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Second only to FFX!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This RPG is second only to Final Fantasy X! It has a great double plot(you get to play two sets of characters), and excellent graphics and voice-acting. The story is very linear, but it's so great, you won't mind being strung along.

Obscenely underrated RPG...one of the PS2's best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game was included on a demo disc from some magazine I forget. I'm a fan of RPGs so I thought I'd try it out. As soon as the game started I knew that it was going to be a game I'd enjoy immensely. And I was right.

This is a game that flew under the radar of the mainstream gamer, resting in the shadows of big-budget standouts like the Final Fantasy series. Which is a shame, since while "Twilight of the Spirits" is no technical marvel like those games are, it has every bit as much careful attention to detail and is as much fun to play.

My favorite game of all time is Shining Force 2 for the Genesis, so I was thrilled to find that "Twilight" is actually something of a strategy/RPG hybrid (minus the grid). The battle system is awesome, and a refreshing departure from three or four characters standing in a line, trading blows with endless, generic enemies. Of course, the open-movement battlefield style isn't everyone's cup of tea. But it adds a new level of strategy to typical RPG combat, as you're given the freedom of choice to move around the battlefield as you wish. Some characters only have a short range of attack, but can hit multiple enemies with one turn. Other characters have long-range attacks but can only hit one enemy at a time. So, well-thought placement of each character on the field is crucial to success, much like Shining Force (which like this game, shows each attack in a special cutscene).

The graphics in "Twilight" are certainly worth mentioning. While the characters and world aren't as detailed or have as high a polygon count as in FF, the colors are amazingly vibrant and the various areas of the game have their own distinct feel. You'll be swept away to many different lands over the course of the game, and its world is completely immersive. There are airships, dragons, ninjas and scarily powerful technology to be dealth with.

The story isn't the typical cookie-cutter RPG plot (Unknowingly powerful main character must rise up to defeat lord of chaos). Play time in the game is actually split between two very opposite main characters: Upstanding and idealistic Kharg and outcast and disillusioned Darc. I won't try to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that the two have much more in common than expected and the story that ensues is rife with conflict, betrayal, intrigue and redemption. The only downfall to having the back-and-forth storyline is that you might begin to lose track of the specifics of each character's path. But the fresh, original tale is emotional and the ending is rewarding, and there is a large supporting cast of unique playable characters.

This game is very inexpensive to pick up used now. I would recommend that any RPG fan (especially those of the Shining Force series) try this game out. It's one of the best on the system.

A generally awesome RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let's begin with graphics. Okay, so they aren't as perfect as they could be, but they're really clean and visually appealing, much like Xenosaga Ep. 1. Next, let's take a peek at the voice acting; I pretty much enjoy the voices, though two of them that irritate me are Darc's and Volk's. Theirs are just.. ick. Darc has the dubbed voice actor from DBZ, and Volk sounds weird. But let's move on.
Now let's talk about storyline. I thought it was great how the storyline was broken into two parts, so you didn't always have to play one main character. My only complaint would be that Kharg was the usual, gung-ho "Let's go save the world and completely slander the Deimos!" While Darc didn't particularly care for humans, either, at least he didn't do this for no reason. I preferred this way of telling the story (breaking it up between Kharg and Darc) because the stories would stop at VERY interesting parts, making you want to hurry through the next part so you could get back to Darc. Er... whoever's side you liked best, I mean. ^^
Finally, the battling system. I enjoyed the ability to move around and decide how to hit the enemy. You got some interesting options; you could hit them in front, causing minimal damage, or the back, causing maximum damage. Magic.. well, it didn't matter where you hit an enemy with magic, but still..
My recommendation? Buy this game!

This RPG beats Final Fantasy by a long shot.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There are no words to describe the overall greatness of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits - unlike some disgraceful RPGs. Before I go into my review, here's a quick overview:

Non-Battle Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Replayability: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Battles: 9/10
Overall: 10/10

Non-Battle Gameplay - the gameplay out of battle is, to put it simply, nearly perfect. Though the game lacks an adjustable camera, it stills follows your characters wherever they go and doesn't spin wildly. Navigating is also easy - you never lose sight of your character, once again due to the good camera angles. My only gripe is that you're sometimes told to find people or things, and it's hard to figure out where they are.

Graphics - TotS doesn't have perfect graphics, but they're pretty darn close! The environments and characters are well-detailed, and, though they're not always accurate, the mouth motions are pretty good.

Sound - the game's music is good and suits the environments and situations quite well. The voices suit the characters, and are extremely clear and beautiful. However, in-battle speech is annoying and repetitive. Thankfully, this can be turned off.

Replayability - well, you WOULD want to play a great game over again, right? It doesn't get boring when you replay it, and keeps its charm - plus the surprises are still, well, surprising.

