Lufia: The Ruins of Lore

"Some boss battles aren't as long as the regular battles here."

I am a huge fans of such RPGs like Golden Sun, Lunar, and Breath of Fire. They tend to be similar in terms of gameplay, but they all do an excellent job in presenting that gameplay. When I heard Lufia was coming out for the GBA, I was really excited. Upon playing the actual game, I became really disappointed.

Gameplay: Basically, it’s your traditional form a party and level them up RPG. However, one of the major flaws of this game starts here. The experience points are divided equally among all the party members, even those not battling. That way, you’d have to go through at least 4 times the battles that you would have had to if the experience points were given to everyone equally without division. Add to the fact that you can collect disc monsters. (Is is just me or is every RPG adding a collect this or collect that nowadays?) The limit may be 3 monsters, but already with the exp points being divided equally, the party is at a ridiculous number.

Yes, then comes the battling. You won’t find random encounters with monsters here. You can actually see the monsters on the field. Better yet, if you come up behind them, you will surprise them and they will lose the first them. However, the same goes for if they come up behind you. They take 1 step for every step you take. So it actually takes some strategy if you want to avoid them or surprise them.

Of course, when the actual battle starts, the game gets really boring. These have to be the slowest battles in an RPG ever. It starts out with a character attacking slowly followed by a period of wait, then another character attacks and so on. And for some reason, a character at level 20 will still be dealing 5 points of damage with every attack. Those same enemies will either deal 1 point of damage or miss. These battles just drag on and on. Add to the fact that when an enemy surprises you, you lose a whole turn to the slow, weak enemies. As if it could get any slower. Wait, I mentioned the experience points being divided equally, right?

To be fair, there are some impressing aspects of the gameplay in this game. For one, the three main characters can become apprentices to a certain master. You may be a swordsman and learn strong sword-based attacks, a priest and learn healing maneuvers, or even a thief and learn attacks based on trickery and stealing. Better yet, you can switch jobs whenever you want, so that you can learn varieties of magic.

Another aspect is the Ancient Cave, a randomly generated dungeon with about 60 or so floors. Each floor has a boss and a multitude of items, getting rarer as you go along. However, only the main character and his disc monster can go in. There is nothing really special about the Ancient Cave, aside from the fact that you can go with a friend that has the game. Good luck finding that unlucky person.

Finally, in Golden Sun fashion, each character has a certain special move that they can use outside in battle. The only downside is that these are generic moves like hit with a hammer or slash with a sword. It’s a shame because they could have included puzzles that use these special attacks, but oh well.

Rating: 4/10

Graphics: The graphics are standard 2D RPG overhead view, if not better. The graphics are crisp, but in reality they’re still nothing special. For some reason, you may experience slowdown. This is minor and won’t affect your gameplay, but it’s annoying.

Rating: 7/10

Story: The 2 characters you start with, Eldin and Torma, want to become hunters. Eventually they do and meet up with a diverse cast of characters. Eventually, you will need to find special relics or something. Whatever, it’s just the same collect 4 of these to prevent destruction of the world. There is very little in the way of subplots or love stories. In fact, I’m pretty positive the main characters in the game have no actual love interests, but who I am to judge? The story, while weak is not as bad as the actual gameplay.

Rating: 5/10

Sound: The sound is generic as well. Expect to here swords, whips, and for no real reason the sound of tornadoes.

Rating: 5/10

Music: The music is pretty good, but forgettable. It’s still worth listening to at least once.

Rating: 7/10

Replayability: Good luck even finding the time or the motivation to finish the game once. There isn’t much replayability unless you want to go to Ancient Cave with a friend.

Rating: 2/10

Rent or Buy: If you read this review and still want to play it, just rent it. If you actually find yourself liking the gameplay, then by all means buy it. Everyone else steer clear of this.

Final Rating: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/03, Updated 06/26/03