Playstation 2 - Arc the Lad: End of Darkness

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Namco
Developer
Cattle Call
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness

By David Rasmussen
14th Aug 05

It’s 2005, two years after Twilight of the Spirits, and a new Arc the Lad game has premiered.
So you‘d think that after a two year wait I‘d embrace this brand new Arc the Lad game.
So why is it I want to do the exact opposite? Why?

If you liked the last game, Twilight of the Spirits, and really why wouldn’t you since it was a rather decent RPG that can now be had for about $20 or so, then the people over at Namco/Cattle Call figures they have your number with End of Darkness! My it must be big since, for the life of me, Blockbuster has not -- eh? It’s nowhere to be found? What the… ?

Strange, isn’t it? Now I thought I’d drop the entire blame on Blockbuster, but now I find that the game is either a hot selling ticket that is flying off shelves (since it’s not easy to find)… or something else.
Like the strange circumstances that keeps David Duchovny employed doing video game voiceovers from time to time, I bring you… a review of unconfirmed “conspiracy”!
Anything to make End of Darkness less boring than it is… except for the fact there DOES seem to be a conspiracy since it’s so damn hard to find!

Of course it’s not like it’s going to be a hardship to pin blame on Blockbuster, especially since their service has nosedived since they recently dropped their “late fees” and started being the “new” Blockbuster… and you just wait until I give you my FULL REVIEW of Harvest Moon : Another Wonderful Life, I have yet another complaint to aim Blockbuster’s way. So yeah, please STOP being the new Blockbuster and bring back the late fees, anything so you’d suck less. Hurry. Not like I ever had to worry about late fees anyway.
After all, late fees is not such a bad thing when it seems they’ve sacrificed quality service and accountability for their actions in exchange for saving the consumer some pocket change (which isn’t much of a savings I assure you in light of the loss of reliability and service which used to be oh so fine).
But enough of my less than sterling “praise“ for the new Blockbuster (banishing quality service to save you “money“), let‘s talk about my less than enthusiastic mood towards End of Darkness… and the “conspiracy“!

Yeah. Considering this is a new game I have very little respect for it, and less love for it. That may have to do with the fact that a “fifth wheel” has popped into the picture in the form of Namco. And, last time I remember when Twilight of the Spirits was out, Namco wasn‘t in the picture! So then, if Namco wasn’t in the picture, for the love of all that is good WHY were they suddenly involved in End of Darkness!

The game suffers with the new “influence” of Namco.
Gone is the workable combat system of Twilight, which made you think over each move before you did it.
You see, the old system made it that you had so many steps to move (forming a sphere of influence your character could move in), followed by the ability to attack using your weapon of choice OR Skills which had a set amount of range. Each skill burned up Spirits Stones, which powered your magic, and everything (from movement to attack/defense and so forth) was influenced in turn by the gear you used (weapons parts and accessories) which added even more depth to the combat system.
So if you wanted to win you needed to manage your movement, Spirit Stone useage, your strategy against your opponents, and the useage of your items efficently in order to overcome each battle laid before you in this intelligent RPG. So why they threw this away for a brainless combat system I have no idea!

Instead of the intelligent combat system of Twilight, they’ve replaced it with the standard rhythm and roll of real time combat otherwise known as “run wildly around your enemies like a total tool and hit the “X” button until something dies!” technique! Something dies, yeah, like your patience. That’ll die quickly.
We’re not talking about the intelligently done all out frantic brawling of Psychonauts here, we’re talking the boring mediocrity of running in circles and bashing things with weapons… boring!
And while I’m at it the only thing worse than the combat system of End of Darkness is the use of your skills, which is controlled by the R2 button. Hold down the R2 button to access your skills (which is laid out one per button (X, triangle, O and square). And, mind you, since this IS realtime combat we’re talking about that means you have to think ahead of your opponent since you could be firing off a shot only to have it miss as your opponent steps out of it’s way. Major bummer. No, couldn’t be fun to use like -- yes -- Psychonauts, it had to also be boring. Oh, yeah, I’ve got lots of positive things to say next week about Psychonauts so stay tuned… back to End of Darkness.

