Arc The Lad: End of Darkness

[Cedric]

This small review is mostly for Lebenengel and Jeremy, who have expressed interest in this game.

As many of you all have figure, I am a fan of the series, and once the games came out on our side of the shore, I bought it right off the bat. Really, it's an unappreciated series as far as most games go, but there's quite a following if you look hard enough.

People wondered how this game would work compared to the other games considering the Era of the twilight of the Spirits was now over. People thought this meant the end of the storyline and a new one would begin, thus losing their favorite characters to history.

But as it turns out, this game takes place some years after TOS. In fact, the setting looks pretty much the same from the last game, only a bit more refined.

You start the game off as Edda, a young exorcist. This job is considered high in demand because something in the world is causing the dead to come back as demons. Edda would leave his village and travel the word becoming a Hunter in the process.

*

So much for storyline, but anyone can look that up. People mostly want to know about the characters in the game. People have mentioned that returning characters will be coming back this time around. And sure enough, there they are littering the character profiles in the guide. (Spoilers ahead)

Character List:

Edda
Alec
Arc
Bebedora
Camillia
Cheryl
Choko
Darc
Delma (Now the chief of Orcoth)
Diekbeck
Elc
Ganz (Now the Chairman of Rueloon)
Iga
Kharg
Kukuru
Leeza
Lilia (Yup she's here. *Samson's daughter*)
Lutz
Maru
Paulette (She cut her hair)
Shu
Tatjana
Theo
Tosh
Volk

The only ones notably missing here are Shanti, Poco, Samson, Gruga, Velheart, Marsia, Chongara, and Leeza/Chongara's monsters. (I must've missed someone)

You use these characters much like everything else, in the form of cards. Except for Edda, all the characters are in card form before battle. You can only have up to 5 cards, so choose wisely. It should be known that I didn't see anyone but Edda fighting when I was flipping through the guide, but I could be wrong. I didn't want to completely spoil myself, either.

As I said, mostly everything (spells, items, equipment, etc.) comes in the form of cards which you must equip yourself in order to use them. I can't think of a similar system except for Baiten Kaitos, but that was much more complicated.

Storyline - Ok, here's the kicker. This will make or break the players' decision to buy this game. How is the storyline, you say? Brace yourself. It is basically a combined version of Final Fantasy X-2 and Arc the Lad. X-2's non-liner storyline combined with Arc the Lad 3's mission based system. However, I still don't see any bounties. That's unfortunate.

But all this is before I even picked up the controller. That's the most important part of it all. I'm a sucker for strategy games, so I'll probably enjoy this one, regardless. But I'll be sure to point out glaring strengths and weaknesses if they show up. I'll give this game a few hours of playtime before commenting on it again.
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[Leb]

You find the character cards in quests and lotteries, and have them materialized at the guild. I've been doing some research, and have discovered that the characters are playable offline, but can't be used as your default avatar, and can only be used in missions taken over the counter (bulletin board missions must be done as Edda). So, it's sorta how Diekbeck and Choco worked in Twilight of the Spirits.

It irks me, since this is a one-player, one-party member game, and I would have liked to run around as the player of my choice. Cheryl fans, unite!

[Cedric]

Speaking of which, I just noticed that you can load Twilight of the Spirits' complete game data in order to gain one of the characters earlier than usual. This is pretty similar to Suikoden's loaded data in the previous games. (highlight to read)

Lillia will be availiable with her trusty boomerang, if you loaded complate game data. By reading the guide, I think you can get her later if you didn't load anything, but i suppose there are quirks to getting her early.

I don't see how players can level up though. If everything is mission based, then hopefully is a random area to level up as you see fit.

Edit: They kept the music from the previous game. Cragh Island's theme is exactly the same.
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[Celes Tilly]

I was actually going to ask you about it, Ced! I saw a picture for one... are there many in the series and stuff? *yes, OT, but eh*
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"Oh my god--"
"God? God is love. I don't love you."

[Aesa]

What would you rate the one before this one (I forget it's name)

I've seen the trailer and clips from it on Gamespot but I don't know about the gameplay
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The setting sun means the rise of a new day...
...excepting for Ragnarok, of course

~Tinto~

[Sage]

Well, I can't say that I'm a fan of card games and mission-based games don't tickle my fancy either, but since I am a fan of the series I will probably pick this one up as well at some point. Y'know, when I have enough $$ to spend some indiscriminately. Thanks for the info.
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[Filipe]

I am not really the biggest fan of the series personally as I have never really seen what the big deal about it was. I found the Arc The Lad collection to be worth getting as it was three games and they seemed fairly decent overall. I played them and hey they were alright games but I didnt see what was so incredibly great about them but you know things just work like that some times. The most recent one with the exception of this game I personally found to be more of a nuisance than anything else but it wasnt that bad of a game.

