Review
Release Date: 06.14.2005
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (Japan)Publisher:
Namco Hometek, Inc.Reviewed by
Jeremy Barnes on 8.3.2005
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is the latest installment in the popular strategy RPG series, and it has a slight twist - it’s not a strategy RPG. This newest addition ventures into the territory of the real time action RPG and tells a tale of an experiment gone horribly wrong.
The story for the game seems to be a fitting metaphor for the game itself - an experiment that just didn’t work out quite right and is sure to inspire many people to form resistance groups to thwart any move to continue the series along this path.
End of Darkness picks up where the fourth game of the series,
Twilight of the Spirits, left off. This time the game follows the story of Edda and his slothian sidekick, Hemo, as they venture across the world. Edda, the last of the exorcists, is capable of dispelling Mala-energy which is infecting monsters throughout the world making them stronger and unable to be killed. Edda becomes a hunter to find some excitement and explore the world and naturally (as anyone looking for adventure does) ends up in a quest to save the world.
Hunters are given missions to collect money and help the populace. The hunter missions serve as an episodic way to progress the story and provide a sidetrack to make the game appear longer. Edda will seek to advance in rank among the hunters and must do so by completing two different types of missions. One type is just a straight out, “go here, do this” task type of mission called a counter mission which will also award Edda some cash. The other type of mission that serves to advance the story is known as a notice board task. Both types have the same general type of goals (kill this, escort this, protect this, lick this, etc) of varying difficulty. The missions quickly become quite repetitive and the story doesn’t do much to inspire continued playing.
The best reason to play is to get a chance to collect the characters from previous
Arc the Lad games and use them in counter tasks.
End of Darkness boasts 24 characters that can be found throughout the game and through online play. Each character has certain strengths and weaknesses and a couple cards that are attuned to them. The side characters gain hunter ranks through an experience system that can be collected in crystals. However, these characters can only be used in the generic counter tasks. Edda must complete the notice board tasks that advance the story.
The characters also have limited advancement. They actually only gain a longer magic power bar from advancing in Hunter ranks, but by equipping cards that turn into items their statistics will increase. The card system is complimented by a confusing synthesis system that is mostly trial and error. There are only a few clues as to what cards to combine and the actual process takes much too long to find out that you failed.
That may be the standout part of the game, though. The graphics don’t do much to improve from the previous strategy RPG installment,
Twilight of the Spirits. The game feels dated and there are very few touches to give it a separate character from the used environments we’ve already seen. The city and dungeon design are poor as well, making the most of one area and showing it to you enough times so you can truly experience its wonder (compared to everywhere else).
The music follows the same guide and manages to annoy with average songs that gets looped over and over again. The overriding element of the sound is the lack of voice acting. They say you don’t miss some things until they’re gone. and this is a prime example. Outside of some hollering in battle, there is no voice acting in the entire game. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the game had a deeper story or more interesting dialogue. The voice acting could have helped spice up the dull script and alleviated some of the boredom while waiting for the text to scroll by and get back to the mediocre action.
The new real time action battle system can barely be called a system. Much of the time, you will lock onto a foe and use the dodge keys then attacks a few times. Wash, rinse, repeat, end of game. The abilities equipped as cards are accessed through a submenu by holding R2 and pressing the Triangle, Square, Circle, or X buttons. It gets the job done, but so does bleach and no one spends hours with a bottle of bleach.
End of Darkness does add one new element that almost manages to redeem itself, online play. The online portion consists of two types of play. You can either play in a 4 on 4 team battle or four people can venture through dungeons and mini-quests made specifically for online play. The online portion also supports voice chat which makes communicating a great deal easier.
The online gameplay is unique and manages to bring something new to a game that is an amalgam of stale gameplay elements that were old two generations ago. Fans who really want to see what happened to some of the characters from
Twilight of the Spirits will find enough content to keep them drawn in to the story to make the game worth playing, but most gamers will be frustrated by a mediocre game that tries to extend its life through annoying contrivances.
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is only for the truly dedicated.
