Lost Kingdoms II

"A nice, small adventure with cards...gone awry"

The follow-up to 2002's delightful card action RPG, which involved flinging cards to battle enemies, retains some of the charm of the first; however, it also adds some elements that are both welcome, and dreadful. It seems some tampering with what worked is to blame, and not enough was done to remove what was wrong before. The game is similar to Lost Kingdoms, but it not only has new features make battling more fun, but also more frustrating as well.

The first of many changes to the old mechanics of Lost Kingdoms is the change from random battles to a real-time battle system. You can now see enemies on the field and make the choice to avoid them or fight them. This can make travelling in the 20 levels of various regions in your return trip to the land of Argwyll go very smoothly, or treacherously--depends on what you're in the mood for, really.

The main method of battle is still present, as you still collect cards of up to 30 in a deck for use in battle or aid by flinging cards and having weapons or creatures come to life, but you can now use a new method of transforming which allows you to take on the form of a beast on a card. This feature also comes in handy not only for battling, but also when you must transform to traverse sections of the levels that may require such acts as flying or jumping. With this new power comes some new attributes; Neutral, and Mech join the others of Fire, Earth, Water, and Wood to give a greater selection of creatures to use.

You still need magic stones to use the cards, though, which can be found by defeating enemies or destroying scenery. A feature I think still should have been changed to using potions for quicker aid.

Instead of losing cards when you discard them now, they instead go back into your deck, in the level you are in, for use at your leisure. I was very grateful for this feature due to it's lengthening of your selection, because once again you can make multiple decks of 30, but only take one into a level. Why not more? It would have been fun, since you can have a lot more cards this time around thanks to the nice feature, of later in the game, importing your cards from Lost Kingdoms giving you an astounding 226 cards to select from.

While I enjoyed being able to import the cards from the original game, I am appalled at what has become of some of them. Many have changed, some for the worst. For example, in the first game there were fairy cards that when summoned healed you on the spot, well, in this game the fairies have been turned into helper creatures. When you use one of their cards they appear on screen and you have to stand in from of it to heal yourself. Imagine trying to do this in a battle where the fairy itself can be attacked and destroyed. A new combo feature can help in having certain cards combine themselves for aid or attack, giving more healing and battle options, but I would have preferred the fairy, and other cards, to have remained useful.

Useful is also what I would have liked the capture method to have remained. In Lost Kingdoms, you could use any card to capture an enemy you wanted to bind to a card. In this game, you must purchase a Capture Card to do the same thing at a high cost in gold. So, instead of having a card in your hand that you can use to battle or heal, as well as capture, you now can only have a card that does nothing but capture and take up space.

However, by far the worst addition to using cards in this game (and it's a breaker, folks) is that with the new attributes of Neutral, and Mech, comes the frustration of using them along with the old ones. You see, If you aren't skilled in a particular attribute you cannot use a card from that attribute comfortably.

Say you have only three levels, or stars as they are represented, in your skill level of the fire attribute and you want to use a seven star skill level card--be prepared to lose a lot of magic stones and health. The new attribute system can act somewhat like in the first game, in that when you ran out of magic stones and still needed to use a card, the remaining amount of magic stones required was allocated from your health. Now, allocation is not only magic stones but also health as well, because the amount of magic points needed to use a card doubles since you aren't skilled enough to use the card properly.

And get this: When you use one attribute more than another, that one rises while others will fall. Meaning you can't use cards when you want to use them. Sound fun? Trying to balance attributes that always rise and fall to no end just isn't. The balancing would have been tolerable if you were able to raise your stats beyond the measly 300HP, 30MP, Level 20 cap you are stuck with, especially now that you can level up like in most other RPGs by defeating monsters and getting experience rather than collecting Runestones (which was required for stat increase in Lost Kingdoms). Or, what if you maxed-out an attribute and it stayed at its maximum--no more going up or down?

The attribute system is just poorly thought out: Yes, I will raise one of my attributes which will allow me to confront and defeat an enemy then gain a card I can't possibly use unless I raise that attribute. I seriously hope this is taken out of future installments.

With the addition of the new types of cards and elemental attributes, more types of incredibly bizarre incarnations are to be found. Wait until you gaze upon some of these forms, like the sprite-boy Popgun Charlie. It's nice though to see a bit more effort put into the overall visuals, not just in the cards, as the graphics are definitely improved for the better; everything looks a lot cleaner and sharper; however, some models of creatures still looked the same. Some new models look a bit ridiculous though, like our new heroine, Tara. I know she's a seedy minx, but short shorts?--No. There is some nice FMV, but the majority of the story is told in-game, of which is much more than in the original, in some respects.

As a Tara Grimface, thief, who along with some help slowly unravels the truth of her mysterious past, we are given the scenario of Mass Runestone production allowing for more humans to use cards making this a more perilous endeavor. Add a rather flamboyant villain to the mix, along with two endings, and the story is enjoyable--not nearly as down as in the first game. It's especially nice to see story elements, characters, and places from the old Lost Kingdoms bring some nice familiarity to this game. (Added to the story are the return of side missions to find fairies that can get you more cards.)

Some nice music accompanies the overall actions in the game, giving a bit more range and mood than the first. Some tracks are forgettable, but some fit very well, as do some of the creature effects. New to the audio this time around are the addition of voice-acting in certain scenes. Some of the voices are grating, but it's nice to hear the inhabitants of Argwyll speak for a change.

Two-player duels return and are fun, but again original decks are recommended for card-flinging across various maps. More characters to choose from are also a nice addition, representing both games.

Be warned, though, assembling a perfect deck in this game can prove to be more difficult; some cards are extremely hard to get. You can no longer rely on continuous re-entry of a level, right away, to select a card at the end (hopefully nabbing you a boss card). You have to wait until a special stage opens later on and gives you that opportunity.

You also have to keep track of experience points gained yourself, as the amount you earn no longer flashes on screen. This is bothersome when you plan on upgrading cards or copying them (the ones the game lets you) at card shops. Which enemy gives what experience? Time to check your cards at the status screen.

Thankfully, not much has changed in the area of control. You still use B, A, Y and X to use the cards and along with R you discard, but with the removal of the capture throw you now have L and the C-Stick to manipulate the camera; Z allows you to select multiple cards for a combo attack. Nice and simple, what the game should have remained throughout.

Overall, I'm torn about all these changes. I miss just being able to have some fun flinging whatever card I wanted, as well as hunting down creatures in a more simpler fashion. It seems to me a great deal of thought may have been put into how to make the game more difficult, unfortunately, it was put into things that were fine to begin with.

I don't know quite how to categorize my feelings for this game. I had some fun, I am a fan of card games, but there is just so much tedious gameplay. I liked the idea of simply using cards to do battle. Wrongful management of doing that has made it a tad too difficult, and more annoying than it should be.

If it weren't for so many flaws I would recommend this as a purchase. As it stands, I simply can't at full price. If by chance you stumble upon this game at the $20-$25 range, or wait for it to reach that, then I would say that's an acceptable purchase price. Even before that, and even if you were a fan of the original, I really do think you should rent to see if you like what was done to this game to make it..."better."

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/03, Updated 01/30/06