Gaming Target - Game Boy: Lufia: The Legend Returns

Written by Ilan Mejer on March 15, 2002

Review: A Third Doom Island War against the Sinistrals is commencing. However, Maxim's blood and his fabled Dual Blade have vanished into legend.

Gods existed. Four fearsome Sinistrals twice plunged the world into darkness, resulting in the cataclysmic Doom Island Wars. Only the Spiritual Force-infused bloodline of Maxim could ever hope to overthrow the darkness of such gods. Such heroes have emerged twice before. Now, after one hundred years of normalcy, an evil resurrection is at hand. Wain is a seventeen-year-old hunter of Patos Village. His task is to clear the fields surrounding his village of the weak monsters that emerged daily from a nearby cave. For years, Wain believed that his essence was marked, unique, and that his fate was somehow intertwined with that of the Tower of Death to the northeast. What he does not know is that he is one of the unique souls infused with Spiritual Force, and that his powers are about to overflow. His life came to a head when a stranger arrived to Patos, the fair Seena, a seer recently gifted with the true sight.

In Lufia 3, you take control of Wain and Seena as they search the world for other souls too infused with Spiritual Force. You will find up to a dozen companions, some hidden, to join your quest, and any nine can immediately travel with you. Those awaiting the awakening of a momentous occasion include an elven sorceress, a heroic and reckless pirate, a troubled princess and her loyal retainer, an overprotective thief, and such ambiguous creatures such as the Capsule Monster Mousse and the Egg Dragon. You will traverse through the villages, towns, caves, towers, castles, and dungeons spanning four entire continents, in classic RPG fashion. Fans of the Lufia series will not be disappointed by the varied locales, entertaining story, and engaging characters in this third chapter. While few of these concepts are truly original anymore, nearly all the elements of a solid RPG experience have been threaded in a sufficiently interesting manner, and the gameplay in itself is unique enough to fuel the fifty or so hours necessary to complete the adventure. Lufia Ц The Legend Returns is one of the largest RPGs to ever hit a handheld, dwarfing recent titles: Dragon Warrior 3, Breath of Fire, and Golden Sun. The story, while not radically original, is well told. The translation is quite professional, though the discriminating eye will notice a few typos and script errors along the way.

The two most significant features of any successful RPG are its combat engine and its exploration elements. In this Lufia 3 both excels and disappoints. Fans of the puzzle-laden dungeons of the first two Lufia games, both available on the Super NES, will be disappointed to learn that they have been dropped entirely. They have been replaced by dungeons that are wholly randomly generated, negating the possibility for any scripted puzzles. Furthermore, the randomizer for these dungeons is completely amateurish. You will, essentially, be exploring hundreds upon hundreds of levels all constructed from the same basic algorithm: Five to seven rooms connected by winding corridors of varying length, sprinkled liberally with treasure chests, traps, enemies, and predictable secret doors. This method of generating random dungeons is never expanded upon, the only thing that changes are the dungeon graphics, the monsters, and the treasures. This is the single new feature of Lufia 3 that will forever deny it the classic status of quality enjoyed by its two predecessors. Happily and tragically, the rest of the game is extremely well built, but many gamers will not even give it the time of day. Fans of the classic Lufia dungeons would be wise to pick up the puzzle-heavy Golden Sun instead (or as well.)

Those that do opt to pick up Lufia 3 (and for less than $30.00, it's not a bad deal) will gain the opportunity to experience a passably sophisticated and well-written story, and one of the most exciting and innovative turn based combat engines of any recent RPG. The game begins a bit slow, with only two characters, but the party will quickly swell beyond that. By the time you complete the necessary in-game tutorials; it will become apparent that up to nine party members may be active at any given point in the game, easily three times as many as most modern RPGs. Your party is laid out in a 3x3 grid, but only one character from each column may take a turn in combat. Those in the front row deal and receive the most melee damage, while those in the back are safest and weakest. If the first character in each column expires, the whole party is lost, sadly, however, at the beginning of each turn you are given the opportunity to reorder your party members as you see fit. This grid may not seem so important when exploring the overworld, since combat here is random. However, once you begin delving into the game's many dungeons, you will realize that the enemies there appear on screen. They will stand still until you move and will take one step for each of yours. Combat in dungeons is initiated when your party comes into adjacent contact with a wandering enemy. No longer are preemptive and surprise attacks randomly determined. The direction you are facing when you enter combat will help determine initiative as well as your starting positions. Should you be outflanked or attacked from behind, your weakest members, thought to be safe in the back, may be thrust into the forefront and quickly annihilated before you even gain a turn.

