"A very addicting, and challenging game"

Lufia (also known in Japan as Estopolis) never got the recognision that it deserved, mostly because of games such as Final Fantasy II, and III (U.S SNES names)When I first played this game I was instantly hooked, and played it non stop for days.. I have really enjoyed playing this game, so heres my review of Lufia & the fortress of doom ... Enjoy ^_^ *** NOTE - the main charactor doesnt have an official name, so i will refer to him as Jeros ***

Graphics - 8/10
Ok, so the graphics aern't all that good, but there not too bad for a game that came out in 1992(there much better than Final Fantasy II). The charactor sprites are very nice, and has good detail. The buildings are kinda plain, blocky.. the magics, and world map arent bad, but the enemies are pretty amazing for such an old game.

Music/Sounds - 9/10
WOW. The music in the Lufia series is what makes it shine the most. Every tune form the battle theme to the main theme will always stick in your mind. The sounds are also a plus. Everything from the sound of your swinging sword, to the sound of the moving menu cursor seem to fit just right in this game.

Gameplay - 7.5/10
The gameplay is pretty much similar to your standard RPG. You walk through towns collecting info, going through dungeons,beating a tower and go onto a diff town ..At times this can get pretty repetative, but its not too bad. The only real gameplay flaw is in the gamespeed, and in the enemy encounter rate. Walking though towns (running rather) runs pretty smooth, but the real problem is when your in dungeons. You charactor moves kinda slow, and it tends to take awhile to get anywhere. If this isnt bad enough, the enemy encounter rate is HIGH ... you fight a battle every 3-7 steps or so. This is the games only flaw ... Its kinda sad that they didint fix this. This brings us to the battle system. Lufias battle system plays like most of your standard rpg (Turned based like Final Fantasy)..The battle menu is quite unique, where as instead of the standard menu theres a T-Pad menu, whitch for some reson I like better ^_^

Story - 8/10
The story in Lufia seems like your typical Boy saves world from the Super Beings, but ends up more of a love story between the main charactor, and Lufia. Hiro meets a girl named Lufia , and they end up becomming best friends. When Hiro hears of the Sinistrails (super beings out to destroy the world) being spotted, he does what all 15-17 year old kids w/swords do, and thats .... FIGHT TO SAVE THE WORLD ! ^_^ Well after meeting awhole bunch of people, Hiro and companions end up going to the Doom Island (the sinistrails base), to rescue his love Lufia , and save the world. Of course the game has a lot of good plaot twists,ect.. that will keep you into the story.. If you ask m the only love story that beats this one is Lunar: EB, or Lunar : SSSC.

Replay Value - 7/10
To be perfectly honest, this games replay value is kinda low, sinse the adventure is soooo big, and you have to fight loads and loads of battles to get anywhere in this game. BUT after you beat the game, a RETRY mode appears that gives you 4X the gold, and EXP, whitch HELPS ALOT ... sinse the bosses are tough. Theres also the Dragon Egg side-quest.. BUT it can be done in the regular game... so all in all this is prob. a game that you will end up beating once or twice ....

Final Note
I highly recomend this game to every RPG fan. If you can find this game for a good price, Id say BUY IT !... so give it a try, youll be glad that you did.

OVERALL
9/10
LONG LIVE LUFIA !

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/15/01, Updated 12/15/01