Lost Kingdoms II

"Obscurity has doomed an excellent game"

I love the lost kingdoms series simply for how incredibly different it plays when compared to pretty much all other games within its genre. Heck it’s kind of a genre in itself. Combining the addictiveness of card collecting with the action oriented stylings of, well, nothing else I can think of off hand, and then sprinkling it over top of some nice RPG goodness, really just seems to work. The first lost kingdoms was very nice and I ended up thoroughly enjoying it, the second one comes along and improves upon pretty much everything in the first one. Does this make it one of the best games in its genre? Not necessarily, but it certainly is enough fun to warrant going for the ride.

The basic premise behind Lost Kingdoms 2 (LK2 from now on) is to assemble a deck of 30 cards consisting of monster cards you find/buy along the way. Each card falls into one of 4 basic types. There are summon cards which are usually one-time critters that spank the enemy down for maximum damage. Independent cards summon creatures that stick around for as long as they stay alive and act independently, attacking the enemy or emitting some sort of special skill. Weapon cards strike straight out from the main hero and act in a variety of ways including, but hardly limited to, sword swinging and projectile firing. Lastly, the newest addition to the LK series is the transform type of card. With these cards our hero can transform herself into a variety of creatures that possess an assortment of skills.

In the first LK, these different types of cards worked well, but lacked a bit of originality. That is to say that most critters acted the same way, most weapons swung the same way, etc. This has been greatly improved upon in the sequel. The sheer number of new cards makes for some very creative fighting. Weapon cards vary so greatly, you hardly know what to expect when you fire them off. Independent creatures all seem to fight differently and at their own pace (with slightly improved AI, I will add). Even summon creatures have much better variety in the sequel with different ranges and even different attacks you can select.

The addition of transform cards really opens up some interesting ideas in LK2. Abilities such as flying, jumping and digging really help to create an array of fascinating (yet never really difficult) puzzles to solve. Pretty much every area you visit has secrets that can only be opened by transforming into the appropriate creature and it just seems right to finally be able to kick some booty with the heroine herself.

The rest of LK2 plays out quite a lot like the original. You move on the overworld by selecting places on a map and as you complete each of the locations, more locations open up on said map. Inside each location you generally fight your way through new critters, pick up new cards, and view story elements all while collecting crystals which are used to recover your magic points (which you expend whenever you use a card) and to buy new cards. The system itself works well and progress comes quickly, ensuring very little boredom, if any at all.

Story wise, LK2 plays out a lot like the first one. Which, in my opinion, is not a good thing. The plot isn't horrible or anything, it just seems kind of tacked on. While most RPGs have an engine built around a story, this one seems to have a story built around an engine. The result is a very fun game, but with the cost of a rather boring and bland story. The characters are pretty ho-hum and there isn't a whole lot of interaction. The evil villains are pretty standard RPG fare and no real reason is given to explain the madness of the empire. Regardless, the story brings you to some interesting geographical locations and there are some neat twists and turns. The result is still a bit sub-par and I think that a better story would greatly help a sequel (which I am quite looking forward to, help us out From Software).

Graphically, LK2 is quite beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I was taken a little aback. The original LK, while far from ugly, certainly didn't set any new standards or test any of the Gamecube's limits. LK2 blew me away from the very first cinema scene you view. The art style is quite a bit different from what I am used to and I very much enjoyed it. Everything in the game animates very nicely and executes very fluidly. The spell affects are pretty much all original and a lot of creative thought was obviously put into making some very unique and awesome card critters. Overall, this is a very beautiful game and really shows the talents of the developers.

I found the music in LK2 to be kind of.... odd. That's not to say bad, just sort of weird. I enjoyed it, but the musical direction plays very interestingly. There are plenty of off keynotes thrown in and there are a few tracks that seem to mix more than one beat. While it does all this, it still manages to sound very much RPG like in that it is kind of haunting and eerie. The end result is a very unusual, yet quite nice sound. I have to pick up the soundtrack to decide whether I truly like it, but in any case it fits the scenarios well and definitely never got annoying.

All in all, LK2 comes highly recommended. The first one did not sell all that well and you don't have to question why. I still don't think I have seen an ad for it and when I went to pick up my reserved copy from my local, normally busy, Electronics Boutique they informed me that I was the only customer to have reserved a copy. This is really too bad as I feel that the LK series could be great if given a little more credit. All in all you will have a good time with LK2 if you simply give it a try, and with its short length it could be just the cure for summer boredom and would make an excellent rental.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/03, Updated 07/04/03