This is a far cry from the Skills Level system seen in Twilight of the Spirits, far cry!
As you played Twilight of the Spirits you earned Skill Levels (stars) which built up as you played. And, as you played, each new star meaned you could unlock new skills which were ALL available to you during combat (just a few pushes of the buttons away from useage)! That makes this new Skills thing such a drag!

But there’s something that is even more of a drag than that (if such a thing was inhumanly possible)!
That being the combat system of End of Darkness, and that everything you carry from armor to offensive power ups, to spells and items of assistance all revolve around… a CARD BATTLE SYSTEM!!
Well, not so much a Card Battle system per se as a Card Organization system… everything is on cards and you have to use them for everything… and you can even make new cards… oh for joy.
Oh for crying out loud WHY!! What the hell is with this useage of “Cards” in End of Darkness!

Once you are hired on as a Hunter (more on that later) and get your device for your Hunter duties, you’ll be able to use cards. Cards for armor, cards for strength, cards for magic (load up four cards at a time for magic abilities), cards for anything. You’ll even be able to summon up to 24 characters including the heroes of Twilight of the Spirits with the use of the cards… summon as in play as them for certain “work” related tasks and that’s it. Yeah. Right. Last time you could organize teams of five to fight out huge battles, now you are stuck with an “army of one” (unless you are teaming up with somebody for something).
Yeah. That’s a major “improvement” over the last game. Why didn’t I think of that!

Heck, you even need cards for a lottery system in this game where you can win rare… yes… cards.
Then there’s the oh-so exciting card making thing where you can synthesize new cards… only it’s not that exciting, and not as easy which means I barely used it at all.
Namco? If I wanted to play card combat I’d be playing something else! Like that new GameCube game whose name I forgot… something. I do know one thing, and that is if I was looking for a card battle fix I wouldn’t be playing Arc the Lad for said fix, that’s for sure! Yes, I know that the cards are NOT the heart of the game… the heart of the game is running around like a decapitated chicken wailing away with your weapons… which isn’t much better.

But you might ask “What about the story of End of Darkness! Surely that’s going to be good, right?”
Well you might want to not hold your breath on this one, it won’t get better -- but it might get… CONTROVERSAL… or just give me enough cannon fodder to keep me awake while I write this.

You start the game as a young Exorcist in training… no your first job isn’t to banish the devil from a pea soup spitting girl… and you start on the same little island Kharg & Darc visited during Twilight of the Spirits (Cragh Island) in order to visit the “Cave of Truth“ with Lilia. Yeah. Apparently it’s five years after the events of Twilight and the world is once again experiencing an “energy crisis”, only this time it’s a shortage of the life giving Spirits Stones which powered the previous game! Oh, and it’s probably experiencing an “energy crisis” in creativity since this story seems to be lacking in that dept. majorly.

So now as the world struggles to find new sources of power (by searching for sources that were supposidly “depleted“ years ago at the start of Twilight of the Spirits) somebody comes up with a brand new system of power , and that is used to power a new breed of “heroes” known as Hunters.
Speaking of Hunters, the new “jack-of-all-trades” of the world, a group of them are visiting your island as the game opens looking for a fugitive. And, well, wouldn’t you know it! You are building a boat to leave the island (Yeah, Kingdom Hearts) and run across some strange girl who doesn’t belong! You run into her again in the Cave of Truth as you go to help those same hunters who came to your island against an evil known as the “Darmyst” (which you are trained to “exorcise“), and that girl you just met looks guilty of sin of doing a bad bad thing, especially since she seems to be standing over a dead Hunter‘s body.

What are the Darmyst? The Darmyst, which looks like a standard monster that works for the big tobacco companies (spewing dark smoke), is a restless spirit that needs to be “settled” for it to move on.
And that, yes, is your job. After you “settle” it’s spirit by beating the heck out of it and then banishing it, you fall unconscious… apparently all this calming stuff wears you out… only to wake up in this oh so lovely village (nowhere near your home) on the water where Maru (that monkey kid who turned out to be a prince from last game) is.

