Twilight Rising - Test
July 4, 2003
Once upon a time, in an age long lost to memory, the victory of humans in an epic battle with a dark force gave birth to a new species. The Deimos that arose from the battle took the form of dragons and monsters and another long-drawn battle ensued between the two races. In the end, the spirits who ensured peace in the world disappeared, leaving behind spirit stones that provided energy for humans and magic fuel for the Deimos. The struggle over the stones continued for years until, eventually, a pact was established that humans and Deimos were forbidden to have any contact with each other, and that each would live in their own land.
Generations later, the twilight of the world approaches once again and, in a forbidden love between two warriors, twin brothers are born and separated as infants. Kharg grows up living the life of a human lord under the care of his mother and loyal friends but his mother warns him of succumbing to the temptation of fighting with anger and hate. Darc endures the pain of an enslaved orphan under the ruthless guardianship of the sorceress, Geedo and quickly learns that trust and friendship do not exist in the Deimos way of life. However, both brothers soon learn that the conflicts within themselves exist for a reason: They have been chosen to save their race and eventually the world.
Released with little fanfare, Cattle Call’s Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is an unexpected surprise. The game itself is typical role playing game (RPG) fare — including character exploration, localized and world maps, turn-based battle and an epic plot. However, Twilight of the Spirits has come a long way since the first U.S.-released Arc the Lad Collection in 2001.
One of the things that’s nice about the game is the point-to-point, guided road map that allows you to directly go where you need to, instead of blindly searching for the next location and running into random battles. In between routes, there are specific locations where battles to gain experience and resources will occur, giving the player more choice over frequency of battles.
îhe delightful graphics, though a bit inconsistent at this stage in PS2 development, are still satisfying, with beautiful waterfalls and detailed town and location illustrations. Battle scene characters are somewhat crude but acceptable.
The unique battle engine allows much more control over movement and placement of characters when engaged in battle. Unlike typical RPGs where the player only has control of which weapons, magic or items to use, Arc the Lad allows the player to gear up prior to engaging in battle. Once in battle, each character must be moved to position in relation to the enemy and the range of his or her weapon. Though innovative in concept and implementation, this engine causes mini-battles to last for an annoyingly long time. Luckily, these mini-battles don’t occur as frequently as in other RPGs.
Another annoying and time-consuming element of Arc the Lad is in the text scroll and dialogue. The text scrolls letter by letter, and though pushing the X button will help display the text all at once, waiting for the text to appear really slows the game down. When the text for spirits appears, there’s enough time to put those leftovers in the microwave for a midnight snack. Spoken dialogue in cut scenes doesn’t occur very often, but when it does, it’s short and amateurish at best.
One last thing: The saves in the game are really difficult to get to because there are so few save points. If you are going to play before going to bed at night, allow yourself about an hour in your quest to get to the save point.
Overall, despite some of the technical flaws, Twilight of the Spirits is still really fun to play. Once given the chance to get into the plot (about three hours of gameplay), I promise, the plot alone will keep you going.
AW Score: 3
Genre: RPG
Platform: PS2
Developer: Cattle Call
Publisher:/ SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment of America)
Release Date: June 27, 2003
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