Arc Arena is the side game included as one of the 4 games in the Arc the Lad Collection and as such is not part of the series progression. The real purpose of this title is simply to have some fun with the monsters and characters of Arc I and Arc II. Arc Arena allows you to use the monsters ravished by Leiza in Arc II for combat against other monsters in tournaments and against other players.
<p>
Arc Arena is by no terms a great asset to the Arc Collection, in fact its not even worth the effort unless you really enjoy monster battles. The biggest issue with Arc Arena is that you have no control over your monsters in battle during certain modes, which will be discussed later. This means you literally sit and watch as your monsters do whatever they wish during the fight and thus the enjoyment of the game is incredibly decreased by this factor.
<p>
Arc Arena has several different modes for monster combat, Battle Mode, VS Mode, and Tournament. In Battle Mode 3 teams of 4 monsters from each player are pitted against each other. The opponent is of course in this mode the computer and its monsters are made up from a team selection available to it. Your teams will be made up from the monsters in your collection and you must pick carefully to create a balance. At the beginning of a battle you have the option of how you want your monsters to act which can be Auto, Offense, Defense, Avoid, or Brute Force. This pattern your monsters will follow in combat whether they strictly stick to attack, defend themselves, run away like cowards, or in auto do whatever they please. This is the major downfall of this mode, you as the player have no interaction with your monsters, they will move, attack, etc on their own. As mentioned previously you sit and watch as they battle it out. The idea behind this mode is two have at least 2 of your 3 teams beat the other team and you then win a prize and a new monster. Winning against a team of 3 groups allows you to face the next team of 3 groups with a total of 15 groups vailable to play against. Each team has stronger monsters and higher levels with better items and monsters available if you win. The problem is, as I have found, is that the game will not allow you to import monsters after your party reaches level 30 in Arc II. So this means if you did like I did and built monsters you collected later in the game to use for Arc Arena you wasted your time as you can not use them. The monsters you play against are generally alot higher in level and skill than the ones you will have in your party. Thus this means you will need to spend many hours training your monsters or losing in the Battle Arena just to have a chance to win.
<p>
The VS Mode and Tournament mode should be self explanetory, but in basic a VS mode allows you to play against a friend who would ideally have his own set of monsters ravished from Arc II. Same rules apply as in Battle Mode except in this mode and Tournament you can control your monsters manually. The purpose of these two modes is just to thrash your friend and laugh in his or her face, and to win the Tournament for the title of the strongest Monster Battler.
<p>
The transition from Arc II to Arc Arena is very fluid as all in and out of game mechanics and functions remain the exact same. The Battle System, Menus, Items etc are all carried over from Arc II, including your parties levels and inventory for all characters. The reason for this is because in VS Mode or Tournament mode you can use the characters of Arc I and II alongside monsters thus making an ultimate party. If you need more information on the mechanics of Arc II please read our review in the games section as there is no need to repeat information.
<p>
The neatest feature of Arc Arena is how your generic player, you can pick the boy or the girl generic player, interacts with the characters of Arc I and Arc II. Each character in Arc Arena has a different job that they perform and your generic player will run into them for diffrent things. For example Arc is your guide around the town, he will show you around and basically teach you the layout of the Arena. Iga is the trainer and it is in his area that you can attempt to build up your monsters through normal fighting. Leiza and Elc serve as facilitators for sharing monsters and items with another player, if in fact another player has loaded his or her data. Kukuru serves as the registrar for the Arena while Golgen brings you to the Warehouse where you can claim your items and monsters that you have won from the Battle Arena. Shante runs a theatre where she performs basically on demand and other characters like Tosh and Shu just sort of float around. Its interesting to see each character doing something other than slaying evil and provides some small amusment.
<p>
Overal the game lacks originality, interactivity, and entertainment value but does have a novelty effect since you have undoubtedly played through Arc I and Arc II at this point. The only real purpose of this title is again to play around but it not something you must play to finish the collection. However many people will find the game amusing if they really enjoyed the monsters they collected and want to see what the monsters they win could be if they make it through all 15 teams. I suggest for full enjoyment of this game, find a friend who has played Arc II when it is released and just try and beat him or her as soon as possible. 
<p> AllRPG.com