Yeah. You left home and almost drowned, but why you can’t remember what happened… maybe the answer lies further in the game… maybe. Anyway as for Maru? Seems he still hasn’t married the girl he’s supposed to marry, and it’s been five years since he was supposed to get married to her (back in Twilight)! Apparently his “friendship” with that puppetmaster girl didn’t work out since she’s nowhere to be found, and he’s gone to “try” to get married to that girl he was supposed to marry in Twilight… only he still hasn’t tied the knot yet, the procrastinator!
Well, with his “help” (sort of) you become a Hunter (which is the only way to leave the town) and start on your quest to purge the world of the Darmysts… I mean Malademons (which is what they’re called in the main world). Which brings me to the point of the “evil” of this game, the “darkness”, which may have spawned the “CONTROVERSY”… maybe.

Seems the Deimos of the last game are now good, and the old Dilzweld army has collapsed into a lousy “militant” organization (WARNING) that seems to have some hidden message… like half of the “messages” in this game, the game is in need of villainy.
Anyway since the old enemies are no more, they have been replaced by some new ones -- oh, joy. The Malademons are just cannon fodder for the levels, however, the big enemy is a new “terrorist” organization known as Truth Sword (WARNING). Truth Sword is out to purge the world of flaws, I.e. everybody, and it’s up to you and your sidekick to stop them -- terrorist organization?!? (WARNING)

Yeah. Last game you had a good sidekick! You had Paulette (the hot female fighter with the snappy attitude and stylish red uniform) on one end, and on the other you had the hot tempered Orcon named Delma. This time out it sucks to be you since you’re stuck with a Slothian named “Hemo”… as in “Hemoglobin”? Urgh. Anyway he does nothing but check holes for knowledgable creatures that look like a cross between a demonic entity, a spider and a shag carpet. Oh, and he provides comic relief by being the loud sharp tongued devil of your odd couple duo… yeah, I couldn’t imagine playing a game without THAT kind of partner… oh, yeah, can I get a refund on him? I hate him.

Yeah. I know. I just said this FANTASY game is crawling with TERRORISTS… uh, right. If there’s any good reason to yank this off the shelves that is a good start, but there’s more… in abit, patience.
Now onto the Hunter thing. This is important since being a Hunter means you won’t be leveling up the same way you did back in Twilight -- which sucks! Back in Twilight you fought and fought to level up, but here it’s different! You use your cards to increase your levels in defense, offense, magic, technical and so forth… boring. As for your health? Does that even increase? I don’t know… oh, find a card to do that… sick.
But, you say, what about being a Hunter? Being a Hunter is like being a temp worker at the local employment agency. You check the desk and the board for work, each being vital in order to “level” up your character to higher and higher levels of Hunter-dom.

Desk work gives you skills jobs, which pay off in skill points and money. You need 10 skill points in order to be able to move up to the next level. Each job ranges in skill points given, the harder the job the more skill points are rewarded. The ranks are D (1), C (2), B (3), A (4) and S (?), management of these jobs is important since skill points do not carry over (once you reach ten any additional points are not ported over to your next level up so you should mind the jobs you take).

Board work gives you dignity jobs, these being from people who cannot afford to pay you for your services but give you dignity points for services rendered. This is the “money” of the storyline, in which the story often moves along during the completion of these “dignity” jobs (as oppopsed to the desk jobs which are one shot mini stories that only have a passing connection to the main story).
These are also the hardest to complete as they often become longer and longer with each level up on your character, requiring multiple location moves during each part of the story. This means that you should save often (you can go back to town between jobs of long length and save so you don’t have to do the job over from the beginning). In fact it’s smart to save all the time, even between jobs, since losing on certain jobs means they’ll take your ability cards (magic) away from you as a penalty for failure, and you lose Skill points if you cancel out on a particularly tough desk job (so that‘s a no-no right there).

Now then, you got your 10 skill/10 dignity points after jumping through quite abit of hoops to earn it… now what? Report to Rueloon and take a TEST! Yeah, nothing like taking a test to level up… why don’t they do that for Final Fantasy or Breath of Fire? Isn’t it fun doing stuff like this?!? Isn’t it?!?
Anyway you report to the front desk and you are given a set of tests, and once you complete these tests you get a level up and 10 Mystery Cards (the cards for the lottery which is held in Dilzweld in the room right next to the Guild office, which is the first door you see when you enter town with the sign of the five cards).
Now what do you get when you level up? You get… nothing much. It’s just so you can do more jobs, do harder “dignity” jobs that move the story forward… oh, one thing you get. You get a level up on your “magic” meter which allows you to use magic longer… and that’s it. Not much but it could mean the difference in completing a job so it’s at least a useful upgrade.

