Lufia Complete Series Retrospective

foreign [Music] was released in 1991 it took a while for RPGs to hit their stride on the system games like Soul Blazer Lagoon and Final Fantasy 4 were released to modest success but North American Publishers simply didn't prioritize the genre until the system's later years one of the titles that began to change that Trend was 1993's luffia in The Fortress of Doom the creation of a tiny developer named Neverland take on the role of an unnamed red-haired hero from the small town of alakia after his father died in a battle long ago he was adopted and raised by a man named Roman skilled with the sword he's the descendant of a Great Hero named Maxim who vanquished the sinistrals about a hundred years before the main events of the game in fact the game's intro actually puts you into the role of the four Heroes that accomplished that task before making the time Jump most of the game consists of the hero's adventures with his best friend luffia and two other Companions agoro and Sharon as you come to find out rumors of the sinistrar's Revival proved to be true the hero then sets up to rid the world of evil as the sinistrals regroup within the floating Fortress of Doom where they hope to gather strength and Stage another takeover of the world it's certainly filled with all the cliches and corniness from the time but that's also what you would expect from an RPG from the 1990s the graphics and overall experience of luffia in the Fortress of Doom really takes on an early SNES era feel so this one definitely looks more like Final Fantasy 4 and soul Blazer than it does Chrono Trigger Super Mario RPG it still has its own charm of course but it won't impress you with its visuals at all in all honesty luffia and the Fortress of Doom really is a product of its time this means it's an RPG with an incredibly High random encounter rate something that will turn away some but was just a fact of life back then but that's not even the most frustrating aspect of this game and that is of course the fact that your attacks won't default to a new enemy if the enemy you selected at the time of your move is dead so yep the same annoying system from the original Final Fantasy game is back here and it still sucks you really have to plan your attacks out carefully because of this don't exactly love the user interface for the battle system it places the characters in squares and obscures what could have been a wider view of enemies and environments the menu is super easy to navigate through but in general it reminds me a lot of the interface in Paladin's Quest and Linus 2. and that is not a good thing you'll also be forced in several places to grind levels before being able to proceed in the adventure otherwise you can get utterly destroyed by some enemies I have to give great credit to the battles for one thing though they're very fast paced for the era and play out in a streamlined way this is really refreshing because many of the battles and RPGs at this time play out slowly so at least this one subdues the frustration you'll feel from the super high random encounter rate to some extent at least soundtrack was created by a team of three composers it uses simple but infectious Melodies and definitely stands out there are Parts you'll hear the same songs over and over in succession but overall this was a really good soundtrack there's definitely enough variety here to keep you pleased some highlights for me were the Town Theme castle theme and the Earth theme all of which play throughout this video the music is certainly one of the title's best aspects as far as difficulty level I think the game is tuned about right considering the number of enemy encounters you'll be forced into bosses provide a good challenge that will make you think and dungeons aren't too complicated the whole experience will give you over 30 hours on your first playthrough too about what you'd expect from an RPG of this era luffia in the Fortress of Doom isn't one of my favorite RPGs on the SNES but it's definitely a solid option that gets overshadowed today simply because other games gain more Acclaim but for 1993 it was definitely one of the best titles of its kind gamepro and other Publications gave it a lot of Praise at the time and was the top selling SNES game in February of 1994 so it definitely was well received interestingly enough Luffy and the Fortress of Doom was initially planned to be ported to the Sega Genesis and was even slated for a North American release at one point however title's American office closed in 1995 leaving the game without a publisher the Genesis version never came out even though its marketing campaign had already begun in U.S gaming Publications the same year it must have been awkward if you wanted to buy that one unfortunately the original SNES cart is pretty expensive today with complete copies costing several hundred dollars it was never remastered for any system so that's the only way to play it outside of emulation even though the battle system in Luffy and the Fortress of Doom has aged pretty well overall the Random Encounters haven't and that may hold some people back from playing it now the graphics are lackluster and some of the themes are pretty unimaginative nonetheless the game's simple charm and fantasy story will feed the appetite of retro RPG fans and the soundtrack is great too in the end this one is still a must play for fans of the genre 1993 title published Luffy and the Fortress of Doom Neverland's first attempt at a