The Arc the Lad series has always been an underrated rpg series that never really gotten much attention in the overall rpg market. Most of that is due to it's timing on being release to the market despite having 3 games under it's belt. The first 3 games of Arc the Lad was release during the early to mid Playstation era. Even though it was release on the Playstation, the Arc games never really used the full
potential power of the Playstation system. This of course cause many rpgers to over look this series as the rpg market was changing in terms of what the average rpg gamers are now looking for in rpgs. Sony never really brought this series over to North America due to the fact that the games were outdated by Playstation standards. A local company in the U.S finally decided to port the 3 Arc games over to North America during the last year of the Playstation era. But by then mainstream rpg gamers have already begun to move over to the Playstation 2. So the Arc the Lad series became a series that only die hard fans enjoy. Not to make the same mistake as the past, Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits enter the Playstation 2 era using the power of the Playstation 2 to it's full potential and to attract new rpg fans to this forgotten series. How does the new Arc the Lad game play out in today's era? Find out now as we take a look at Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits.
STORY
Kharg's Human Team
Darc's Deimos Team
Hundreds of years have passed since the time of Arc the Lad I-III. The adventures of Arc and his friends have now become that of folk tales and legends told through generations of families. The world itself has changed. The spirits have all but disappeared from the world. And a new race called the Demios, evolved from monsters, now inhabit the world along with the Human race. For years the two races, Humans and Demios have been at war with one another over the resource called Great Spirit Stones. Humans rely on the spirit stones for their machines and every day life. The Demios rely on the spirit stones for their magic. With only one limited resource and two races, war is bound to occur over the spirit stones. Our story pick up on the Human side first. Kharg, the new leader of Yewbell Defense Corps, went out with his
comrades to investigate a crash site in his country. At the crash site, Kharg and his friends encounter the survivor of the crash, Lilia. Lilia explained to Kharg that she is on a journey to the World Alliance capital city to warn them of the invading Dilzweld Empire. The Dilzweld Empire have been invading different countries inorder to find and collect the 5 elemental Great Spirit Stones inorder to create an ultimate weapon to conquer the world. With this news, Kharg and his friends agreed to help escort Lilia to the capital. During the journey to the capital, the group's ship crash landed in Demios country. Lilia ended up separated from Kharg and was capture by a Demios group. With Lilia missing, Kharg set a course to search for Lilia and to stop the Dilzweld Empire.
On the Demios side, Darc, the leader of the Demios Orcan clan, had just capture Lilia. He too has also
learned about the plans of the Dilzweld Empire to conquer the world through Lilia. This bit of information has only flamed his raged for the human race even more. Darc set his goal in becoming the strongest Demios ever and reuniting the entire Demios race to fight and destroy the human race. While Darc and his comrades were away uniting the Demios race, the Dilzweld Empire invaded his country and captured Lilia. Outraged by the deaths of his fellow Demios, Darc set off on a course to destroy the Dilzweld Empire. During their travels, both side will eventually meet up and clash with one another over their differences and hatred of one another. The Humans view the Demios as barbaric killing savages. While the Demios view the Humans as arrogant people that destory the land for their own selfish cause.
This is a very interesting story that digs deep into the heart of racism and prejudice. All be it in a fantasy world. Judging one another due to their looks and different culture. In terms of Humans vs Demios, there really is no real good guy or bad guy here. Both sides have done bad stuff to the other. And in a way, both side want world peace but they both go about doing it in different way. There's no right or wrong way. Just different techniques. I like how the story is told through the point of view of both side. This allows the gamers to understand the differences in culture more clearly. There's also some pretty good plot twists in the game. Some plot twists are predictable while some aren't. Overall a very intriguing story that captured my attention. There's only a couple of bad spots that I can think of. Actually only one bad spot and an improvement that I would've like to see. In terms of the improvement, I would like to see some of the lingering hidden love interests to have been develope a lot more. As for the bad spot, late in the game, there's a scene that involve Kharg in which I thought was unneccessary and quite pointless. It's a story sequence that I feel was forced and contrived and made the story sequence look very cheesy. It's a two minute story scene that I thought should never have been done. Other than that, the story is very good and some people should take the hidden lesson in the plotlines a bit more when it comes to real life.
Score 9/10
CHARACTERS
It's Choco's Turn!
