While fans of role playing games eagerly await the North American release of "Final Fantasy X-2" in early November, Sony seeks to quench their thirst with "Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits," a new role playing game coming out late this month.
The game is the fourth and latest installment of the "Arc the Lad" series; the first three were only released in Japan.
The story is pretty simple. Long ago, people lived in harmony with beings called spirits. Then one day an evil Divine Ruler comes around and tries to use science to take over the world. The righteous people, with the help of the spirits, overthrow the evil Divine Ruler and seal him away. How someone can be evil and divine at the same time, I don't know.
Years later, someone unseals the evil one and he begins his new campaign. The good guys win again, but this time the spirits disappear. Monster-like beings called Deimos appear in their place. Humans and Deimos grow to hate one another, and the world is eventually spilt in half, each race keeping to itself and not minding the goings-on of the other side.
Which brings us to the present day. Kharg is a human and a member of the antiquated royal family. He's a talented swordsman and wants to join the Defense Corps to defend his country.
One day, a spirit appears to him, giving him a cryptic message. Soon after, a group of Deimos appear and attack humans, killing his mentor. Kharg swears ultimate revenge.
Thus ends the demo. Apparently Kharg has a brother named Darc, half-human, half-Deimos and separated from Kharg at birth. Eventually they join forces to battle evil.
The game promises 14 playable characters and more than 60 hours of gameplay. It also has what the developers call an "innovative voice-over system" during battle.
Unfortunately, the system is anything but innovative. Anyone who has played "Final Fantasy X" will tell you that. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not cool to hear characters talk to one another as they fight.
Speaking of fighting, the battle system is pretty nice. Characters move around in circular grids depending on their speed and fight enemies in a semi-interactive environment. There also are combination attacks characters can perform together. This is a nice change of pace from the standard, where characters stand in a line and swing their swords at a group of fiends.
The game offers good graphics, quality sound and what could turn out to be an engaging plot. But expectations have risen during the past few years, and hard-core gamers could be left wanting more.
