Square Enix summarized all of the changes explaining how Lord of Arcana evolved into Lord of Apocalypse. Some of these tweaks are minor like adding kanji support for names and an option to skip tutorials. Other features are more significant, for example, you do not need to touch an enemy to start a battle and your character’s HP will heal over time.
The document also mentions the addition of facial hair for avatars, level ups (and more importantly instant HP recovery) happen in real time, and you can skip movies in single player mode. Lord of Apocalypse also has new elements (wind, ice, and earth) and a "frozen" status effect. Other notable tweaks include adjusting master guardian AI, reducing the time it takes to move from area to area, a ton of field status effects (one saps mana), adding a timer to the results screen, and a revised camera. Here’s a list of the differences or reasons why Lord of Apocalypse won’t be the same game you may have tried on PSP earlier this year, according to Square Enix.
Played Lord of Arcana? You can import your save data into Lord of Apocalypse. Access Games, the development team behind Spy Fiction and Lord of Arcana, have Lord of Apocalypse slated for release for PSP and PlayStation Vita on December 17.
