The Working Game Girl's Review - Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

I finished another game!  I love saying that.  This feeling is even more wonderful for this game.  Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits was a game that I got all the way to the final boss and fought . . . and lost . . . about 5 or 6 times or more before I put the game away out of frustration.  Then my stuff got stolen.  This was a game that I really wanted to see how it would end but I wasn't sure I wanted to go through and play it all over again.  But I did.  And now it's done.  Here's my review of the game.  Slight spoilers ahead.

System: Playstation 2

Developer: Cattle Call

Story:
This is the story of twin brothers who were separated as babies and grew up living two very different lives.  One was raised as human with a hatred of Deimos.  The other raised as a Deimos "wannabe" raised to hate humans.  Both humans and Deimos use Spirits stones in their society and want to control all the Spirits stones so the other doesn't get them.  Both species want to wipe out the other and Emperor Darkham wants to take advantage of those dark feelings and rule the world himself.  Unfortunately, there is a higher power pulling the strings behind the scenes called the Divine Ruler (who later turns into the Lord of the Black Abyss).  Can the Deimos and humans put their differences aside and join forces to defeat evil and save the world for both species?  You'll have to play the game to find out.

Story Score:

Characters:
There are 2 main characters and parties that you control and play.  The story moves back and forth between the brothers and their stories.  The supporting characters for both policies are pretty similar so both parties play pretty much the same.  The hatred for Deimos from the humans; and humans from the Deimos is built up for believable.  The reasons why Darc (Deimos brother) hates the humans and wants to rule the Deimos over the humans and why Kharg (human brother) wants to protect the humans from the Deimos are understandable from the things they've gone through in their lives.  When the brothers finally get together and meet each other you're hoping for the best but things don't turn out that way for a while.

Each character has a personality with likes and hatreds all around.  The parties are so similar that it would have been nice to have a little bit more differences between the human/Deimos counterparts.  when you get to the final boss the best characters to take in to the battle are not the ones you'd think of at first.  When your parties combine which characters you take in to battle make for some interesting exchanges in dialogue.

Character Score:

Game Mechanics:
The battle is a turned based but allows for movement so characters can get behind enemies to do more damage.  That means you need to think about where/how you're going to attack but also where/how the enemies are going to attack as well.  It is sort of open world with the player deciding where they want to go next.  There are extra areas that are not required by the story but can be accessed for experience and loot.

There are four functionalities that I would have liked to have had.  1) I would have liked the ability to save when I'm on the world map.  You can only save at designated save points so if you venture too far away from one (or you're hurting and in need of help badly) you've got to figure out what spot on the map has a save point and then work your way back there.  You can always escape a battle and not fight if you don't want to but it's annoying to backtrack a way to save before you get to a new area.

2) the camera is fixed in battles.  There were so many times that I wanted to swing the camera around to get a better look at the battlefield.  Maybe it was to make sure I'm directly behind the enemies (some enemies are hard to tell) or maybe it was to see my character better because they were behind a bunch of other characters or obstacles.  Since you can't do that, lining up the perfect shot was difficult at times.

3) There are too many skills to learn.  I did a bunch of grinding in this game and yet I still didn't learn all the skills that my characters could.  I even had a character or two that didn't learn all the star levels either.  I tried to use those characters as much as I could, especially towards the end, but they never did earn much experience or skill points compared to the other characters.  When I finally decided which ones I was going to take in to battle I was worried that they weren't a high enough level to really be that usefully.  While I'm all for games giving you lot of skills/things for your characters to learn I think they should all be attainable by the time you reach the final boss and without having to grind to learn them. 

4) comparative inventory management.  I would have liked a better way to compare new equipment with what I currently had.  The best way I could find was to take an item off and highlight the new item to see how much it increased/decreased stats and then do the same with the item I had one.  I know there was a replace option but the info it gave me wasn't enough for me to feel like I was making an informed decision.

Game Mechanics Score:

Art Design:
The art design seems very simple by today's standards.  This is a Playstation 2 game and the system wasn't as powerful as gaming systems are now.  I do think it holds up very well and is not jarring to the eyes to look at it.  Just very simple and clean looking with very little embellishments to the scenery.  The colors were vibrant or muted, depending on the environment and didn't fall in to the cliché of matching the elemental attacks that each character could have (i.e. water attack = blue clothing, etc.).  I think it looked good and didn't interfere in the game play even if not inspiring.

Art Design Score:

Overall Impressions:
I'm so glad I went back and replayed this game so I could finish it.  The story has a nice message and the game play was fresh and allowed for experimentation so you could play any way you wanted to.  It's a game that holds up in all categories and I think should be played by everyone that wants a good experience.  It's not ground breaking or phenomenal in the game industries but very much worth a play.

Overall Impressions Score:

If you want to see how badly I played the game here's a link to my YouTube playlist for Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

2 Year Anniversary on YouTube

Today is my 2 year anniversary of posting video on YouTube.  I can’t believe it’s been that long.  Thanks to YouTube I’ve finished a bunch of games with several more about to be finished.  Before I started my channel I don’t know that I would have been able to say I’ve finished ANY games.  I’m not perfect.  Not even close.  But I’m getting better.  (I will never be perfect because there are just too many games out there to play.)

What have I learned:

It take a lot of time to get a video filmed, edited and posted on YT.  Sometimes I wish I could just film and someone else do the editing and posting.  Other times I wish someone else would play the games and I could just edit them.  I’m currently in a “I like to film” phase.  I’m hoping to store up a lot of videos to edit later when I’m in that “I like to edit phase”.