And then there’s the jobs themselves! “Dignity” jobs move the story forward, while “Skill” jobs earns you money… and public service announcements from time to time!
Yes, sometimes you get filler text… strangely enough it’s given AFTER the mission.
Some of it is in relation to the creature you fought, it’s habits and so forth… while some of it has a “hidden” agenda. Messages that give you vital tips, some of which I can’t talk about since they seem to focus a lot on “afterschool special” lessons on life, or messages to keep you safe from thieves, criminals, bad people and those oh so nasty “terrorists”! (WARNING)

Which brings me to this point of all the WARNINGs… isn’t Arc the Lad : End of Darkness just courting a recall -- if it hasn’t had one already considering the game is so damn hard to get ahold of? Considering we hear about insurgents and terrorists almost daily why the heck would I want to play a fantasy settings video game filled with terrorists and militia fighters? Explain the logic of that to me!
If I wanted to fight terrorists I’d be playing a Tom Clancy game, or games like Fugitive Hunter or First to Fight and so forth! I would NOT be playing Arc the Lad! What the hell were they thinking when they came up with THAT plot idea! Really! Is there any reason Why I’m fighting terrorists in a fantasy RPG world?!? Is there?!? Explain to me the purposes of THAT!
If the game is off the shelves for something other than sellout performancs from raving fans then it has to be the “context” of this Truth Sword and their acts of attempted terroristic bombings and terroristic kidnapping plots in this game.

But wait, there’s more! Even when the game’s not being insensitive, it’s being sappy with jobs that end in overtly sentimental mush that makes you wonder what the heck was going on in the heads of the people writing this story! Then it does something which might be good -- maybe -- if only the story itself didn’t seem a tad sleep inducing at times. I mean really! The game is either boring, or insensitive, or sappy, or something. Uh, what is the good thing…? I forgot, I was bored.
And, yes, if there is sparks of goodness in the story it’s not consistent which is a bad thing! The only thing that is not 100% in this story is solid writing! When I compare both stories together I thought the story of Twilight was better than this… whatever this “story” is!!

Then we come to the finale, the tie in to Twilight of the Spirits.
That just blows. In comparison to another “sequel” game, Final Fantasy X-2, I found I liked FFX-2 more than Arc the Lad : End of Darkness in this regard! For one thing you didn’t have terrorist subplots rammed down your throat (which may explain why the game is hard to come by), and then when it came to the original cast interactions of the two games you could interact far better with the original cast of Final Fantasy X than you could here.

ALSO, also, FFX-2 had VOICE ACTING, which means the original cast came back to reprise their roles for the new game. This game has VOICE SPOTTING… I.e. you only hear voices during the fighting, saying generic emotes which -- ugh -- DISAPPOINTING! No voice acting at all in this game! And I’m not even sure if the entire cast came back for whatever half (bleep)ed voice acting there is in this game!

And, finally, in FFX-2 you played as characters you actually WANTED to play as, as opposed to here where you play a dopey kid who seems to be short on intelligence but long on the annoyance factor.
Didn’t help the “sidekick” was lame too and you couldn’t form a party to fight with like before.

There is only one saving grace for this game, and that is this is the first Arc the Lad to have online gaming abilities… but since I don’t play online I didn’t get to enjoy that. Somebody else who has online access needs to review that and tell us how that was. So much for it’s one saving grace.
Oh, one more possible saving grace. The fact you can take flagged finished game data from Twilight of the Spirits and download it here… only I haven’t finished Twilight of the Spirits (it’s quite involved and I need to finish it up) so I don’t know what that’s all about as I finish this review. Struck out again.

That’s that. Might as well break this down while I still have a halfway decent thing to say about the game… I mean if I went on, and on, and on and on… which I could… I’d never stop telling you how disappointed I was with the game. Really. So let’s wrap it now.

