RPG Talk: Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals

Lufia II: The Rise of the Sinistrals was released in Japan on February 24, 1995, and was released in North American over one year later in August of 1996. It was a sequel (or prequel depending on how you look at it) to Lufia: The fortress of Doom. Now before I can move forward talking about this particular game, I should probably establish that much of my feelings towards this game was drawn from the fact that I've never completed the original game, in fact it was several years after I completed this one before even playing the first one. So I won't mention much as far as the original is concerned in comparison to the sequel which is a little uncommon but bare with me..

Lufia II takes places 100 years prior to the original game. Following the ancestor of the originals hero, Maxim, as it follows the events leading up to the introduction scene in the first game. Maxim is a monster hunter in a small town that is informed by a mysterious woman named Iris about his connection to a mysterious light that crashed into the sea that is causing monsters to become more aggressive. Maxim's is forced into what appears to be a struggle between Mortals and Gods called Sinistrals. Simply to decide who deserves control over the world. The plot itself isn't any particular special and follows a pretty standard pattern. Probably the biggest complaint about this plot is the way it's moves forward, this game is very infamous for the dubbed, "Fetch Quests" where nearly everything done in the game works like this:

1)Go to town/castle
2)Something happens
3)Go to dungeon to find item or kill monster
4)Return to town/castle
5)Go to next town/castle and repeat.

Now, this setup on itself isn't unique nor horrible bad. It just becomes a little predictable after about halfway through the game. The other issue with this structure is just how random it gets, much of these fetch quests are required and usually have very little to do with the central plot. Such as retrieving a flower from a monster infested mountain mountain, fighting off an earthquake causing catfish, and fighting a spider for a ruby apple. I heard these quests often compared to what is called anime filler, which basically implies any episodes the don't effect the plot in anyway and is more or less used to fill out the season's time slots. Now this isn't entirely true of all the quests. A few do tie in to particular issues between characters and provide motivation for what is going more often the the ones just taking up space. For example the search for the treasure sword first begins to establish Selan's trust in the group, Maxim in particular.



As far as the characters go, most of them are fairly standard and don't heavily stand out as a whole, even in comparison to other RPG characters at the time. Though the characters don't have deeply developed back stories or emotionally troubling lives. They do have some interesting interaction from time to time. The character bicker over silly things, one I clearly remember when introducing themselves to a boss character, Guy calls Selan 'Magical Lady Wife Selan' which Selan absolutely hates and when they encounter the same boss later he uses the same name much to Selan's dismay. Tia own personal struggle with her feelings over the main character for the first part of the game leave you with a bit of a mix feeling when she is finally leaves. Maxim and Selan were the first couple in a RPG I had seen and it was different to see the few scenes where this was more apparent, particular closer to the end where Maxim tries to convince Selan to stay behind. However, most people tell me the most memorable was Dekar, a temporary character who was the strongest of the bunch but was a complete idiot, something about him reminds me of Gourry from Slayers. A strong guy who doesn't have a clue. Though he was a solid personality in comparison to the others, I wouldn't say he was incredibly memorable though. The biggest gripe that most have with the story is in the introduction we are introduced to a character named Arek, who appears to either be the head of the Sinistrals or at least a major power in connection to them, but for whatever reason after the introduction he is never seen again and is only mentioned briefly by Daos before the last fight in the game, nothing was ever really revealed about him which disappointed a lot of people because it feels like they just forgot about him..














The gameplay regarding travel and dungeon exploration was a little different from most RPGs I was playing at the time. Town and world map travel is fairly standard. In dungeons, the game ran kind of like a Zelda type form of exploration. Enemies in dungeons are visible and only move when you move. There are puzzles that range from simply pushing the block on the button, to brainteaser that will make want to break something. Several tools are found through the game such as bombs, hookshot, arrows, fire arrows, hammers, and so on that are used to deal with special obstacles or stun enemies.

Character gear is specific to character, on top of gear that just add stats, some equip had special attacks referred to as IP moves. Much like limit breaks and other special attack in future RPGs, the meter would built up as you took damage allowing you to perform attacks based on what you had equipped. However unlike most limit break systems, the bar didn't have to be full to perform many of the attacks and acted more like an additional MP bar. So often times you'll find yourself taking a gear that is slightly weaker with a solid IP attack that will deal far more damage with IP then the attacks alone. However, as I went through the game, I began to notice how useless some of these IP moves really are (Seriously I had gear for the longest time that had Free magic which I never encountered a use for at the time the gear was common). So it's wise to consider how useful IP attack is before you actually decide to use it. Spells are entirely bought and are specific to character, there is no exp earned abilities. Much like IP moves, there are a number of spells that are fairly expense and fairly useless on top of it, so if you want to avoid grinding for money it's better to pick and choose carefully.



The battle system follows a standard turn-based battle, which begin randomly on the world map and are encounter based in dungeons. Up to five characters are present in battle based on the progress of the story. The fifth slot opens up for a Capsule monster, eight monsters you can find throughout the game that will fight along side you and can be attacked, but always fully restored after each fight. These monsters can be fed and evolve into stronger monsters, a trait that would become popular in many games to come, though this wasn't the first time it had been done either. This game's spell system throws away the all or single target spells. Each spell can be casted on as many target as desire with every additional target making it relatively weaker, which I find interesting since usually even most spell systems at the time made you select one or all never some. Some IP attacks also work like this but not all IP attacks did this.

The game difficulty overall is relatively easy. There are very few of the actual boss battles that require a lot of effort. There are probably only two battles I can recall that I always lose a few times (Tarantula, I hate you so much. Seriously he can summon spiders, spray everyone with poison, has paralyze effect on his regular attack, AND has 2nd tier healing spell). The puzzles in the dungeons are fairly simple most of the time, but there are a couple that will feel tedious and frustrating. Though once you get by those it becomes fairly easy to manage and doesn't take much effort to get through.

The Graphics are fairly standard for their time. Nothing particular special about the way things look. The characters and monsters both are super deformed in design. Towns, Towers, and Dungeons use the same sprite sets for most of the areas in the game with slight changes to the palette and though their still very different in operation due to the various puzzles. Because of this though there aren't a huge number of difference environments outside of the later game areas.

The music was composed by Yasunori Shiono. Though his work is not as well known in the RPG world. His work in this particular game is a personal favorite of mine. The tracks ran from upbeat to subtle. The battle themes are lively and set the mood especially the Sinistral's battle theme. The sound effects are pretty solid for the most part, though a few of the third tier spells have strange noises connected to them which don't always seem to match up with the displayed creature.














However, perhaps the games most off the wall problem is that the game is bug-ridden. Later areas in the game display glitchy looking names that don't make any sense. The undersea shrine where you first meet Daos and find the Dual Blade is entirely scrambled making it difficult to navigate since you can't tell where the heck you are suppose to go. Also it completely ruins what would be considered a vital scene. Another bizarre glitch one time I played, I was trying to set some options and somehow got Tia maximum stats and level 0, as well as it took 10 seconds or so for her exp earned to display after battle, to this day I still cannot figure out how I did that and haven't been able to replicate it.

As far as extras, besides the Capsule monsters, and common casinos that are commonly featured, Lufia 2 biggest attraction is the Ancient Cave. A randomly generated one hundred floor dungeon which resets all character's levels to 0 and remove your gear allowing you to work your way through. Some people really love this, but I just never got around to going too far into it.

Overall the game has it's fair share of ups and downs. However, I still view it as a fair solid RPG, even with it's drawbacks the charming characters, pleasant musical score, and solid mix of gameplay elements Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals is worth at least a look and hopefully you'll take to it like I once did.