Arc the Lad (アークザラッド, Āku za raddo) is a series of tactical role-playing games created by Toshiro Tsuchida, originally developed by G-Craft and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Most of the stories in the series involves a cast of characters battling against the forces of an evil organization or empire, with monsters attacking the world alongside them.
Alongside seven other released games after II, the Arc the Lad series has also branched into other media such as manga, anime, and novels.
[2] In this first installment, the lead protagonist, Arc, sets off from his small town of Touvil after he learns about a plot involving the destruction of the world during his quest to discover what happened to his missing father 10 years prior to the game's events.
During his travels, Arc gathers a band of six other allies: Kukuru, Poco, Gogen, Tosh, Chongara, and Iga, all of whom would go on to appear in later games.
Arc the Lad II continues to use the tactical battle format seen in the previous game, this time featuring much more complex mechanics than its predecessor that include leveling systems for weapons and armor for both playable characters and enemies, a redesigned battle system, a more interactive world map including explorable towns, and a longer game length.
In this sequel, Elc, a young hunter who is the last person from a tribe of firecasters, is joined by a new cast of allies in his own quest against the evil corrupt Empire of Romalia, revealed to be the one involved with the plot to destroy the world.
[4] This spinoff for Arc the Lad II consists of the Monster Game allowing the player to raise up the stats of recruitable Monsters gathered in Arc the Lad II, as well as the stats of the playable characters by pitting them in fighting arenas, and the Casino Game, an unrelated set of gambling minigames featuring Chongara, who runs his own Casino House in the hopes of finding a gambling champion.
However, unlike the first two games, Arc the Lad III is strictly job-driven; with the story only progressing as the player takes and completes jobs from the Hunter's Guild.
Like in Arc the Lad II, characters from previous games make cameo appearances and occasionally fight alongside Alec.
Set 1,000 years after Arc the Lad III, Twilight of the Spirits takes place in the same world amid striving tensions between humans and a new race of humanoid monsters known as Deimos (魔族, (Mazoku, lit.
Twilight of the Spirits redos the original grid based battle system in favor of allowing characters to move freely in circular ranges across fields during combat.
Developed by AltPlus and published by ForwardWorks, Sony's mobile gaming division, Arc the Lad R was developed by many key members of the first two Arc the Lad games, including creator Toshiro Tsuchida, world planner Hiroshi Hayashi, character artist Ryuichi Kunisue, graphic and field artist Eiji Koyama, and composer Masahiro Andoh.
Years later, SCEA came under new management, and with the popularity of other RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, Working Designs was able to publish all three games at once with the Japanese release of Arc the Lad III.
Like the game, the anime follows a young man named Elc, the last member of a tribe of firecasters who were all massacred by the Empire of Romaila, who secretly controls the world and produces powerful monstrous (sometimes human) creations known as Chimera.
At the core of the conflict is a man named Clive, who seeks a bigger interest in Lieza as its soon realized that she may be the key to get closer to the five Great Spirits of the world.