I still don’t have a rhyme or reason to what I post and when I do it.  With the exception of the month of October (scary/spooky/Halloween games) and a military game for Veteran’s Day in November.  It’s hard to pick a game around a holiday but those 2 holidays make it easier.  I’ve tried planning on playing an older game when a new sequel comes out but I can’t time it right so I never know when to start filming or posting them.  Maybe I’ll figure that out later.

If howlongtobeat.com says it takes about 10 hours to complete a game it will probably take me about 18-20.  I thorough and ’m a completionist.  I like to check every nook and cranny in a place before moving on to the next.  And sometimes I have to check 2 or 3 times because I was talking and not paying any attention to what I was doing so I might have missed something.  It’s probably annoying to watch.  I know it’s annoying to me but I can’t help myself.  It’s a small OCD thing that I have that even gets on my nerves (but not as much as if I DIDN’T check everything a couple of times before moving on).

If I have to concentration and focus really hard to get through a difficult section of the game (like a boss fight or tough puzzle) I tend to get really quiet.  I don’t know how other YouTubers can carry on a conversation yet still focus on the problem at hand.  I can’t seem to divide my attention enough to do either one of those things well in those situations.  So I usually just keep my mouth shut and concentrate on the game.  Maybe I’ll get better . . . .

I don’t think I’ll ever get better at video games.  Even though I’m playing more than I use to, I don’t think I’m learning anything to make me better.  My reflexes aren’t getting any better.  My problem solving skills aren’t improving.  Sometimes I even think I might be digressing and going backwards.  I’m still having fun so I’ll keep playing.

Some games are so much easier to edit than others.  The Lego games are easy to edit.  Other games like Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits and Dark Cloud are a little more time consuming to do.  A lot of that has to do with load screens.  Some games have a lot of them.  Some have really long ones.  And some have a lot of them that last a really long time.  Personally when I’m watching videos online, I find it frustrating to sit there for 10 seconds (or more) staring at a blank screen because it’s a load screen.  Edit those dead spaces out!!!  I do.  For some games that’s tough.  For others it’s a dream.

I never thought I would like the editing process.  It seemed the most tedious and boring part of the whole thing.  At first, it really was boring and tedious.  The more I’m doing it the more I find I like it.  Even when I’m not really in the mood to edit.  There’s something about the editing process that makes it more creative than what I feel when I’m playing the game.  If I could find a way to do that for a living I think I probably would.  There’s still A LOT about editing that I don’t understand and know, but I’m willing to learn.

Every game I play (or plan to play) I think of in terms of “will this make a good video/series”.  There has been one game that I filmed 3 videos in and when I went to edit it decided that it wouldn’t be a great game to post.  The game itself is not bad, it just doesn’t lend itself to compelling gameplay that I would want to watch if someone else was playing.  People have made videos in this game, but I can’t watch them for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  On the other hand there are games I really want to play and I know they would make a great series but I don’t have the time to devote to those games now so . . . I don’t play them.  This sucks and I don’t like it, but I don’t want to start a game and play it for a while only to restart it later because now I want to film it.  Tough choices man.

I’ve decided that I will play and post videos of the games that I want to play.  I’ll try really hard not to think that I’ve only got to play and post new games.  Or games that are famous.  Or popular.  It’s not fun to play a game when you feel like you’re being forced to.  It takes all the fun out of it.  If I want people to enjoy my games then I’ve got to enjoy them myself.  Even if I lose.  Or die a lot of times.  That’s why there’s a long time between videos for Psychonauts and Rayman Origins.  I’m not feeling those games right now so I won’t play them until I’m more excited to do so.  This means that I might be playing a bunch of older games that have been around for a decade or more.  I like some of those older games.  But I’ll also try to play things more current because I like those games too.  My channel will just be a smorgasbord of the things I like at any given moment.

For some games I think I want to have a big chunk of the game recorded before I start publishing the videos.  I find it easier to remember what to do, or remember what the controls are if I keep playing it for a while before I get in to a schedule of posting videos.  Not all games are like that.  The Lego games are easy to sit down and record just one level here and there as needed.  Not all games are like that.  I also think that having a large part of the game already recorded before posting gives me a better idea of how long the game will last.  Maybe I can do better at scheduling topical games if I do that.

Doing this is like having a second job.  I’m spending 20-30 hours of week to get 5 or so videos posted.  It’s not leaving a lot of room for any other hobbies or things I’d like to do.  It’s a sacrifice I’m still willing to make even if my family doesn’t understand why I do it.

Right now I still love what I’m doing and I will continue to record videos and post online.  I won’t stop until I no longer find any enjoyment out of playing games and finishing them.  And I don’t see that happening any time soon.  I love seeing my audience grow.  Slowly.  Little by little.  But it’s growing.  I love that.  And when I say I’m open to suggestions of what to play, I mean it.  I really am.  I might not get to it right away, but I’ll put it on the list of what to play next.  So far I have 6 or 7 on the list.  Some suggestions by friends, some for other reasons.  You’ll learn more about those later on.  All in all, it’s been a good couple of years.

Things to work on this next year:  1) learn how to use Photoshop and 2) make better thumbnails.  3) Make intro channel animated slate for videos (might need a LOT of help on this one).