Lord of Arcana!

"A warrior from an unknown land was able to conquer this country in nine days..."

       Fast forward to now, that warrior is long gone. Many have tried to step up to take his place and failed. Now it's your turn. Could you become the Lord of Arcana?

        I won't spoil much about this game since you might want to find out about this game while playing it so I'll just talk about my initial reaction to this game. This new game from Square Enix feels like a hybrid of the Monster Hunter Portable and Tales series (Tales of Phantasia, Symphonia. The map and exploring feels like Monster Hunter while during combat it feels more like the Tales of series. It's nice really. The combination works. You explore the MHP-like world but when it's combat time the game switches up nicely. Your skills level up based on the way you fight. If you cast magic a lot then you get more experience in magic proficiency. If you attack with your weapon a lot, your weapon proficiency increases. You have five different kinds of weapons (1h sword, 2h sword, axe, spear and mace) to choose from and each with their own proficiency.

         Coup de grace. A death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. Yep, sounds just about right. If you lock onto a creature and attack it constantly without letting that lock go, you get an option to do a coup de grace (think of it like the "Finish Him!" moment in Mortal Kombat) to your opponent. I'm impressed with this feature. Not only are the motions fluid, but every monster that you fight has a different coup de grace designed for it. And we haven't even delved into the bosses yet. Once the boss you fight is about to die, it won't give you a coup de grace option (or else it would be too simple, don't you think so?), instead you get a battle sequence where you are required to push specific buttons in during specific moments of the battle sequence. It's really good.

        Using the power of the Arcana, you are able to turn monsters into monster cores when the time is right. You can then use the cores to improve your equipment so that you can further kick some monster back sides. It's a tenacious cycle that one won't get tired of quickly. One thing that I didn't like though is that you can't straight up buy potions for healing. Instead you need to collect two items first THEN convert it into potions. Some people may like that, I don't (^_^).

        Sound feels realistic (although I wouldn't know what sounds those monsters make anyway). It makes you feel that the sword is actually cutting through the monster's flesh (gross right?). You will see blood in this game. From the Coup de grace to the duels for bosses. There will be blood.

TL;DR? Scores ahoy!

     

Story	I can't say much about the story, you get to the new world trying to be the new lord of arcana, you accomplish missions, fight arcanas, gain their power, level up, get new equipment, fight some more. That's about it.	8
Gameplay	Gameplay is good. In fact, gameplay is very good. Other people say that the game is a rip-off of Monster Hunter and I can't blame them. I see hints of Monster Hunter here and there. But this game pretty much tries to do things that Monster Hunter does not do, like the combat system and arcanas.	10
Sound	Sound is realistic. It's not that bad. Although I can't say I can give it a high score. All I know is that, while listening to the sound, you feel like you're really into the fight.	9
Replayability	Yeah, you can replay it over and over. You can try another weapon or even try another kind of magic. This game offers replayability as well. Some quests have difficult monsters that can only be beaten once you've gotten a whole lot stronger, so yeah. Replayability, yes.	10
Overall	This is one of the games you need to play once it comes out. It’s a new feel for Action RPG games. I’d say yes. This game is a must-play. It’s challenging, it’s fun, it’s a lot of things packed into one game. Enjoy!	92.5%

        If I'm going to rank it up, I can say that this game is on the borderline of being a great game. I think the only reason that it doesn't get higher is because some of the things you see in Lord of Arcana feels like it's already been done (Monster Hunter series). But it's not like I'm giving this a low score. This game is good. It's damn good. Here's a trailer of what you can expect from this game. Enjoy, keep on gaming!