"A wonderful RPG, with an epic story, and a very good battle system!"

My friend had been talking about this game when he saw it in a store, so a few days later, I went out and bought it for $9.99 . Man! This game was worth every penny. It goes beyond what I expect in an RPG, and for a game with such a weak beginning, it comes out with a stunning conclusion filled with action, adventure, and mystery!

Graphics 9/10

The graphics are actually good, except for faces. They just don't look really good and the eyes on Kharg and Paulette do not match their faces. The backgrounds are very detailed, they show bricks, cracks in wood, a LOT of colour, and much more. The enemies are not a highlight of this topic, but they are pretty good. They look great if they are human but sometimes the monsters/plants do not look 100% good. The characters are also not a highlight of this topic. They are basically the same as enemies, except all of their faces look weird. They seem smooshed together and the eyes do not match the faces. The world map is nice and colourful and it is actually pretty good looking for a part of the game you barely ever see! Overall, the graphics get an A.

Sound 7/10

The sound in this game is very tuneful although it rarely ever sets the tone. The music is a little too orchestrated to make the sad parts very sad and the exciting parts very exciting. When someone dies (not saying the name((not a main character!))) the music does not make the scene sad. Unlike FFVII where the music makes you want to cry, this game does not. Battle music is not the greatest, and sometimes when you are fighting random battles, you get the most bizarre music because there are sad parts to the music. I really enjoyed Lilia's song, and the continent of Ragnoth has very good music for the cities. The world map has a catchy tune and it goes well with the world map! The sound gets a C+.

Gameplay 10/10

The gameplay in this game is very good. It delivers a new style of strategy to your combat, and it is crisp and flawless. The gameplay is very addicting, and it makes you want to play this game all day and you might lose sleep over it. The gameplay would not be too good compared to Final Fantasy Tactics, but compared to a lot of other tactical games, this game would win a trophy. It has inmproved a LOT over Arc the Lad 2 for PSX so gameplay gets an A+.

Characters 8/10

Most of the characters in this game do play a very important role in the storyline, but some characters you do not really want in your party as they are not good in battles at all, and they seem to waste game space.

KHARG CHARACTERS: Kharg, Paulette, and Maru and nice characters to use as they effect the storyline from the beginning to the end, but Ganz is one character you do not need, because he is actually weak compared to everyone else and all he does is fix your airship. Choco is the secret character you get in Darc's story. Choco has NO part in the storyline and is actually a very weak character. There is one other character but I cannot say who it is because it gives away a LOT of the storyline!

DARC CHARACTERS: Bebedora the strongest character in the game makes Darc's half of the characters shine above Kharg's half, but Darc and Camellia are also two other great characters. Volk and Delma are not the greatest, not very strong, not good magic, and barely any storyline. Deimbeck is the secret character and he is strong, but there is no story to him, except you do see his brother in a junkyard, but that is it. Densimo is a character you get for about 1/4 of a chapter and has a major effect to the storyline, and he is strong so he was a good addition to the characters.

OTHER CHARACTERS: Many other characters did have a lot of story, like Samson, Lilia, Dilzweld Army, Draguza, etc, although some did not make the storyline any bit more intersesting, and the Dilzweld Army made some parts of the game annoying when you had to fight about 30 enemies and they can all hit for 60 damage and you have no save points...it makes the game very annoying, but a lot of the characters made the game a lot more fun because they made you want to get to a certain part of the game to see what would happen to what they were doing or what happened to them.

Overall, the characters got a B.

Length 10/10

The main storyline takes about 30 hours or more to beat, 40 if you are going for the secret charactets, 45 if you are searching for every item, and 100+ hours if you want all characters at Lv. 99. The game is a very long game and never gets boring...well, sometimes, but not a lot. The game is worth every penny you spend because you will ot beat the game in a short period of time and the length of the game gets an A+.

Difficulty 9/10

The difficulty is quite good, although there is one boss in Darc's story called Selkis that takes about 1 hour to beat and is VERY hard when there is about 20 enemies and some of them reduce your stats, and another boss at the end of Darc's final chapter, named Altered Draguza, where he has about 1500 HP, can use 4 attacks that hurt 150-200 damage (charcters only have about 230-400 HP) and can attack every two turns. The game is EXTREMLY challenging for any player on their first run through, and it is still quite tough on a second play through. The difficulty gets an A+.

Control 10/10

The controls in the game are very straightforward and they never confuse you or anything. Like always, the joystick is to move, X is action, O is cancel, [] is search, /\ is field menu, R1 is search screen, and START is Main Menu. Very easy and very good. Another A+!

Value 10/10

This game is worth every single penny you spend! You will not get bored of it, you will most likely love it, and it is just extremly worth the money. One more A+ for the game!

Replay 11/10

Okay. The game has an extremly high replay value because the story is just one part of the game, they style of battle is very fun and you will want to play it again, and after you beat the game, you get NEW GAME+ which lets you play a new file with all of the items, money, LV. 99, everything. It just is extremly fun to play over and over again, and there are lots of reasons to play it again! One final A+!!!

Buy or Rent

You will definatly want to buy Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits just because it is a perfect game and you will not want to bring it back to the rental store, so just use your stinking money and buy this masterpiece!

And that is the end!

Overall, this game gets an A. (93%)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/06