Lufia: The Legend Returns

"Quite possibly the best RPG ever on Gameboy Color!"

''I never really cared too much about the Lufia series as I was a final fantasy fan, but had a extra $20 on hand and since they conveniently pushed back every game I intended to buy that month I decided to get this to restrain me from annihilating something. I had never played a Lufia game before, and expected a crap RPG, what I got was quite possibly the best GBC rpg released in the US! Why do I say so, you ask? Keep reading.''

Controls 10/10:

The controls aren't hard to get used to, and they aren't choppy or blocky, however, staircase walk needs to die. The vast amount of tutorials in this game teaching you the controls will probably make you want to use the ''Sacrifice'' spiritual force. However, if the game's mazes and puzzles don't get you lost, the menu will with all the complicated enhancements on this game.


Storyline 7/10:

The storyline in this game is weird, for most of the quest you won't know what the heck is going on, and through the rest of it you may be thinking the same thing, but the story still manages to flow, even though they sidetrack off of the storyline(is there even one of those?) uncountable times. The story scenes in this game are actually quite interesting, you may even want to listen to their funny little conversations, sure alot of the story scenes are meaningless, but it actually feels good to laugh at a story scenes on the GBC instead of watching TV while you tap A rapidly.


Graphics 10/10:

The graphics in this game are really lively and colorful, although they look a little too bright unless you play them on Gameboy Advance, I actually got sort of a SNES feel when seeing the graphics on this game. There are also many background effect like you can see a red atmosphere background when there is a fire, and so on. All the NPC's are brilliantly colored despite the lack of colors on GBC and everything else colorwise is just great on this game.


Sound 8/10:

Actually, the sounds for this were pretty good! No annoying loud bleeps but instead a chime, they seemingly were very creative with the sounds.


Music 10/10:

The music on this game is absolutely fabulous! I love the boss theme here the most, and since they have so many bosses, I'm definetely satisfied there, you may actually find yourself trying to master a certain level just to hear the music in the next place. Aside from that the music always complements the place you are in, meaning that each music fits your current situation perfectly! Never thought I'd want to have a soundtrack of GBC game but this deserves one.


Overall 9/10:

I think they have covered every element a RPG needs to be good, and then some! This game requires alot of strategy to beat and alot of persistance as you may find alot of the bosses more challenging than they should be. Seeing that this is right behind Dragon Warrior III and Star Ocean I give it a solid 9


Replay Value 8/10:

It has good replay value for a while, but after the 3rd time or so you may find that it gets old.


''To buy or to rent''

I'd definetely say its a buy, you will be taking alot of breaks simply for the fact that you can and it would take too long to beat if you rented it, plus you may want to even play it again! It's a buy ^_^

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/02, Updated 09/08/02