Lufia: The Legend Returns

"An instant classic for the GBC"

When I was 16 I sold my beloved copy of Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals for a copy of Final Fantasy 3 brand new in wrapping. I still believe this to have been a wise trade off, but I love Lufia 2. And Lufia: Fortress of Doom. Lufia 2 was better as it incorporated many action RPG aspects such as dungeon puzzles and tools, along with strategy aspects like seeing enemies in dungeons who moved when you did, so you could avoid unwanted battles. It was so awesome my friends and I were still playing it all through high school, even after we had gotten our N64's, Playstations and Dreamcasts. There was just something about all of it. Training capsule monsters, playing in the casino, and going through the all-fun ancient cave over and over again. Lufia 2 was one of the coolest RPGs for the SFC/SNES ever made. Everyone I know who was had the pleasure of playing it has fallen in love with it.

Last year I was at the local game store, looking for a game to play on my newly aquired Gameboy Advance. I saw Lufia: The Legend Returns in the used games case and said ''eh, why not?'' so I asked to give it a shot. And at the time I was dissapointed completely. Why? Maybe because I was on a graphics hype, or because I didn't look much into the mechanics of battle or dungeon exploration. Because when I downloaded the ROM last weekend I played a game that instantly became my favorite Gameboy color game ever. I played it until a few days later when I decided to cash in my store credit at funcoland and get the cartridge. And I've been hooked.

When you turn it on the first thing that will catch fans of Lufia 2 (if they aren't stupid like I was and just skipped it) is the opening cinema's music. It's a remix of the Fortress of Doom theme. It tells the story of the first two games (the first one and the prequel, 2)
Which I thought was cool.

This one takes place one hundered years after the end of Lufia 1. You play as Wain, a swordsman in a small town. One day he has a chance encounter with a travelling fortune teller, which is soon followed by the sinistral Gades firing a hell bolt down upon one of the houses in the village. Soon after Wain and the fortune teller journey to look for Gades and Doom Island, gaining fame and fortune, meeting people and seeing places, blah blah blah.

The real treasure of this game is that they took some of the really nifty aspects of Lufia 2 and made them more available. Like for instance in Lufia 2 there is an ancient cave which is a random dungeon in which you are stripped of your equipment and start at level 1 when you enter and work your way down the many many floors, getting normal treasure only used in the cave, and blue chest that have really good rare treasure which can be kept after leaving. Well in Lufia 3 every dungeon is random to an extent. The layouts are different when you enter or leave a floor, and all the monsters and chests are reset. Each dungeon has certain set things to it though, like for instance one floor might have a floor tile that refreshes your HP/MP/Status, and every dungeon has a set list of random treasure, and how often a floor will generate it. Also due to the cartridge size, they eliminated the tools (like bombs, arrows, hookshot) and replaced it with something I think is kind of stupid, but I see why. Your sword swinging replaces the use of bombs for blowing holes in the walls and if you hold then release the A button you will fire off a ''wave'' which will stun enemies and cute grass, ect. Also traps have been implimented. There is grass in every dungeon, which you can walk over, BUT it could have a damage, or status ailment trap under it, or even a chest! So it's worth it to cut it or ''wave'' it.

Another change are the battles. In Lufia 2 certain pieces of equipment had ''IP'' abilities, kind of like limit breaks I suppose in which you have an IP meter that fills up as you take physical damage, and when you get to a certain point you could use an IP ability. These were like special attacks, magicks or restorative abilities. In Lufia 3 you still have an IP meter, it still fills up as you take damage (but also as you deal damage this time) but the abilities are quite different. You find ''Ancient Texts'' in chests and from people that have abilities in them and can be learned depending on the character and how much ''Spiritual Force'' or SF they have. There are four colors of SF and each of the 9+ characters has one set, unchangable color. You can raise the value of SF by using LP which are gained at the end of battle are are pooled to use for all characters. Most IP abilities require more than one color to learn. Now you might ask ''how can one do that if they only get one color?'' well the answer to that is positioning. There is a 3x3 grid that your characters are lined up on. 3 in the front row, 3 in the middle row, and 3 in the back row. I'll explain how this affects battle in the next paragraph but for now I'll explain how it affects SF. SF flow horizontally and vertically. So the character will get the SF of the characters that are lined up as such to him/her. It's rather complicated really and you have to play with it a bit to really grasp how it works. Now if you learn an IP ability but move that character to another position that doesn't give him/her the required SF to learn it, it will cost more IP in battle. Positioning is very very important. But once you learn an IP ability it is learned permanently.

In battle positioning is also important. You can choose one character from each verticle row to take an action per turn. Also the characters in the front row, when wiped out, will end the game in defeat. Characters in the front horizontal row will take and deal 1.5x damage, middle row will be even damage, and back row is reduced damage given and taken by 1.5x. Magic damage is exempt from this rule, and IP/special attacks or battle item they deal, but recieved IP/special attack damage will be reduced/increased. So again positioning is vitally important. When you get into a ''surprised'' battle your positions will be turned to the left, which can be VERY BAD, especially if you aren't up to par with said enemies. (it's killed me before) so when positioning take that into account. The good news is you can change your positions at the beginning of a turn. but ... it's not going to help much if you run into some f**koff enemy group who can kill you in one turn before you get the chance to make an action.

Now for the vital statistics:
Graphics: 9
For the GBC this is pretty good. Kind of like rendered art for backgrounds. The sprites are uninteresting for the most part, but some of the high-end magic and special attacks look really impressive. Over all though, what can you expect from the 8-bit gameboy? (see screenshots below)

Sound: 10
Alot of this score goes to the fact that they used many of the really cool songs I loved in Lufia 2, remixed them and digitized them for the GBC. But just because I'm biased doesn't matter. It's still great music, and I'm sure you'd like it.

Plot: 6
Could be better. Not nearly as complete as Lufia 2, but overall it does it's job. Like I said, the game is carried by it's...

Gameplay 10
Awesome gameplay. Major props to Natsume for taking a great system and making it better, not to mention working with less powerful hardware. It takes a bit to get used to, but when you do, it'll be like second nature.

Overall: 9
Good game, much to what you'd expect from a Lufia game. If you are looking for stellar graphics though, don't bother because this is the GBC and it's not going to get much better than you've seen in the last year. If you want a handheld graphically impressive RPG/Strategy wait for Zelda 3, Fire Emblem 6, or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the Gameboy Advance. If you like your games wiht complex dungeons, LOADS of cool attacks and spells, with a plethora of characters to boot, pick this up. Probably $15 or less used. (I got mine for $10 used)

Replay Value: Well not so much of a ''replay'' but there's plenty of stuff to do at the end game. Like the ancient cave is back, and there's lots of random treasure to find in dungeons, as well as many optional-win battles which can have special rare weapons and armour.

I give this game a great score. It's one of the longest, most complete handheld RPGs I've ever played and it was well worth the long walk to the store.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/02, Updated 09/02/02