Let's Play Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals

So, right the new DS “remake” of Lufia II. Remake in quotes because frankly it has almost nothing to do with the original. Although I suppose the later parts could be more similar, considering I only played up to the part where you got Lexis. Anyway, I've already beaten the game, and am doing a New Game+ (which doesn't actually change much).

Opening cutscene: Doom Island rises from the sea (or something) and Gades  ^*

tells the world to submit. You see scenes of your future party members reacting.

Then you get to start a new gamem which throws you in to another cutscene. Maxim and Lexis are on a ship, and discussing Doom Island. Lexis says that some day the Excelion (the ship) will be able fly up to Doom Island. This is entirely accurate. Then some sort of light goes from Doom Island of Soma Temple. Your guys decide they need to rescue some investigators that should be there.

So, in this game Lexis, rather than being a kickass machine using party-member, is a remarkably Doc Brown-ish NPC. He's in charge of your transportation, and is mostly around so that the player remembers where they need to go.

Maxim himself is fairly similar to the original, except his design doesn't suck.

Soma Temple is inside a volcano and consists mainly of mechanical platforms. Not very templey, but it seems like it was created by Gades anyway.

So the path to the boss consists mainly of killing slimes.

Combat in this game is entirely actiony. You have a basic attack, a special, a charged special, and various charged attacks. Each weapon has up to three charged attacks, you can cycle through with R. These can be either that weapon type's special attack, or a spell. All non-regular attacks take IP, which, rather than a form of a Limit Break, is a quickly regenerating Mana Meter. You can also jump and dodge. You also get bonus experience and gold for beating the dead bodies of enemies.

Maxim himself is a balanced melee fighter. His special is a dash that does regular damage, but can be useful for moving in combat and is occasionally required for platforming (becomes much less necessary after getting the ability to double jump).

So, right, the boss. It's Gades in his giant moster form. I'll cover how to fight him later, seeing as you fight it far too freqently. You can either die, or if you're competent enough to hit the core, he'll disappear and drop a meteor on you, leading to the same cutscene.

Gades shows up in his human form, says you have strong energy wave  ^*

, and says that he's the Sinistral of destruction that'll destroy the world. Then he blasts Maxim and is about to finish him off before being interrupted by a mysterious priestess of Runa named Iris. He decides that this is interesting enough to leave without killing anyone. Iris heals Maxim  ^*

^{Unfortunately, she's an NPC, so her healing powers remain cut-scene only, despite traveling with you for most of the game}

, and establishes that she has an Ankh of Runa that gives her her powers, including protection from the elements and monsters. This mostly means that, unlike Lexis, she'll continue to show up in cutscenes. Anyway, she's been waiting for the legendary hero, who happens to be Maxim. Apparently this is the latest cycle of the Sinistrals wrecking everything. Interestingly, she joins the party, instead of accompanying you, like the other NPCs do.

Oh, and she gives you an incredible amount of high quality blue mystic stones if you're playing a New Game+, but I haven't explained what that means yet.

edited 3rd Dec '10 7:44:35 PM by Hylarn

Next to Elcid, Maxim, Lexis, and Tia's hometown.

A cutscene immediately starts, with Tia yelling at Maxim for being reckless enough to take on Gades  ^*

. It quickly becomes apparent that she's romantically interested in Maxim. She's a Tsundere, and displays Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies when she sees Iris (and in general). Tia asks to go along, but Maxim refuses.

So, into the town. You can see a lot of the game's style her. Which is Magitech. Everything technological has the weird cube things called Energy Cores attatched. There's also a large one in every town in the game.

Standing off to the right, in the path of the sprinkler, is a guy named Albert. He'll give your characters new titles, which grant them new passive abilities.

If you jump down the well, you'll find a testing chamber that Lexis set up. It has a “dragon” (looks nothing like a dragon, but that's what the characters call it...) that'll give you rewards for having certain numbers of dragon eggs. You get these mostly for killing bosses quickly enough, and they carry over through a New Game plus.

So, you go talk to Tia. They have lunch, and it turns out she's a Lethal Chef. This never comes up again. Once that's done, you can talk to her to buy items. There's only three available right now, but I'll list them all anyway:

• Potion: Heals a character to full. Always have 9 (the cap) when you enter a dungeon. You probably won't need them all, but better safe than sorry.
• Charred newt: Restores all IP. Given how quickly it regenerates on it's own, this is useless.
• Antidote: Cures poison. Given that poison drops your HP incredibly quickly and can otherwise only be cured by leveling or a save point (and maybe entering a new area, I haven't checked), this is basically necessary.
• Awake: Cures sleep. Sleep does exactly what you'd expect. Between not being that useful, and the rarity of enemies that cause sleep, awakes aren't that necessary.
• Noisemaker: Cures fear. Fear zeroes you IP, and keeps it zeroed. Not terribly dangerous already, and it wears off reasonably quickly. Noisemakers are useless
• Mystery Pin. Cures Paralysis. Paralysis halves the damage you do, and doubles the damage you take and I've never seen it wear off. Unfortunately, mystery pins don't become available until late in the game.
• Miracle: Revives an ally to full health. Always have 9.

Anyway, now it's off to Lexis' lab. He has a couple artificial scarecrow assistants and a human one. And the place has the best music in the game. So, you talk to him to get a cutscene. He's modified the Excelion to travel over land. Unfortunately, this removes it's ability to travel over water. Which is why the next dungeon is going to be a drawn bridge.

So, right the drawbridge. Specifically Gordovan Drawbridge, which gets kind of confusing when Gruberik Bridge shows up. Anyway, this in when puzzles show up, including the reset feature. The reset feature supposedly works by resetting time, so you lose any experience you've earned since the last checkpoint. Combined with checkpoints not always being well placed, I'm more likely to exit the dungeon if I screw up. The escape function yanks you out of the dungeon and undoes most progress that doesn't involve keys. And it doesn't work in cases where your party gets split up, or the Ancient Cave  ^*

.

