Overall 9.3 Graphics 7 Sound 7.5 Addictive 7.8 Story 8.3 Depth 7.3 Difficulty 7
9
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom: History Repeats Itself janus
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom is a classical turn-based RPG where you grind levels and try to save the world. While not outstanding, it’s still worth a try for all it has to offer
Graphic: 6/10
Graphics are definitely sub-standard for 1993. It uses no 3D whatsoever – even Final Fantasy IV did better.
By themselves the graphics are average at best. The characters you control, while less pixelated than their Final Fantasy counterpart, are grossly drawn. The children (100 years later) and the adults (Aguro and the team from 100 years in the past) are barely distinguishable and they look like midgets - Jerin had a bowl cut and looks like she's wearing diapers. Town people look a little better and adults are easier to distinguish – there are even elderly people with white hair. On the plus side you can at least run when there is no combat around. I would have preferred all the time (like Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals) but it’s a start; you don’t need any accessory to run.
Speaking of towns, they are nice and colorful with lots to explore - many dressers and furniture contain bonus objects. Coastal cities all have ports while castles all have many floors, faithful to their sheer size. Perspective is logic most of the time – you can hug a wall and even walk under bridges – and their graphic icon on the world map is proportional to their size (villages are very small, whereas towns look like the ones in Dragon Warrior III).
On the world map the tiles are clear for the graphic capabilities. The water is flowing, there are cloud everywhere, poison fields hurt you unless you float and bridges are well-drawn – the longer the better. Impassable (on foot) mountain ranges look more like high plateaus and were better-drawn even in Shining Force I. Dungeons also boast a good variety of backgrounds, maybe even higher to FF. Caverns are deep and come in different colors, they have all sorts of obstacles (stalactites, “grids”, pits) that will make your life difficult. On their sides towers also come in all sorts of colors and have, most of the time, edges from which you can fall outside like the Dragon Warrior Series. It’s very practical because most of the time you can’t escape magically from them. Furthermore, while not very elaborate (you can only plunge at specific places), the underwater part was well-done. The screen is a little blurry with all the water, there are realistic currents which you can only follow and there are also treasures to be found.
Finally the battle system was very ordinary. The battle screen merely consists of your characters fighting the monsters over whichever background you are. The chips used are apparently primitive since attack-all spells and weapons (everyone or groups) repeat the spell/attack individually. Imagine when you are casted upon a spell 3 times in a row… Enemies merely shake for whatever action they take, whereas your party has one move for ordinary attacks and one for spells. Weapons are slightly differentiated in their animation but it’s not something worth mentioning.
Spells, on the other hand were well-done. They have three levels each and the higher the level the more impressive they become: water floods much more, explosions almost look nuclear, fire looks really hot and ice looks impenetrable. Also, Miracles (all-restoring elixirs) have a flashing effect when used in battles and I think it was well-done.
Music: 6/10
While there are some nice arrangements, Lufia’s music is also subpar with other video games of its time.
In many cases the arrangements are just annoying – the overworld map trumpet is shrieking in my ears and the port town theme also has annoying trumpets – or just not good enough (the ordinary boss battle just doesn’t carry the same drama when you fight the Sinistrals). The castle music is very bland and the cavern theme, while sounding mysterious enough, doesn’t carry the same feeling as Into the Darkness (FF IV) or even the theme in Final Fantasy III.
Nevertheless there are some good arrangements. The town theme is lively, the tower theme sound very mysterious and epic and the Fortress of Doom sounds excellent for a final dungeon theme. At one point you even explore it underwater and the theme (Quiet Shrine) is a good remix of the original. Finally, the very last battle theme sound dramatic enough (but not out of this world) and Lufia’s theme is light, in accordance with the innocence of her character.
Sound effects, like the graphics, are rather ordinary. When you scroll the text at slower speeds you hear the sound of the letters defiling on the screen and it’s VERY annoying – plus there seems to be only one sound for it. Battle sounds are also very repetitive; only bows sound definitely different. Enemies, on their side, ALL sound the same.
