Lost Kingdoms II

"A very underrated series, made even better this time around!"

Lost Kingdoms turned out to be the first sort of RPG found on the Gamecube last year, and while many reviewers tended to look down upon it as something like a Poke'mon clone that used cards instead of raising monsters... or something as a rushed game, it slowly began to build up a healthy cult following. I think that this following can build up even more thanks to the sequal, which took the first game's simple gameplay and added so much more to repair nearly all of the problems of the first game.

Story: 8/10 - Ok, so the story line is nothing too spectacular on the level of Final Fantasy or other popular series, but I felt that it fit the setting rather well. Add that on with, in my opinion, rather competent voice acting that appeared to fit most of the characters very well. There's also two slightly different endings if the player was interested in seeing them both. Finally, there's quite an unusual twist that I never expected in the game... namely the last boss, which I'm not going to say anything about.

Graphics: 10/10 - I know, I know... by giving it a 10, it's basically saying that these are the absolute best graphics ever seen in a video game. Truthfully, they aren't, but for the kind of game Lost Kingdoms 2 is, they do fit in perfectly. The character models were very well done, and every design of the cards are all unique and very cool looking... making each one stand out individually from each other. The game's opening cutscene was very impressive too, being very clear and showing awesome visual effects and character models... yet of course, it's nothing as insane as the remake of Resident Evil.

Music & Sound: 7/10 - Nice and fitting to what the game's supposed to be, yet it's nothing overly spectacular. All of the monster's roars and such don't seem out of place at all and the character's voices, like stated in the Story section, fit most of the characters well too. The music is a mixed affair though, mostly being fantasy sounding... including a few remixed songs from the first game (Plains of Rowahl to be exact...). The boss music on the other hand seemed to get me into the fight much more than what LK1 had to offer too.

Gameplay: 10/10 - 99% perfect... what's what can be said about the most important part of LK2... Everything is kept nice and simple like the first game, having a card mapped out to your A, B, X, and Y buttons, which can either be discarded for a new card by holding R and tapping the button that goes with the certain card you chose, or put into Z-Effect (holding Z and pressing a card button), which doubles the cost of MP usage, but adds an extra 50% of damage. In every stage, you build up a 30 card deck to your liking from the cards you've obtained throughout the game. Need a good deck against a Earth stage? Whip out your Wood cards and you'll breeze through much easier, or equip Water cards and find yourself at a disadvantage! The biggest downer of the gameplay though was what they did to the Capture System of the first game, in which you held L and used a card to attempt a capture. Now... you buy Capture Cards from a Rouge... who's prices go up each time you buy one. The prices go as follows (in GP): 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 7k, 10k, 15k, 1k (yes... it actually dropped to this... only to go to...), 20k, 30k, and finally 50k... freezing for good at that price!! While it's kinda good that it makes you plan your captures carefully, it's very nauseating to pay 50,000 GP just for one little Capture Card. There are nice ways to get around it though which should be simple enough to figure out on your own.

Replay Value: 10/10 - Most people play through to the end of the game's story mode, which can take 6 hours for an experienced player... to about 10-15 hours for the casual player. Because of this, people think it turns out to be a weak game for replay, but they're totally wrong, since there's a good bit more to do in the game. Try finding all 100 Red Fairies without a guide... that could cause some headaches. Go and find all of the 226 cards available in the game... which took me about 45 hours to do since I don't play with guides and ran around like and idiot looking for the Lucky Lion, only to learn the sneaky little secret of getting it. Strive to get maxed out in the new Elemental Level system, in which your levels can fluctuate up and down according to what cards you use... I've only been able to get 5 out of the 6 elements maxed and I'm currently stuck on a level 3 Mech. Adding on a VS. Mode that can be spectacular if friends possess their own game and deck really adds on the replay value too.

Rent/Buy: It's all up to you really. If you're not sure of this game first, give it a rent and see how you like it. If you enjoyed the first game a lot though, you shouldn't be disappointed with this sequel at all. I, for one, purchased it and I still play it a lot with my friends.

Final Score: (not an average... but it turned out this way anyway ^_^) 9!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/03, Updated 06/14/03