console RPG the game got good buzz and gaming Publications for its interesting story fun-loving humor and memorable soundtrack title attracted a fan base that just loved the game and couldn't wait to find out what was next for the series when 1995 rolled around they were all treated to luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals which was published by natsume this time instead of title and man I dedicated hours to this game back then it came out relatively late in the SNES life cycle but I still loved it at the time first thing to realize about luffia 2 is that it's a prequel to Luffy and the Fortress of Dune you play as Maxim the legendary swordsman from the town of elsid as his Village's protector he teams up with his childhood friend Tia and several other companions to confront the sinistrals a group of four god-like beings hell bent on global domination my favorite of Maxim's eventual companions is Dakar a powerful Warrior that you recruit to join you a bit later in the game many aspects of the story are woven into the original luffia game and honestly if you played through that one you'll actually know the ending to this one that was definitely a bit of an odd Dynamic compared to most RPGs at the time but there is enough character development in twisting the adventure to make it interesting regardless one thing I think luffia 2 does a really good job of is throwing you into a tutorial of sorts at the very beginning this will familiarize you with some of the game's key mechanics and it's really helpful for those beginning the game for the first time it's actually the village Elders so-called secret dungeon where he intends to teach Maxim some skills so it's even woven into the story a little bit but it's not exactly much of a secret it's the only visible area right next to your hometown anyway while the game retains many of the same themes as the original there were also several stylistic changes that may surprise some fans the biggest was rather than random battles in dungeons enemies appear visually on the screen and the player can avoid them through movement there's one catch though that makes the experience different from other RPGs with on-screen enemies whenever you move the enemies also move at the same time so as you're moving they're likely to run into you and trigger a battle still you can use distance to your advantage to avoid many of these encounters if you want that's something you couldn't do in the original luffia so this is fantastic still do have random battles on the Overworld but the lower number really makes things a lot less nerve-wracking luffia 2 does present another potential source of frustration for some players though and it's actually the biggest difference between this game and Luffy in the Fortress of Doom luffia 2 is far far more puzzle oriented than its predecessor and a huge portion of the gameplay is spent solving these challenges many of them involve hitting switches in the right order firing arrows at objects to create new paths and even using the hook shot to Traverse chasms there's several dungeon-based items you'll need to make use of and the whole feel is quite similar to The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past another of luffia 2's Innovations is the IP system IP which represents units of ikari a Japanese term for anger is an attribute much like hit points and Magic points unlike those measurements though each character gains more IP the more damage they take in battle view it as a rage gauge of sorts whenever characters have enough IP they can unleash extremely powerful Effects by making use of weapons armors or accessories some of these IP techniques heal allies increase Ally stats decrease enemy stats or deal extremely high damaging attacks there are about 150 IP techniques in total so there's a lot to experiment with this was an interesting way to expand the gameplay beyond the typical RPG and it forced the player to take additional options into account when choosing commands lufia 2 also gives you the ability to recruit various capsule monsters throughout the game that join your party and serve as a guest character of sorts once you find them you can feed them various items to increase their power and they evolve into more powerful forms as you go you can't control them directly but they do chip in to help in various ways in battle there are seven capsule monsters in total and they each have five forms this was yet another fun way to customize your party and increase in power so I say Bravo it was a good idea compared to the original luffia luffia 2 offers a slightly improved combat interface there's still the blocky appearance when you're selecting menu commands but after you've chosen your commands each turn you're treated to a much cleaner looking interface this was definitely a welcome addition and makes the title a lot more polished all the new mechanics and content wasn't enough luffia 2 also added a bonus dungeon the ancient cave which provides a daunting challenge even for the most skilled players it's 99 floors all of which are randomly generated can't bring in any of your items or weapons so you can only equip what you find inside it's an incredible challenge to overcome but it's not required to beat the game or anything like that yasunori shiono one of the three composers that worked on the first luffia game returned for the soundtrack on this one definitely has a similar feel but I think it's a step up in terms of quality it also has about 20 additional