I dont really know what to think about this game because it strays from the norm set out by the prior games of the series. This is an action rpg which is interesting in of itself and the way they go about the entire game period is interesting so I think from my perspective this game would rank as a rent first buy if it's worth it. Though I am making this judgement based solely on movies and images of the game I have seen already.
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[Leb]

[Eggith Cyrene]

Well i loved arc 3 and its hunter system. But there needs to be bounties damnit! otherwise theres not any extra incentive for doing extra missions and killing wanted monsters
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"Hearing the CRY of VICTORY, He rests in Peace"



Suikoden 5 didnt make me less of a fan; it restored my faith after the abomination that was suikoden 4.

[Aesa]

Ah, I just remember the one I would like to know about -nods- How was "Twilight of the Spirits"?
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The setting sun means the rise of a new day...
...excepting for Ragnarok, of course

~Tinto~

[Celes Tilly]

[St. Ajora]

I haven't played it either but I would like to comment. What is this about "cards"? I really don't understand what the characters are....

[Cedric]

St. Ajora, everything from magic all the way to your characters (except for Edda) are in the form of cards to use. This ranges from equipment, armor, etc. Absolutely everything. If anyone remembers the ending of the Twilight Spirits you'll know why.

(Spoiler: Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits)

The Dark one was finally killed off for real after 4 games. The spirits sacrificed themselves in order to destroy the Dark One for good. But in End of Darkness, the Spirit Stone energy (powered by the existence of the spirits) is running low because there are almost none left. No spirit stones, equals no magic, no items created by magic, etc.

5 years after twilight of the spirits, a scientist researched a new way to use energy. Though it didn't give out as much as energy, it was better than nothing. Using the Cardish technology, (Arc the Lad 3) they were able to seal magic and items into the form of cards to use. But since energy is rare, only hunters can use it. Of course, that doesn't stop illegal use, but that's another matter.

Edit: I'll continue this when I get back.


***

Ok, I'm back.

Well, I think I confused everyone with the "card" thing, so let me clarify. Forget about cards for the moment and imagine an RPG where you buy armor, magic spells, and materials which make your weapon stronger (without changing the weapon itself). This is basically what you buy in End of Darkness, but for plotline purposes, just keep in mind that all these upgrades are in the form of cards.

As for your party members, they are also in the form of cards. They didn't really explain how that was done in terms of the story, but we can only guess that somehow, the spiritual energy of the character was sealed in a card to be used. Judging from the game, these cards are relatively common and it's not much of a stretch to think that other hunters are using these cards at the moment. (A la Pokemon, Yu-gi-Oh, etc.) But as Leb pointed our already, they can ONLY be used in side story missions.

*

Notice Board tasks vs. Counter tasks

Counter Tasks are side story missions with the sole purpose of gaining money and stars. Your characters can be used, and so can Edda.

Notice Board tasks are tasks taken by accepting them from the Notice Board. These are considered to be the main story missions even though the order you take them doesn't matter, so long as you qualify to take them. Only Edda can be used here. These missions are taken out of the goodness of your own heart, so no money is rewarded. But you find rare treasure sometimes and receive "dignity points" as a reward

To progress through the game, you must take on these missions in order to build your rank. To be more specific, to advance to the next "chapter" (a term I use loosely) you must get 10 stars and 10 dignity points. Once you do, you go the Rueloon Coliseum where you take a hunter exam to rank up. Exams are usually battle based with certain tasks while you fight. In addition, the final part of one Exam is to battle a character from the Arc the Lad series. As of this moment, I already took down Ganz, Lutz and Cheryl.


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Leveling Up

Um, you don't. Not conventionally, anyway. Weird, huh?

When I think of leveling up, I think about taking a random party to a random place and slaying unfortunate enemies for cash and exp.

Well in End of Darkness, you can't enter a place to battle enemies unless you ACCEPT A MISSION first. Lame, huh? So there's extra time wasted by going to a guild, so they can assign you somewhere to gain money. But really, from what I noticed, when Edda ranks up in the Hunters' Guild (the only leveling up there is) only His magic points go up. And when I say "MP" I also use that term loosely. It's more of a magic meter actually. You start off with 4 magic bars, and every skill you use drains it. (Remember that skill cards must be equipped). For example, "Cure" takes about 1/4 of a full bar. Since you have 4 MP bars in the beginning of the game, you can use it 16 times total. To recover your magic and Exp, you must go to a Guild and recover there. If you want to level up stats, the only way to do it is to buy armor and such.

