10 Massively Underrated Japanese RPGs You Must Play

6. Arc The Lad: Twilight Of The Spirits

Few people have heard of the Arc games in the West, and fewer still have gotten around to playing them. Nevertheless, should you want to check them out, then Twilight of the Spirits is probably the best of what is already a pretty good bunch. There are a couple of premises that make this game really interesting. Firstly, Spirit Stones (your in-game MP equivalent) are actual physical resources that you have to purchase with money, as opposed to the more traditional system of MP restoring at save points or through potions. When you run out, that€™s it €“ no more magic for you until you buy more. This is actually very cool because it gives you an incentive to keep an eye on your funds, and it also gives you something to buy when you€™ve got to that point in all RPGs where you have more money that everybody else in the entire world. The second premise involves the story. As the plot unfolds, you€™ll alternate between two parties, each of which has a different cast of characters and abilities. There€™s quite a bit of €œexperience leapfrog€, because the party you€™re currently using is going to be levelling up whilst the other is sitting around doing nothing. What makes it more interesting, though, is that the two parties inevitably end up facing off against each other €“ meaning that the party you don€™t choose to side with can unleash all those abilities you spent time obtaining right back at you in one seriously awesome boss fight. It might be getting on in years, but Twilight of the Spirits was one of Japan's best offerings of the PS2 era.