Today, June 15, marks the official ship date for Arc the Lad: End of Darkness. This latest installment in the Arc the Lad follows the young warrior Edda as he fulfills his destiny as the savior of the planet.

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness deviates considerably from tradition, forgoing the series' trademark tactical battles for a real-time combat system. Players will be given a roster of 25 characters, including Edda, to utilize in battle. As more and more enemies are conquered, players will acquire various ability-imparting cards with which they can strengthen their characters.

Aside from the new real-time battle engine, this title will include another milestone for the series: online play. Players will now be able to take their adventure online with either combative or cooperative play. The player versus player matches will involve up to eight players and will allow for either deathmatch or team-play scenarios. The cooperative missions will include both the game's offline missions and a few online-exclusive missions. Unfortunately for eastern gamers, the Japanese portion of the game's online mode was canceled recently.

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness is for the PlayStation 2 console system and has been rated "T" by the ESRB. The game is now available for purchase at $49.99.