Fortunately magic was given some attention. The higher the level the more dramatic the sound: bolts sound “shocking”, water sounds like spring meltdown, fire sound like a bonfire and ice sounds like a snowstorm.
Addictiveness: 9/10
Fortunately, despite technical shortcomings, the game has a lot to offer.
First there is the Old Cave where, for each 5 levels of experience you gain, you can explore one of the 7 levels in order to get a special item for which you will be given money. Of course there will be plenty of other treasures for you to keep like weaponry or potions. You really only need to go there twice for the plot, but what you get from the cave is invaluable. Note that as you go down enemies become more difficult; the 7th level has the same enemies you see in the intro Fortress of Doom.
You will also have the occasion to collect Dragon Eggs, for which you can receive either “Mighty” weaponry or increase your levels and get potions. You can even to this quest twice over (get a total of 24 eggs) so it’s going to take a while.
In addition at the very end (after the credits) you will get all sort of statistics about your game like how many times you died, how many treasures you found and how many secret objects (in poison fields, in flower fields in towns) you gathered. Can you get a perfect score?
Finally there is even a “new game +” option you can get after you first complete the game. It’s the exact same thing except that you gain experience at four times the ordinary rate. Very practical when you hate grinding levels.
Story: 9/10
Lufia I gets extra point for the originality of its scenario.
Without warning, the island suddenly appeared in the sky.
Four foul and wicked beings claimed it for themselves.
They possessed the frightening powers of Chaos, Destruction, Terror, and Death.
The people were horrified. They called the evil ones "Sinistrals".
The reign of Terror continued.
The world massed its warriors to battle their dark foes.
But the Sinistrals were all powerful.
In desperation, the people called on their bravest fighters: Artea, Guy, Maxim, and Selan.
And so began the final battle...
(From the introductory text)
So you start the game with these four over-leveled characters (level 77 or so) in the final stage of their quest. It was practical to get acquainted with the basics of the game. Unless you are truly unlucky you will dispose of the Sinistrals very easily… but not without Selan dying of exhaustion and Maxim standing by her side (only Guy and Artea escape).
The game then moves 90 years in the future where a descendant of Maxim (you) just lives his daily life in the Kingdom of Alekia. One day a mysterious young girl name Lufia pops in the village and befriends you. Still nine years later trouble brews again: the Kingdom of Sheran was attacked by monsters! After you go there you indeed find out that the village is in ruins.
You go back to Alekia but kingdom bureaucracy won’t send help for weeks, so you go back and take Lufia along after much insistence. There you find out who was responsible for the massacre: Gades, the Sinistral of Destruction!
Depth: 8/10
What I just described should take about an hour of gameplay if you’re new to the game. The game is going impressively into deep for such underwhelming technical points, taking at least 30 hours of your time. There will even be interesting plot twists you won’t see coming.
The storyline in itself is quite elaborate. After you survive your encounter with Gades (thanks to Lufia, strangely enough), someone tells you that Guy (yes, he’s over 100 years old!) might know something. Before he dies from a heart attack (the Sinistrals are back!!), he tells you to find Artea. His blindness keeps him from joining you but he will direct you to Raile Shaia, an inventor who developed a machine going underwater that might help you get back Dual Blade, Maxim’s sword against the Sinistrals.
In addition, as I said earlier, the sidequests are quite elaborate. Getting all the treasures from the Old Cave will take quite some time, and finding the Dragon Eggs after you collect the original 8 will take even more time.
