Arc the Lad: End of Darkness

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness
Developer(s)Cattle Call
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Yasuhito Kobayashi
Producer(s)Yoshihiro Yamamoto
Programmer(s)
  • Tomoyuki Uno
  • Yoshiyuki Serizawa
  • Kaoru Koga
  • Tomonori Nishikawa
  • Sachiko Yanagihara
Artist(s)Ryuichi Kunisue
Composer(s)
  • Koji Sakurai
  • Takayuki Hattori
  • Yuko Fukushima
SeriesArc the Lad
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Release
  • JP: November 3, 2004
  • NA: June 15, 2005
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness, known in Japan as Arc the Lad Generation, is an action role-playing video game developed by Cattle Call and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It is the second and last game from the Arc the Lad series on the console, the first being Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. It was released in North America by Namco.

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness takes place five years after Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and reuses many of the settings, characters, enemies, and music from the previous game. The world has many new technologies and job classes and is less rife with racial tensions between the Deimos (intelligent creatures) and Humans. However, the main natural resource from Twilight of the Spirits, Spirit Stones, are nearly depleted, and there is uncertainty about the future of the Deimos and Humans.

This is the only Arc the Lad game to use a real-time battle system, instead of a tactics-based battle system. Generally, this was viewed as a step backwards for the series because of its poor execution. End of Darkness also featured online play with up to 8 players playing in a 4-on-4 death match or 4-person co-op. However, the servers were taken down in June 2006.