Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

"A Not so bad of an RPG all hail her"

Overview: Quick overview. The controls are almost identical to the first with a few new quirks to play with the Ikari Points. Anyways this one takes place 99 years before Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. Remember the little intro to Lufia well you will control those characters in this game. This was released as Estopolis 2 in Japan and just Lufia in Australia and Germany and other European Countries using PAL televisions.

Graphics 7.85/10
OK this time there are no excuses for graphics this was one of the later games released for the SNES graphics could of been much better. Of course this was a low budget game so maybe it would of delayed the release of the game for them to get together extra money to pay for more 3-D ish graphics. But Graphics don't make a game. So this is a minor category.

Music 10.5/10
The Music is above perfect. It does get alittle repeating and some tunes are recycled from Lufia & The Fortress of Doom. So my advice listen to the Final theme it's worth beating the game for in my oppinion. Also there are alot of good themes relating to the story. Hence Dekar Theme.

Challenge 8.98/10
Much easier than Lufia alittle more challenging than Final Fantasy 6 and much more challenging than Chrono Trigger. It's really the length of the game that makes it so challenging and the puzzles. Some of the Puzzles still take hours to do after playing thru a few times. If it had all random battles the challenge would probably be more than Lufia. But the You see enemies in dungeon allows you to think up of strategies to avoid battles you don't want to be in. Of course the Ancient Cave provides the most challenging part of the Game. This Game takes about 35 hours just to beat the game and probably another 30 hours making it thru the ancient Cave and probably around 10 hours to find all the Dragon Eggs. So it's more in length than Challenge.

Replay 10/10
As I said 30 hours to beat probably 25 if you're an experienced player. and 30 hours for the Ancient Cave Subquest. Maybe more. This is even for a veteran player almost 30 hours for a novice maybe 40 hours for the Ancient Cave. The Dragon Eggs can be tricky without the Jewel Sonar. So buy it from the Casino. And the Egg Dragon is the toughest enemy in the Game. But as in Lufia the egg dragon grants your wishes. So the Dragon Egg Subquest is worth it. So is the Ancient Cave since you can get rare items you can take outside of the Cave. After beating the Game retry is open and you play the game with 4 times experience points and Gold from battles. Still a challenge and adds replay. After beating retry Gift opens adn you're off to the Ancient Cave and you can make your own dream team.

Control 10/10
Yes still the same old crossbar but this time you have a sub bar the sword is to go to the attack Crossbar up and A onto the arrow thingie leads to allowing you to switch characters posistions and Down and A on the little man is to run. now onto the crossbar which is simple. A is for a normal attack Up and A is for Magic Left and A is to use Down and A is for an Ikari Point attack which you can use when your Gauge starts to fill up that has the letter IP beside it. and right and A defence. Remember you must hold the button in that direction and press A to get the rsult if you let go of the direction on the D-Pad before pressing A you will Just attack.

Sub-Control

Magic system
The Magic system is pretty unique you buy Magic and there is no one and all spell in fact you attack all enemies by pressing the R button instead of selcting them individually. say you want to attack on enemy just push A twice say there's 4 enemies and you want to only attack to press A on enemy one and A on enemy twice and tahdah. and the B button will back up the spell. The Magic system is unique.

Ikari Points: Unique system that makes the game somewhat easier anyways buy weapons with Ikjari Points and unleash them for bosses. or tough enemies alot of weapons have Ikari Points. It does a super attack on an enemy basically It's a nice feature

Story 10/10
Once again I give the story to a Lufia Game a 10/10. This games story is a prequel to the first. Basically making how you play the games Intertwinable. Basically you might want to play 2 First to get to know the characters. So my advice to understand the story play this game first. Anyways the story starts with Arek talking to Erim. He askes Erim should humans rule or us Sinistrals. So that starts the story. Really You will really get to know alot of things about Erim thru out this game. Which out of the Sinistrals you'll always remember her because her character develops thru out the Whole Game also. Just like Maxim's story develops. Maxim starts out as a lonely warrior in a quiet town who kills Jellies for a living and he is with his childhood friend Tia. (my fave character from this game) After returning fom the practice grounds one day Maxim finds out that they can not advance to a neighboring town any more since a Monster has stolen the key to the shrine. So he sets out and well.. The story get's so deep from here on out.

Overall 10/10

Pros
Improved battle graphics
Ikari Points
Challenging Puzzles
Ancient Cave
Gift Mode
Great Story
Great Music

Cons
Why didn't this one come first
When Comes the prequel to Lufia 2
Ikari Points Yes it's a mixed blessing
Could of been more challenging but tough enough

My advice is a must buy. or must download what ever floats your boat play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/01, Updated 02/16/01