The only caveat I can think of is the lack of diversity in your party. Whereas Lufia II lets you play a few characters before going to the Fortress of Doom, Lufia I only lets you play the same four characters, who are basically the carbon copies of Maxim’s party: the fighter with healing spells (you), the pure fighter (Guy/Argus), the magician (Selan/Lufia) and the elf with an arc and magic spells (Artea/Jerin).I thought it was annoying considering their age (teens at most), but Lufia and Jerin's cat fight was funny at times
Difficulty: 7/10
When I first played the game I thought it was pretty difficult. Probably because of my limited English I had a very hard time moving beyond Grenoble; I thought I had to finish the Old Cave before moving on!
But now, and even with save states, this game is pretty challenging. The simple crossing of a bridge can tremendously change the strength of the enemies, potentially wiping out your party. If you’re trying to run undefeated then it will be challenging. Also, as with many RPGs, the encounter rate is ridiculous, especially at sea. Sweet Water can help reduce the rate but not contain it altogether.
Also, still with save states, bosses are quite challenging. Their range of action is influenced by YOUR actions (attack, magic, defend, etc.) but is very limited. So if you are level-grinding against, say, red cores you only have a limited choice of actions to keep them from fleeing.
Fortunately, that can be played around with thanks to Foul Water. When you use it, you will encounter enemies every single step you take. Who you fight depends on the random number generator, so you can abuse the save states in order to get the encounters you like and get a lot of experience in a short time – red cores are worth about 14k a piece while Mimics are worth around 3k.
In short I recommend Lufia and the Fortress of Doom. Despite substandard graphics and music, both the storyline and the sidequests will keep you begging for more.
Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 9 Story 9 Depth 8 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 07-02-15
Updated: 07-02-15
Review Replies: 2
7.9
1st part AND sequel oO? Bizzgeburt
I'm very glad and grateful, that nobody else released a review for this game yet.
As a lil' kid I played Lufia II, not knowing, that it's the sequel of this game here (Lufia was never released in Germany & the second part was released just as "Lufia"). I thought of it as one of the longest and - because of the sometimes very hard puzzles - most difficult rpg's on snes. I kind of discovered this game by searching roms for my ZSnes emulation-programme and I was overwhelmed by the fact that it deals 90-100 years AFTER the second title. So, I was actually abled to play the story in its chronologic order, hehe. I like game-series that allow you to start with any game of the series without having any problems in understanding what the story's about. You won't find much series that offer you that opportunity.
Be sure that I will write this review, well knowing that this game was released a few years before "Rise of the Sinistrals", so I wont compare those two titles with each other. That wouldn't make much sense. I'll try to rate it as fair as I can, and I hope, true fans of the Lufia-games wont be offended too much, if I make a bad rating at one point.
Non-equal to the game-reviews I wrote before, I'll start by giving some basic information about this game before rating the single points such as graphics, story etc. ...
The game starts telling the story of the four sinistrals, who attacked humanity with their flying fortress over 90 years ago, throwing the world into chaos an destruction. You see the four heroes Maxim, Selan, Artea and Guy in their final battle against the four demons, lastly defeating them. After the sinistrals are defeated, the fortress erupts, killing Maxim and Selan, who are not able to leave anymore. Guy and Artea warp back to earth, telling the people the story of Maxim's and Selan's honorful sacrifice.
Peace came back to the world, and the tale of the four heroes and their last fight against the sinistrals became a legend.
Over 90 years have passed now. You slip into the role of a young red haired boy living as the son of a innkeeper in a peaceful town. It soon get's clear that you are a descendant of Maxim. That's when you meet a shy girl named Lufia and become friends with her. A few years later, the boy (you) has become older and stronger and is member of the king's troops. Instead of lingering around all day like all the other soldiers of the kingdom, knowing that everything will stay peaceful as ever, our main-character keeps himself prepared for a case the four sinistrals may come back, trying to destroy the world again.
