, and other benefits. Training allows your party to increase their stats and learn new abilities. Vicious beasts are scattered throughout the desert, making your combat prowess the key to survival.

Graphics/Sound

The presentation featured in Arc of Alchemist features fully 3D character models and environments, though there are differences from the usual archetype used in traditional Compile Heart JRPGs. 3D character models remain present throughout the visual novel-esque cutscenes rather than switching to the studio’s usual 2D portraits.

There are photo portraits present on text boxes and partial voice acting, which is only available in Japanese here, while the collection of background music tracks blend the powerful and the ambient beautifully, while also remaining loyal to PS2 era midi-style tracks, giving the music a nostalgic quality.

To preserve the retro feel of the game while also trimming costs, the graphical components are intentionally downgraded, removing the usual layer of HD fidelity to produce a style reminiscent of a PlayStation 2 game receiving a HD conversion. Characters also have some ‘chibi’ features, with everyone being small in stature but more realistically proportioned, in something of a hybrid style.

The visual theme works well with the desert setting to produce a blurred sand effect that doesn’t feel like much of a downgrade from the usual norm, and is reminiscent of a Namco Bandai Tales game at times. This fusionist art-style is masterminded by none other than iconic Final Fantasy concept artist Yoshitaka Amano, with character designs produced by Mota.

Conclusion

There’s a certain charming style to Arc of Alchemist that I think anyone can appreciate, given the chance. The simplistic design will be something unique to a modern audience, while old-school gamers will find a nostalgic treat here. This is a double-edged sword, of course, as modern audiences have modern standards, and the simplistic visuals and gameplay could be perceived as outdated, which is precisely how they’re meant to be.

What we must also consider is the game’s generous price-point, at least for the digital version, which is half the price of Idea Factory’s usual titles, though the rarer physical edition often gets a bit of a mark-up, which is odd since the market usually works the other way around.

Taking a little time to play around with the game’s plethora of simplified base-building mechanics while we map the ever-expanding desert can be a very rewarding investment. It’s an immensely fun experience of ups and downs as we pick our battles, dominating the weaker enemies with flurries of Quinn’s sword combos and other attacks which differ from weapon to weapon, while deadly traps including land mines and gun turrets can make short work of our party.

This makes for a journey that can be intimidating at first as we stumble into a few unwinnable encounters, only for the game to forgive our missteps and allow us to re-spawn at the nearest warp point with our loot and experience intact, where we can return to base to tweak our gear while planning our next move. There’s a bit of strategy involved as we use our elemental abilities to unlock passageways to new areas, rather than as spells in combat. Avoiding combat can be just as crucial as winning battles.

Exploring every corner of the map certainly brings in the rewards, yet it can also add to repetition as we battle re-spawning foes again and again, occasionally having to retrace our steps when some trap or machination wipes out our party, pushing us back to the last warp point. Fortunately, in a game this enthralling, the pros more than outweigh the cons.

As far as action-JRPGs go, they don’t get much simpler than Arc of Alchemist, yet that’s all part of its charm. Sure, the game has repetitive moments, but these really are just moments; Being able to finish absolutely everything in well under 20 hours means that we don’t get to experience much of the grind, while the regular party scenes of exposition and often silly banter make for a pleasant break from the action.