Arc Rise Fantasia opens on a fleet of airships effortlessly cutting through skies, high above the moonlit earth below. Knights clad in heavy, full armor patrol the decks, watching for signs of danger.

Suddenly, a horde of dragons burst through the distant, dark clouds on the horizon. The vigilant knights draw their massive blades, jostling as they anxiously await the impending attack.

A lone teenager confidently strides from the cabin of one ship. He effortlessly wields a sword almost as big as his own frame. Unlike the knights, he wears no armor; all he wears is a modern get-up that looks suspiciously like a skiing outfit, adorned with superfluous accessories (mostly belts).

One of the dragons swoops down for an attack. The teenager confronts the beast alone, completely sure of his own abilities. After a brief fight that ends in inevitable (scripted) victory, the young man is caught off-guard by one of the many other dragons flying about, and sent plummeting from the sky boat.

The young man lands, effortlessly, on the forest floor below, but not before the dragon he brought down with him begins to explode. Fortunately, just in time, another teenager — a young girl — emerges from the woods. She’s extremely fair-skinned, wide-eyed, purple-haired, dressed in white, and carrying an undefinable air of mystery, purity, innocence and power. She sings a magic song that turns the dragon into glowing blue light, safely dispersing it into the atmosphere (I don’t even want to know what effect that has on the ozone).

The young man is L’Arc Bright Lagoon, a young mercenary working with the Meridian Empire; the young woman is simply called Ryfia, a ‘Diva’ of ‘Noireism.’ Ryfia doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about where she is or what she’s doing, so L’arc offers to escort her through the dangerous, monster-ridden forest, to the nearby village of ‘Topazion.’ The two set off down a path lined with trees and tree-sized crystals.

An incomprehensible title, airships, super-powered teenagers with giant swords, a lost young girl whose mysterious power is matched only by her naivete, random misappropriation of the French language, crystals sticking out of the ground . . . Yep, I’m playing a Japanese RPG, alright.