A look back at: Lufia II, Rise of the Sinistrals

Hey everyone, good game alert, this is a true favorite RPG of mine. Lufia II may have been a prequel game, but it did basically everything right with a basic turn-based RPG and then some.

Interfaces are cleaner, music is nicer, characters are more in-depth than they were in the first game, the dungeons are quite puzzling, there's nothing here I really hate. The villains are appropriately villainous, without being any sort of anti-hero. The love triangle thing was done rather well enough, the numerous side deeds around multiple towns to help them out was also quite well done with each scenario being unique in some way. Of course, the Ancient Cave is a fun randomizer of a dungeon, and there's also the World's Most Difficult Trick. Almost all of the puzzles in this game are pretty nasty, and one titled as being the World's Most Difficult Trick basically eclipses all of the puzzles I have seen thus far in a game.

The whole IP skills thing is pretty good, but better in the next game. I also didn't really get the capsule monster thing all that much, but sometimes these things either put up a good fight or are nice fodder so my other characters stay safe. The enemies being active in dungeon also allows me some advantageous positioning to ambush them by stunning with puzzle tools and going behind them. Quite a few glitches, such as killing the egg dragon in one hit, but these are FUN glitches, mind you. I like them.

The game's plot is the simple story of Maxim going on his usual hunting business, then getting this one woman, Iris, telling him he needs to go on his journey. This naturally ends up finding him at odds with the first sinistral, Gades, and after that he ends up marrying Selan, possibly being one of the few JRPG protagonists to actually be married. Making matters better is that Selan's also a warrior, and naturally so are Guy and Dekar, two other great dudes. Of course, there's the addition of the other Sinistrals, further strengthening their villainous resolve and fueling the heroic resolves of the heroes on this journey. It just is the kind of linear RPG story that is decent though, starting out very small, giving one nasty threat, then another one to keep it pumping.

Naturally though, I have nothing but disdain for the remake, having made a lot of changes, most are questionable and awful really.