Review written by Eric Pankoke

Is last year's novelty this year's ho-hum? Arvale II promises an expansive RPG experience complete with time travel, combat galore, and all the humor you've come to expect from a PDAMill game. It certainly delivers, but is more of the same good enough?

The graphics are just as good as the first time. Every corridor is rife with details, and little animated touches throughout the landscape breathe life into the world of Arvale. Once again the NPC portraits during conversations exude a colorful anime style, and they appear to be even more detailed than before. We're treated to the same overhead perspective as part one, and for a low resolution portable game that's just fine with me. The combat is still the highlight of the graphical features, with dazzling spells and wonderfully animated characters to help you visualize the foray. I was slightly disappointed in that there didn't seem to be too much of an upgrade in the graphics engine from part one, but a good thing often doesn't need to be changed.

PDAMill manages to score again in the sound department, this time around claiming a total of 27 different soundtracks! My experience so far tells me that even with half that many the music would surpass most other PPC games. The sound effects are also top notch, though nothing less was expected in that department.

I still think the overall mechanics of the Arvale series provides some of the best portable RPG gaming fun. Travel to many different towns, solve side quests for a variety of people, and ultimately defeat the “big boss” to win the game. The fact that not all NPCs respond favorably to kind conversation was a nice touch. My biggest gripe overall, believe it or not, is in the size of the game. As these games are designed for portable pleasure, and I don't do too much traveling, I would prefer a slightly shorter game. That way, I might actually be able to finish it before I forget what it was I was actually trying to accomplish.

The combat is very simple. Attack with a weapon, attack with bolts, use item, or flee. The first two options provide you with a rock / paper / scissors take on fighting, just like the original. There are three base types of weapon (club, sword and spear), and three types of bolts (earth, fire and water). Each is better than one other type in its group, and worse than the third. What I really appreciate about the system is that you can toggle through all available options indiscriminately and select one on the fly, so you don't make the mistake of “oops, wish I'd equipped THAT weapon instead”. Using an item will provide you with anything from recovered hit points to temporarily boosted stats (the increase in stats only lasts for the given combat). Of course, winning a battle treats you with gold or an item, as well as some experience. While I found this method of combat refreshingly simple in part one, it felt a little worn this time through.

Your character has three main stats - Strength, Dexterity, and Aiming - and you can increase one of these by one point each time you go up an experience level. There are two additional statistics, Resistance (less damage by magic attacks), and Defense (less damage by physical attacks), that go up automatically each level based on certain criteria. Defense can also be boosted by armor.

Also back in part two is the depreciation of equipment. I still don't think this is a very fun feature, but it still beats the search for food to keep your stamina up. And, they remain courteous enough to let you know when you've run out of steam with your current set of protective gear.

The interface remains intuitive and accessible. Use the stylus or D-Pad, or a combination if you wish, and you won't have any problems getting around the world of Arvale.

Pros:

• Colourful, detailed graphics

• Sound is always on cue

• Solid gameplay

• Deep storyline

Cons:

• Graphics could have used a boost from part one

• Weapon deterioration could have been removed or trivialized in easy mode

• No improvements to combat over part one

If you are new to the Arvale franchise, Ocean Of Time is definitely worth your time. If you were an avid fan of the first, you will enjoy the sequel as well, though it might feel more like a large expansion pack than a brand new game. If you did not like the game mechanics of part one, then Ocean Of Time is probably not for you. 

Score-by-score breakdown

Gameplay:  70%
Graphics:  80%
Sound:  90%

Overall:  80%

Please note that the overall score is more than simply an average of the individual ratings.  Many thanks to PDAmill for providing our review copy.

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