Arc Rise Fantasia/YMMV

• Complete Monster: One word. Ignacy.
  • Where to BEGIN with Ignacy? Well, when we first heard of him, he's an old rival of Zamuel and Leon's, fatally injuring your Old Master on the ground with petrifying wounds, and Rastan makes a point NOT to fight him. He also comes up briefly when you find out he had a part in killing the Real Diva Rafil, Adele's mother. Then you hear of him again when the Rogress Gula went nuts because of an altered Biocode when he tried copying it. It Gets Worse when you find out his first name is Walter, doubled as Ryfia's guardian, and that he was head of the Aion Unit/QED, which is actually the Senate's personal assassin league. AND played a part in not only Zamuel's eventual death, but Rex Lagoon's as well, because he manipulated Rastan through his family to betray the Lord Knights. And STILL killed them. Everything for the Aion Unit was just business, but for Zamuel, he was just curious of his potential. And lets not forget Serge/Leon, who not only had his sword arm crippled by him, but also lost his two 'sisters' of the church through Feldragon transfiguration; one of them you had to fight and KILL to keep Ebur save. Leslie also has a bone to pick with him, because he kidnapped her sister for data files on his Aion Unit/QED group. Then, after rubbing in the fact that Shelly Greenhill died at the Batrachites attack during the peace talks (but thankfully didn't), he tries to Code Rape L'Arc, only to hit Ryfia instead, and nearly induce her into a coma. Much later, he interrupts your second fight with Alf to ask you to come to the Lascarde Skywalk, implying he was trying to kidnap L'arc mother for bargaining, but settled for Niko instead, who protected her. It turns out to be a trap in extracting Eesa's Code from both L'Arc and Alf, which forces Adele to sacrifice her life to save Alf's. Satisfied with just one of the codes, Ignacy runs off, easily beating up Alf, Clyde, and Dynos when they give chase, prompting you to one final battle for all the shit he's done. And what were his final words as he dies? Laughing bitterness on how he was so close to ruling the world. It was quite satisfying for Alf to suddenly impale him as he was ranting off.
• Designated Villain: Eesa. She isn't malicious in the slightest and the only reason you end up fighting her is because she wants to go on living whereas L'Arc's Law will eliminate the need for her. Really, how can you blame somebody for wanting to defend their own life? The post-battle scenes just stack the woobie points even higher.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Weiss's something of a fan favorite. It's not hard to see why.
• Good Bad Bug: There's a glitch that allows you to equip body armor to all parts of the character, even on the accessory and foot sections. This effectively lets you have a bosses level of defense. It makes the game's hard boss battles far more manageable.
• Les Yay: Leslie and Shelly Greenhill. Seriously, just look at what happens after you rescue Shelly from the ruins! Ryfia and Cecille also seem to want a taste of Leslie.
• Love to Hate: Adele gets a lot of hate for being an awesomely insane bad guy.
• Moral Event Horizon: Ignacy crosses it before the game begins by forcing Rastan to kill Rex by holding his family hostage. Of course, if that doesn't do it for you, then there's everything he does at Lascarde. Alf was so badly traumatised afterwards that he crossed the Despair Event Horizon and became an Omnicidal Maniac.
• The Untwist: Saura reveals herself to be "Allul of the Twelve" long before you realize that she's actually a Rogress.
  • When Weiss tries to kill Alf, L'Arc stops him, telling him that fratricide can't be the answer. Weiss says "then why are you raising your sword to me?", and the game then tries to make it seem like a twist hours later when It's "revealed" that L'Arc is Weiss's brother.
• The Scrappy: Niko to some, due to his constant cowardice.
  • His voice doesn't help things either.
• Selfish Evil: Ignacy. Emphasis on the "selfish" part.
• So Bad It's Good: The voice acting is quite unintentionally hilarious.
  • Narm: Many moments, but one in particular stands out Niko's last words (well, the last ones the party hears) are "I sound stupid, so I'm switching off." Sure, It Makes Sense in Context he's switching off the video feed to his ship while he perfoms his Heroic Sacrifice but if you look at it another way...
• Spiritual Licensee: The game could be considered one to the Tales (series). Not only are the characters of anime design, there are skits that tend to be on the light-hearted side and costumes (that can only be seen on the character portrait). At least two of the developers also worked on the Tales (series): director Hiroyuki Kanemaru from Tales of Symphonia and scenario writer Takumi Miyajima, who worked on Tales of the Abyss.
• Stoic Woobie: Rastan has had a very sucky life, but you won't catch him angsting about it.
• The Woobie: You'll really want to give Luze a cuddle once you find out her backstory. She was made into a god by her people and led them as one, only to eventually be accused of being a false deity and have humanity become divided over her, which resulted in her becoming so distraught about her ability to lead them that she put herself into a state of hibernation...
  • Don't you dare tell me that Eesa isn't one!