Review:
Arc the Lad’s the best PS2 RPG since Xenogears, the only must-own this summer.
Tags: Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jul 26th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
This is not summer 2000.
Back then, PSone owners were mollified waiting for the US release of PS2 by a literal flood of awesome RPGs.
This is the summer of 2003.
There’s maybe two or three RPGs even out there, and one of them is a remake of two NES Final Fantasy titles for PSone, not PS2.
When you consider that Unlimited SaGa sucked eggs and the forthcoming Disgaea is already receiving toxic word of mouth, the barren RPG landscape is in need of a hero.
Enter Sony. That’s right, Sony.
With the release of Arc the Lad: Twlight of the Spirits, the company that created the PS2 has delivered easily the best, and probably the ONLY, playable RPG of the summer for the PS2.
Of course, longtime PSone and PS2 owners aren’t that surprised. Although it took Working Designs to bring it over, Arc the Lad Collection was likely the best RPG swansong ever to grace any aging game console when it was released on PSone and Legend of Dragoon was a good enough Final Fantasy clone to have fans asking when Sony will deliver a PS2 sequel.
Which, by the way, is an excellent question.
Be that as it may, both games were created by Sony and now Sony’s at it again with the impressive Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, a strategy RPG that may not look exactly like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, but retains the spirit of gameplay that made those classics so challenging and addictive.
One of the evolutions Sony has made to the strategy RPG genre with this game is to eliminate grid-based battlefields in favor of “areas of movement” and “areas of effect.” Just like in FFT, your ability to move across a battle map is limited, but illustrated by a blue halo that shows you how far you can move in one turn in any given direction. Likewise, another color sphere is used to show how far away your allies, enemies or inanimate objects can be in order to be within range of your spells, attacks or weapons.
The effect of limitations is the same, but the look has been massively upgraded from PSone strategy RPG faves.
One downside to Arc the Lad:TotS is that there’s no parallel to the rich, diverse job system found in Square’s FFT and, to a somewhat lesser degree, in Atlus’ Tactics Ogre. Sure, the game has some depth, but the lack of a rich job system takes away one tasty strategic element.
Not to worry, though; there’s still a rich skill set to acquire that ALMOST (but not quite) accomplishes the same idea. Actually, the battle system is a bit reminiscent of last winter’s Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, though far deeper and more addictive.
In place of the static (albeit engaging) cutscenes that were a staple between battles of PSone-era strategy RPGs, is more of a rich, unfolding saga that will remind gamers of the storytelling style of the best RPGs, such as Final Fantasy and Xenosaga. That means rather than passively watching and reading through a 10-minute cutscene between battles, as was the case in FFT and TO, in AtL:TotS, you get to roam around towns and other locations, talking to folks just as you would in most RPGs. That’s another tweak to the expectations of the strategy RPG genre.
Another interesting parallel is that AtL:TotS is told in chapters, from the perspectives of two different protagonists whose stories eventually merge; that’s a call-back to the massively-loved but hard-to-find Suikoden III from Konami last fall.
It almost seems that Sony took the best elements that work from several different types of RPGs and molded them into one great mix; and hey — pay attention, BioWare — Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is a turn-based strategy RPG, just like your PC versions of Baldur’s Gate! You DON’T need to ruin a great turn-based RPG by turning it into a friggin’ idiotic Gauntlet-style action RPG piece of trash just to “make the concept work on a console system.”
Sorry, that’s a sore spot. I freakin’ loved Baldur’s Gate games on PC and they RUINED them on PS2… Not that most gaming sites would ever have the testicular fortitude to admit it!
[Editor's note - that's your opinion Craig. Some of us loved Baldur's Gate on console, and you HAVE to play KOTOR...]
Getting back to Arc the Lad, Sony may borrow elements and concepts from several other successful console RPGs, but this is not the gaming equivalent of Independence Day; there’s plenty of originality here, such as the specific tweaks Sony gave to the strategic, turn-based battle engine as well as veering away from the high politics/high religion style storylines that often typify most strategy RPGs.
So what’s the bottom line? The bottom line is, even if this summer weren’t such a barren desert for RPG lovers, Arc the Lad: Twilight of Spirits would still have enough merit to be a must-have. The fact that it comes when there’s virtually no other new options just means it will likely sell more copies and win over more fans.
Anyone who says Sony can’t make a decent RPG — and who weren’t convinced by Arc the Lad Collection and Legend of Dragoon, let alone Sony’s admittedly weak action RPG entries like the Dark Cloud games — well, if they don’t like Arc the Lad: Twilight of Spirits, they simply don’t like good RPGs.
If you don’t have AtL:TotS yet, what are you waiting for, snow in July? Get it now!
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| The newly-envisioned strategy RPG battle engine, the story and the overall classy presentation. | 9.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Sony's blandish localization which lacks Working Designs' style and humor; the lack of a rich jobs system to diversify gameplay. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| While it may lack the stellar localization of a Working Designs game, but Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is the best RPG released on PS2 since Xenogears and the only must-own RPG of the summer! | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jul 26th, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
