The Arc the Lad series came to the U.S. too late to make the impression it did in Japan, where the first few installments were huge hits. Though Working Designs did its best to catch us up late into the PlayStation's lifespan, it wasn't enough to make the saga a success in the U.S., and Twilight of the Spirits, which hit in 2003, certainly wasn't interesting enough to make lots of new fans. To be blunt, it was a solid game, but more than a bit dull. End of Darkness, while bringing a lot of new elements to the series, won't do anything to change the series' fortunes around, sadly.

Oddly enough, End of Darkness dispenses with what the series is best known for: its fast-paced, yet strategic gameplay. Instead, it's an action-RPG that finds its footing somewhere between Champions: Return to Arms and the last Arc the Lad game. Surprising, yes, but not unpalatable. The developers have gone a long way to making the controls simple but responsive, as the genre favors, and although they've reused level designs and enemies from the last game, the end result does come together.

The new hero of Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is a young man named Edda. Edda brings very little to the table as an RPG protagonist that we have not seen before, though. He's got feathered hair, he's reasonably clever, quite earnest, yet obtuse and driven for no apparent reason to try and save the world. If there's somewhere the PS2 Arc the Lad games stumble, it's in their utter blandness. Everything is as you'd expect; nothing jumps out and surprises with personality.


End of Darkness takes place in the same world as Twilight of the Spirits, which is something I'm typically very fond of in RPGs because it tends to lead to rich, intricate stories that reference previous adventures. Thus, while there are moments here that will shine for gamers who completed Twilight of the Spirits, it seems the real reason the developers did this seems to be so they could recycle that game's locations. It was quite a good-looking game in 2003, and so End of Darkness still meets the standards of 2005, but if you've played the last game, you've seen much of this before.

The new gameplay is centered on not only button-tapping combo action, but also that controversial buzzword: cards. Unlike other RPGs with card-based gameplay systems, though, this is just a fancy way of changing equipment, spells, and characters into items you can collect. One of the coolest bonuses in this game is unlocking heroes from previous Arc the Lad games -- that is, if you're a series fan. They do add to the gameplay: they have different abilities, and you can swap between them for different adventures. Spells and special attacks are also stored on cards, and can be equipped, lending a fairly simplistic but decently satisfying bit of character customization.

Instead of playing out like a linear RPG, End of Darkness is mission based, which works well. It's paced out so that you're forced to take non-story missions to improve your standing and accrue items, and then periodically you'll work your way towards one that pushes the narrative forward. With no voice acting and absolutely generic writing, though, the narrative is rather dry and typically not terribly engaging.