Lufia: The Ruins of Lore

"Estpolis at it's Best(game of the year)"

Overview: Estpolis(or sometimes Estopolis) Densetsu is the 4th game in the Estpolis series. The Estpolis series is primarily known as Lufia in North America and Europe. This Estpolis is a fill in story and sways away from the previous Estpolis Denkii storylines. This one is placed between the events of Estpolis Denkii II and Estpolis Denkii. If you have not played the Estpolis games it is fine but having knowledge of II will help out as alot of the story near the beginning revolves around talking about the Hero and his Wife Selan. The great Hero is Maxim, whom sprouted descendants for Estpolis Denkii and Estpolis Denkii III. This is a whole new story to my knowledge (and minor Japanese skills) I see this game's hero with a minor connection to Maxim but that would be a spoiler to reveal that. The long and short of it is the young hero is off to become a great Treasure Hunter and to search for his father. (Ok this is a bit like Illusion of Gaia's story to a point as you are to search for your father and it involves treasure). Yet there's alot of originality to the story as the end boss of the game was more or less a surprise to me. The depth of the story will keep you hooked and playing asking what's gonna happen next. (minor note Estpolis Densetsu is not out in America yet and will probably be released under the Moniker of Lufia: Sacred Ruins or something to that extent. (currently being called Lufia Gaiden) But the subtitle under the Estpolis title screen means something to the extent of ruins. Now to the more extensive parts of the review.

Story: The main character and his good buddy Thorma are out to become great hunters and to hopefully retrieve treasures lost in ''The Great War'' or ''The War of The Island'' and to eventually find the young hero's father only time will tell if they would accomplish this or not. Also you find alot more about the first battle of Doom Island.

93/100

Gameplay: This is divided into 3 categories Battle Control, Class/Job System and Dungeon/Map Control.

Battle System: The familiar Estpolis control scheme returns for it's fourth twist and tale, once again the way IP and what IP stands for has changed this time it stands for Instalation Points which allows you and a monster you catch to infuse into one. The infused one will use attacks of the monster based on the players stats and what skills the monster knows. Overall it's a nice new twist to the system otherwise it's the same old crossbar system.
33/33

Class/Job System: This is a new twist on Estpolis as no Estpolis has had classes before, this is sorta borrowed from DQ6 but it kinda changes the Estpolis unique way on learning magic as now only Magic classes can learn magic and only by leveling up. Class has major effects on stats. The first class your hero is awarded is Hunter. You can change classes after reaching the Major Guild.

34/33

Dungeon/Map Control: Well you can see all enemies and there are no random encounters as in previous Estpolis Games, this is a plus and minus to this game but overall it can add a challenge for experts of avoiding as many battles as possible and for rookies who wish to gain lots of levels quickly. I do believe the Map could of used the typical world map system and random encounters but overall it's workable.
33/33

33+34+33= 100
Overall Gameplay= 100/100 (well 100/99)

Music: Yukio Nakajima does a very nice job with the sound track even though Yukio is usually overshadowed by Yasunori the main composer of the Estpolis games, this time Yasunori and Yukio put together a very nice soundtrack and once again the ending music fits the situation.
96/100

Replay: The Many Monsters the classes the whole new feel to the World of Estpolis makes this the most complete and original RPG since Pokemon. Estpolis also has the immensive Old Cave and have I mentioned it's 4 player traverse mode in the Old cave yes you can link up with your friends and play the random 60 floors of the Old Cave.
100/100

Overall: Estpolis Densetsu brings the Estpolis world ever closer now knowing what happened between Estpolis Denkii 2 and Estpolis Denkii. Even though many have scrutinized Taito for their filler story I find it the best story in the Estpolis storyline and the addition of the Disk system to capture Monsters makes it a very great game. This game is still robbing my life away as I play through again and again, and the Old Cave is funner each time thru. I give this game a perfect 100

Points of insignificance:
Graphics: These are the best graphics on the GBA and I have to say they even blow Golden Sun out of the Water. Graphics are stunning and animations of IP attacks are very nicely done. Magic spells are nice how the battles are seen are nice (Isometric view) and how your characters actually move and attack are all nice effects much better than any GBA RPG to date and over the previous games in the Estpolis series.
97/100

Final Thoughts: I say Import this now even with no knowledge of Japanese the emotions of characters more or less point out where to go, the puzzles maybe a bit tough but I say Import it now or wait until who knows when the US release is. Estpolis Densetsu was released on March 8th 2002 in Japan and it's rumored release in North America is September 15th 2002, but there has been no official word of it's release in North America. This is one game where Language means nothing (ok you will miss out on some of the humor without knowing Japanese but it's nothing big)

Estpolis Densetsu receives the coveted perfect score of 100.
(Don't get the Ruins name mistook with the scrapped Ruins Chasers game)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/02, Updated 04/26/02