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PLATFORM
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PS3
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BATTLE
SYSTEM
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INTERACTION
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ORIGINALITY
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STORY
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MUSIC
& SOUND
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VISUALS
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CHALLENGE
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Moderate
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COMPLETION TIME
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Less than 20 Hours
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OVERALL
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+
Simple and at times very
engaging combat.
+
Multiple ways to develop the
main character.
-
Terrible glitchy visuals.
-
Story bores until almost the
very end.
-
Forgettable music.
-
Uneven battle encounter
quality.
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Click
here for scoring
definitions
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ArcaniA: The
Complete Tale is the fourth title in the now
long-running Gothic series packaged along
with its standalone expansion pack. The first
entry not from longtime series developer Pirhana
Bites, the switch in developers seems to have
brought a great slew of technical issues to the
table and not much else. This action RPG seems to
attempt the feel of a grand Bethesda-style world,
but ends up just feeling linear and often broken
given some of the glitches that can occur when
players try to wander from clear paths. Even
without the glitches, the game doesn't offer much
other than an uninspired fantasy tale along with
some occasionally enthralling combat. It's a
shame, because there are some ideas in ArcaniA
that could have come together to make a much
better game, but developer Spellbound wasn't able
to make good on it.
There are
problems right away with the story. After
describing a greater conflict, ArcaniA
drops you into the role of the protagonist living
on a peaceful island amongst the world's southern
seas, where the previously described wars are
raging. After some tutorial areas your typical
fantasy tragedy happens and its off for revenge
against the king whose army is responsible for the
tragedy. Of course such a generic beginning would
be forgiven if the rest of the story went
somewhere, but instead the protagonist just ends
up as an errand boy for the various characters
blocking his progress towards the king and his
revenge. The plot eventually takes some
interesting turns by the end, but it's too little
too late. The voice acting doesn't help either, as
the actors fail to bring any emotion or excitement
to the script at all. The game does let you skip
the original game and start from the standalone
expansion. However, the expansion's story serves
to tie up the loose ends of the original, so it
won't make much sense on its own. The story isn't
completely without merit as the late game shows at
times, but its completely ruined by the boring
beginning and middle.
Hack
your way to victory!
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Similarly, the
gameplay itself is an uneven experience, though
thankfully the good is divided throughout instead
of back-loaded at the end. ArcaniA
features simple magic, archery, and melee combat
systems but allows the player to fluidly switch
between them to keep things interesting. Each of
the systems also evolves as you place skill points
into them. For example, the game's three spells
add the ability to charge and inflict enemies with
various status ailments. Blocking and dodging are
also available for some defensive options. The
third-person perspective provides a perfect
viewpoint for using these options to carefully and
enjoyably take down large groups of enemies.
The problems
come not from the core battle system, but from the
enemies, their AI, and the construction of battle
scenarios. Enemy AI does a poor job of blocking
and dodging, and usually heavily telegraphs any
kind of strong attack. This means single enemies
can often be taken out simply by mashing the
attack button, with an occasional dodge or two.
The game makes up for this by throwing groups of
enemies at the player. Surprisingly, this actually
works quite well. Against groups of enemies,
especially a mix of melee and ranged fighters,
players are forced to use every available ability
to carefully take them down. When these encounters
are just groups of easy enemies they still prove
to be engaging as being ganged up by any kind of
enemy can easily lead to the player's defeat. It's
a shame then that ArcaniA never fully uses
this to its advantage. Random encounters while
traveling outside usually fall into the boring
variety, and even though the game uses groups more
as it goes along the quality of encounters is
uneven.
If only
the game looked this good in motion.
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Outside of
combat there isn't much to do, which makes these
issues even more frustrating. There aren't many
areas to explore for side quests and since the
main quest nets a variety of great equipment,
there's little incentive to travel off the beaten
path. There are a number of instances where choice
comes into play, usually choosing from a small
number of quests on how to get around a certain
obstacle. Similar to the sidequest issue, there's
no real incentive to pick one over the other.
There are no complex moral choices to be found,
just a matter of picking one dungeon or fetch
quest over another.
To complete the
issues of ArcaniA, graphics and music are
a major disappointment. There's little to no music
in general outside of a few good, but generic,
orchestral pieces that show up in the main menu
and in battle. None of the music is bad or
grating, just utterly forgettable and fails to add
anything to the experience. The graphics fare far
worse. Looking like a relic of early 3D PC RPGs, ArcaniA
doesn't have much in the way of unique and
interesting textures or 3D modules, and suffers
from a terrible draw distance and other graphical
glitches that you don't often expect from a PS3
game. Worse than the superficial issues are the
many glitches that can occur. Many areas off a
main path seem to have been designed to be
inaccessible, but instead of just being unable to
walk on them the player will simply get stuck or
fall off, sometimes off of nearby cliffs to their
doom. Monsters similarly seem to teleport around
battlefields if there are any sorts of obstacles
they can get stuck in. ArcaniA is just a
mess from a technical standpoint.
ArcaniA
is just an altogether frustrating experience. Its
few good points fail to shine through in any way
thanks to the vast number of technical and design
issues. Even a fun battle system can't do much for
the game other than highlight even further the
wasted potential. Already facing a tough challenge
to gain attention with the likes of The
Witcher and The Elder Scrolls out
there, ArcaniA comes off as an overly
generic fantasy adventure that is so uneven and
glitchy that an included expansion pack seems like
a punishment rather than a bonus. Only those
absolutely in need of a new RPG need apply here.
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