Role playing games run through such a wide spectrum of quality from the truly
great to the why-did-they-do-this-to-me variety. Unfortunately it seems that
there are many more of the latter than there should be, so much so that when
just an adequate RPG shows up it is reason for rejoicing. So with that in mind
and if you are a big fan of RPGs, it is time to rejoice because Arc the Lad:
Twilight of the Spirits is actually a better than average RPG. Woo-hoo…
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Kharg & Darc. |
The basic premise of Arc the Lad is the simple conflict between good and
evil, man vs. demon. Sure it is pretty much the storyline of every RPG out there
but Arc does throw a couple of twists into the game that give it a little more
originality than most. Both Humans and Deimos desire the same natural resource
called Spirit Stones. These stones provide energy, warmth and light for the
humans while they give the deimos the necessary force for magic. Like all
natural resources there is a limited supply of these stones and thus lies the
conflict between the two races. Not that they need much reason to fight as they
have a long hatred built up for each other.
Arc tells its story mostly from the point of view of two main characters that
you control who share a secret unknown even to themselves. The first is Kharg
who lives in the human world and lives a very privileged life. The other, Darc,
is not so lucky as he is basically a slave in the Deimos world but over time
rises to a level of high command. One of the more interesting parts of Arc is
that you will switch back and forth between these two characters and unfold
different story lines for each until they intersect. It may be bad to admit but
I found the much darker story of Darc more interesting and entertaining than the
rather bland and predictable story for Kharg. Not sure if that tells me that I
have some sort of unresolved issues or something, but in this case evil is more
interesting. Nevertheless I was still pulling for the humans to win overall, so
all is not lost on me. The story of these two characters and the overall story
of Arc is interesting and is probably the strongest aspect of the game and that
is very important in a game that can take a long time to finish.
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