Well I can consider this franchise more or less done. Got no intention of playing through End of Darkness, since it is quite polarizing in terms of what it offers. This one kinda is like that, except it's much more cherished, and honestly seems to be the fan favorite game in hindsight. Though if you ask me, I love the fast pacing of the very first game the most still.
Thankfully Twilight of the Spirits proves not to be a slump. The idea to play as one protagonist and then shift gears to the other one as the story goes helps splendidly in storybuilding. We see respect, or lack of it in many cases (like many RPGs it seems that hatred for other races just HAS to be a thing, and things overall get ugly in quite a lot of scenarios. Quite graphic to have Darc get his wings broken in his chapter, you know. Or Delma trying to backstab him, or Camellia backstabbing twice. Yeah, the Deimos chapters are full of this. Kharg at least gets some respect from everyone who's not a Dilzweld soldier, and his do-good nature arguably makes him the weaker protagonist since he doesn't face the hardships Darc has. Lilia is the mysterious girl who of course brings everyone together in some way, and of course Darkham and then later the Divine Ruler/Lord of the Black Abyss are the main enemies in the end of it all.
Gameplay wise, it's like Makai Kingdom and Phantom Brave as a tactical RPG with freeform movement. The Spirit Stone distribution system is actually not bad, and the tension gauge is a great way to do makeshift unite attacks like in Suikoden. I actually went ahead and did some arena battles, something I didn't have the time to do in the previous games because I do have spring break hours for now. It was worth it, even if it did make some of my guys overpowered. Not as bad as the second game's pacing, but not better than the third game's and DEFINITELY not better than the first game's. The pacing of battles at least isn't very intrusive on my time and schedule, at least until you get to the final floating castle, thankfully. As a whole, this franchise was so fun.
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