It may just have been my laptop, but Ark: Of Light and Darkness did not play well. One of the first notes I made for this review was “performance a little too sticky”. By the time I reached the world map, that note had been given the addendum “horrible” and I later added “intolerable” once I’d started fighting random battles in the first dungeon.



My computer is not at all powerful or specially rigged for gaming, but it’s not that old either and handles other games with ease. And so, sadly, my overriding impression of Ark is that some or all of the graphics scripts (such as the particle effects and fog overlay ones) were giving my laptop far too much to do.

Not one to dismiss someone’s hard work easily, I decided to play on despite the intrusive and distracting lag. When static, Ark looks good and as I’ve said, the issue may have laid entirely at my laptop’s door. The problem, though, is that ultimately that’s all Ark does well: look good.

Beginning

The game’s prologue constitutes an extract from the “Great Scripture of Aevah, Verse II, Cataclysm”. While the info-dump isn’t a favourite technique of mine and ‘quote the book of lore’ is a shortcut method of relating story, it’s very well and cogently written. Next, we move through a nicely orchestrated cinematic which pans us over a series of cutscenes. These create a sense of intrigue without seeming to bluntly ask for it and are let down only by the semi-transparent text-images that move across them, which are the same general hue as the scenes and therefore variously difficult to read.



Ark then performs a very polished and fluid transition to the main character when the last of these cutscenes fades into normal colouring and becomes the first look at our hero: Judah.


Plot

Judah is soon accosted by a man named Loffrey and told that he is late for training. This is where problems with the plot begin. Of all the RPG tropes, the ‘wake up you’re late for your first day at the academy!’ opening plot device is one of the most overused. It is given enough contextual support to work here, more or less, but the air of originality and effort created by the prologue takes an immediate hit.

Judah then proceeds to the northeast tower to engage in a Squall v. Seifer–style tutorial duel. Almost instantly after, before we’re given a chance to explore the rivalry between Judah and the ‘Seifer of the piece’, the game hurries us onto our first mission. The plot seems to move along this way, passively impatient, skipping from plot point to plot point without much opportunity to get a feel for the world. I interacted with the other Mercenaries and they were satisfyingly interesting, but the mercenary castle only felt 2D (if you get me) as I was hastily ushered out of the front door.

I’ll say now that the writing is good: free from grammatical fudging, spelling mistakes and typos, which is a lesser consideration but one close to my heart. It’s not especially riveting, but serves its purpose in moving things along and letting the player know what to do. In lines of dialogue, each letter is accompanied by a muted SE as it appears, which is a nice effect, but it somehow doesn’t fit with the atmosphere of the game. It detracts from the association with the text as speech and put me more in mind of reading text from a clicking computer screen. A minor quibble and one that I admit is personal to me and that I don’t hold against Ark in any way.

From the castle and through a small port, Judah appears on the world map and, as mentioned in my opening spiel, this is where the lag became excruciating. I mention it again because, if it is a problem with the game and not my laptop, the stickiness here is enough to put some players off immediately. Judah inched westwards to his destination like he was caught in the midst of a muddy, time-warping slideshow. If I had played long enough (we’ll come back to this) to return to the world map, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have been finally put off myself.


Back on track.

A woody village awaited. It was very attractive but difficult to navigate because the woodland tileset used frequently makes it difficult to know what can be passed and what can’t. The problem is compound by a ¼ (or ½) movement script, which added nothing for me except more positions in which to get stuck behind small rocks and shrubs. Large trees often obscure exits and paths that need to be taken, but once I got used to the maker’s style, this was easily overcome. Visually, there was a huge amount of very appealing stuff going on and so, even as Judah stammered and skipped his way through the town, I was kept hooked enough to proceed.

Next, Judah finds the old man that contacted his group.

Boom: plot point, new character (named Hix) and suddenly we’re ushered back out again.

