Flawed, but very enjoyable.
Ever since the Arc the Lad Collection came out, i've been interested in trying the series out. I didn't buy the Collection because the price of entry was quite high and you know..paying so much premium for a bunch of (old) PS1 rpg's wasn't right up my alley. But after playing Arc the Lad: Twilight of the spirits, you can be sure that I will snatch up the Collection on ebay eventually.
The game is divided in two stories. At first you control Kharg, a human, who's basically THE man in town since he's the son of the lady who instituted a whole democratic system in the city instead of the whole monarchy, etc. She also saved the town from Disaster 17 years ago or so. Thus, the residents of Yewbell revere both you and your mom. You have your traditional bunch of friends and everything is great until a bunch of Deimos (intelligent monsters basically) appear in the south mines! Oh no! And the story goes from there.
Then, you play as Darc, an half-human half-deimos guy who's a slave to some huge Toad or something. His father died when he was a kid and the Toad saved him and made him her slave (No, not in that sense your pervert) and now he's basically forced to do her bidding. Let's just say that he eventually breaks free of her grasp and decides to rule all Deimos and destroy all humans.
I don't really like talking about the story in games because I feel like the player has to experience it for himself, but it's a mixed bag. Kharg is a simple hero, the typical RPG guy. He's likeable enough but aren't all typical rpg heroes? He's no different. Since the game is divided into chapters, you play one of Kharg's for everyone of Darc's so you truly play two stories in one. Darc's story is more interesting than Kharg's but his personality sucks. He's actually pretty cool until the end of his first chapter but then he becomes genocidal and gets hard on the nerves. How often can you hear "I'm going to destroy all humans"? He says it often. His friends are often even more crazy than he is and although they're more interesting than the humans, they're much harder to relate to. So it makes for a weird game where there's a plainer story that you can sympathize with, and a more interesting one where you cannot feel involved because it's just so violent and rageful, against humanity no less. And in the end the Deimos are much more cruel than the humans and the games makes that VERY clear by the end of the game (but there's also an explanation that explains their behavior in a genetic sort of way). So overall, the story is pretty good, but you'll have seen better ones.
I would definitely send Darc to see a psychologist though, this guy would be a danger to society if he were to run free on the streets.
This game was in some ways better than expected. I especially liked the first 10 hours, and the part before entering the final dungeon. It did feel like it has a lot of filler, which is something proper to a lot of rpg's. Lunar 1's length just seems like the perfect length for an RPG (good ol' 25 hours), it doesn't have any filler or very few of it, but once you get into 40 hour territory you can be sure to get into some weird missions who just don't make any sense or running around a huge city looking for some crappy objects, etc. This game definitely has some of that but it's not too bad as to make the game unenjoyable.
I gave the gameplay a 7, even though most people think this game's saving grace is the gameplay system. So what's up with that you ask? Well I played Final Fantasy Tactics and this game doesn't hold a candle to it, that's what. At it's core Arc is a Strategy RPG, where on the field everyone take their turns moving like on a chess board, although that chessboard is now in full 3D so they don't move in grids but are free to roam in a circle determined by their movement rating. They all have their walking range, firing range etc. The problem is, the system is very limited. Character customization is low, you can equip three items per weapon and three items per armor, and you never change your equipment throughout the whole game so only the accessories equipped change. But often, there's no reason to equip anything else than 'coating' and 'armbands', basically attack enhancers and defense enhancers. Everything else seems nifty but not really useful expect in specific circumstances. The reason for that is this game relies very heavily on normal physical attacks rather than on special abilites, which are only really useful if you wanna down many enemies at the same time (and they have to be placed around your character or bunched up together for you to be able to do that). They're often LESS powerful than a single normal attack would be. So boss battles come down to doing normal attacks over and over, thus the reason why the accessories should be kept simple. I only had to change my get-up for the last boss so that says something about the game's un-variety.
As far as magic goes, MP went out the window and was replaced with the system of Spirit Stones. Basically, each character has a set limit of spirit stones he can carry on him (and this amount never grows throughout the game except if you equip special bags that increase the amount, but who would waste a precious accessory spot for a spirit stone bag?) and you guessed it, each ability or spell requires a certain amount of those stones.
