The gameplay moves away from the more tactical aspects present in its predecessors, more like that of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The battles have been scaled down as well as making the party size 4 rather than 5 and the battles get a new card-based summoning system.[1]
Arc The Lad 3 PSN
This story starts years after the Great Disaster (the global disasters from Arc the Lad II), on the island of Eteru. Alec, a young man from a small farm town, Sasha Village, aspires to become a Hunter, just like the man who saved him during the Great Disaster. When his village is attacked by bandits, he and his quirky friend Lutz must run to the nearest town, Itio, and hire a Hunter to save the village. On the way to the town, they encounter monsters and realize they get a rush when fighting and also feeling a power within themselves. After the village is saved, Alec decides to leave and become a Hunter; Lutz naturally tags along.
To become a Hunter, Alec must collect the Ghost Dream Crystal in a nearby cave. With Lutz's help, Alec finds the crystal and officially becomes a Hunter. After taking enough jobs, Alec and Lutz eventually take on a job that lets them leave Eteru Island. A boat takes them to the next continent, Forestamore. There they meet Theo, a young Cardist who can turn monsters into cards like his mother. He joins them and together they meet Lieza (from Arc the Lad II), who is now running a monster ranch with Paundit. They also encounter Sharon, a woman from the Academy, who can control monsters with a machine. With Lieza's help, the trio rides a Flying Fire to their next destination, North Sularto.
Upon landing in North Sularto, they meet a spunky gunslinger named Cheryl. They also take note of how destroyed North Sularto became from the Great Disaster, having landed in a giant junk heap. Making their way to Society Village, a town dedicated to restoring the world, Alec completes his job by delivering a strange orb found back in Forestamore. The trio then heads to Gislem, a notoriously poor and equally dangerous city. It seems the Academy has been kidnapping people and it appears Shu (from Arc the Lad II) is helping. After a failed attempt of the kidnapping of Cheryl, Cheryl joins the party. A path to South Sularto opens up.
After taking some jobs in Testa, the group meets Tosh, the protector of the city and its precious Water Orb (Tosh being from Arc the Lad). The Academy steals the Orb from the village and Tosh, shocked from seeing his friend Shu with the enemies, decides to join Alec and crew and get back the Orb. Because of the lack of water in the desert town of Testa, the villagers travel to Gislem, where they temporarily live.
Learning that a secret Academy base is hidden in an old airship, the group makes their way inside, only to find it crawling with enemy robots. Halfway through, the group finds Shu, who reveals that he was really trying to infiltrate the Academy's plans. Having taken the Orb, Tosh returns to Testa and Shu joins Alec to get to the bottom of this. After defeating an Academy employee in a giant robot, Shu leaves the group.Afterwards, a new job opens up: Society Village needs to deliver information to the giant library in Jiharta. Taking the job, Alec and his friends take a boat to Jiharta. They quickly learn of an uproar in the Hunter's Guild and investigate: someone has stolen a water controlling scroll from the nearby Amaidar Temple. After speaking to Iga (Arc the Lad character), the party and Marsia, a young spellcaster from the Spell Institute who knows the thief personally, discover the thief, Tikva, is working for the Academy.
Alec and his party find the Academy and Tikva at the Romastor, conducting a water controlling experiment with the scroll and some machinery. After the experiment, the Academy members dismiss Tikva, who becomes angry at not being recognized as helpful. Galdo, a spear wielding Academy member previously seen in the secret base, was watching the experiment and now intervenes. Alec and crew attack, surprising Galdo that they can even scratch him. He teleports away and Tikva is taken bake to Amaidar Temple. As punishment, Iga forcesg him to join the temple and become a monk, much to the surprise of everyone. Marsia then decides to join Alec on his adventure.
After settling a few jobs in Jiharta, Iga then wish to deliver a letter to his friend named Leshalt in Parute, which makes Alec and crew had to cross the ocean again. In Parute, they came across the main city, Paltos, and learned that an annual tournament's opening ceremony was commencing. The first prize of the tournament being a goddess statue attached with an Aura stone. It appears that the Academy had set a base there too, with Sharon in charge. After the opening ceremony, Alec found Leshalt and consult him about the Academy. After making a promise that he'll help in any way he can, Leshalt send the team back, only to bump into his grumpy brother, Velhart, who was arguably the best swordsman in Parute and second the best warrior only to Gruga of Brakia (the same from Arc the Lad II).
