Arc the Lad: End of Darkness marks the second foray of the Arc the Lad series on the PS2. The story takes place after the events that took place in Arc the Lad: Twlight of the Spirits. At first this game seemed to house potential, but End of Darkness just couldn't hold its own and failed miserably.

The story begins with our hero Edda, who has special exorcist-type powers he can use on monsters. He learns this one day when he goes out on a quest to become a village hunter. He realizes he has a talent: he is the only one that can defeat the malademons, which are special monsters that don't die and can only be exorcised.

Sounds good so far, right? Well the problem here is the fact that the story in End of Darkness moves very slowly and has very weak execution. When you become a hunter you get to join the guild. This gives you the opportunity to sign up for various missions based on people's requests. As you progress through them, the storyline expands but this takes some time and most of the missions are either too boring to hold any interest or way too easy to merit any possible gratification out of it. The only thing that keeps the player interested is the cameo appearances you get from other characters in Twlight of the Spirits, so it's cool to see what they're up to. In this game they are now called "the heroes".

You don't wanna tick HIM off!

Gameplay has been completely modified since the last Arc title. Instead of it being a half-tactical, half-traditional system like Twlight of the Spirits, it is now an action RPG. BIG mistake. Namco should have stuck with the older system because this one just did not work. At least it has some minor depth and strategy to it, but the controls simply don't do this game any justice at all. Why would they make an attack button the same button as a dodge? This fatal flaw leads to numerous temper tantrums and controller flinging. End of Darkness also runs on a card system. Everything in this game concerning magic is based on cards. You have to buy magic cards in shops or find them to use spells. Character cards are special cards that you find or pick. When you get ten mystery cards that lets you unlock a character from a previous arc the lad game. First you have to materialize the card then you can use that said character. Concerning experience points, this game has none. The only form of "leveling" up is through hunter ranks that let you strengthen your characters skills and abilities.

In the graphics department, there's not much to say. Everything in terms of design is just like Twlight of the Spirits. Nothing was improved or changed. The sound in this game is even very familiar to Twlight of the Spirits, including recycled music tracks. No originality whatsoever.

Hey...hey! It's getting crowded in here!!

            The online mode is one of the only things that keeps this game from falling completely apart and makes it mildly entertaining. When you login you get to select whichever character you wanna use based off of what you obtained and then join a server to participate in co-operative missions that let you win prizes like mystery cards that let you unlock more characters in the game. There is a total of 24 characters to unlock. The thing is with this online mode you have to level up your character in-game and buy spells first before trying harder online missions or your screwed. Chatting with people is pretty simple too because if you have a keyboard that's compatible to your PS2, you're set.

Overall Arc the Lad: End of Darkness tried its best to deliver but mostly failed. Its weak story, unoriginal gameplay elements, and irritating controls will challenge you to hit the power switch off and play something else more decent.