tracks so the developers made a conscious effort to add more variety it's really just solid overall when it comes down to it luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals is superior to the original luffia game in every single way and beyond that it's a flat out great RPG in its own right historian characters are interesting the combat is well designed and the puzzles capsule monsters and IP system adds several additional fun Dynamics to the experience the puzzles are creative and extremely rewarding when you solve them but they do have the potential to make some players frustrated it's it's kind of like a laundry in that way soundtrack is great and the ancient cave will give you many hours of fun beyond the normal playthrough the overall difficulty is a little bit on the easy side but I still think this is a top 10 RPG released on the SNES in North America Luffy and the Fortress of Doom and luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals both turned heads on the SNES before RPGs really took off in North America they were never the most popular RPGs by any stretch of the imagination either but both attracted a fan base by 2001 fans of the series clamored for a new luffia game like luffia 2. so developer Nihon Flex oblige and began creating a new luffia game for the PlayStation it was going to be called luffia 3 ruins Chaser unfortunately though there was a huge snag in the project development was delayed when Nihon Flex went totally out of business in the middle of the game's production and the game itself was scrapped just when it seemed luffia 3 would Fade Into the shadows of History though original luffia developer Neverland bought the rights to the project however they ultimately decided to convert it into a Game Boy Color game while still retaining many of the core components the result was luffia the legend returns which came out in 2001. in this one you take control of Wayne a teenage descendant of Maxim one day a mysterious woman in his village of Patos came looking for a swordsman however she is unpersuaded that Wayne has the skill she is looking for so he becomes annoyed and takes out his aggression on Monsters outside of town as he travels back to the Village though a huge lightning bolt shoots out of the sky Burning Down The House of lamika a girl who lives next to him Wayne is able to save lamika from danger but is heard in the process he's nursed back to health by the mysterious woman who now identifies herself as Cena a traveling fortune teller and get this she convinces Wayne to join our on an Ever nebulous Great Adventure yeah it's one of those games the two venture to the nearby Tower of death where they find out that the attack on the village was actually the work of goddess so yeah that's right this game brings back the sinistrals a fact sure to please fans of the previous two games most of the story involves finding a way to stop the newly awakened sinistrals and save the world along the way you can recruit 10 characters in addition to Wayne and Cena now the thing that stands out about this luffia game compared to the others by far is the combat system in the other luffia games you can have up to four members in your party at one time but in this one you can have a whopping nine characters are actually arranged in a three by three grid with a row system making quite a big difference in terms of which characters deal and take the most damage I've never really seen anything quite like it it works a bit like the Final Fantasy games just oriented vertically rather than horizontally it all seems a bit confusing at first but only three of your characters get a chance to act per turn one per column also if all three characters in the top row of your party are killed you get a game over even if the other characters are left standing I found this forced me to pay special attention to those characters and swap them around on the grid when necessary also there's a mechanic called the spiritual Force system that assigns a specific color with distinct benefits to each character red increases attack blue increases magic green increases defense and yellow increases speed you can learn IP attacks in this one with ancient texts found throughout the game and your spiritual Force Level impacts the power level of the attacks you learn also spiritual Force flows between characters in the same row and column in battle and many IP attacks require more than one color to learn again all this is a little confusing but this was definitely a unique mechanic and I have to give credit to the development team for making the formation system a lot less dull than it is in many other games unlike all other titles in the luffius series all the dungeons in luffia the legend returns borrow from lufia 2's ancient cave mechanic this means that they're all randomly generated so each playthrough will be completely different with different hidden items and passages however it must be noted that there aren't any puzzles to solve here at all so people that love that aspect of luffia 2 may be disappointed to some extent in this one the sound quality in Game Boy Color games just doesn't hold up very well and I'd be lying if I said it did but for the system the soundtrack and Luffy of the legend returns is really good it brought back yasunori shiono from the previous two luffia games so you can definitely expect a very similar fantasy Style what is really impressive about this too is that there are almost 70 tracks which is almost unheard of for