Arc the Lad : End of Darkness… really?
What’s Hot?
I wish there was more that was “hot” about this game, but there isn’t.
The combat system could have been better. The card system was not so bad but I wish it was like before.
The character cards were a poor excuse for replacing the ability to form a party of adventurers to join in battle with you. Yes, this works for the online gaming but for the main game (and those of us who don’t play online) it just blew. I liked it better the way it was before.

Yes, it is kind of playable… yeah, even I have to say that it has a minor playability factor to it… but once you complete it you’ll be hard pressed to find reason to replay it.
It’s fun the first time around (though nowhere near as fun as Twilight of the Spirits) and once you get over it (unlike Twilight of the Spirits) you may have a hard time bringing yourself to take a second spin with End of Darkness. Yes, you can download end game data from Twilight of the Spirits into this game, but since I didn’t finish Twilight of the Spirits (seeing how it’s really really involving and challenging, unlike this game) I didn’t have data to download so I couldn’t try that option out. I guess I have to finish Twilight so I can see what happens when I download my end game data into this game.
By the way I am playing Twilight for my third time… never finished it because the last fight is hard so I usually stop at the very end. Anyway I hope finishing the game and flagging my save data yields something USEFUL! Anything useful!

What’s Not?
What… was I not doom and gloom enough for this game? I think I was. And even if I wasn’t doom and gloom enough there IS the fact this game is not exactly the easiest to come by… why?

I still don’t remember Namco being involved in the last game, and for my sake I hope they never ever again become involved in another Arc the Lad game. Please, Cattle Call, go BACK to the system of Twilight of the Spirits (which made the game so darn fun to play) and, while your at it, make a story that’s better than the one in End of Darkness… it kinda moved but it didn’t move me as well as the one in Twilight.
Otherwise there’s no need for me to recap all my failings with this game, that’d be a long recap.

Moments to Remember?
Yeah. It’s fun to revisit the old gang of Twilight and see them again… sorta.

What to Ignore?
But that fun is short lived since you don’t get much interaction with them, and only passable adventures with them. And since there is NO VOICE ACTING in this game (except for the combat scenes with the endlessly repeated “emotes” which ticked me off when I reviewed Resident Evil : Outbreak) I was even more disappointed with this game! I wanted to see the voice acting cast of Twilight of the Spiritws reunited by that seemingly isn’t going to happen in this “game”!
Yeah, I know, it got online gameplay, but in turn End of Darkness sacrificed a lot of the charm of the old game which I found unforgivable. Yeah, big improvement. Never improve a game like this again.

Overall?
I couldn’t be more depressed or disappointed with a sequel even if I tried!
That’s OK, right now I’m hyped over Psychonauts anyway so I guess it’s OK that End of Darkness blows.
The game is a somewhat passable rental, but ownership is only for the most die hard fans of the series. Between the two I have to say that I preferred the far superior Twilight of the Spirits over this game.

And as for the people of Namco? Whoever it was at Namco who decided to make End of Darkness in this “image“? You ruined it. You ruined the entire game you jerk(s), and if there’s going to be another Arc the Lad please do us all a favor and NOT be involved in the sequel! That’d be so nice!

Yes, sure, if you liked Twilight of the Spirits and want the chance to play as your favorite characters online then you’ll be getting this game. And yes, if you like the Arc the Lad series you’ll still get this game since it does have some interest and is kind of fun… once around. However there isn’t enough to make me want to play it a second time. Once is enough. Unlike Twilight of the Spirits which I’m playing again (this time to completion), I couldn’t come up with any good reason to play End of Darkness again.

Overall how you react to this once you play it is only something you’ll be able to figure out, but for me I found that I don’t have the desire to play End of Darkness more than once… and that is a shame since I liked Twilight of the Spirits, so what the hell did they do to End of Darkness!
Thanks Namco, you ruined one of my favorite RPGs for the Playstation 2, thanks a lot!
Now stop it, and never ever ever ever do it again. Never. Nuff said.

Uh… final word on the so-called conspiracy.
I don’t see how it couldn’t be. By now I should be seeing this game out in Hilo, and Kona, and on the internet… but where is it? Yeah, OK, it could just be sold out and all -- but what’s with the creepy useage of “terrorists” anyway in this game! I mean what were they thinking!
If anyone knows where this game is being sold let me know please, thanks.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Aug 05

Playstation 2 Arc the Lad: End of Darkness Images