Cue the generic story about how Arc's father left on a journey ten years ago and how Arc's leaving home (and a depressed mother who grieves about her child growing up). Meanwhile, Kukuru, a young girl of the Sacred Clan, is sent by her father to extinguish the Flame Cion, a fire long protected by her clan. Unfortunately, her father has been corrupted, and this is a bad idea; upon dousing the flame, the demonic Ark Ghoul is released, wishing death upon all around it. Kukuru runs away in fear and crosses paths with Arc, who, together, ignite the flame once again and seal away the Ark Ghoul. Their fates intertwined, Arc and Kukuru are now tied to a journey that will see them seeking the Ark, an item capable of protecting the world and humanity as a whole from future evils.

Yep, looks like Arc is looking for an Ark. Who wrote this script, NOBODY?

Arc and Kukuru won't be alone, as over the course of their quest, they'll pick up five more random travellers. For example, there's Poco, player in the local drum corps, is a timid fellow whose courage shines mainly on the battlefield; Gogen is a wizard three millennia old whose zaniness and worldly wisdom may just save the party from destruction; and Chongara, a puffy-capped merchant whose greed for material goods often blinds him from the overall goal. These characters will make up your party, and although none of them are truly fleshed out in great detail, you'll just have to try and get along with them.

The game plays out like a standard tactical RPG, but without many major bells and whistles to throw you off. Each character, both friend and enemy alike, gets their own turn in battle on a grid-style scene. Depending on their stats, they'll be able to move around a specific distance, illustrated by the ground glowing blue. If you're close to an enemy, you can attack physically or using a magic spell. Ultimately, the goal is obvious: kill all the enemies before they wipe out your party. As well, certain characters have magical spells capable of either healing, upping your offense/defense/agility, or even summoning creatures to aid you in battle. It's a bare-bones system that is refreshingly simple and easy to grasp.

Unfortunately, that's all you'll be doing. There aren't really any towns to visit, any currency to spend, any anything to anything. The best you'll get when dropping by a new area is a cutscene. The focus of this game is on the storyline (which drops off for a while in the middle as the plot turns into a long-winded fetch quest) and on battling. There's very little else to do except hop on the Silver Noah, your rented airship, to travel between continents.

Arc, find the Ark! Hark, Arc, there's the Ark!

As well, Arc the Lad is surprisingly short. For an RPG, being able to complete it in under 10 hours would be unacceptable. But Arc the Lad was supposedly meant to be short, its events leading directly into the sequel, Arc the Lad II. That's how they get you: hook you with a nice brief game, then shive you in the back by making you buy a sequel. (And then another in Arc the Lad III. And then a monster collecting spinoff in Arc Arena.)

The graphics are all sprite-based, with the exception of a few FMVs (including the ending, which still shows sprites but is clearly an FMV, complete with absolutely gross pixelated compression; they should have literally just used the in-game sprites and be done with it). They are a touch above the capabilities of the SNES but not significantly higher. Chalk this up to being an early PlayStation game, I suppose. The soundtrack is a mix of orchestrated dark or highly emotional tunes and a few upbeat new wave jams to pad things out in battle. I actually really enjoyed the music here. The instruments used might seem slightly primitive even for the PlayStation, but I swear, I can't say no to that one battle tune (marked on the official CD soundtrack as "Battle 5")...