Leveling up your other characters is more burdensome. There are certain enemies in this game that are "possessed" by a dark power. They look like regular monsters only they are covered in a black mist. Since Edda is an Exorcist, he is the only person able to truly defeat these certain monsters. Sure, anyone can kill them off, but only Edda can gain SP from them by finishing them off with his special attack.

The SP you gain from them is needed to give to your current characters (Elc, Maru, Cheryl, etc.) as their own way of leveling up. Like Edda, they only gain more MP bars. Because certain enemies grant this type of EXP, and also, Edda is the only one that can kill them for EXP, you actually find yourself not using the others that much at all. It's a shame. But I'm going to buff up everyone just to see how they perform at their best.

You can retake the side missions over and over again if you want for money. But you can only do it after you've claimed the reward for beating it the first time. The difficulty and the goals are always the same.


*

Cards

These are your weapon upgrades, armor, accessories, magic spells, and characters.

Most of them are purchasable, but at times, you will have to Synthesize 2 cards to make other cards. In addition, the game limits what you can buy in relation to your rank. The higher the rank, the better the stuff you can buy.

Magic has another restriction. If you aren't at a certain rank, you won't be able to equip magic spells. For example "Flame Arrow 2" is for the rank "expert" and above. You can synthesize it at the beginning of the game if you want, but until you become an "expert" forget about using it.

As for the characters, to get some use out of them, you should equip them. I got a little bit stingy and decided to go Gung ho on my enemies. With the exception of Tatjana and Camillia (Long range fighters), I had a pretty hard time when they weren't equipped with anything. So don't be stingy because you can retake missions as much as you want.

Lebenengel, only a couple of cards are available through the lottery. I think there are 5 or 6 characters available. The lottery isn't like Suikoden 3. Basically, they draw 5 cards and of which you pick one to keep. Of course you can't see which it is, but if you don't get the character card, just reload your game. The reloading part DOES remind me of Suikoden 3, though.

*

Random

* Don't expect to slash your way through this game. Sometimes your combo can be interrupted, and you will pay for it. Single strikes followed by sidestepping are key to survival. If you can fit in 2 hits, then do so. This mostly applies to the dark enemies (maldemons).

* Reload after failing a mission - They take all your equipped cards as a penalty of failing. Enough said.

* Buy Cure - This should be the first spell you buy. It will become evident when you go dungeon crawling and you're losing all you life. Give it to Edda, and keep it there.


* Character Ramblings (Initial of course. Whether they get better, we'll see for sure)

Edda: Well balanced, and he has great range. Range is probably the most important aspect of this game. There are times when you would like to interrupt monsters in a group from casting a spell. Edda's third hit of his combo is a sweeping motion that gets the job done. His first two swings are also really fast, and that will be necessary for hit and run tactics. His special ability is a thrust that can dizzy people. But it serves a double purpose to exorcise maldemons when their life is low.

Elc - He uses his fists this time around. Great attack speed, but terrible range. Hell probably get better when I synthesize his special skill, but for now, he's really a burden to use. His special attack is an uppercut that sadly has a long break period to get interrupted.

Maru - Long range, so he's good in my book. The trouble is, that his pace of attack isn't as fast as other long range attackers. (Tatjana and Camillia) His special ability is a taunt.

Kukuru - Even though she uses her fists, she has slightly better range than Elc. But her special attack is a laggy one too.

Camillia - Stronger than I thought. I equipped her with nothing, and she took down the whole field of enemies by staying away. Her special ability is "guard" type of maneuver.

Tatjana - She sacrifices a slightly smaller range, but a faster pace of attack than Camillia. His special move is a taunt like Maru.
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[Blackjack]

I have a very important question.

Is it old, wrinkly, ugly Camillia or is it "Oh, look at me, I am the pritty!1!!" Camillia.

Because it totally matters.

Wrinkly Camillia 4 LIFE, YO!
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Can your science explain why it rains?

YES. YES IT CAN.


"Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming." -- Myrna Loy

[St. Ajora]

Haha yeah I agree.

Well that's a mighty good description, thanks for typing it all out for us. From what I read I may not enjoy End of Darkness at all. I think I'll just complete TotS tonight or tomorrow and leave it at that. Just another question though, when you say things like Delma is the chief of the Orcons, you mean that her...power is channeled through cards right? And she's not actually a card...chief?