Lord of Arcana

**LocoColt04** · 12-12-2010, 08:59 PM

Lord of Arcana

Who here has ever played and ABSOLUTELY LOVED Monster Hunter, even despite its base lack of actual story?

OKAY GOOD, because Square-Enix has added storyline to Monster Hunter (and perhaps cross-bred it with Dissidia) and wrapped this up in one neat little package that comes out next month!

I know the website doesn't have all of the details on weapon styles yet, but I know it'll be a lot more than just the two that were listed when I looked yesterday. I'm really looking forward to this, even if it's only going to be PSP fodder to hold us over until MHP3 leaves Japan.

**ZantetsukeN** · 02-05-2011, 08:28 PM

Anyone pick this one up yet/planning to get it?

This is one of the many games Squeenix are bringing out for PSP over the next few months. I bought the Slayer Edition, which comes with a mini soundtrack CD and a hardback artbook. The game itself is awesome. I've only just finished chapter 1, but I finding this game really good. A lot of people have compared it to Monster Hunter, but I can't comment on that because I've never played it. It reminds me of Nier on PS3 to be honest. Kind of hack and slash with an RPG twist.

So yeah, I'm loving the game so far. Anyone else like it?

**LocoColt04** · 02-06-2011, 11:47 AM

I'm halfway through Chapter 4 myself. As one of those rabid Monster Hunter players, Lord of Arcana was originally just going to be something to "feed the need," if you will, until Monster Hunter Portable 3rd comes out in North America... but I have to say, Lord of Arcana is much better than I had anticipated, and the multiplayer on it is fantastic.

For anyone who hasn't heard about it yet, it's basically Square-Enix branded Monster Hunter, complete with familiar bosses and an actual storyline.

Also, I'm merging this thread with another, since they have identical topic and title...

**T.G. Oskar** · 02-06-2011, 12:29 PM

Font: check.

Music: check.

Monster art: check. Artists: double check.

...Is it just me, or is this Lord of Vermilion turned into a videogame?

For those who don't know; Lord of Vermilion is an arcade-based collectible card game which pits your deck (created from mythological monsters, including Final Fantasy summon monsters and their brand-name versions of monsters such as Behemoth) against the deck of others, not so different from Magic: the Gathering except you don't have Spell cards to use. Once selected, you basically saw (or played; never got that right) the battle unfurl before your eyes. Part of the trick was using real cards with propietary image recognition technology (fancy wording of mine), so you needed to get real cards and an account to play, but once you did you could face just about anyone...in Japan, that is. The game never went beyond their borders.

Reasons why I speak of this are because the music sounds very similar to that of Lord of Vermilion (a very nice rock-themed set of songs), famous artists from Japan and elsewhere contributing (never noticed one of their monsters is done by Todd McFarlane?) and the overlying themes of Arcana and fighting for supremacy, alongside the hero art which is highly reminiscent of LoV.

Whether that means we'll see other creatures, that depends. Lord of Vermilion II has Edge and Kain (from Final Fantasy IV), Serra Angel and Nicol Bolas (from Magic: the Gathering), the Seven Heroes (from Romancing SaGa II), amongst others (Final Fantasy XI has representation as well), so probably we might see such "cards" in play?

**LocoColt04** · 02-06-2011, 12:32 PM

Actually, Lord of Vermilion was partial inspiration for the content of the game. I vaguely recall seeing something about that somewhere... I can try to find source material again if you want, but given that it's already Square-Enix's property, it's not surprising.

**Rowan** · 02-23-2011, 03:25 PM

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**Victoria** · 02-23-2011, 03:39 PM

I wish I had the money to get the full version of this game. But so far all I have is the free demo from PSN. And I really like the game and am disappointed that there are people out there that hate this game because "it's just a monster hunter clone".

It even got bad reviews from PSM and G4... >_> I don't really pay attention to them much, I mostly read EGM. But it's still sad.

There's so many games I want to get and so little money that I have, haha.

**T.G. Oskar** · 02-23-2011, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by Victoria

I wish I had the money to get the full version of this game. But so far all I have is the free demo from PSN. And I really like the game and am disappointed that there are people out there that hate this game because "it's just a monster hunter clone".

It even got bad reviews from PSM and G4... >_> I don't really pay attention to them much, I mostly read EGM. But it's still sad.

There's so many games I want to get and so little money that I have, haha.

It's a Monster Hunter "clone" with famous artists doing work for them. I mean, Todd McFarlane!! And IIRC, also most of the Square-Enix development teams artists (such as Akihiko Yoshida). So it has its unique flavor; the thing is that the genre is still saturated by Monster Hunter, much like the MMO genre is saturated by WoW and every game either tries to copy the formula and UI (and fails because "it's just like WoW") or tries to be different (and fails because "it's not WoW"). But the game can be cool if you get into it (*coughcoughDDOcoughcough*).