Great strategy rpg games always consists of a lot of rpg characters. Well this game has a lot of rpg
characters. Up to 13 characters in total including the secret characters. For the most part there are 12
main characters with some supporting characters in the game. The 12 main characters are broken up into 2
groups or teams. The Human side and the Demios side. The game main focal point is on the leaders of each sides. Kharg and Darc. This is where the main character developement is focus on. And it's done an
excellent job in doing so. Despite the fact that these two have common goals and enemies, their characteristic aren't compromised in any way. Kharg still hates Demios and Darc feels the same way toward Humans. I like that about the game. It doesn't try to be political correct and have the two heroes
start loving each other. This allows the character developement to dig deeper into their hatred of the other races. The other main characters are also develope nicely. Although they don't get the kind of
spotlight that Kharg and Darc enjoyed in terms of character developement, their story is slowly told to the gamers as the game progress. You will find each one of these characters to be unique from one another with a personality to match. You also will also start to learn what drives them to fight and why they have a personal hatred of the other race. This is what's great about this game. In a sense, all of the characters are given a chance to develope in the game. There's not one individual that is left out. Near the end of the game, you'll end up drawn to one side or the other. I prefer to side with the Humans by the end of the game. The Demios are just too one dimensional for me to care for their cause. But then again, I'm a human which is why I relate to human more.
Score: 9/10
GRAPHICS
Beautiful and rich world.
Arc the Lad is done in a rich 3-D rendered polygon environment. The textures to the smooth rendered polygons are done in an exceptionally excellent way that makes looking at the game a treat to the eyes.
Everything work well in this game. When you first load up the game to play it, the first thing that will catch your eyes is the backdrop settings. The background sceneries are breathtaking. The attention to details to make the world of Arc the Lad look as realistic as possible is awe-inspiring. Each towns are
detailed to the last drops from the stones on houses to the pipes in the towns. Leaves on a tree are done with such fine detail that you can see them breezing about with the wind. Waterfalls bursting to life. Ponds that have reflections coming off of them from the sun and to the little fishes swimming inside the ponds. In addition to the attention to details on the background environment is the gorgeous use of colors that help bring this world to life. Every aspect of colors are used in this game. From bright colors that help illuminate the daytime to the dark colors that shadows the nighttime. But despite all of that, it's not perfect. There are some small anti-aliasing problems that plague the game. You probably won't notice it unless you're looking at it really close so it's not too much of a concern. It's the character designs that is keeping this game graphic from being perfect. While the background scenery designs are fine tuned to the littlest attention to detail, the character designs seem to lack the same kind of attention to detail. Each character designs are done nicely with detailed looks but not perfectly to the point that the character designs compliment the background scenery designs. When looking at this game, the character designs seem out of place compare to the perfect background sceneries in this game. It's too bad too as it's the simple character designs that keep this game graphic score from being perfect.
Score: 9/10
MUSIC
Feel my power!
The sound and music in this game are very good. Sound effects are perfectly done to the point where it help make the world of Arc the Lad seem real. From birds chirping to the noise of a waterfall coming down. Excellent sound effect. The music isn't as excellent. However it's still good. There's a lot
of different varieties of musical themes in this game. Town themes, battle themes, quest themes, main themes, and character themes. The overall presentation of the music is good. You would definetly enjoy
the music in this game. But for this reviewer, I find the lack of any strong sad/love theme disappointing. But then again, this isn't really an rpg about a love story so I guess you really can't find any sad or love tunes in the game. Another problem is that this game tend to re-use some of the
tunes from Arc the Lad III. Prime example is the main theme for Twilight of the Spirits. It's also the main theme for Arc the Lad III. That's just one of the example here. There are other tunes that are re-used in Twilight of the Spirits from Arc the Lad III as well. Don't get me wrong here. I like these tunes but from my point of view, when it's a new game, I like to here new tunes. Not tunes from the previous
game. Still the overall sound and music is still good and fans won't be disappointed at all. Just expect to hear some tunes from Arc the Lad III now and then.
Score: 8/10
GAMEPLAY
Humans Vs Deimos
Resurrected at long last!
Game Information
Genre: Strategy Rpg
Publisher: Sony
Disc:1 DVD Disc
Memory:166 KB
Players: 1 Player
Mode
Vibration:Yes
Dual Analog:Yes
Digital Control:Yes
Rating: Teen
Release:June 2003
Arc the Lad gameplay for the most part is a basic strategy rpg game. It's also very easy to learn and
straightforward. Progress the story during the story sequence then move onto the next destination on the
world map where you will enter a battlefield. Then fight on that battlefield and move onto your next
destination. Very easy to learn. And for the most part, a pretty easy game to play. The basic stuff in rpgs are all here. Each member comes with their own particular weapon. Since each member has their own unique weapon that they use all the time, you can increase their weapon stats by buying weapon upgrade accessories in shops. Next to equipping weapon upgrade accessories, members can equip accessories and items too. These are all basic stuff that regular and new rpg fans will learn how to do quickly. Each fighter will come with their own unique special moves and magic. You will acquire new magic and special moves as you level up. Although you will need to learn them inorder to use them. So acquiring new magic and special moves isn't enough. Other than that, there's not much to say on the gameplay but the battle
system a little. Below are some of the key features in the game.
