Anyone here ever play Lord of Arcana?

[Conker]

It's a great game for the PSP, and I'm just now playing it for the first time on my Vita.

 

What I really like about it, is it's basically what you can call Square Enix's Monster Hunter, so to speak; honestly, it's almost as if it's

built atop the same engine(and if it actually is, I wouldn't be surprised).

 

 

I need to be honest, though: this game is far better than any Monster Hunter I've played, by far.

The controls, the combat... the everything, is not the same clunky experience I've had with every Monster Hunter game(they are really clunky, but still fun!).

Now, the combat, especially, is the bee's knees! Each encounter with an enemy brings you to a predefined map to fight said enemy(or a group of them) in, which really is a major improvement over fighting enemies on the level map like in Monster Hunter, as you have much more room to move around in.

 

Not to mention, the combat of this game is very fast-paced and fluid, unlike with Monster Hunter.

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Going more into how the combat is between Monster Hunter and Lord of Arcana...

 

Monster Hunter:

These games have some fun combat, sure, but it's also really frustrating at the same time. Attacking enemies with a combo will have you swinging against nothing once they decide to jump out of your way, and you can't just stop right away; it takes a second or so before you actually manage to stop the combo. This even opens you up to attack from the enemy, which is not good; once they hit you, you fall right on your ass, and it usually takes a second or so to get back up into the action, sometimes allowing them to even hit you once more before you get back up, making the process repeat.

 

 

The game's combat is also hurt by the lack of a targeting system, which would effectively eliminate(not entirely, but almost) the problem described above if implemented properly. Just, overall, I've found things to be clunky/unresponsive/whatever in the heat of battle.

 

 

Lord of Arcana:

The combat of this game is, like I've said, really fast-paced and fluid. The wide open maps to fight in make all the difference, and it also has a targeting system(think Zelda's Z-Targeting) which allows for you to land precise blows on your enemies, whether it be from your weapon or magic attacks; switching between enemies with said targeting system is also really simple, only requiring the press of a button(or in my case, the flick of an analog stick, since the Vita can assign buttons to its extra stick for PSP games), making you easily able to weaken/kill other foes in the heat of battle.

 

There also seems to be finishing moves, which are cool.

Anyways, I'm sure my description of combat made these two games seem like night and day compared to one another, and not at all very similar like I implied in the opening of this topic, but that's where most of the core differences like: in combat. Overall, I feel if there were ever a "sister" to Monster Hunter, so to speak, with an awesome fantasy setting, this would be it.

 

 

All of the vast similarities in the two game's engines make it seem as such(don't worry, there's comparison pictures below), and they're both truly great games to begin with. And trust me, I know: Monster Hunter is meant to be played how it is, it's supposed to be more realistic, but the clunkiness can turn some people off(like me, but not entirely). But if you want a game that is very similar, but is much more fast-paced/fluid, Lord of Arcana is a damn nice game to have!

Comparison Pictures:

Monster Hunter character creation;

 

Lord of Arcana character creation;

 

Monster Hunter combat(party/no party);

 

Lord of Arcana combat(party/no party);

That is all I feel like listing, but you get the idea. And trust me, they also play and act the same in many respects, so screenshots don't tell all here.

Anyways, if you've played either, which do you prefer? For me, it's Lord of Arcana.