"IN COMPARISON TO FINAL FANTASY (Common, it had to happen)"

''Hmm......this game would've made a smashing 2-D Super Nintendo title,'' is what I'm saying to myself, the entire time that I'm playing through Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. The reason being, is that the game seems to be done so well, on such a small scale, that it seems to be as good at its element, as Final Fantasy 4 was upon its release. This game has virtually no similarities to the big brother of Console RPGs, although, one can't help but stack the game up to the standard. Rest assure, regaurdless of the stackups, this game is a masterpeice. And if your a fan of Strategic turn-base (Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force, Front Mission, and so on), than your bound to have the time of your life with this little Gem.

GRAPHICS:8/10 - Shall we begin here? The games graphics are very well done, in terms of the detail in the character models (which are just below those in FINAL FANTASY 10, but worlds above those in LEGIA 2). As far as emotions in the faces and body movements go, they seem oddly stiff throughout the game, which is quite in contrast to the loud screaming, wide smiling, and high kicking models of Final Fantasy. The games framerate is flawless, as can be expected in RPGs of the new generation, although animations of skills/magic are just plain unimpressive, and all seem to have a rushed, cliche look and feel to them. The enviornments are terribly generic, although theres not anything particularly wrong with them. This has happened in so many PS2 RPGs, that its almost overwelmingly refreshing when games like Shadow Hearts, Wild Arms 3, and Xenosaga, step fourth to break the monotony. You'll see the standard town, the standard forest, the (sub)standard ruins, and the standard grasslands that all looked better in the old PS1 prerendered games like ''Legend of the Dragoon'' and ''Final Fantasy 9'' than they do in Arc. Add to that, the absense of a fully navigational world map (sigh.......lazy ass new gen game designers), and you got yourself a mixed pot of impressive sprites, set in an unimpressive world.

SOUND: 5/10 - I really wanted to give this catagory more points than I did. Some of the tracks in the game are genuinely enjoyable, while others are not-so-hot, but still bareable. Its the poor dialouge, and consistantly re-cycled misplaced themes in the game, that add the force of gravity to this games sound track. Only a couple of the offered battle themes are annoying (Darc's random battle theme and the light weigted battle theme featured in Karhg's first battle to be exact), and deserve mentioning. Others, like the theme of sadness, the fribble's theme, and Kargh's random battle theme, are actually pretty well done. As can be expected, these themes are just piano strikes compared to Final Fantasy's history of melodious compositions, and for some strange reason, sports a quirky arrangement throughout the game. There are some songs in some places that just BLATANTLY don't fit the feeling one bit. To mkae matters worse, many of the songs are used OVER, and OVER, and OVER to the point where you should be able to hum the half of the damn soundtrack by heart, by the time your 5 hours into the adventure. What however kills the score so effectivly, goes beyond bad music placement amd delves into the realm of voice overs (which really only goes south as far as battles are concerned). Karhg (we'll discuss are little cardboard hero later) has some of the cheesiest hero voice overs since Robin's series of ''HOLY (insert plot related word or phrase here) BATMAN'' chedder lines. While in battle, expect to here atleast 15 ''JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL''(s), and maybe 10 or so ''YOU'LL NEVER DEFEAT ME''(s), spout from Karhg as he takes his turn. If your luck is REALLY bad (or you happen to be playing this game on friday the 13th or during a full moon), you'll here your fair share of ''JUSTICE WINS AGAIN''(s) when Karhg vanquishes a foe. It just gets old after the 500th time we here it from a hero, and it won't sound any less unsetting coming from Karhg. Maru and Denseimo's voice overs, don't sport (very) cheesy lines like Karhg, but just have an annoyingly rushed and generic sound to them, that makes them a pain to listen to during every turn of every battle. On the bright side of things, most of Darc's lines are pure gold, if not a tad reminessant of Sephiroth. Other than the voice gripes, the sounds are crystal clear albethem underwelming, just like the spell effects. Its nice to hear detailed attention paid to things like different sounds for walking with the left and right foot, and different CLOMPS on grass than on stone, but thats getting more and more standard these days.

STORYLINE : 9/10 - If you've read ANY of the review for this game in ANY of the popular Electronics magazines, than they all pretty much have the same thing to say about Arc's story. Swirving around the terribly over used ''UNDERDOG VS. THE EVIL EMPIRE AND WINS'' storyline, Arc throws you at helm of two protagonists (one moreso than the other), of two different races: the HUMANS and the DEIMOS. Naturally, these two are of opposing races, so thers bound to be a confrontation between both of your characters, which is the most I can really say without spoiling the expereince for you. Lets just say that the story is very well told, never leaving you wondering about how one thing or the other, came about. None of those loose ends like that whole ZACK thing in FF7, that you'd have to be a total fanboy to pursue knowledge of, and missed entire chunks of the storyline if you didn't. The story is always well presented, either through cutscenes, or flashbacks (don't expect even a fraction of Xenosaga's narration though), as not to let the gamer fall TOO far behind the times. Plus the dialouge and voice acting in the cutscenes are pretty well done. However well done it is though, the story has some uncharacteristically cliche points that could've been done better, although they sufficed for this level of game.

FUN FACTOR: 8/10 - Will you enjoy this game as much as you enjoy Final Fantasy 7? Not if you didn't like/play final fantasy Tactics. When you get right down to it, this game is a STRATAGY RPG, when it comes to the battle system. If thats not the sort of thing you enjoy, than you'll hate this game before it even begins. There is nothing that seperates this game (aside from a few joint attacks and such) from any other stratagy RPG in the world. But if you enjoy stratagy RPG battle system, than this is a seemless representation of the battle system, with a hint of simmered down difficulty. Random Battles are quick and easy as pie, allowing for fans of the system to get in some major level up time, while still feeling like their not just throwing their time away (providing that your willing to put your characters into battle, one at a time). Some battles can get terribly hard, and some are so easy, it almost makes you hate that you spent so much time leveling up in the first place. The weapons system is such that you can 3 things, such as a strengthing coating, or a fire element to your weapon to give it a desired effect. The same goes with defense, as there are 3 possible accessory fittings. Magic/skills are performed via spirit stones, which are basically, stockable MP (and ultimately a waste of the developers time, as an excuse to have them in the storyline). Sadly, you won't find any class changes or thing of that nature looming in THIS games battle system. Its pretty much a strait foward Strategy RPG, with the storyline, and envoirnment (more or less) of a normal RPG. Character developement could really use some work though, as you find it hard to care about many of the characters in the game. KARHG FOR EXAMPLE (yeah....I'm kinda picking on him now), is a Card Board cut out hero, who says all the right things, has all the right impulses, and carries just the right size sword. Its hard to feel even remotely connected to anyone who is so perfectly juste and heroic, with just a hint of naive valience to make him just the guy crazy enough to save the day. Darc and those in HIS storyline however, were ambitiously developed with chips on their thorned little shoulders that often made them a joy to get into. Summing it up, It should've been DARC instead of Karhg on the front of the games case, as he, his compatriots, and his storyline pretty much stills the show from Karhg early on in game.

OVERALL - 7/10 - The game is a masterpeice, with flaws. However, its so much fun to play, that maybe you can find it in your heart to ignore the flaws..............if your in to Stradegy RPGs. You see what I mean? There are so many things that limit a person from just walking in off the street and enjoying this game, that it just can't be reccommended to every body, no matter how much a guy like me (who enjoys ALL types of RPGs) may want to. Pick it up if it applies to you, otherwise, stick around until games like FFX-2 come around to spoil you all over again.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/03, Updated 06/28/03