Glen Atwell
Shaun InguanzoLufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (Review)
November 30th 2006 19:39
Players: 1
Genre: RPG
Developer: Neverland
Platform: SNES
Year: 1995 (USA), 1996 (PAL)
... Or in PAL's case, it was just called "Lufia" and provided much confusion in later years when I searched for a "Lufia II" believing that our "Lufia" was the same as the real Lufia and thought that Lufia II was the sequel to our version. Boy was I surprised to find out that Lufia II was the prequel to the story in Lufia, and that the "sequel" I was after would be found in the first game.
Story: A bit about the original Lufia: The game begins just at the point where four great heroes defeat the Sinistrals that had been plaguing the land. The story continues with the son of Maxim and Selan, into the future.
Lufia II begins long before the beginning of Lufia, playing as Maxim during his early days and chronicles his travels before meeting up with the final party that challenges the Sinistrals. Lufia II ends where Lufia begins.
Battle System: Lufia II's was the first turn-based RPG I'd played. The concept seemed a bit strange to me at the time, taking turns to attack and all, but it worked out fair. You have your usual attack and magic options in battle, as well as an IP gauge and capsule monsters.
Innovation: Whenever you get injured, your IP gauge goes up. Most equipment pieces have an IP capability, which allows you to use special skills that take away a certain percentage of your IP gauge per use. For example, equipping Dekar with his special "Dekar Blade" enables him to use an IP ability to halve enemies HP during battle.
Capsule monsters are friendly monsters you can obtain during your travels. Each one is aligned differently and you can only have one in battle at any given time. Capsule monsters are able to level up as well, but level in an unusual manner. At any given time, a capsule monster may crave certain food or equipment. You feed your monster these items to progress its version of an experience bar. Apart from feeding it what it desires, you can also feed it expensive/rare equipment to progress the bar faster: However, keep in mind that if you do this, the monster will become greedier and crave even rarer items while expressing disgust at non-rares.
Graphics: Decent, though the characters are rather square-ish at times. I've been impressed more than a few times with enemy artwork, particularly Sinistral artwork like Amon in the image below.
Sound: Until I played Lufia II, I never paid music much attention in games. The boss battle music itself was what caught my attention in this game, and I began noticing music's role in games more often since then.
Replayability: Reasonable, given that Lufia II's a relatively long RPG. The story's linear, but there's an immense number of side-quests and diversions in the game, such as the Ancient Cave (consists of 99 basement levels, with very good equipment gains), the Egg Dragon and the casino on Forfeit Island.
Overall, Lufia II's a thoroughly enjoyable game, with plenty to do outside of the main story progression. The characters are likeable and the battles are fast-paced and fun. What more could you really ask for?
Score: 10/10
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