Taking a slightly different direction then most RPG's in recent times, Arc the Lad is a stunning game that follows the path of two brothers throughout a simple age after the fall of the technological era. There are now two races which populate the land, humans and the Deimos. In this adventure, you assume the roles of Lord Kharg, a human, and a Deimos slave named Darc. Each of these characters has their own separate but overlapping paths you must follow to fulfill their quests to bring peace to their respective race. To bring peace to the land, they both search for the five Great Spirit stones to gain unimaginable power for the purpose of eradicating the opposite race. Along the way, both will meet a variety of new characters, each with their own part in the story and unique abilities, who will help them with their goals.

The visual style and graphics of Arc the Lad: TotS is rather impressive and is one of the best looking RPG's for the PlayStation 2 to date. The environments that you spend your time traveling through are rich in color, detail, and convey the setting very well. The many, and at some points it seems like too many, cut scenes that play throughout the game are well done while the character animation and voice acting brings out every emotion beautifully. Every character has its own look and characteristics that gives it that much more of a personality. It makes you feel as though they are more than just video game characters. The sound is another advantage in this quest. The music score is fantastic and all games should have voice over acting as top quality as the dialogue in this game. Any game that can make you laugh out loud more than a few times during the character interactions is a plus.

The gameplay is split up between the two characters Kharg and Darc who each have their own alternating chapters throughout the game. This can get a little frustrating when you have been playing for a few hours with one party of characters only to have to switch at the end of the chapter and have to recall how the other party's skills and magical attacks were handled previously. Although it is a nice way to break up monotony of playing with one party constantly. The turn-based battle sequences are rather simple and do not involve a great amount of strategy or tactical maneuvers at all. There is a distance and target meter that you need to keep in mind when moving to attack. Battles can be handled rather easily by getting behind the opponent and attack from there or using an item that is the opposite of their element, but finding that which element to use could take longer than the actual battle. The magic attacks are nothing to extravagant but still manage to be as good looking as the rest of the game.

The storyline of Arc the Lad: TotS is definitely the strongest point of the game. As many RPG's in the past have had some good tales to tell, the intertwined lives of both main characters in this game make for one very detailed and intricate plot that sometimes seems as though you are watching a movie while being interrupted periodically to have a battle or two. The two characters are different enough for the halves of the game to seem distinct from each other so it's not as though you are doing the same thing with a different name and a different look. The forty plus hours that the game holds is all about the main story line. Seeing as how there is only 2-3 side quests that you could choose to carry out, which are actually still part of the main quest and only require you to find all the pieces of a certain object or book. The game itself really isn't that difficult at all and the puzzles that you run in to are easily solved within minutes. The save points through the game are usually kept in towns and at some spots can be far and few between. If you happen to die at one point and need to reload, it is frustrating having to sit through the same cut scenes again without being able to skip right over them.

Overall, Arc the Lad: TosT is a fresh and near flawless game that will envelop you early on for hours upon hours of watching and playing time with its engaging storyline and gorgeous graphics and will keep you wrapped around its little finger until the final showdown with the mysterious enemy. Although the games battles are not the most difficult around and the game really doesn't get your mind thinking too much, this is definitely one of the best RPG's available for your PlayStation 2 and a worthy addition to any RPG fans collection.