Lunar Knights

"Finally... We can stay inside!"

Kojima Studios has long been known for its renowned “Metal Gear Solid” series, primarily for the playstation console. What most people don't know is that for some time now, Kojima has had its hand in the portable gaming industry as well with the “Boktai” series. With the release of “Lunar Knights” (Boktai 4) for the DS, Kojima Studios has once again graced us with a wonderful game that most newcomers will be pleased with, and all Boktai fans will not be without. Having been released in Japan prior to the American release, most of the hardcore fans will have already beaten the title, without a clue as to what was going on. However, regardless of when you pick it up, Lunar Knights will play on so many of the DS's features that it will be instantly entertaining. The good thing about the title is that no prior knowledge of the Boktai series is necessary to follow the story, but having some knowledge of previous games will help to define the characters and weapons. You play through the game as two heroes, a refreshing change to a standard dungeon crawler's one-hero based story. Aaron the gunslinger and Lucian the lone swordsman-vampire hunter will both play an important role in the story, and can both be played during the storyline, adding a nice feeling of diversity. The only unfortunate aspect of these heroes is their names – changed from the original Boktai series for who-knows what reason. Aaron, formerly known as Django represents the ranged warrior of the game and is also the “sunlight” wielding member of the team. Lucian, previously known as Sabata is the melee fighter who represents the element of “darkness” or “moonlight”. These elements play a crucial role in the gameplay, as they affect when you can gather energy to perform basic and combination attacks. In the original Boktai titles, sunlight was required in order to perform attacks, which made gameplay feel tedious and at times restricted. The DS version incorporates a weather system that will determine the weather for you regardless of the weather outside, making character selection a key aspect, and also adds a cool element of realism.

“The only unfortunate aspect of these heroes is their names – changed from the original Boktai series for who-knows what reason.”

As soon as you start the game, you will realize that the people down at Konami have worked hard to incorporate every element of the DS. The opening cinematic sequence to the game looks astounding for Nintendo's handheld, and usage of items and equipment in-game make good use of the touch-screen. As if that weren't enough, the microphone can also be used to make your characters whistle, affecting enemies in-game. The combat itself hasn't grown much from the original Boktai games: dungeon crawling style backgrounds with simple hack-and-slash combat prevail in this title, but the variation in weapon choice helps to keep the combat from getting too stale too quickly. Another interesting edge to the combat is the special fusions that each character can perform coinciding with the element that they are currently equipped with. These special forms offer various attacks that can be chained and used to conquer bosses in a quick fashion, if not too quickly. Unfortunately, regardless of the weapon variation the dungeons themselves all have a generic feel to them, almost as if a different coat was being painted onto the same wall that we're all so used to seeing. Other noticeable downsides to the gameplay are the horrible voice-overs and lackluster sound-effects that almost make turning off the volume a necessity if not a desire.

“Dungeon crawling style backgrounds with simple hack-and-slash combat prevail in this title, but the variation in weapon choice helps to keep the combat from getting too stale too quickly.”

Should the combat become too repetitive, Lunar Knights offers a couple of nice features that help to lessen the repetitive nature of dungeon based titles: a Starfox-based space shooter occasionally becomes playable as the story progresses, and Lunar Knights also makes use of the DS' wireless versus capabilities, so go ahead and challenge your friends. When all is said and done, Lunar Knights has enough features and extras to define it from the rest of the Boktai series, and is a fun title with a good story that will keep most fans pleased, but may become repetitive to anybody who is not a fan of the series.

The Good: Incorporates many of the DS' fun features, has two playable characters, and has a cool vampire hunting story.

The Bad: lack of any real sound-effects, repetitive dungeons, and overly easy boss-battles.

OVERALL: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/07