Story - the plot and character development is somewhat slow, but fantastic. The game has a massive, unique fantasy storyline that most gamers will enjoy. There are some decent twists, too.

Battles - at first they're annoying, hard, and anticlimatic, but soon into the game you'll begin to appreciate the almost-traditional RPG battle system. Even though the battles remain fairly hard! Yes, that's right, they provide a great challenge.

Overall - 10/10. This is an excellent game that is definitely worth buying. Give it a try!

OK on its own... big let down for fans

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I own all of the Arc the Lad games and have played through 1 & 2, I still haven't bothered beating three. When I heard this game was coming out I had to own it. We bought it and I started playing. First impression was, "This game is awesome!" but after playing for a while I lost my enthusiasm. I went ahead and finish the game and now I have a slight distaste for the game. I'll explain what I liked and what i didn't.

The best part I would say is the battle system. It is a tactics turn based system which is true to the original Arc the Lads, but it adds a three dimensional element to it which makes it even better than the originals. The game looks really nice too. The stages and towns look beautiful and the world maps are again reminiscent of the originals.

The things I didn't like were the story and the character and the ending. The game focuses around two brothers who are both half human and half daemos. One is accepted by humans and the other isn't accepted by anyone. This would be an excellent setup and it added to my initial enthusiasm, but as the game went on I started to empathise with Darc and the Daemos and despise Karg and the humans. I still had to play as the humans though for what is at least half the game. The two teams only come together for the final stage and never resolve the conflicts between them. I found that annoying. The game ends with human and daemos still hating each other and the "spirits" gone. Since both human and daemos have great need of the spirit stones it is suggested that the "twilight of the spirits" might lead to war. I felt like that should be the real beginning of the game rather than the end.

For the people who have been following the series there is no data load from three. You don't see anyone from any of the original games at all, though they are mentioned occasionally. Anything related to the earlier games felt more like an Easter Egg then anything important to the plot. I wouldn't mind any of this if they were planning on continuing this series in the same way they did Arc the Lad 1 & 2, in fact that would be awesome, but I don't see them doing that.

Just as itself this game could only be called decent, but when paired with the original three it couldn't even be called that. I can't say the game isn't worth playing, but be prepared to be disappointed often by the anti-climatic plot.

Like to read?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I suppose I am a bit spoiled for Role Playing Games, like Drakkan and Baldur's Gate. This one looked great & the reviews were good, so we bought it. I've spent 2 hours trying to get into it, but there is just no freedom to PLAY it. When you think you are finally through with the chatter between people, and you get to go explore a bit, you go to one spot, find something or fight someone, and then go back to watching seemingly endless dialog between the characters again before moving on to the next area.
The graphics are nice, but you have to sit there and read for what feels like 10 out of evey 15 minutes of play (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get the point!).
There are voices during the fights (one person takes a turn attacking at a time..boring as can be & non-defensible for the most part), but none throughout the rest of the game. It's an irritation to me to have to read what the characters are (or are not!) saying before i can move on to the fun parts of the game...exploring & finding stuff. It would seem that for $40, a game, they could have put some effort into voices for the characters.
If I could get my money back for this bland game, believe me, I would! My advice, since there are plenty of reviewers who thought it was great....rent it & see if it's your cup of tea first, or buy it used. I have a feeling there will plenty of used one for sale.

An Extremely Average RPG

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This review was written by my son, James Shea.

The first incarnation of the AtL series on the PS2, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is a tactical RPG, though more the latter than the former.

The game follows two viewpoints: that of Kharg, a human prince, and Darc, a Deimos (monstrous humanoid) slave. The two must unite to fight off a powerful army that seeks to capture the five elemental stones and gain ultimate power. The plot is, as it sounds, fairly cookie-cutter, and there isn't a huge amount of character development or really deep storyline. It's certainly not enough to support the gameplay. There are several attempts at "messages" - the splintering between the Deimos and the Humans as a metaphor for racism being the main one - but as a whole these are shallow.

The gameplay is "tactical", in a way, though the numbers of your party aren't as high as would be expected in such a system. Similar to Phantom Brave, each character has a radius that they can move in. Walking within range of an enemy allows you to attack them. Different weapons have different ranges, and certain skills also have longer ranges. Positioning for combination attacks becomes important.

The graphics are decent, and reasonable for a PS2 game of the time, but for the most part the character designs are uninspired. Every part of the character costumes and design seems to be stylistically taken from some other RPG, and none of them stand out in any way. The music is similarly generic; no particular piece stands out. This game is so remarkably average that it is unbelievable.

As a whole this game isn't excellent in many ways. It is simply another one of the seeming thousands of PS2 fantasy RPGs, and it doesn't add anything major or important to the formula that would be worth discussing.