Another feature new to RPGs in general is the concept of Spiritual Force. This idea was strictly a tool for story development in the previous two Lufia games, but in Lufia 3, it has been developed into an exciting new gameplay feature. Each of the twelve characters is imbued with one of four types of Spiritual Forces, designated by one of four colors. Each type of Spiritual Force augments one or two statistics, such as HPs, MPs, Strength, Intelligence, etc. As you accrue experience by defeating foes, you will also acquire Learning Points, which may be used to learn new spells from town priests or can be invested in increasing your characters' respective SF levels. What makes the SF system unique is that SF is shared, and this comes directly into play in combat, with the 3x3 grid system. SF flows both horizontally and vertically. Therefore, characters lined up in such formations will gain all of the various SF bonuses of all characters above, below, left, and to the right of them. Sadly, the unique out-of-combat abilities of previous Lufia games have been dropped. Inventory such as the hook shot that allowed you to span gaps and the arrows that allowed you to stun foes in dungeons are missing. Now, your only options are to slash at suspicious cracks in walls, hoping to trigger secret doors by tapping A or releasing a paralyzing wave by holding and releasing A. These abilities are sorely missed, but with a game that almost entirely lacks puzzles, there truly is no need of them.

Another innovative staple of the Lufia franchise returns, that of Infuriating Points (the inspiration behind the Final Fantasy Limit Break and Overdrive systems.) Characters in Lufia 2 had specific IP powers that could be unleashed once their IP bars were maxed out by sustaining damage from the enemies. Unlike Lufia 2, Wain and company must learn IP powers from scrolls called Ancient Texts. These Ancient Texts can be found throughout the game's many dungeons. There are over 75 in total, and must be distributed between the ten characters who are capable of learning these abilities. Many of these abilities overlap between characters; so exploring the randomly generated dungeons is the best way to acquire enough Ancient Scrolls to teach all of your characters all of the useful IP abilities. Each IP ability requires a certain combination of SF levels in order to be taught. Therefore, lining up your characters appropriately in the grid and sharing the SF flow is the only way to learn the high end Ancient Texts. While it is true that you can easily rearrange your companions to allow them to learn the Ancient Texts, and then switch them back when done, characters that do not have sufficient flows of SF will be require 50% more IP points when attempting those powers. So lining up your characters to vary their IP powers and maximize their abilities is imperative. The grid system, while complicated on paper, is extremely intuitive and dynamic, and keeps the turn based combat fresh to a degree rarely experienced in RPGs today.

Many gamers found the graphics in the SNES Lufias to be a huge turn-off. The 16-bit games featured excessive use of pastel colors and cartoon-like monster design. This graphical style has been completely replaced with one much more organic and lush, despite the downgrade in hardware. Lufia 3 contains some of the most beautiful tile-based graphics of any 8-bit RPG, rivaling the magnificent presentation of Enix's Dragon Warrior 3. The character design for the dozen party members are also gorgeous, visible not only in the status screen but when selecting commands in combat as well. The pastel, black-outlined cartoon enemy sprites from the previous two titles have also been replaced by much darker and more realistic representations. Additionally, the combat system is entirely graphical in nature. Aside from the announcement of a special move or spell, all in-combat actions and information are depicted graphically, either as an animation, or an icon. Essentially, after choosing your three commands per turn, you simply watch the action unfold, never having to tap the button to prompt text windows to continue. Given the sheer amount of combat involved (although much of it is avoidable) this is a welcome feature. Overall, combat is as lightning fast as it is beautiful and engaging.

I will go on record and state that Lufia 3 Ц The Legend Returns has one of the best 8-bit RPG soundtracks I have ever had the pleasure to experience. 99% of all Gameboy classic music is composed of a random-sounding collection of beeps and whistles, nearly ever long or complex. The composers of Lufia 3 have achieved a feat that I always thought impossible on the classic GB sound system. Every track is composed of at least two, if not three separate themes, which are seamlessly blended into full length, epic RPG tracks. The very first song you will experience is a perfect example. Lufia 3 boots up silently and defaults to the introductory story sequence. The words УGods existedФ flashes on screen as a haunting melody begins to strum. Slowly, heroic counter-melodies are introduced, and grapple with a third ominous theme for dominance. The song weaves back and forth in similar but varied ways until finally the song winds down ominously and begins to repeat a minute and a half later. The emotion and complexity of all of Lufia 3's songs is staggering, and only partially in consideration of the sound hardware. I have never listened to a classic Gameboy game with headphone speakers, simply because the music never warranted it and stereo was never truly necessary. Trust me on this; opt for the headphones. The accompanying sound effects are generic as far as 8-bit RPGs go; they drive the idea across but will not entertain you nearly as much as many combat tunes will. Lufia audiophiles will be thrilled to learn that familiar songs and themes have returned.