The Arc the Lad series has continued and the latest installment of said series is Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. It’s been a well running series and has managed to gain a good sized following, does Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits give fans of the series another well thought out installment of the series?
While as mentioned above Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is a license that’s seen the light of day plenty of times before, but upon playing the game you get the feeling that SCEA wanted to break away from the previous installments to give this one a generally new and fresh flavor. Still very reminiscent of the previous Arc the Lad games, it does manage to break away loosely from it’s predecessors ties around it’s wrist with a powerful jerk, unfortunately, in a few areas it’s left a rope burn on the flesh. The Arc the Lad series has always had a flare for some unorthodox graphics and design, and seemingly, SCEA has made no attempt to particularly break away from that unorthodox style. This works, however, and simply because the graphics are a strange form of art in some cases this doesn’t make them bad. Thusly, this doesn’t make them spectacular. The characters have a unique air about them much like Disney characters with their trademark cartoonish large feet which was evident in several characters in the game Kingdom Hearts, and which was also evident in many other games that have been created by Disney for that matter. Whether they planned on doing so or not, SCEA has managed to give the characters a few identifiable graphical traits which can only help. The environments are detailed well, and it’s enough to give each particular locale a unique feel which adds to the overall element of an RPG. Unfortunately, you won’t find yourself too particularly gripped by the premise for the games story. A young boy who’s powers are unexplainable, or something of the sort. Demons, big bad evil kingdom . .such and such. However, the story it’s self is actually one of the most engaging elements about Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. The game is filled with struggles from all different sides and within the ranks of those sides. Deimos and humans have bred a hatred for one another for centuries, and all at the same time both of these sides have different factions fighting for dominance within the ranks. The inner struggles make for more than enough to keep you engrossed with what’s going on in the world of the game, and the fun and slightly unique quirk of having you switch between two different characters i only a helper to make Arc the Lad’s story overall a very rich one.
Unfortunately, you won’t find yourself too particularly gripped by the premise for the games story. A young boy who’s powers are unexplainable, or something of the sort. Demons, big bad evil kingdom . .such and such. However, the story it’s self is actually one of the most engaging elements about Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. The game is filled with struggles from all different sides and within the ranks of those sides. Deimos and humans have bred a hatred for one another for centuries, and all at the same time both of these sides have different factions fighting for dominance within the ranks. The inner struggles make for more than enough to keep you engrossed with what’s going on in the world of the game, and the fun and slightly unique quirk of having you switch between two different characters i only a helper to make Arc the Lad’s story overall a very rich one.
This game is a flat out fun experience, but it does nothing for the genre in the ways of advancement. The voice acting is generally simply average and they tend to get slightly better, or even slightly worse in some respects. The graphics are the same way as was aforementioned, and while neither of these two elements are horrible, it does leave a small amount of bitterness in the mouth and you feel like it could have done a little bit more to keep at least some more consistency in how good, or how plain the audio and visual were going to be.
Basic RPG elements and a rich story make Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits a good pick up for fans of *any* type of RPG. Just don’t go thinking that it’s going to give you a brand new appreciation for what the genre has accomplished. It’s a fun and engrossing gaming experience that will leave you with the true notion that you made a wise and gratifying purchase.