After some time pass, a job order came from the committee of the tournament. It is to safeguard the prize kept inside a nobleman's house in Parute city. As predicted, the Academy did come and wish to snatch the prize. A battle ensues and Alec emerges victorious. The chairman of the committee is none other than Gruga himself, after taking advice from Leshalkt to keep the statue in the Rochefort's manor and had Alec's party to guard it. Not long after the incident, a job came from Leshalt in order to ask Alec to safeguard the Aura stone on the statue and keep it in the safe beneath the item society building. Then Leshalt told Alec that he might know who's the mastermind behind the academy. It appears that it was his old colleague from the time of the disaster. After Alec and his party leave the house, the Professor (leader of the academy), whose name later revealed to be Ludwig, and Sharon enter Leshalt's retreat. The professor's trying to ask Leshalt to join his cause, which he decline. He then go as far as to detain Leshalt as he would be an obstacle for his goal.
Back in the city, Alec is trying to convince Gruga to handing him the prize. But Gruga told Alec that he should win the tournament to get the prize and enlist him in the battle. Much to their surprise, Velhart suddenly ask for admittance of the tournament as a participant. Seeing how Velhart used to say that he won't participate without Gruga in the line makes Alec and his friend curious about the sudden change of heart. In the tournament, Alec battles a lot of worthy opponent, starting from Leegle, a hunter he asked to protect his village from bandits at the beginning of the story, to Velhart, as the best swordsman in Parute, and eventually won all the matches.
When the prize was about to be given to Alec, Velhart suddenly snatches the statue and run away. Alec and crew pursue him only to see that Velhart has aligned himself with the academy. They followed Velhart to the academy's headquarter in Parute desert. Upon reaching there, they learn that Velhart is actually trying to steal the goddess statue to save his brother Leshalt from the academy's captive. They set to double the aura stone Velhart brought, and the process was halted by Leshalt, which causes him to be killed by Seville of the Academy. Enraged by his brother's murder, Velhart join forces with Alec to chase off the Professor only to find out he had escaped.
After much depression and sorrow, Velhart buries his brother in the lot by his retreat and set off for the rest of the journey with Alec. The aura stone is then secured and brought to the item society's safe as Leshalt wished. Moments after, the Guildmaster send a word through his manager that he wishes to meet Alec. He order Alec and his crews to find the Academy's headquarters in a place called Ragnark, which is known as Romalia till the disaster. Using the hovercraft found in the Cariote cave sealed by the guild itself, they travel to Ragnark.
As was told, Ragnark used to be the source of the Great Disaster when it was still called Romalia. Alec and his crews arrive at Ragnark and infiltrate the city of Felator in order to find clues about the headquarters. After stealing a lab coat from a resting scientist, Alec sneak into the branch building of Academy and found out that the chief was Sharon. He overheard Sharon and Seville talking about a mysterious energy reading from what they had been researching and she require an escort to headquarter. Alec and his crews followed her through the White Bone Forest and Midoro Swamp to the main building of the Academy located north of Felator. There, they saw a melting alloy gate and Marsia presumes that someone is using an unbelievably powerful ignition technology, since she herself is unable to melt an alloy that thick. They are then confronted by the guards and accidentally learned that they are not the only intruders in the facility.
As they battle their way to the top of the building where the Professor, Sharon and Seville is, they are halted by the Fear Crimson, a fusion of a dragon and machine. Seville refers that it was their crown creation and was perfected due to the help by a cardist they captured in Forestamore, which is none other than Theo's mother herself. When asked where is she, Seville implied that on the day Fear Crimson was perfected, she just died. He then lock the team in for a battle with the abominable machine. Though Alec's team emerges victorious, the Fear Crimson then set itself to self-destruct and is about to catch the team in the explosion, when Elc's timely arrival and his Flame Shield prevented that. The Professor, Lugwig and Sharon argued over whatever or not to continue with harassing the power source locked away within the lake. Elc takes Alec up to the roof where they confront the Professor and Sharon. Ludwig used Sharon as a shield against Elc so he couldn't unleash his Fire Power at him. From the roof, they witness the revival of the Sky Castle as the lake's was being vaporized.
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