"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
Many people have heard the above line from the Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken" which extols the virtues of taking the path that travels beyond the typical tried and true territory. However, one of the overlooked lines in the poem is ""And sorry I could not travel both..." But what if you COULD take both paths: The well-worn, comfortable path and the more daring non-traditional path? Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits allows gamers to travel both paths, at least on the storyline level.
Arc The Lad: TOS does this by presenting two intertwined stories for players to explore. The opening sequence puts you into the royal shoes of Kharg, son of Nafia, The Queen of Nidellia. Kharg is the once-prince of the now dissolved Nidellian Monarchy. He has grown up never knowing his father, the mysterious Windalf. As you may have guessed, Kharg is the character with the tried and true path. During the opening hour or so of Arc The Lad: TOS the story moves along in typical fashion. We are introduced to the Deimos, a sub-human races of demons that seem to be in constant conflict with the humans of the world. The archetypes are there, the "mysteries" are paper-thin and traditional storyline borders on trite.
However, after the first few hours, you switch main characters and are introduced to Darc. It is then that you find out that he, too, is the son of Windalf and Nafia and that Windalf was actually a Deimos. Unlike Kharg, Darc has a more Demon-like appearance and his childhood has been anything but the fairytale adventure of his more human brother. Too monstrous to be considered human and too human to be considered Deimos, Darc is an outcast who has been enslaved by the Deimos. Via flashbacks, Darc remembers his father's final request: To save the Deimos from destruction. After his experience with the Deimos and his violent run in with a band of humans, he decides that his only recourse to fulfill this dream is to become the most powerful leader on the planet, eradicate the humans and force the Deimos to bow to his will. Welcome to the road less traveled.
The traditional, almost corny, heroic traits of Kharg are obviously the foil to the anti-heroics of Darc. Kharg's personality, naïve and entire storyline contrasts and, thus, underscores and enhances the distinctive characteristics of Darc. Following the typical RPG storyline with Kharg makes Darc's whiplash plot twists all the more dramatic. It actually does it almost TOO well, for once you get into the meat of the story, I found myself breezing through Kharg's adventure in hopes to getting back to the darker, more complex story of Darc. Storyline is always paramount to creating a successful RPG and Arc The Lad: TOS does it in a decisively original way. However, there are a few things that work against this set-up. One aspect is the dialogue. It lacks the rhythm and punch to carry some of the stronger moments of the game. While easily understandable and grammatically correct, it sometimes lacks the feel of heartfelt dialogue. Another aspect that takes away the feel of the game is some of the character reactions. Without giving away any of the plot, one female Deimos constantly struggles with her feeling for (and her feelings against) Darc but always drops into the toe-kicking-the-dirt, head down, submissive posture and animation of all too many female RPG characters. It's hard to picture her as a strong and determined presence in the game with these "regressions" in movement if not attitude.
The gameplay of Arc The Lad: TOS can be described as Traditional Strategy RPG without the grid. Players can now move their characters to any position within their effective attack range without a square grid determining the final placement. Still, the core gameplay is the same and hit/damage bonuses are still based on positioning during attacks and defense. Attacks to the flank cause more damage than a direct face-first assault and rear attacks are the optimum offensive, giving drastically higher damage for attacking the unguarded rear of a character. As characters progress, they earn an assortment of abilities that can be purchased using SP (Skill Points) gained through combat. These skills vary from character to character (with the exception of the traditional cure and similar restorative spells). The only real "problem" with this system is that there is no branching paths or different abilities earned according to performance. While you can select in what order you want to learn new abilities, players will pretty much have identical versions of each character at similar levels. Happily, the Weapons Part system gives you full power of customizing each characters weapon via slots. By adding enhancers that are found during battles or bought at stores, gamers can improve weapons to augment attack, defense, speed, etc. Moreover, these enhancements can be added or removed from a slot at any time, so if you don't get the desired result after purchasing it for one character, you can simply switch to another.
With well-balanced difficulty and an excellent combat interface, the only real problem I had with the gameplay was the lack of save points. In most Strategy RPGs, save anywhere (or, at least save after each battle) options are a must. While this title doesn't have the mammoth 30 to 40 minute battles that some Strat titles do, there are sections of the game where you can go through 4 or more battles 5 to 10 minutes battles (including boss fights) without a chance to save. Most non-boss battles you can retreat from but unless you have already battled up to that point, died, and had to restart multiple times, I never even considered turning tail and running.
Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits takes gamers down both a road they are familiar with and a darker, sinister way. For gamers who are willing to take a few hours to immerse themselves into what appears at first glance to be a "typical" storyline and combat system, it pays off with a truly enjoyable adventure.
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