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No-frills RPG about the adventures of a powerful boy hunter

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is an RPG game. Released in 2005 (US), EoD is the fifth installment of the Arc the Lad game series.

The lead character of EoD is new to the Arc the Lad franchise. Edda is a 16-year-old boy whose family was fleeing a war and eventually ended up living on Cragh Island. Edda is the world's last surviving exorcist, and has decided to become a hunter so he can travel the world to fight malademons. (Note: The advertising for EoD says that Edda was living a "boring island life." But Edda never actually says that, nor does he ever complain about his life on Cragh Island.)

Despite his lack of training, Edda proves to be a natural at hunting, easily outdoing the older members of the Hunters Guild. Edda's primary hunting weapon is a cudgel, a long wooden staff that was originally owned by his father and which has now been passed down to him by one of the village elders.

With his bowl-shaped black hair and dark complexion, Edda is exceptionally good-looking. The bare-armed, bare-legged hunter has the slender build of a track runner, and makes quite a visual contrast when seen with armored-clad hunters or the regular townspeople.

EoD is a very straightforward game. Essentially, the player progresses by completing missions and then taking Hunter Exams to level up. The missions consist of short Counter Tasks and longer Notice Board tasks. A unique feature of EoD is that the Notice Board tasks are where the game story progresses. However, not all the Notice Board tasks appear at once; you have to level up in order to make more appear. This adds a certain linearity to EoD, since you cannot advance the story without leveling up the character.

Leveling up, however, only increases Edda's available Card Points (used to cast magic spells). All other stats like strength and speed can only be increased with better magic/equipment which become available with each increase in Hunter rank. Some of the magic/equipment are available in stores, but the really good items are created by combining two existing items in a process called "synthesis."

What fascinated me the most about this game was watching Edda in action. The boy's enemies make liberal use of knives, poison gas, axes, whips, swords, hammers, bombs, fireballs, electric shock, black magic, rifles, pistols, machine guns, and even tanks (!), all in an effort to beat back the young hero. Shockingly, it all proves to no avail as they collapse under the power of the boy's mighty cudgel.

While Edda is the primary character of EoD, there are actually 24 other playable characters, many of whom were taken from earlier Arc the Lad games. However, they are only useable in Counter Tasks and in online play, and then only by themselves. You cannot, for example, form a hunting party with Edda, nor can you use them in Hunter Exams.

EoD is not a difficult game. It moves along quickly and can be completed in around 20 hours depending on how many hunts you do. Also, there are no long, involved side quests or mini-games as found in other RPGs.

The game has no camera control or area maps. As a result, it can be a bit difficult to scan the area for approaching enemies or find available exits. You also cannot do any exploring between tasks, other than visiting a few cities.

I never played "Twilight of the Spirits," but apparently the music for EoD was taken verbatim from that game. Some players didn't care for the music, but I found it very pleasant. I especially liked the martial style of Dilzweld, and the soothing tones of Yewbell and Sulfas.

The story is sci-fi-fantasy about terrorists and energy shortages. You can't skip the cutscenes; so if you need to repeat a task, you have to watch them again.

EoD has no voice acting, aside from a few battle exclamations. I found the graphics and animation quite satisfactory - nothing sazzling, but still perfectly functional. Targeting an enemy allows you to view Edda's impressive fighting moves close up.

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness was not a successful RPG. Previous players have faulted it for having monotonous gameplay, an unexciting story line, lack of voice acting, and forgetable music. For me, the fun of watching the adventures of young Edda was all I needed to keep me interested in this fascinating little game. I realize that EoD is a bare-bones offering, and I have no problem with that.

A game guide is available from Bradygames.

So-so

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ark the Lad:End of Darkness is an adventure game in a fantasy setting. It has average graphics and mediocre music. The characters are not extremely deep, and the story is pretty slow moving, but not unbearably so. The dialog is par for this type of game; not incredibly interesting or insightful. I recommend this game to fans of fantasy adventure games, otherwise you should probably rent this one to see if you like it before you make a purchase.

For Shame

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 30 / 32
Date: June 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge fan of the Arc The Lad series. I loved the collection and Twilight Of Spirits. After reading the stories about this game, I thought "Oh my god, Arc is being ressurected!" Unfortunately, NO ONE from any of the past games make a big influence in this "Story". Darc and Kharg are gone along with most of the awesome Deimos characters. The cast from 1,2 and 3 return in the form of cards that you battle with. I thought the story line was incredibly stupid. They try to bring back the idea of guilds and hunters from Arc The Lad 2 and 3. It wasn't surprising when the idea fell through. There is no real reason to continue playing after you finish the main storyline except to see Delma and Volk make a two-minute appearence. Even if you are a fan of the series like me, heed my advice and just play twilight of spirits or the collection again and steer clear of this one. For shame Namco, for shame

Arc the lad: this game is crap

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 22
Date: July 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this series fell flat when it hit the PS2. i was so mad when i picked up the last one and from the sound of this one it is more of the same. it seems the company is trying to bank on a dead character. its nice that they put history in the game but in the form of cards, please. i am truly disapointed in the turn of this series, its completely different from the collection.

garbage rpg

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: March 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this is the worse rpg I have ever play. stay away from it

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