Just as it was a hint of destiny, you hear a rumor, that the neighbour-kingdom was attacked by monsters. While investigating the attacked city, you meet and fight Gades, one of the four sinistrals, that came back to accomplish their mission. Unluckily, you loose that battle and fall into unconsciousness. Lufia comes to your aid and brings you back to the innkeeper, where the situation get's discussed. This is the point, where a long journey begins, leading you through a number of dungeons and towns, across mountains and oceans, meeting all kinds of people, foes and friends. Your destiny is now clear: to fight and defeat the four sinistrals, just like your ancestor Maxim did and restore peace to the world again.
So, what we have here is a very time-intensive role playing game which has been developed by Neverland and published by Taito in 1993. Similar to many rpg's of this age, you walk around in top view-perspective, (mostly) randomly encountering groups of enemies which are fought against in turn-based battles. I think the battle-system in Lufia is something special in some way: It remembers of the one in the game "MysticQuest" (aka Seiken Densetsu), especially because of the main battle-menu, that's displayed as a cross of different orders (fight, magic, defend, item, run). This type of battle-system in my opinion is very well fitting for turn-based battles, because it's a bit more fluid that the standard "picking-a-order-from-a-list-of-orders-and-clicking-it". The gameplay is also quite standard, with a few exceptions. You travel from town to town, exploring dungeons, caves, towers and castles, collecting treasure-chests and experience while battling randomly encountering enemies. Besides that, there are some specials this game offers, which make it a bit more than just a standard-rpg. Let me explain this, while I'm doing my rating.
Graphics:The graphics of the game do look ok. At first view they might look lame for a game of 1991, but in consideration of how long the game is, they are really good. Though I have to do a cutback: Graphics in towns and villages look good, but the maps aren't designed very detailed. The images of enemies are sketched really precisely and the monster-designs themselves are cool (especially further in the game, when it comes to fighting the big ones), also the animations. Let's say that the game got ok graphics for a game of its age, but nothing really impressive. A fair
7 shall be ok at this point.
Sound:The sound effects in battles, etc. are ok, but what is really worth to listen to is the music. There are some very fine tunes in the soundtrack of this game, giving it a very unique and kind of 'legendary' atmosphere. Especially the peaceful or sad melodies are very well composed. One example: the simply great outworld-music!
Ok, I have to say that the usual battle-music isn't very good ... it get's annoying very quickly. But all in all, this game deserves a
8 at this point. Better music than in many of the rpg's I played .
Addictiveness:This game is addictive, when you like to play classic medieval-style rpg's with a long story. It offers a huge number of places (cities, dungeons, caves) to explore and a few interesting side-quests along the way. The only bad thing is, that you have to level up A LOT(!). Playing this game requires hours and hours of brainless random fighting, which lowers the addictiveness. Lufia is also known for the many puzzles blocking your way in dungeons. Hobby-riddlers may celebrate this, but for the normal rpg-player this may also be frustrating from time to time. I'd say it's a fair
6 at this point.
Story:This was the main reason for me to play this game over and over. It's not like there was something special in a storyline dealing about a born hero fighting an evil power from the past that wants to destroy the world, but it's the way that quite simple story is told, that makes this game so fantastic. Believe it or not - in some scenes, you kind of feel with the emotions of that bunches of pixels displayed on screen. The character's movements in story-sequences are arranged very cineastic and dramatic. Most dialogues are short, but they're always well written. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom deserves a clear
9 at this point.
Depth:As the box already says: The world in this game is larger than in most rpg's (from this age and console). I for myself always remembered the Lufia-titles as one of the largest rpg's on snes - besides some titles of squaresoft. I wont count the number of towns and dungeons here, but I guess that a well trained rpg-player may beat this game in about 50 hours - if he/she is fast. The depth of this game is also shown in the large number of different monsters/enemies that try to get in your way. You also find many different items and are able to use a lot of magic-spells on yourself, your party or the enemy. To rate this point fairly, I'll give it
8 points too.