The problem with a lot of RPG Maker games is a lack of opening drive for the player. Ark teeters close to the edge on this front. In a lot of titles too much is asked of the player’s motivation to play. Without a reason to care about characters or situations, there’s no impetus for the player to overcome being lost or to deal with tedious puzzles or combat. Ark did just enough – but I wanted to know more about Judah and Hix as characters from the beginning. As a character, Judah felt too much like he was an arbitrary hero; vessel of the plot’s eagerness to get on with things, there more because convention dictates than because he was at the centre of an unfolding story. I'm sure there would be plenty to discover about him later, which I was looking forward to, but I feel like Ark just didn't give me enough to work with from the off.

As Judah and Hix surface from the rear of the old man’s house, a conversation between them begins.

I got an impression (though I’m not making accusations or suggesting that it’s accurate) that Ark was written ‘on the fly’, as it was being made. As they stand at the start of the ‘Hunter’s Path’ Hix reminds Judah to stock up on items first, to which Judah snaps something about ‘wishing he’d said that earlier’. It read to me like the maker had just thought of this and was attempting to compensate for its belated placement with Judah’s impatience. If it was necessary to add this line for game play reasons (i.e. preparing the player for the path ahead) then it could have been done earlier and could have been woven with more finesse into the narrative.

Moving onto the Hunter’s Path with Judah and Hix teamed up, I reached the first dungeon and the last of my experience with Ark. The lag came back to plague me in the forest and movement was again dogged by stickiness and slideshow-like jerking. I held my determination to push on, but now only as far as my HP and stock of items held out.


Combat

I’m always immediately impressed when an RPG Maker game has a side view battle system. It’s no criticism of any games that use it, but the default first person battle system doesn’t appeal to me at all. I also know from experience that the work involved in a custom battle system, even if just simply installing, is ominous to the developer who just wants to get started and leap into design.

Ark uses a simple side view system and Kaduki battlers. Enemies are static images but each have their own HP bar, which helps them to seem individual. At a glance, the battle system is another touch that shows effort and enthusiasm on the maker’s part. However it’s an element that, once again, manages only to look good.

The problem with Ark’s combat is that the enemies have too much HP and their evasion is too high. What results is combat that’s a tedious back and forth, back and forth. Compounded by the fact that escaping from battle requires use of an item-based skill, the random encounters on the Hunter’s Path quickly became a chore. This isn’t to say that all enemies should be one hit kills or require some fiendish cunning to overcome, but the attack-get attacked-repeat formula always sticks out and weak combat invariably weakens the game over all.

It’s a shame because the problems with combat could easily be fixed if early enemies were made quicker to overcome. If an opening dungeon is too challenging (or dull) then it immediately undermines any idea that the protagonist is a badass or even a competent fighter. Which is what, in the absence of any alternative suggestion by the game, I assumed Judah was.

Vertiginous learning curves are one thing, but in the early movements of a story I want, at worst, for my characters to feel threatened and vulnerable – not me. As a player I’m more interested in being absorbed into the story when I start a new game than I am in being challenged.

Eventually I managed to reach level 2 and was strong enough to dispatch most enemies - if not swiftly, then at least efficiently. But, by this point both Judah and Hix were on critical HP and I had hungrily chomped all of my healing “Mesa Herbs”. There came a defining (and strangely, perhaps tellingly, poignant) moment where I realised that the next random encounter would be my last. Which, inexorably, it was.



After the game-over screen I felt that Ark’s negatives had narrowly overpowered its positives to such an extent that quitting the game was more appealing than reloading (or “recalling”) a saved (or “entrusted”) game.


In summary:

Ark: Of Light and Darkness is gorgeously put together with evident enthusiasm and effort. I suspect that it wasn’t play tested much before general release and if the flaws/weaknesses I’ve mentioned are addressed I’d very happily and eagerly give this promising title another look.

My initial rating was 2/5 but a half-mark was instinctively lost to the ferocious lag that may not have had anything to do with the game itself. On that note, then, I’m adding an honorary extra half-mark and recommending this game to any fan of classic jRPGs.

Final notes:

- I recognised some of the music, so I assume that none of it is custom (understandably). It’s otherwise well chosen and contributed well to each location I visited.

- Ark is well written, so I want to see more of what the maker has to offer. As it stands, the plot moves too quickly and feels rushed.

- The font used sometimes didn't display properly, as below. It also doesn't make dense chunks of text and dialogue very easy on the eyes.