Spirit Stones: Spirit stones is everything. You need it to use magic or do a special move. How to
get spirit stones? You can buy them in shops. You can find some in chests. Or you can pick them up in
a battlefield once you defeat an enemy. You have a Party Spirit Stones menu where all the spirit stones that you buy or find in a chest will go to. You can then distribute these Party Spirit Stones to the rest of the party any way you like. Use your Spirit Stones wisely.
Tension Meter: Each time a member is attacked, their tension meter moved up. Once a member tension
meter is filled, they can do a combo move with another member on their next turn. You must be facing an enemy have there's an ally facing the same enemy as you inorder to get off a combo attack. Your tension
meter resets at the end of battle or once you get off a combo attack.
Skill Points: SP is what you need to learn a new magic or learn a new special move. Each magic spell or special move require a certain amount of SP inorder to learn them. Each time a member fight in a battle, they gain a certain amount of skill points. You will then distribute these skill points to the magic or special move that you want to learn. Note that you must have acquire the magic or special move first through regular level up first before being able to learn the magic or special move by distributing the SP.
Let's look at the batte system. As you move around in the world map, each area that you run across that's not a town will probably get you into a battlefield map where you need to fight. Once you enter a battlefield map, you can always choose to retreat and not fight. Unless of course it's a story battle where you need to fight inorder to progress the story. Once battle is about to start, you will be introduce to the battle menu. At this point you can make any changes to party members, skills, and equipment. You can have up to 6 party members in a battle. Once you decide on everything, you then click on start. A battlefield map is just that. A battlefield map where there will be enemies distributed a certain locations. And your members will be distributed at certain locations on the battlefield. You will then be given set conditions inorder to achieve a victory. For the most part, achieving a victory is wiping out all the enemies on the battlefield. As each member's turn comes up. He/she can then move anywhere within a 360 degree radius circle. How large this circle is depends on the members movement range. Once they finish moving, they can then choose an action such as attack an enemy. This action is also held within a 360 degree radius circle. So you can only attack an enemy with range. The basic actions are attack, magic, special move, and item. Nothing that's too hard to learn. Any action you take will gain you a certain amount of experience points. You don't have to defeat an enemy inorder to get experience like with other rpgs. You just need to perform an action to gain experience. Although defeating a monster will net you more experience points then just performing an action. I would like to point out that if you defeat a monster, it will usually drop an item, spirit stones, or money. You will need to go over to where that item is and pick it up inorder to get it. If you don't pick it up then you don't get it. Other than that, the battle system is very basic stuff. To be truthful, the whole gameplay
is basic stuff. Maybe too basic. Overall I still enjoy playing this game a lot. I have a fondness for strategy rpg game and this is one fun strategy rpg game to play. This is a good game for beginner rpg gamers as well as core rpg gamers.
Score: 8/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
Look who's back!
Well...there's not a whole lot of sidequests to be done. And the ones that are in the game have little meat in them that you can hardly call them sidequests to begin with. So sidequests are out. Extras are
still in though. And this game has quite a few extra stuff. From items to be won to secret characters to
unlock. All of these can be achieve in one area. The arenas. This game has four different arenas. Each arenas have 3 different levels and a requirement that you need to complete inorder to win an item or unlock a secret character. This isn't as simple to do as you think. It will take quite a few hours of extra gameplay inorder to unlock the secret characters and get the rare items you want. Having to play
through all of these arenas over and over can be quite tiring after so and so hours but it can be quite rewarding in the end. Especially trying to unlock the secret characters as they are well worth it. There's even a bit of incentive for replaying the game. Once you finish the game, you can start a new game with a New Game+ option. This will allow you to play a new game with some cool stuff in your inventory that you couldn't before. It's a small incentive to keep things interesting when you want to try and play the game again.
Score: 8/10
Strategy rpg games are hard to find these days. Much less really good strategy rpg games. The days of the Shining Force series are over. And who knows what fate has befallen the Vandal Hearts series. So what's
left for strategy rpg fans? Not a whole lot. But there's still a small bright spot left. Arc the Lad
will help heal the pain of any die hard strategy rpg fans that's looking for a great strategy rpg game to
play. In fact Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits is a great rpg game period for any kind of rpg fan. Sure the days of the Shining Force series are gone now. And the fate of Vandal Hearts series is unknown.
But just maybe this is a time for the Arc the Lad series to shine in their place after missing out on
the Playstation era. And hopefully there'll be another Arc the Lad game in the making from Sony.