Difficulty:As I mentioned under the point "addictiveness", you have to level up a lot in this game. So, in case that you are not used to stop playing the main quest for a few hours of fighting to get experience, this game may be very hard. The difficulty of bosses is also tough, but surely possible to beat. The puzzles in dungeons get very hard the further you get in the game, and it can happen, that you need over an hour or more to solve a very tricky one. I'd say
8 is ok to display the difficulty of this game.
Overall: 7,9Thx for reading through this review, I hope my writing wasn't to bad, hehe ...
Try the game, it's good
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 9 Depth 8 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 01-29-12
Review Replies: 0
8.5
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom Review poopywyatt
Lufia & The fortress of Doom is a standard Japanese RPG
produced by Taito. This game came out in the early 90’s for the Super Nintendo.
You take control of the Hero (I believe he is ultimately nameless, save the
name you give him) and gather 3 friends to fight some super evil destructive
beings called Sinistrals. Along the way you will meet interesting characters,
save cities, make lot of other friends, and ultimately save the world. Along
the way you will travel the world, navigate the sea, dive underwater, and fly
in the air. You will meet old heroes, meet new heroes, become heroes
yourselves, stop human sacrifices, liberate the kidnapped, build bridges, and
unwittingly help resurrect evil beings.
I must preface this review on the fact that I am SUPER
FREAKING BIASED about this game. I love the whole series and this game in
particular has a special place in my heart. I will try my hardest to not be a
fan boy, but I may fail in some instances. My prior RPG experience was playing
Dragon Warrior start to finish several times. I have rented Dragon Warrior 3 or
4 or something for the NES. This was the game that got me into RPGs and helped
me develop a love for the genera. My brother rented it, and I sat down and
decided to play it from beginning to in and I was instantly hooked. I
eventually got about half way through before I had to return the game. I
eventually bought the game and played the game through several times over the
next several years. I have since gone back to replay and had as much fun. I
still have a fondness for the story, characters, and the whole experience as a
whole. I have followed in Beard Man’s example a while ago and completed this
game as much as I was able too at the time by leveling ALL my characters up to
level 99, and collecting all dragon eggs. With my current knowledge, I would
attempt to find all the treasure chests and all the other secret items in towns
and suck hidden in bushes, houses and castles.
Graphics: The graphics of this game remind me of an anime.
They are bright, colorful and fun to look at. Some of the caves can get boring
to look at and the towers are not well detailed. But the character sprites and
enemies are detailed enough.
Sound: The music in the game is amazing. The soundtrack sets
the mood wherever you are and is catchy. You will find yourself grinding quite
a lot, so it is nice listening to. Any of the music around Doom Island is fantastic
and I believe is an excellent source for remixers. The over world music is
classic and has continued on through future games. For some reason, the volume
in this game is set to high, VERY HIGH. If I keep my TV set on a volume of 12,
whenever I put this game on I had to turn the volume down to 6. This is not a
big deal, but something to mention.
Right when you turn the game on, you get gloomy and intense
music eluding you to the seriousness of the situation. There is happy music,
sad music, and everything in between. There is something to fit the mood of the
game. My least favorite track is the cave music. This is bad because there are
a lot of caves and you will be spending a lot of time in caves hunting around
for treasure and finding people.
Addictiveness: This sucked me in the first time I played it.
I always wanted to know what came next and what more I can learn about the story.
Since then the novelty has subsided. There was this great mystery of what these
evil beings were and how they would return. I feel this would get you sucked
in, but after the first or 2nd time through playing and beating this
game, it may not be as engaging.