Rating: 6/10.

Arc is back!.. Well... Sorta...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A lot of people compare this game to Final Fantasy... I have no idea why THIS IS THE ARC THE LAD SERIES NOT THE FINAL FANTASY SERIES. So let's see this game as it is... as in... not final fantasy. Before they came in ATL through ATL III tied in so well. As a matter of fact you would swear ATL and ATL II were the same game, only a continuation. This game doesn't exactly do this... sure there are references to make you know that the other games haven't been completely forgotten but it just doesn't tie in as well as the others. As a matter of fact we have some variation in enemy's names and towns which stayed the same on the games 1-3. This will disappoint people who have played and loved (like me) the first games. People who haven't played any of the games from the Arc series won't catch the references to the earlier games and may enjoy it more thanks to the lack of disappointment. I am not saying anyone who has played the early games wont' enjoy this game, it is a good game. Graphics are excellent (that's right Chris the graphics were EXCELLENT). But as we all know. Graphics don't the game. It is almost essential that an RPG has a good story and this one has a very good one. It is pretty original, and the way we see both sides of the story was absolutely genius. The dialogue was good, besides Kharg's cheesy lines (I just consider it part of his personality) and the voices are awesome. As in all the ATL games the battle's a good one, it's debatable if the battle system has been improved or not, but it's still an awesome system. The characters are awesome, especially on the Demios side. []Deimos' existence didn't really make sense because it seemed as if they were saying they came to be after ATL but I hadn't' seem them in any other games, or even them being referred too... But I guess I said it doesn't tie in as well as the other games. If you read my ATL collection review you know that I love Tosh.... But Tosh lovers will have to simply settle with his unnamed grave. Awesome game. Good character development (especially Darc), good graphics, good battle system, this makes a good... nay. Awesome game.

A Superb Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Having played RPGs since Activision days, this is one of the finest games I have yet enjoyed. The story line is gripping, varied, and rather realistic. The characters are beautiful, with inner strengths and cultural baggage as have all people. Game play seems a bit slow at first, but once you get used to it, it becomes engrossing.

The backgrounds are inviting and share the same realism as the animation. While it does not contain side quests (save fighting in the arenas to obtain two hidden characters), you feel as though you were part of a Homeric epic.

Criticism has been given that you have to read too much. I did not find that the case. The dialogue moves the story and engrosses the player until they actually care what happens to the characters. Of course, if martial arts hack and slash are you cup of tea, this game might not be for you.

My singular problem with the game is it is geared for fans of the Deimos (demi-monsters). There was little enough time spent with Kharg and his team, my personal favorites. However, this can be easily refuted by fans of the Darc and the Deimos. I recommend playing this game and deciding for yourself.

A literate, sensitive portrayl of classical themes that span centuries and cultures, this game has a great appeal. Give it a chance, and you will feel as if you have interacted in an epic battle yourself.

A Great Game, Indeed!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Well, I have to say first of all, I regret not playing this game sooner. I have gone to Blockbuster countless times, seeing this game on the case and turning my nose up at it, and, until recently, I borrowed Arc from a friend, negligently at first, though. Well anyway, to the review.

Graphics: Not the best in the world, but the storyline and the music, more than make up for it. The magic spells cast makes the game more visually accepted, good eye candy.

Music: Wow! This is what truly makes the game feel like your accomplishing something. The music makes you feel like your fighting a giant army of billions...well not quite, but it has encouraging music. Beautiful is nothing short of what the music is like.

Storyline: War, racism, betrayal, love, and death. What else is there to like in a story? Well, nothing...this game has it all. The creators really almost make you feel for the characters. You play the game as two main characters, Darc and Kharg. Darc is a half-human, half-demon (Deimos), but physically looks more like a Deimos. Kharg is the same as Darc, but looks more like a human; in fact, he shows no sign of having a Deimos origin until later. The game wages war in two different ways. In Khargs story, it's Humans vs. Deimos vs. Other humans. And with Darc it's Deimos vs. Humans vs. Other Deimos. I don't want to ruin the story by explaining why Darc and Kharg are fighting the people they fight. The characters are completely different physically, but mentally they are very much alike. Of course with war, usually comes racism and a lot of betrayal...A LOT...I mean you get back-stabbed dozens of times, though, at times Kharg seems to get back-stabbed the most and most of the back-stabbings are a result of his own stupidity and gullibility. At one point Darc literally does get "back-stabbed". This is just a touch on the story and I'll leave it up to the readers to find out the rest.

Overall: A definite 5/5. A great game in anybodies collection, though not for the person who wrote his/her review in a giant on-going sentence, but the point is I'm sure you'll like it, because I sure did.

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