But every time I find a new appreciation for the extra time put into full-screen graphic demos and original artwork (which is not great but was a pretty average job), I get bombarded by unoriginal and sometimes ripped artwork from popular video games and cartoon shows. One time I met a popular Final Fantasy character, ripped sprite and all, in the prison. The fact that there was this short, Japanimation character in the middle of a world where everyone was drawn to be real-looking really threw me off. Then, the final straw was when I was attacked by Eric from South Park. Look at the screenshots above and just imagine how Eric clashes with the rest of the game's graphics.

While I'm addressing South Park though, I should mention that the excessive blood in this game is one of the main reasons why this game gets an "M" rating. Every enemy spatters blood when they die in this game. Even the snowmen bleed excessively when they die. It's not gruesomely animated, but it certainly makes ARC Legacy more than just kiddie material now.

If you're a major speaker against blood and profanity in video games (which occurs in bushels in the uncut version of this game), you can download the "edited" version of The ARC Legacy from Abstract Productions. You can go to their site by clicking here. The edited version of the ARC Legacy would receive a  rating by V Planet's standards.

For the ARC Legacy, Abstract Productions invested in PC sound effects to help give some of their full-screen graphics demos some flavor. The sudden shock value of having a PC sound effect suddenly jolt in the middle of a demo while you've playing for two hours can really wake you up and get your focus back into the game. A few objects, usually later on in the game, also make sound effects when your party touches them. This helps to give the last part of the game some life.

As far as the actual game goes, expect your typical overhead RPG with turn-based Dragon Warrior battles. Yet the ARC Legacy isn't a town-to-town game either; oftentimes the game's story arc will take you back to a town you've previously visited. Sometimes you'll even notice that changes take place whenever you come back to a town after surviving a criitical part of your quest.

It does get kind of lulling because the ARC Legacy doesn't have battle sound effects for most of the game. Fortunately, there were quite a few bells and whistles that Abstract Prouductions included to help the gameplay out. An effective save feature allows you to save anywhere on the field map or in a town, making it easy to take a break and continue the quest later on. Another feature I liked is the extensive use of gold. In the ARC Legacy, you buy all your items, weapons, armor, and spells (a la Final Fantasy I). That means there's always something for you ro buy, giving you more incentive to participate in battles. You won't be disappointed either; armors are especially useful and I've a lot of uses for the moderately vast magic spell library built into this game.

The dialogue throughout the ARC Legacy also lacks the personality and panache of an RPG with a high-calibur storyline. While all the villagers and characters looked different, they acted like two or three allegorical Junior High kids. The love story thrown in this game's plot was particularly strange.

ARC Legacy's Story strength will come from it's full-screen demos. Not too many RPGs try to insert this kind of demo (which was popularized by Sega Genesis and the Phantasy Star Series) in the middle of their game. And, for what it's worth, ARC's demo sequences seem to come at just the right times.

If there's any consolation, the game's ending is pretty good and it really looks like the extra time spent to make sure that the 7-10 hours spent playing this game was worth it paid off big for Abstract Productions. I dare even say that the ending did something that no other QB game has done before... what the heck am I talking about? This is yet another incentive for you to beat the game yourself and find out.

This, of course, is a two-way street. While the end of the game is replayable because of a larger spell library, the beginning of the game is replayable because the mazes aren't so long. The last few dungeons in ARC Legacy are huge and winding, and the enemies are really too weak at that point to be much of a threat. But the beginning of the game offers some challenge that'll keep the fingers busy. The long and short of it? Replay Value varies throughout the game, making it a little hard to play through the ten hour quest again. 

The key to ARC Legacy is to always make sure that your party is well equipped with armors and healing spells. With great armor, it's usually tough for enemies to penetrate you. Combine that with some healing power and you can develop a party that can get a lot of gold quickly and efficiently for weapons and offensive spells.