Sinistrals, hoochees, and the Magical Wife. (Lufia 2 - Rise of the Sinistrals (PC))

Member Name: CaffienatedYak

Product:	Lufia 2 - Rise of the Sinistrals (PC)
Date:	03/07/03 (859 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great music, Excellent ending, Damn good gameplay

Disadvantages: Slightly boring characters, Fetch quests. Lots of them.

A while back, when my SNES still had both controllers and SNES games were still widely sold outside of the "used game" bin, I stumbled across Lufia II at...a video rental store, and it grew on me. I never purchased it, sadly, but now I have it on an emulator. Muahahaha.

Ahem... anyway... Lufia II would go into the "neglected greats" category that has plagued many movies, musical artists and, of course, video games. In short, it's highly underrated.

It all starts when four mysterious balls of light are seen zooming across the night sky, and all around the world a particular red ball plunges right into the ocean. These four balls of light are supposedly the four Sinistrals- as their name suggests, Sinistral creatures who love destruction and all that fun stuff.

Boom boom boom ZAP. Excuse me.

They are Gades- Master of Destruction. Gades likes stomping all over villages, threatening to sink large islands, and actually not killing people (well, until he threatens to sink an island. I figure that'd kill a few people).

Arek- Master of Terror. Arek enjoys obliterating villages, killing the villagers in the process, and zapping Chaed (yet another village) with some gigantic yellow beam of light originating from his home- Doom Island. (Original, no?)

Daos- Master of Chaos. Daos's pastimes include... not much. He screams "YOU LITTLE HOOCHEES!" (!!!) at the heroes near the end of the game, and that's about the extent of his character... aside from the fact that he tries to steal the hero's sword during one scene. What a wonderful villain.

Erim- Mistress of Death. Among Erim's hobbies are having an identity crisis and consulting with Arek, who's supposedly their ruler or something (he's only shown in the intro and all we learn about him is he wonders who the hell should rule) and thinking the Sinistrals should rule over the humans. She also has a huge
pointy nose.

So there you hav
e your villains. Let's meet the heroes, shall we?

Maxim- (or whatever you decide to name him.) No, he's not a girlie magazine, or that company that makes all those Sim games (that's Maxis). Maxim is just this guy. He's kind of adventurous and helpful, and he's the hero. That's about it for Maxim.

Tia- Part 2 of the Love Triangle (Maxim is part 1) and, of course, she's a Childhood Friend Of Maxim's. This means she wants him in the sack (See: Tifa, Leena, Luna). She's also kind, gentle with children, and a bit tough. (Apparently the end of the game is about the first or second time she's ever cried her entire life). She leaves halfway through the game.

Guy- A gung-ho, typical adventurous guy whose girlfriend doesn't want him to leave. He has a sister, Hilda, that's he's exceptionally protective of... and he's also a bit of an idiot.

Dekar- The Rowdy, Dumb Warrior with a Heart Of Gold. He's the guardian, supposedly, for the prince of Bound Kingdom, and the finest warrior there. Of course, he's also reckless and dumb as a rock (See: Gourry Gabriev). He apparently vanishes later on in the game.

Selan (aka Mary Suelan)- The totally hot, skilled warrior babe of Parcelyte Kingdom. Men want her, women want to be her. Adept with magic, the sword, and a perfect mother later on (when she's not out killing evil and all) she's the final part of the RPG Love Triangle. (See- Aeris, Rinoa, Lucia, Katt, etc.) She makes a slightly likeable Mary Sue, but she still manages to be quite annoying.

Lexis- If Shera from Final Fantasy VII had a daddy who starred in early SNES games, it would be Lexis Shae. A somewhat eccentric, kind-hearted scientist who beats the crap out of those giant dragons with his mighty wrench, Lexis is a decent addition to the team... too bad he doesn't stay long.

Artea- A calm, cool e
lf from Eserikto, which is supposed to be for
bidden to humans (since the others are Important Playable Characters, they're allowed in.) He's a decent magician, good fighter, and I think he has a sister... that or that little girl named Milka (her parents must have hated her) is the daughter of a friend of his.