You replenish those stones in two manners. First, in battles when you kill enemies they might drop one or more of three things: Gold, Items OR Spirit Stones. Then, you have to manually pick up the objects and they're yours. This is the only way to get gold in the game aside from treasure chests, and one of the ways to get cheap spirit stones.
The other very annoying way is buying em at the store. Yes, you now have to buy your 'MP' 1 point at a time. Early on one spirit stone will cost you 2G, but after time the price goes up to 4G. A normal amount of spirit stones to carry for a character is around 70 stones so do the math, it could eventually get pretty expensive. Enemies do drop a lot of stones so I never really had to buy much in stores and you have a party Items section where you can store up to 999 spirit stones, so it becomes like a huge MP pool that replenishes your characters in between fights.
Enemies dropping stones in battle is also the only way to replenish the stones you spent in battle. There's no Ether or whatever to replenish your magic, but if for example your total stones are 48 out of 70 during a battle, and you grab 20 spirit stones it'll put your character at 68/70. I like that, and I used it to great effect during the last boss. It's a cheap way to always have stones during battle which are highly useful for healing.
I would have liked to see more variety in the equipments available, more reason to mix up the accessories and more powerful spells and abilities since right now, the gameplay system feels swallow and seems to offer much for nothing really. You'll spend most of the game doing normal attacks on monsters and bosses alike and that will be it. It still is fun though so I give it a 7.
On the graphics front, I'll be honest I loved em. The characters are the weak link of the graphics in my book but they still look great, except for their recycled animations. I think all characters have only two animations: The OMG I'm surprised animation and the HEY DUDE I'm talking look at me animation. The latter is a weird animation where they sort of swing their arms around a bit, my friend Helen calls it the "Do you want a cup of tea sir?" look. Whatever :) They sure do look like idiots though when they do that.
However, some levels of this game are simply breathtaking, and generally the graphics just mesh in a great way that deserves the 8 I gave it. But as in every game that scores in the Sevens, you get lows and highs.
As for Sound, I have to say it right there, this game has some of the best music pieces I ever heard in the game. I loved the Yewbell theme right here and there when I first heard it, there's a bunch of battle themes and they're ALL amazing, that is quite a feat. I also loved the Pyron theme etc. You get the point, this game has incredibly music mixing electric guitars with soothing instruments. I'm trying to find the soundtrack right now actually since it was so good. The only thing I didn't like is the "Ouuuuh something bad is coming" theme which was kinda cheesy and especially the game's theme song. Who said people loved Fanfare? Every time I start the game I cringe because the music sounds like i'm in sort of a military parade or something, it's truly horrible and just doesn't deserve to be a theme song of anything. They should have taken a cue from Square, their title themes are always amazing (by that I mean the themes that play at the New Game screen) like Eternity- Memory of Light and Wave in FF X-2. But nooooooooo, they gave us this weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee we're going to viiiictoryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy song. Blah.
it just contrasts with everything else this game as to offer music wise because it truly is an amazing piece of soundtrack.
As far as normal sound goes, well you have your typical sound effects which are good in pretty much everygame nowadays, and you have the 'tududuuuuum' dreaded voice acting. I found it to be average, not bad but not good either. It did the trick, and wasn't horrible enough or good enough to affect my sound score.
You can surely find this game in the Bargain Bin by now (like I did) and it's a pretty good value. But then again, a bunch of older, as good or better games can also be found in the Bin so..but they're all games you should buy anyway :) Arc is a good 35 hour game if you do it straight through, and you can probably stretch this to 55-60 hours if you decide to do the arenas and get every special item. Also, there is a New Game+ option but it only gives you your old equipment and money, not your levels. Still that's enough to make you overpowered for the whole game, but probably not enough to make you replay through the game again. It's good, but not THAT good.
Overall, I was pleased with Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. It's a good game, with a good try at a strategic fighting system and an overall good storyline. You'll have played better games in your lifetime, and better rpg's, but this one is an overall package that comes cheap and will give you a good return for your low investment. If you have some time to spare, give this game a try.