a Game Boy Color game so I guess the question eventually becomes does this one hold a candle to the other luffia games well I'd say it's a very respectable follow-up to luffia 2 and arguably one of the best RPGs on the Game Boy Color ties into the lore of the franchise well and the characters are actually pretty well developed given the limitations of the platform the dialogue is also pretty well written too and filled with some of the same quirks and humor that attracted fans to the series the unique combat system is what really shines and that will definitely keep you on your toes the decision to incorporate this style and create the spiritual Force system were both bold departures from the previous luffia games that actually worked well true that some of the battles eventually become pretty monotonous with regular attacks mostly doing the trick but I guess that can be forgiven I think it's a pretty respectable sequel that ties into the story of the series better than its successor Luffy of the ruins of lore for the Game Boy Advance at one point luffia was one of the most well-known RPG franchises in the world but well it no longer is and that's a real shame too especially considering that fact has made some of its entries so overlooked now no other luffia game probably matches that description better than luffia the ruins of lore which was which was released on the Game Boy Advance in May of 2003. came out less than two years after the release of luffia the legend returns which was pretty poorly received overall many fans hope that this new luffia game for the Game Boy Advance would be much more similar to luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals than to its Game Boy Color counterpart but was it I'll let you know in this video but before I get into all that please make sure to like the video and subscribe to my channel for more Retro Gaming content luffia the ruins of lore takes place 20 years after the offense of luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals so you'll notice some of the same locations and themes after the defeat of the sinistral's 20 years prior to the game the world entered into a time of relative peace however all the Tranquility was interrupted when the kingdom of garaze allied with a mysterious man named ragul their aim is to search the world for a missing part to revive a powerful monster known as the Beast that would allow them to conquer the world you take control of Eldon an orphan who trains with a sword and dreams of being an adventurer his journey takes off when he travels with his best friend torma to parsolite so the two can become Hunters after accomplishing this they find a girl robbed of her mysterious Stone after deciding to help her out and successfully retrieving it rubius joins the party and you eventually find out she's searching for Stones around the world to enter a fabled Promised Land now I won't spoil her reasoning behind this but Eldon gets wrapped up in her purpose and there's a lot of surprises along the way you can recruit several characters throughout your journey including the infamous descar from luffia 2. and I have to say this was a definite highlight for me because he was my favorite character one new character I liked a lot was Bao who was a former Hobbit that was transformed into a dog and well that transformation gave him surprising battle Powers as a result fans of the capsule monsters from luffia 2 will be pleased to know that the system is back here too mostly at least here they're called disc monsters and you actually have the ability to capture almost any roaming monster in the game the disc monsters are linked to the party member who captures them and receive a percentage of the experience points from your party they can evolve into more powerful creatures once they level up enough and are fed specific foods and there are almost 200 unique monsters it's a fun system that allows for a lot of customization but I decided to forego the monsters in favor of regular party members when it comes down to it battles in luffia the ruins of lore look and feel a lot like luffia too your characters appear at the bottom of the screen and it's a straight up turn-based Affair where you can select to use a regular attack magic spell or item there are two fairly big differences though the first is that unlike in luffia 2 where you can perform special IP attacks in this one your full IP bar can be used to merge with a disc monster when you do this you can either become invincible for three turns or unleash a series of special attacks during this time frame the second change is that you can freely swap between characters on the Fly mid battle and that's a great feature that allows you to switch your approach on the Fly puzzle solving is a focus in the dungeons but unlike in luffia 2 you don't collect tools instead each character has their own unique ability much like how this works in the Breath of Fire Games for instance torma can use a grappling hook to cross over chasms Romney can use fire to melt blocks of ice and bow has a hammer to smash objects you'll have to make use of all these abilities as well as moving blocks hitting switches and all the other stuff you did in lufia 2's dungeons the biggest novelty of luffia the ruins of lore is probably the game's job system there are 13 jobs in total in this one seven of which are available near the start of the game but four are hidden throughout the world once a character takes on a job they progress in job Levels by gaining