"May the spirits guide you..."

OK, so I admit - I love RPGs. My tag name is physical proof of that. Though I've been playing as many as I can, I've never had any previous encounters with Arc the Lad - until now. For the first time since I played Final Fantasy X, I'm stunned. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits makes my head spin all day long, as the numerous mysteries behind this strange land unveil themselves. Truly an epic, with very few flaws. So, without further adieu, here is my two cents.

The first thing I noticed about this game was the amount of plot depth. Right from the start, you are thrown a mysterious scene. Then, you're thrust into the storyline of a knight named Kharg, who lives in the city of Yewbell on the continent of Ragnoth. Your average hero with ambitions of being a leader. His commander, the leader of the Defense Corps, his best friend Paulette's father, and your semi-father Lloyd is the man he's been training with a sword for quite a while. Kharg has had a strong dislike of the secondary race of the planet, Deimos, for quite a while... but little does he know. Across the ocean lives his brother, half-Deimos and yet still surviving in this world, with partial thanks to his guardian, Geedo. The game focuses around both Kharg and his soon-to-be hatred of the Deimos, and Darc's journey to save the Deimos from destruction. Both have heard the pleas of the Spirits, and both now seek their quest's completion.

The game starts you in Kharg's shoes, then moves to Darc's shoes. It alternates like this in 'chapters' for the entire game - that's how it progresses. But this game should give you a mind warp by the end of Kharg's second story, and it's suddenly clear why this is a good game.

But enough about the story... what about the battle? Now, granted, I've seen many different types of combat types throughout my lifetime - Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross... you know, the cream of the crop. This battle system practically blows them away. I like to describe it as a complicated version of chess. Basically, your characters and allies are in the screen along with the enemies. On a character's turn, they have a chance to move around in a certain area (indicated in blue), cast magic spells, use items and special attacks, or just use your basic attack on an enemy if one is within your weapon's attack range. Casting magic and using special abilities requires the use of Spirit Stones - the mysterious gems that now power this world. It takes a while to get used to, but definitely thought out in full detail. Not only that, but attacking someone in the back is actually a lot more effective than in the front, just like in reality. This is definitely a major step up from Square and Disney's ground breaker Kingdom Hearts, and definitely a difference from standard turn-based combat RPGs.

Graphics, however, are a different story. No, they are not horrendous - compared to most PS2 games, this is actually beautiful - but it is a bit choppy in some places, and overly not always the prettiest. But I will tell you, there are some areas in the game that just flat-out defy logic. The graphics of this game are definitely not sub-par to FFX or KH.

One of my favorite things in a game is music - the luscious sounds of combat and of a wonderful love song playing in a background of scenery brings tears to my eyes. Well, there's certainly no shortage of good music here - even going to the New Game - Continue - Options menu is a musical enhancement that's worth letting run a few minutes before going on. Sure, the music repeats itself, but when music this good comes along, don't you just want to listen to it over and over again? The music even reflects on the character's current moods - and that takes a lot of proper timing to do well. What doesn't fair so well is the sounds - the combat voices get repitive after the first few fights, and the voice-to-mouth portions during cinemas aren't really that excellent (small bias there - I'm an anime fan, so improper mouth-to-voice acting is one of my pet peeves), but everything else about the game hides these flaws.

Amazing RPGs in the past were usually done by Square and Enix, and any other RPG that wasn't made by them usually paled in comparison to their giants. But Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits may take their crown away. It's a game with some great combat system, bad voicing, excellent music... and a plot that drives the game without driving you insane. Regardless of how many RPGs you play, some games just stand out in your mind. For me, it's usually FFX, Chrono Trigger, and Kingdom Hearts... so now I shall add Arc the Lad to my memory banks as an angel of RPGs.

May the spirits guide your path, fair gamer!
~Spike

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03