The framerate does take a hit during battles, but I don't think it's that bad. I think the game design should be blamed more for the occasional wonky hit detection. Sometimes I don't know if I landed hits unless I see hit points spewing from the enemies.
But it does chug once in awhile which does get annoying.
Dragon Quest IX had some chugging framerate drops when there's too much activity going on especially with a full party but I got used to it. I feel the same with Lufia.
Took down the full Ancient Cave. I really wish I got more blue chests.
Some gameplay-related spoilers.
Honestly the mystic board can break the game pretty hardcore. By the end of the 100 floor dungeon most of the baddies couldn't do shit to me. We're talking 1 hp a pop most of the time. On top of that I found this sword with Fire 3 equipped. I just spammed that every time I walked in the room and everything died. I only had Tia along with me but she got barely any play, just stuck around in case Maxim got killed(which was surprisingly often as one of the few enemies that could kill me were in every other room and loved to do multi-hit spinning attacks I can't dodge all that well).
For the curious the dude at the bottom is the giant jelly from original Lufia 2. No I don't know what to do next, I smacked him around for awhile, he said something about how my power has grown, and I guess ran away...bastard. All told it took me three hours to get through the dungeon. I rushed a bit
The frame-rate will also combine with slowdown in some sections. It gets really bad. Definitely brings the entire game down.
Oh and don't forget to jump in the well in the first village.
All I can tell you is dodge dodge dodge. I had issues with that too.
My strategy:
Always dodge his attacks and when he comes down with the slash from above, dodge that and then hit him hard until he disappears again. The second phase is a slight more difficult, because those FUCKING ROCKS HE THROWS ARE ANNOYING. I couldn't figure out if there was a good way to avoid them
All I can tell you is dodge dodge dodge. I had issues with that too.
My strategy:
Always dodge his attacks and when he comes down with the slash from above, dodge that and then hit him hard until he disappears again. The second phase is a slight more difficult, because those FUCKING ROCKS HE THROWS ARE ANNOYING. I couldn't figure out if there was a good way to avoid them
thanks, looks like i'm just gonna have to keep chipping away at it until i finally win by luck :\
Maybe i'll stack all my mystic stones on one character and see how that goes
thanks, looks like i'm just gonna have to keep chipping away at it until i finally win by luck :\
Maybe i'll stack all my mystic stones on one character and see how that goes
Yeah, do that, get 9 miracles and 9 potions and use only your best character (the one who hits the most). His first pattern is very easy; dodge everything, and we he falls from the air, you can hit him a few times, and if you are lucky, he will fall down.
Beat it! I don't think I'll have time to through and get the 'true' ending or whatever, and my brother is now borrowing it to playthrough himself. Really enjoyed it overall. Finished at a little under 12 hours.
Pros
-Battle system enjoyable
-VA not that bad, albeit sparse
-Music is still as amazing
-Geared for portability (easy to leave dungeons and save, etc)
-Plot still mostly the same, felt nice to see some of these events that I haven't seen in quite a while.
-Dekar
Cons
-Pacing. So much walking around and talking....then much more again to the same places. With a battle or two in between.
-Reuse of dungeons
-Framerate
-Localization. It didn't seem to have huge errors, but sometimes kinda stood out a bit in an eh way, since almost every character when something bad happens would yell "Curses!" Seems they did that just to keep the ESRB as low as possible.
Middle of the road
-Puzzles. Cool to see a good bit of them, though some I didn't completely wrap my head around (
Power augmentation room or whatever in the Three Towers
). And while I was going to battle the second Sinistral,
All those puzzles to remove all the blocks by walking/jumping them were cool, but there were a ton of those you had to do to fully explore the dungeon
. Though most of it wasn't too bad and kinda amusing.
-Bosses were cool, but fairly easy. Especially
the final one, stop time -> Win!
-Emotional scenes not as impactful as the original, but they didn't completely lose their effect, fortunately.
DQIX and (most of) Glory of Herc probably spoiled me, but I'm actually a little annoyed with the level of support they gave to this so far (I'm in the mines right now.)