experience points and unlocking new abilities as you go along now the cool thing about this is once you obtain a new ability you also have it permanently so you can always switch to a new job and mix and match it was a pretty fun system that reminded me a bit of Final Fantasy V but there aren't nearly as many classes in this one in the grand scheme of things Luffy of the ruins of lore is a bit of a mixed bag for me the characters are fun but not very well developed but the overarching story wasn't too bad both the job system and the disc monster system were fun ways to truly make your own party distinct but neither really defines the game I also thought some of the dungeons were way too long and frustrating and even though you can avoid enemies on the screen there sure are a heck of a lot of them to deal with outside of those things though this is a pretty fun game at its core the animations in battle were pretty darn good for the GBA as was the music it's just too bad the sound quality for the Game Boy Advance wasn't great at all because this soundtrack could have sounded a lot better on different Hardware the puzzles work pretty well too and those were pretty rewarding and the whole combat experience was great luffia the Runes of lore isn't even in the same universe as luffia 2 but it's still a pretty solid RPG on the Game Boy Advance [Music] foreign the ruins of lore the franchise went totally dormant for several years Neverland continued to develop games for the GameCube PlayStation 2 and Playstation 3. the company even acquired the rights to publish two games for the acclaimed tactical RPG series Shining Force Shining Force Neo was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and Shining Force EXO was published on the same platform in 2007. now it's true that The Shining Force and luffia series shared a lot of the same fan base but many people who grew up with luffia felt like that franchise was being disregarded in comparison and honestly they weren't raw a Neverland's defense this could have been because sales for the luffia games were lackluster but I haven't been able to find much information on that regardless the series went dormant for seven years eventually Neverland made the Bold choice to resurrect luffia 2 on the Nintendo DS luffia curse of the sinistrals was released in North America in October of 2010 and it definitely got its fair share of attention back then the only problem was a lot of that attention was negative the game adopted a completely different graphical Style with a 3D engine and kind of an overhead third-party perspective most controversially instead of the turn-based luffia 2 curse of the sinistrals uses a fully action-oriented combat system it even disposes of the Overworld map so you just have to navigate between locations via nodes on an area select screen many locations from the original were also removed and some that remained were altered drastically the game does try to preserve the same basic story more or less but some aspects of it were also eliminated it seems pretty clear that Neverland was trying to attract a new audience to the world of luffia rather than satisfying the dreams of its hardcore fans and the result was a miserable failure the game sold only 14 000 copies in its first week in Japan which was considered a complete bomb it sold 110 000 copies in North America which was a bit better but it still didn't meet expectations most of us North American Gamers were never aware of it but a mobile luffia game called s-police denki DX was released in Japan at some point in the 2000s the primary focus of that game was the ancient cave randomization style from luffia 2 with a graphical and battle system extremely similar to that one however there's so little information out there on this game and it's not even clear when it was released it seems to have gotten defunct long ago but if you know more about it please do leave a comment below taken as a whole the luffius series embodied many of the best aspects of old school RPGs that many of us grew up with I think of this franchise I think of its simple straightforward Style with a light-hearted feel it's extremely memorable music and its turn-based combat system that I just always loved I view luffia 2 rise of the sinistrals as the Crown Jewel of the franchise and that's definitely the one to play if you can only play one I have so many fond memories playing that one after school and sharing its secrets with friends there's just so much replay value packed into it and the ancient cave concept has been utilized in countless games after it so its influence lasted long after its time luffia is unfortunately a dead franchise at this point and that's a true shame but that doesn't mean we can't remember it again whether for the optimistic charm the witty dialogue the capsule monster system or the puzzle solving the luffius series gave almost every RPG fan something to love so what do you remember most about the luffia games and which Luffy game was the best in the series let me know what you think in a comment below please like subscribe and click the bell for more Retro Gaming content and if you want early access to the videos I produce in other perks please consider supporting the channel by becoming a patreon patron or via the YouTube join feature [Music] thank you thank you

Channel: Xygor Gaming

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Id: QzcDbv2Q1vQ

Length: 29min 15sec (1755 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2023