ToS bears only a loose affiliation with the earlier titles in the Arc the Lad series, taking place in the same world as its predecessors, but reshaping that world into a shattered mix of industrial future and medieval fantasy. The narrative of ToS follows the story of two long-lost brothers, Kharg and Darc, as they individually set about to save their species from extinction. As you play through ToS, you’ll automatically switch between the storylines for each bother, fighting as Kharg to protect his human kingdom or struggling amongst the Deimos hordes as Darc, who is half-human and half Deimos.

There are two worlds in ToS; that of the humans and that of the demonic Deimos. The humans of the world are struggling to survive after centuries of war with the Deimos. During these battles, humans discovered Spirit Stones, a mystical source of power that they have begun to exploit in their efforts to rebuild their society. The problem arises, however, when the Deimos discover humans mining the very resources essential to Deimos life. This causes the Deimos to renew fighting in earnest with local human villagers. To make matters worse, both sides have plenty of internal strife, with human kingdoms trying to conquer one another, and various Deimos societies doing likewise.

The narrative is played out through a mix of cutscenes and text-based dialog between players. While both serve to drive the plot, the text-dialog can get annoying quickly as long conversations play out in short sentences that force you to hit the X button to advance to the next line. And while such lines as "…ahhhh…" and the all-too-common "…" attempt to make the dialog more dramatic, your thumb is going to beg for mercy as you pound X to get through it all. There’s no way to skip the dialog either, so if you start a level over, you’ll have to watch all the CGI’s and text dialogs again.

As far as the basic gameplay goes, ToS brings almost nothing new to the RPG genre. That’s not to say the controls and gameplay features aren’t strong, it’s just that they aren’t all that unique. Most of the game has you picking up quests by talking to the inhabitants of castles and villages, then skipping across the map to predetermined checkpoints for more information or a quick fight. And fight you will as you play through ToS. There’s plenty of combat in this game to keep things interesting, and thanks to a very playable combat system, you’ll actually enjoy mixing it up with some monsters. But while the gameplay in ToS isn’t overwhelmingly complex or difficult, the storyline will compel you to keep on playing, waiting for that moment when Kharg and Darc will surely meet up.

Like most other RPGs, combat in ToS is turn-based. Before entering a battle, you can pick the teammates you want fighting alongside you (assuming you’ve hooked up with the other playable characters) and perform a few pre-fight tasks. The pre-fight options add a nice twist to the game, allowing you to quickly heal your characters, cast a few spells or switch out inventory before jumping into the fray. As the game gets more difficult and the opposition more brutal, you’ll come to appreciate a moment to heal everyone before jumping into another battle.

Once you’re in the fight, you simply direct your characters around the map to get the best combat position and use the combat menu to choose their actions. Your options are pretty standard, but it’s all there, from casting a spell to jumping in for a melee attack. Once the fight begins, you’ll find one of the few flaws in this game: weak AI. Certainly ToS is about adventuring and moving through the narrative, but it would have been an appreciated bonus to have some sense of intelligence in your opposition. Rarely will they do anything so intelligent as flanking you or attacking your weaker teammates. No sir, they prefer to head straight in and mob whichever character is in front of them. Once you catch on to this "tactic," you can put your most powerful character up front and let him deal out the punishment while the weaker members launch spells and missiles from long range. ToS doesn’t require that you be a master tactician to survive combat, you’ve just got to be smart enough to know when to whip out a powerful spell, use a healing herb or line up your archer for some well-placed supporting fire. And some of those tactics lead to some cool moments during the fights, such as when you decide to use magic, which switches the game to some very pretty CGI sequences.

Unlike other RPGs, ToS doesn’t offer new weapons to the player; instead, weapons are upgraded throughout the game. These upgrades can be purchased in town and can add all sorts of interesting features to your weaponry. Kharg’s sword, for example, starts out OK enough, dealing a moderate amount of damage. Head to town and buy some gunpowder, though, and suddenly that sword deals out fire element damage, making it punishing against cold-based opponents and generally nasty against everything else. Along with the weapon upgrades, you have the Spirit Stones, which you’ll need if you plan on casting any spells. Each spell burns up a set amount of these mystical gems, which means you need to carry plenty of them around, and the only way to earn more is to defeat enemies or buy them with your hard-won gold. And to ensure you can carry around as many stones as possible, there are equipment upgrades you can and should purchase the first chance you get.

With a few exceptions, the graphics in ToS are pretty impressive. Buildings are a special high point, with lush textures and plenty of character. A good example is the Scrappe Plateau, an area you’ll encounter early on in your adventures. While the Plateau may not be the biggest environment, it’s packed with impressive graphical embellishments such as rusted ironwork, shadowy corners and broken equipment littering the ground. The entire world is designed to look as if it’s been decimated by centuries of war, and the artists did a great job of giving you a sense of this.

The animated sequences, which are the most driving element of the game, are a mix of good and average as the character designs look good but tend to move a little too quickly, which leads to a feeling that you’re in hyper-time at certain moments.

Combat animation is a high point in the game, as just about everything from the environments to the character designs all get a little graphical boost. Movement during combat in more fluid than at any other time during the game, and the details in the monsters really stand out. Even the environments, which already look great, show off a little more sparkle in combat view. The first time you see one of your party members throw down a special attack or a magical spell, you’re sure to be picking your jaw up off the floor as the camera swivels around cinematically and your brightly colored special attack goes into effect. My personal favorite is Maru’s "Venom Arrow" special, which has him donning a Tiki mask and exploding into a display of lights, culminating in a hailstorm of arrows sure to devastate the opposition. There are times you’ll wish for some combat just so you can see some of the other characters’ specials.

When it comes to sound, this is where ToS could have been a significant bit better. While there are times when the dialog uses real voices, most of the time you’re just clicking through mountains of text, which is slow and annoying and fails to convey the emotion of the moment. Just putting an "…ah…" on screen doesn’t truly convey the sense of foreboding when a character sees something nasty headed his way. And when there is voice acting, it’s competent but not terribly impressive.

The game’s score, which starts out sounding pretty bland, gets much better as the game progresses and the story gets more emotional. As is to be expected, the tempo picks up during combat and slows down during lulls, but the real unique bit is that the score switches tone to match the character you’re playing. Kharg, being a Prince, gets a cheerier medieval soundtrack, while Darc, being a half-demon character, is brought to life through a deeper and more gothic score.

Other sounds, such as weapons and spells are competently mixed, and certainly enjoyable. The only weak point is the combat "chat," which is painfully repetitive. There’s a limit to how many times you can hear Kharg shout, "Justice Shall Prevail!" (I think three was mine), and the developers recognized this by giving you the option to turn off voice during combat.

While there are only a few secrets and unlockables, the story itself makes this game worth playing through more than once. The linear nature of the ToS doesn’t allow for any real side quests or exploration, but you’ll still pick this game up a few times after you finish it just to try out some different combat tactics or catch a bit of the plot you might have previously missed. And the plot is compelling enough to ensure you’ll play through the game at least once, that’s just a given.

If you’re an RPG fan, you can’t go wrong with Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. Although it’s very linear and doesn’t offer up as much of a challenge as some of the more advanced RPG’s (Morrowind anyone?), it’s a great PS2 title that’s sure to please. If you’re an advanced RPGer, you might want to rent this, since you’ll probably finish it quickly, but for those of us who aren’t masters of the genre, it’s a definite buy.

See more screens on the Arc the Lad media page