I want to quick save anytime, anywhere, without losing progress. I'm pretty much always doing multiple things with my DS, so sleep mode is only sometimes an option.
I didn't realize the game was so short. I've wanted to pick it up, but I have a lot of games coming up I want to play. I may pick this up tomorrow when I have some time so I can go through it.
Closing Comments
It's not too often that a developer has the courage to completely change a game's actual genre when updating it for a new generation, but sure enough that's what's happened here. The characters, the settings and the overall story are largely the same, but what was once a role-playing experience fueled by picking attack options from menu screens now has you taking direct control of your fighters and mixing it up in real time. And the new direction is impressive. While established fans of the old Lufia franchise might've liked it just fine if Curse of the Sinistrals just gave their SNES favorite a new coat of paint, the shift to an action interface opens up the brand for an all-new audience. This is a great DS adventure -- don't miss it.
Compared to the PSP Ys games - one of which is based off a five year old PC game that looked ancient at the time - Lufia looks...well, better than some other 3D DS games, but still pretty awful overall.
So I just started this. I actually only played for 15 minutes or so before the battery of my DS died, but it made a surprisingly solid first impression. I was prepared to hate it (and that may still happen... ), because it's so drastically different from the original, but it's not bad so far. I think the new character artworks look excellent, the music is in good order, the combat system is simple but fun and I like how the game doesn't hesitate to introduce the re-imagined characters, which immediately made me curious what they've done to the rest of the cast and the story. Sp yeah... it's definitely not bad I think.
The story moves a bit too fast, though. "Energy waves around you. Must be legendary hero. GO!" is what happens in the first four minutes. I'm sure a little more build up would've helped here.
I'm 3 hours into the game now. I really like it; much more than I was hoping I would, but the framerate is ridiculously bad sometimes. It's not really affect the gameplay too much, but I think the total playtime will significantly increase if the game keeps running so slow. :lol
Beat it a few minutes ago. Overall a pretty okay-ish game I think. I expected worse.
cons
- horrible framerate
- badly balanced difficulty (your character of choice is absolutely overpowered)
- sometimes there's just too much talking and sometimes major plotpoints are handled in mere two sentences
- no capsule monsters
pros
- fun puzzles
- great presentation with good graphics, cinematic camera angles and the fabulous music
- it's nice to look for and recognize remnants of the original
- the combat is still fun despite the low difficulty
- funny moments between the main cast (even though they rely too much on the same jokes)
I bought this on a whim for $15 and I gotta say, even as someone who has never played the original SNES game, this is a damn fine DS game and criminally overlooked last year (I'm guilty of that too).
I've never played a Lufia game and have been eyeing this for some reason...but my DS backlog is insane! Is it still worth making room for it somehow? Is it one of the best ways to play a game from the series?
I'm really trying to cut down on which DS games I play so I can get them finished one day (and maybe start on my PSP games that I've barely touched)...any thoughts?
I've never played a Lufia game and have been eyeing this for some reason...but my DS backlog is insane! Is it still worth making room for it somehow? Is it one of the best ways to play a game from the series?
I'm really trying to cut down on which DS games I play so I can get them finished one day (and maybe start on my PSP games that I've barely touched)...any thoughts?
Yeah, do that. The DS game is pretty neat, but if you're not familiar with the series it kinda loses its freak status and is not really worth to be added to your backlog.
If you told me 5 years ago that I'd be playing DS almost exclusively this generation and would still have almost 20 games left in my backlog when the next system came out, I'd say you were crazy.
If you told me 5 years ago that I'd be playing DS almost exclusively this generation and would still have almost 20 games left in my backlog when the next system came out, I'd say you were crazy.
Been having a lot of fun with this game. Gameplay is neat and I like the story/characters. But, UGGGHH they reuse the areas too much and the bosses have too much health. I ended up putting it down after they started retreading the same ground in the same dungeon with the same boss battle (which I then have to repeat due to the stupidly large health the boss has). Haven't had the motivation to pick it back up since.