Story: This game brings us to the very end of the first Doom
Island conflict where you play as Maxim and friends, on Doom Island and defeat
the 4 Sinistrals. Your characters are very powerful with all the best weapons and
armor. The game then fast forwards to about 100 years later to our young Hero
(who is a descendant of Maxim) is a knight in the Alekian guard. A neighboring
castle is decimated by monsters and you go to investigate. You find one of the
Sinistrals has risen and destroyed the
town. At this point you and your childhood friend Lufia undertake a quest to
find and destroy the Sinistrals. Early on you find one of the heroes of Doom
Island named Guy. He tells you to go find Artea, and that Artea has an
apprentice they should seek, right before he dies. Our heroes find the
apprentice who tells them how to find the Elf town of Elfria. After finding
Artea, he tells you to find a professor because he will help you find Doom
Island and the Duel Blade. After another long series of quests you find the
Duel Blade, and one of the BIGGEST M. KNIGHT SHAYMALAN TWISTS in video game
history. I will not spoil this ha ha. Doom Island is now resurrected and you continue
your quest to get on Doom Island and Defeat the Sinistrals. After beating the
game, prepare yourself for a nice 20 minute long ending. There are a lot of games that take a long
time to beat and have short or crappy endings. This is not one of those
endings. The ending is both somber, melancholy, and happy. I am sure you will
enjoy it.
Depth: There is a balance with the weapons between attack
power and weight. If you are too weighted down, it affects your agility and
order of combat. But at the end of the game, this is all sorted out. I found
myself using the same spell TONS of times, while other spells I hardly ever
touched. There are rings or accessories that can help enhance stats or magic
abilities you can find. These do not make dramatically huge change in game play though. Once I found a good ring for a character, I stuck with it for most of the game. The only two side quests that exists are Dragon Egg collecting and the Ancient Cave. I will explain these further later in this review. After beating the game, you have the option of the "retry," which will also be explained later in this review.
Difficulty: In retrospect, this game has an unbalanced
difficulty level. Some parts are moderate difficulty, while others along the
story were extremely difficult. In the beginning of the game, you will fight 2
boss battles against some demons on a dock and trying to save a boat. Both of
these times will require some grinding. Later you will have to fight an
apprentice. This is a very difficult one-on-one battle. If you are unprepared you will get massacred.
For this instance, I would skip the tower he is in, and travel to the next
castle to buy stronger equipment. Later in the game you will have to save a
professor from some pirates. This is another unbalanced fight and requires
quite a bit of grinding and top notch weapons and armor. With all the
difficulty, any real troubles can be solved with grinding, and upgrading
weapons and armor.
Another note on difficulty/story. I found it frustrating at times on my first few play throughs progressing the story. It is that common RPG trope where you have to talk to the RIGHT person in the RIGHT sequence in order for something to happen and/or someone to appear somewhere. The game is not always clear at times where you should go or do. This may be a turn off to some people. This section I will just post notes and observations I decided
not to mention in the above sections.
·
On the over world/caves/towers, your characters
move a normal JRPG pace which is annoyingly slow. However, in towns your
characters move at sprinting pace which is such a relief. This feature is
further expanded upon in the sequel/prequel Lufia: The Rise of the Sinistrals
where all the walking is at a very brisk pace. There is a Lufia & the
Fortress of Doom ROM hack that corrects this and allows your character to walk
fast in all settings.
·
After you beat the game, there is a 2nd
quest of sorts. You will be given the option to play on “Retry” mode, which
doubles to quadruples the experience and gold you obtain from enemies. This is
fun because it means you can breeze through the game and now worry about the
required heavy grinding. You will be able to buy all the most expensive weapons
and armor whenever you encounter new towns.
·
I find it difficult to explain the battle
system. It is kind of turn based, and not turn based. For most of the game, it
will appear turn based. The order in which each character gets a chance to
perform an action is based on agility, weight, and probably something else.
Towards the end of the game, if you go back to the beginning and fight the
beginning monsters, you will find your characters will be able to have multiple
chances for attack before the monsters will have a chance for action. I do not
have a solid explanation for this phenomenon.
·
There are several things introduced in this game
that has become a staple of the series. One of these is the Ancient Cave. In
the Ancient Cave, you can access the each new level by going up 5 levels. You
go into the nearby town of Grenoble, get your assignment, then enter the
Ancient Cave to the appropriate floor of the cave, find the above mention item
(and anything else you can find), take it back to the guild, and get your
reward. There are a total of seven levels. This has gone on in grander heights,
becoming almost it’s own game. The other staple has been the Dragon Eggs.