There you have it- the heroes, and the villains. Not much, but we'll work with em.

The graphics, as far as SNES goes, are great. Bright, colorful, cute. They're nothing compared to Super Mario RPG (what is?) but they're still enough.

Music is some of the best heard on an early RPG. Strings, harmonica (I think) and all that fun stuff, each fitting the mood of the scene or area perfectly (though the dungeon themes annoy the hell out of me) and the ending music is beyond excellent.

Storyline... pretty good, though all the fetch quests- one fetch quest per town is the norm- tend to break it up and make it feel awkward and stilted. ("Now let's go on to... oh, wait, they lost the key here, too. Okay, we'll get rid of the monster in that big old tower and find a tree for you to make a ship out of.") That could use a lot of work.

The plot's kind of hard to pin down (it mainly rotates around the Sinistrals, and Maxim & co's quest to stop them. Plus, I suck at explaining storylines) but I'll try- Maxim goes out on an adventure after hearing about the ball of light crashing into the ocean (Clingy- I mean Tia, follows him). He eventually ends up meeting Gades in a tower near a village called Gordovan (Gades trampled it.). Gades kicks his butt, continues his reign of destruction and people-not-killing, and ends up having a showdown with Maxim & co. at an ancient tower near Bound Kingdom.

Everyone learns there's still three more Sinistrals to gt rid of, and the quest continues. And stuff.

Translation, for the most part, is good. Daos's little out
burst at the end was possibly a mistranslation, bu
t I don't care. It's funny as hell.

Gameplay is very, very nice. Mini-games galore (gambling, for one. There's a large casino in an island town where you can play Five-Card Stud, the slots, and I-forget-what-else.) will keep you occupied, as will a series of eight monsters not unlike Pokemon- they are Capsule Monsters. You find them at varying points through the game, each representing an element (except the first one you get- Foomy. Foomy's neutral.)

You can pick which will assist in battle (they have a series of attacks that change, depending on their level) and pump them up by feeding them stuff from your inventory- certain weapons, armor, and items will make their "to-next-level" bar shoot up like a rocket, and when they reach the next level, they'll evolve (kind of like Pokemon.) Very fun, and very useful. Look out for them!

Then there's the eight dragon eggs hidden in various treasure chests throughout the game. Collect em all, and later on in the game you can take them to an island where a dragon resides, and get nice rewards... before it scatters the eggs randomly again. (Keep bringing em back for more goodies, till you're able to fight it. Beat it, and you get a very, very good reward. That's all I'll say.)

Finally, there's the Ancient Cave near the village of Gruberik. You'll reach it about the middle of the game, and you may soon be hooked. I'm not able to explain it too well... lemme try anyway. The Ancient Cave is 99 floors, starting with B1 and ending at B99. You can't memorize the layout since it changes every time you enter, and you lose all your items, and equipment when you enter (save 10 potions.)

You can get new stuff in the cave, but you only can keep what you find in blue chests. In the cave are 10 precious treasures that supposedly produce radiant light, and are priceless- the Iris t
reasures. (Iris is, incidentally, the name of a mysteri
ous woman Maxim and co. encounter a few times during the game.) Find all 10 (the final treasure isn't in a chest, actually- you'll have to search hard for it) and bring em back to Gruberik for... absolutely nothing. Congratulations.

Also, throughout the dungeons are various puzzles you have to solve to move on. Some are easy as one-two-pie, and some will make excoriating your skin and bathing in lemon juice look like the best option. Either way, they add to the fun and challenge of the game.

The replay modes are a really good idea, too- beat the game once, start a new game using a new option that appears, and you'll gain 4x the experience and gold from battles. Beat it twice, and you start in Gruberik, and you can choose which party members to drag into the Ancient Cave with you. Fun.

If you can find it for sale somewhere, and have an SNES... get it. Quick. It's a wonderful game, and playing it is like a memorable experience.

Just have a box of Kleenex handy for the ending.

Summary: