Arc the Lad: End of Darkness - 2nd Play

After failing to entice my dogs to use Arc the Lad: End of Darkness as a chew toy, thereby giving me a great excuse not to have to play anymore (even my plastic-obsessed dog turned her nose up at this Arc - smart girl), I reluctantly sat down for another few hours with it.

I want those 5 hours of my life back. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a miserable experience with a game. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played my fair share of so-so games that I didn’t find particularly enjoyable. This installment of Arc the Lad brings disenchantment with a game to a whole new level.

After my first 10 or so hours spent with Arc the Lad (and after seriously contemplating throwing my PS2 out a window), I took a break in the hopes of coming back to the game with a refreshed, not so bitter outlook on it. So I spent some quality time with three games: the brilliant little hack and slash Samurai Western, a nice, fluffy, and fun RPG with a standard turn-based party system, and the last installment in the Arc series, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. What a mistake. In comparison to those three games, End of Darkness was even more disappointing.

When I picked up End of Darkness again, I missed fluid, natural game play in the action-style battle stages. I missed turn based battle, but even more, I missed playing an RPG with a party. I missed leveling up! But what I really, really missed was a plot that had a point. Oh, and a plot that moved faster than a turtle.

So why has this game not gotten any better since my last review, and if anything, has gotten worse? The game play is just feeling clunkier and clunkier, and at this point, it’s just plain frustrating. I’m hardly the queen of real-time, action game style battle systems, but I can generally hold my own without wanting to bang my head against a wall. It’s not the difficulty that’s killing me, it’s just how choppy, clunky, and poorly-thought out this system feels. Battling isn’t fun, it’s simply tedious - hack your way here, throw some spells out there, and if you’re dealing with one of the enemies that you have to “exorcise,” hope that the game cooperates with you long enough to suck its soul out. And I do miss having a party, even a party that has some characters controlled by AI. If I’d wanted an adventure game, I would’ve picked up an adventure game, not an RPG.

I’m getting more irked with the card system the longer I play. To get more advanced cards (for instance, to acquire a “Cure II” card), you HAVE to play the synthesis game. I don’t have a problem with requiring mini-games to get powerful spells, equipment, and weapons. It’s a time-honored RPG tradition to have some maddeningly frustrating mini-games thrown in - however, they are almost always optional. Theoretically, the synthesis system is optional, too, but to get just plain useful equipment (like a stronger cure spell, or armor that actually does something and doesn’t slow your character down to the pace of a slug), you have to spend a while trying different combinations of cards. I have better things to do with my time, frankly. At least the synthesis-type system in Star Ocean III, which was very similar to this one (but optional!), was actually entertaining to some degree.

Along with the poorly implemented equipment and skill acquisition, the “leveling” system - if you can even call it that - is another point that’s just rubbing me the wrong way. I think it’s strange enough not to have the typical fight ‘n level system common to most RPGs (something I have no problem with), but to make it so that your basic stats like HP don’t even increase when you move up a “hunter” level? No, thank you. It’s strange, it doesn’t work for me, and I really would prefer to have my defense and attack stats bumped up instead of gaining endless amounts of MP.

Like I said in my first review, I really could’ve forgiven a lot of the faults of End of Darkness if it had a plot. It technically has one, I suppose, but it’s moving at the pace of a snail and not going anywhere, at least not that I can see. I’ve dealt with RPGs that aren’t set up the way I would like them to be, but a strong plot will at least motivate me to want to work with the quirks of the game. With this game, however, I just want to trade it in so I never have to see it again, finishing be damned. I would certainly expect that this far into an RPG, the overarching plot would begin to become clear. Alas, not in Arc the Lad. I’m bored to tears and don’t even care anymore.

The only parts of the game that got good marks from me last time were the music and visuals. They’re still more than sufficient, but nothing is standing out to me. The areas for the “counter tasks” are all starting to run together, and you can see every city in the game within the first hour of play. The music isn’t bad, but again - it’s all starting to run together. While I was impressed on my first play, the longer I spend with this Arc, the more everything just seems dull and repetitive.

It generally takes quite a bit of frustration for me to want to just walk away from a game I put down $50 for; I usually just put them away for a few weeks or months until I feel like getting back into them. This time it’s different. I have truly never been so unhappy and irritated while playing a game. I think I may crack open a bottle of champagne when my third review is done, as it means I’ll never again have to play this terrible installment of the Arc the Lad series, and that’s certainly something to celebrate. As Clayton said, “Games are supposed to be fun, right?” . . . Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is anything but fun, unfortunately.