Alundra and Arc the Lad Come to the American PSN Store
I can't begin to tell you all how excited I am to post this news!
On a forum post on the gaming news site Neogaf, Vic Ireland, former president of Working Designs and now president of Gaijinworks, announced that Alunda and Arc the Lad (!!), two games that were highly-regarded amongst its critics upon their release, will be coming to the North America PSN. Alundra only received one additional title, while Arc the Lad has gone on to receive several sequels and even its own Japanese anime.
Both games were highlighted by their amalgamation of gameplay aspects that helped differentiate them from the crowd.
Alundra made its name by offering Zelda-like gameplay with extremely frustrating puzzles (something I can attest to) and amazing platforming elements over different environments such as fire, ice, and crumbling earth. I especially appreciated the mature themes that the game presented, including the pacing of the story. For me, this was really the best 2D Zelda clone on the PS1. Why do I keep saying Zelda so much? Play it. You'll see what I mean.
Arc the Lad, on the other hand, made its mark as a tactical RPG much like Tactics Ogre and games of that nature. Battles begin with the characters moving around in square spaces in order to reach the enemy. The near monopoly of direction was given through dialogue between the cast of characters that Arc meets in his journey -- there is very little in the way of town exploration or NPC confrontations. While a little bit on the short side (you could probably beat this game in around 10 hours), the game was beautiful visually for its high-quality pixel art for the time and its intricately-woven story and writing,
The great thing about Arc the Lad fdfis that any saved games you make can be carried over from game to game, so based on the success of this title, perhaps we will see 2 and 3 be brought over. For those that don't know, at the turn of the century, original publisher Working Designs did us fans a favor and brought over both these games and included them in the Arc the Lad Collection. The package still goes for a pretty high asking price on online retailers. Which reminds me -- shed a tear for those overcharging bastards who think making us pay $90 to relive our youth is reasonable!
Both will be released next Tuesday on the PSN for $5.99 each. As someone who has played both of these titles, I find the $5.99 way more than reasonable and well worth the purchase price. As of right now there is no date set for the European release due to conflicts amongst publishers and who really owns the rights, but he is hoping that strong US sales will push SCEE to get this on your store as soon as possible.
Vic Ireland said that his team will be working hard to bring more outside games over to the Western PSN services, so be sure to support these guys by buying as many copies as you possible can. We still want Albert Odyssey, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete, and Vanguard Bandits!