X68000: Arcus II – Silent Symphony  .

And… Ten Years After

When the screen fades to black and the reprise of Masaaki Uno’s timeless Arcus theme subsides, when four short words flash across the darkness and a strident fanfare introduces a new chapter of Wolf Team’s legendary roleplaying saga . . .

. . . actually, let’s back up a bit. Instead of leaping into the middle of Arcus II: Silent Symphony’s animated introduction, we’ll start at the beginning. Similar to Valis 3, the game opens with an illustrated glimpse into the past, conveniently written in English:

ARCUSAS kingdom, where surrounded by richlands and natures.

Well, it’s almost English.

This prosperityes were achived 10 years ago by 6 braves. Because, “ORDEALES” was caused.Bat noone were knew about it.

Er . . . yeah. I’ll spare you a few paragraphs and cut straight to the dramatic conclusion:

“ORDEALES” had brought to an end and Picto had going to the journey of life. What was going on him? What was causing him to do? May by… a roar from long past….. Now!! RUNE-BLADE had awaken up and waiting at daybreak……..”

For those of you who never earned a B.A. in Olde Engrish, the story goes something like this: in the original Arcus, Pikt Aneksios Piyont was an orphaned half-elf. Being only 12 years old, he was terrible with a sword, but he was able to summon powerful elemental spirits. Alongside five other champions, Pikt defeated the golden dragon Rig Veda and saved the Arcusas kingdom from chaos, ushering in a new era of peace yada yada rah rah.

Afterwards, the six heroes — who are referred to as the Four Elemental Knights — split up and went their separate ways. Pikt spent the next ten years searching for his long-lost, mack-daddy father (who vanished after knocking up Pikt’s forest elf mother). Finally, finally, Pikt heard some useful information. Apparently, his dad disappeared while searching for a mysterious sword called the Runeblade. Pikt believes that if he locates the Runeblade, he’ll finally meet his father.

Pikt surprisingly acquires the Runeblade early in the game, and that’s when the adventure really begins. A maniacal demon lord named Warren has also been searching for the magical sword and, much to Pikt’s detriment, the blade acts as a beacon for evil. This adds a lot of suspense, because you never know when Pikt is going to be ambushed by the Chaos Furies that serve their blue-skinned master. The plot’s clearly inspired by Lord of the Rings, and it’s still an entertaining premise.

Alas, cool premises don’t automatically translate into cool games!

The original Arcus was an interesting dungeoncrawler, but this episode adopts the trendy (at the time) overhead JRPG approach. One interesting thing about Wolf Team’s game is that it features visible enemies instead of random encounters, which was rare back in 1990. Fights are turn-based, and the enemies look pretty sweet on the battlefield.

No matter how stylish and menacing the characters look during battles, that doesn’t change the fact that they look like pixellated stick figures on the overhead map (which fills less than half the screen). To be fair, excellent games like Wasteland weren’t exactly graphical powerhouses, either. Unfortunately, Arcus II doesn’t compensate for its shortcomings, because it’s also missing:

By the way, the clumsy fighters don’t know any magic. They’re truly useless.

Arcus II is clearly not like other RPGs. I’ve played some streamlined games that worked, such as Riviera, but this one is laughably minimal. By skipping cutscenes and using the “run and only kill bosses” method, it can be completed in about an hour. Yes, this is a roleplaying game that you can beat in ONE HOUR! Chalk up Arcus II next to Basted as an RPG for retards.

Even if the game weren’t pointless, its combat system — an important aspect of any RPG — is annoying. For example, when a character selects a monster to attack, his target is set in stone. If Pikt kills the hobgoblin, then the next character swings at empty air instead of attacking the fire imp. Also, when you start a new battle, your magical power inexplicably plummets to zero (or close to it), even if you had a FULL GAUGE OF MANA before entering combat! The only way to regain power is to successfully hit the enemy. As mentioned above, successfully hitting the enemy is a dodgy prospect. Should you somehow fill your mana gauge, you’ll be able to hurl a fireball that inflicts less damage than a physical sword strike.

By now, you’re probably thinking that Arcus II sounds pretty lousy, which it is, but it’s not complete rubbish. Even though the cutscenes aren’t handled quite as stylishly as they could have been, the storyline is actually intriguing and occasionally surprising. I’ve already addressed the broad scope of the world, but the small moments demonstrate an admirable degree of flexibility.

Consider Suu-Ni. In the forgotten Elf Village (which is so forgotten that it takes all of two minutes to find), a young elvish archer named Suu-Ni tells you about an ancient shrine buried deep in the mountains. When she offers to help in your quest, you’re provided two choices:

1) “Yes, I could use a guide.”
2) “No, I don’t think little girls belong in dangerous places.”

If you pick the second choice, you get to insult Suu and the game listens. She actually gets mad and refuses to help, forcing you to recruit other (less talented) adventurers! Arcus II may be afflicted with “suck” syndrome, but at least it avoided the dread Dragon Warrior disease.

Even if you don’t piss Suu off immediately, there will be plenty of other opportunities. In the capital city Prudencia, there’s a banquet hall full of blue stick figures dancing girls. You can flirt with one of them. If you flirt over and over and over, Suu eventually throws a jealous tantrum and runs back to her village in the forest. It’s completely optional and completely awesome!

I really dig Arcus II: Silent Symphony’s storyline. Take the 12-year-old orphan from the first game, make him the hero, and fast-forward ten years into the future — that’s a cool concept for a sequel. Now combine that premise with engaging characters, a legendarily diabolical villain, loads of cutscenes, and a brilliant soundtrack composed by the ridiculously talented trio of Masaaki Uno, Motoi Sakuraba, and Yasunori Shiono. On paper, this sequel was a damned good idea.

Too bad this version of the game didn’t stay on paper. Only when resurrected for the Mega CD (as a dungeoncrawler!) was Arcus II: Silent Symphony redeemed.