Throughout the game you will find 8 Dragon Eggs in treasure chests. You take
these Dragon Eggs to the Egg Dragon and you will be granted 1 of 4 wishes.
These could be the Might Bow (the strongest bow in the game), a Might Shield
(the strongest shield in the game), a bundle of stat building potions, or to
advance your party members by 5 levels. I never increased my party members by 5
levels because I always found this uses, since I can just defeat more monsters to
gain levels, and money. I never got the potions because you get pick them up
from fallen monsters. I usually got the Might Bow or Might shields. After you
take the Dragon Eggs to the Egg Dragon, the eggs are scattered across the world
to different predetermined locations. There are a total of three batches of
Dragon Eggs. This game is does not innovate or bring anything new to the JRPG table in my opinion compared to other Super Nintendo contemporaries like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger or Tales of Phantasia. But what this game does is perfect a formula of standard JRPGs. In other words, this game is basic algebra, done beautifully.One thing that distinguishes this game from many others, is the script of the game. I feel like I am connected to the characters and I learn who they really are and what they are about. I have never felt this way about any Dragon Quest game (only 1-6). Not even Breath of Fire, or Secret of Mana. The characterization of this game is amazing and everyone has their own little quirks and issues. The useless banter between characters is amusing and funny at times. This game has it's serious moments, but also light and funny moment. It plays out like some kind of anime. On your second or third time playing, you will probably skip lots of this banter, but on your first play through, I recommend enjoying all that it has to offer.
I hope you have enjoyed my review of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. This is a bright and colorful game that I recommend to any lover of RPGs or JRPGs and this one should definitely not be passed up. Happy Gaming!
Graphics 8 Sound 8 Addictive 8 Story 8 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 12-28-14
Review Replies: 1
7.8
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom G789
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom was released for the SNES in 1993, developed by Neverland, and published by Taito. This is an RPG in which you gather and control a party of four that must fight to save the world. While this basic premise can be boiled down to a multitude or RPGs, Lufia mixes it up in the prologue section of the game. Here, you control a different party of the game's previous generation informing the player of the overarching story, as well as introducing the villain characters right away. While that concept & execution may not be uncommon now, Lufia is one of the earliest games I can think of that featured its beginning in such a way.
Graphics: 7
Starting with battle, animations are pretty simple. Enemy sprites appear large with intricate designs, while your characters' sprites are smaller (not unlike FF: Mystic Quest, but without enemies changing appearances). The battles themselves happen overlaying the world map or current location. The world map is populated with terrain features and doodads with the only functional differences being what is traversable or not.
Sound: 8
For me, the best music is, far and away, the opening dungeon theme. The various town themes are relaxing, as well. I appreciate the actual sound effects in battle. Attacking, healing, applying buffs/debuffs sound crisp & clear. In fact, if a curtain were pulled over the screen, you would still mostly be able to correctly pair the general effect to what is happening on screen.
Addictiveness: 8
Like many good RPG games, Lufia keeps you hooked with the objective-based nature of its plot. It's easy to want to continue playing for hours in order to find the next party member, VIP npc, or other mcguffin. Sometimes, that desire gets bogged down after X number of random battles. The encounter rate isn't insanely high, and there are items that affect that chance, but I've occasionally felt the pace of progression stop to a halt after fighting scores of random battles.
Story: 7
To briefly reiterate what was mentioned above, the intro/prologue immediately inform us of a world on the brink of destruction at the hands of a few prominent villains called Sinistrals. The world has chosen several over-leveled fighters with a beefy inventory to vanquish these foes. Now, you take control of this party and attack their stronghold. Here, the game gives some instructional tips on how to play/navigate. Because your characters are overpowered and have lots of magic, you have the chance to explore what spells do and some enemy weaknesses. As someone who plays other RPGs, I really appreciated this element, but I can understand how a newbie to the genre may feel overwhelmed here. In any case, the Sinistrals are vanquished, but the heroes pay a price of their own.
The world ushers in a golden age of peace & prosperity for 99 years, until you (self-named Hero) notice monsters have started returning. From this point forward, the game's plot can be oversimplified to: investigating the cause of this strange occurrence, gathering like-minded allies into your party, finding the means to overcome the root cause, and achieving that ultimate goal. The process of fulfilling these objectives takes the player all around the world meeting various characters, and resolving smaller conflicts along the way. Lufia is largely straightforward with its overall story in that the heroes and villains are well defined, and tackles the matter of good VS evil on a global scale (in contrast to games such as Fire Emblem, Yggdra
Union). Even within that frame of storytelling, there is a significant plot twist I won't mention here ;)
Depth: 7
In terms of story & exploration, you must travel to almost all parts of the world in completing the game; there aren't really sidequests, and there is only one ending. With that said, there are two areas the game briefly mentions, but never directly urges you to visit: Forfeit Island & the Dragon Shrine. Regardless, missing these optional areas won't penalize the player regarding equipment, story elements, etc.
In the game's opening dungeon, one of the instructional tips informs the player how to read what their magical spells do. Thank god for that tip because the language localization wasn't the best. Moves with names like STONE or STUN are actually antidotes to those conditions (and don't cause said ailment). Also, various buffs/debuffs are not evident by name alone (e.g. DRAIN lowers an enemey's defense). I wish that feature to look up information applied to items & equipment, too!
Your characters don't have any class names describing their abilities, and can only remain in that 'class' while learning their preset arsenal of spells. With that said, here's a quick rundown: You (main protagonist) are a Paladin, Aguro is a Warrior, Lufia is a Black Mage (with some healing), Jerin is a White Mage (with some offensive magic).
Difficulty: 6
The hardest parts of Lufia are much more present in the first 3rd of the game, and that difficulty primarily exists because of one or more of the following: not all party members have been acquired, certain spells haven't been learned, and you haven't obtained a wealth of gold. In effect, you start off choosing between certain equipment or healing items, having to pay to revive KO'd party members (until learning revive, aptly named “Dead”), and grinding so you can beat those damn Goblins!
Otherwise, after passing some of the major difficulty spikes, progression becomes much more steady & manageable. Boss fights have similar strategies that require setting up buffs/debuffs, and keeping the party healed above some threshold, while others use physical attacks.
I forgot to mention actual combat! It isn't particularly difficult, but deserves a note. Combat is turn based. If two characters target the same enemy group, and the first character wipes out that entire group, character 2 will still try to target the now-dead group and automatically miss. This means that, in large part, you can't just spam the attack button to fight. Regular battles involving tougher enemies will actually require some sort of strategic approach as targeting one specific enemy may not be a sure-fire hit.
Overall: 7.8
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom is a great RPG game for the SNES that still holds up. When playing games of a certain era, I can't help but compare them to their respective contemporaries for reference. In Lufia's case, I found that its appearance resembled FF IV. In retrospect, FF VI would only come out a year after this game. Meanwhile, Breath of Fire came out the same year as Lufia as another RPG not released by a major company of that genre. In playing older RPGs like Lufia, I can't help, but take note of some of the rough edges present in earlier RPG games, such as: lack of item descriptions, poor localization, no way to zoom out or get a bigger picture on the world map, and so forth. However, this was a different era for video games, and I'm able to appreciate it so much more when newer, more modern games do have features addressing these older concerns. Lufia can sometimes come off as a more bare version of the Final Fantasy games that came out around the same time, but even when factoring in everything, I can still say Lufia and the Fortress of Doom is a game worth playing.
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 8 Story 7 Depth 7 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 09-23-19
Review Replies: 0
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