So, the drawbridge retracts in an in an unusual way. Rather than rotating, it's on tracks and wheels. You have to release the locks on the wheels and then move it into place. This mostly involves pushing blocks around to you can jump on them.

It quickly becomes apparent that the game has strong Edge Gravity, which is nice because it's filled with Bottomless Pits that do a good amount of damage if you fall in (unless you have the skill not to take fall damage, in which case falling is just annoying, but you don't have it at this point). You also discover how the game handles combat: Enemies tend to be in groups of two or through, and one will spawn to take a fallen enemy's place, usually for three waves. This areas introduces these annoying purple fly things things; they send out slow moving clouds that're hard to see, and poison and paralyze you. As an aside, the fact that enemies are spread out with puzzle in between them and only respawn when you leave the area is what prevents Level Grinding. You level very quickly.

Once you do get the locks off you go back to the main station. Where it turns out that Maxim has to pedal to get it to work. Which means that the player has to mash A. Then it turns out we get to do it again, because the bridge is in two halves. But first you have to cross in another pedal powered bit of tech. I think I hate the devs. Once you get to the other side, you can quickly find a savepoint, which is nice. Note that this really is nice, as savepoints are normally quite rare.

There's a neat bit around here where one of switches is missing it's handle, which is actually on the lock, right next to it (and there's a treasure chest on the other). But the locks look like scenery, and you normally wouldn't think of jumping on them.

Once you finish the second half it's off to the center, where you encounter Tia being menaced by some irritating enemies. These bastards have a hard to dodge rolling attack and enough HP that they'll likely berserk. Berserk is what happens when you knock down an enemy and don't finish it off. They turn red, get stronger, and are immune to most hitstun and knockback. Wears off, though. Although the overpowered mystic stones I got from Iris made short work of them this time around.

So Tia joins the party after Lexis points out to Maxim that she'll try to follow him regardless.

So, Tia. She really doesn't have anything to do with the character in the game, at least from what I remember of it. The original Tia was a nice Girl Next Door type. This one is an energetic Wrench Wench. The original was an all-around spellcaster that used staves. This Tia is a ranged physical fighter that uses a boxing gloves on a string fired from a giant pink suitcase that she probably made herself. She also has a nice character design, is the only character in the game with much depth, and is my personal favorite.

Gamplay wise, Tia is kind of interesting. She's among the few characters with ranged capabilities, but the nature of the weapon makes her stronger at close quarters. Her special is a hookshot that's necessary for a number of puzzles, and fairly is combat; she drags an enemy in, and then chainsaws them, hitting several times. Her charged special is extremely powerful, hitting for high damage several times to all enemies on the line. Her charged attack is also usable, hitting repeatedly in melee. Sucks if it misses, though. Her magic is not so great, but that's true of most everyone.

So, off to Parcelyte. This place is home to two future party members and three shops, though only two are open right now. One of them also lets you “trade” soulshards, which randomly appear when you overkill enemies. This includes a good amount of blue items and stones, which is nice.

So, we enter, and move up (the city very linear. Most of them are). Along the way Tia is very excited about the city, we have an encounter with Selan (a future party member) being stern but kind, and see Mr. Rochy being happy about being rich. When we try to exit Rochy yells about thieves. It turns out to be Berty and Betty, the games Gold Fish Poop Gang. They try to hit us with a bomb, but forget to throw it. Undetered, they just run past the party. Then Rochy catches up, explains they stole the Ruby Apple, a family heirloom, and offers a reward for it's return. You have no choice but to accept. It seems the thieves went to Tanbel mine.

New dungeon, and the first dungeon with Tia in the party. Much hookshotting is done. Much of which doesn't make sense when you realize that you don't literally have the party in your pocket. This area introduces bombs, which act pretty much exactly like the bomb-flowers in the Zelda games. There's also bomb-slimes, which you can only ever do 1 damage to per hit, but will explode if you do enough damage and leave them alive for a bit. Somewhat annoying that the game doesn't explain this; it's not necessary for a while yet, so you can easily overlook it and it's rewards. The area also has an entirely unique switch that's triggered by hitting it with a regular attack. Strange that something so mundane would be so rare...

So, once you get about a third of the way through you get a cutscene with Berty and Betty. They give their rather Team Rocket-ish motto, then throw they key to the door to the side, making the puzzle marginally harder.

Once you solve that, it's time for another cutscene. They run off on minecarts. So you have to follow through a maze navigable only by jumping. Fun. Then they pass through an area that only lets you in if you have at least 5 crystals. Time to go Plot Coupon hunting!

Said Plot Coupon hunting is done by taking the minecarts though several tracks. There's actually several more than is necessary, and you get rewarded for going over.

Once you do that it's time for Minecart Madness; you have to jump and duck correctly to avoid falling. This is the hardest part of the game, and there's no savepoint, no pausing, and you're being taunted the entire time. So much hate. This comes is a few parts, with failing taking you back to the start of the part:

1. Watch Berty and Betty handle the challenges, then do it yourself.
2. The same, but easier (in theory, the tempo being thrown off makes it harder, but things are spaced further apart, so it's much easier if you have decent reaction times).
3. Synchronization! You can see what's coming up much better, and don't have to rely on memory.

Then Berty and Betty fall into the abyss, apparently intentionally. Unfortunately, they too k the Ruby Apple with them. Then some dude gets menaced by monsters. You kill them.

Turns out he is not just some dude, but a master crafter of glass. He decides to give you a glass duplicate of the Ruby Apple in thanks for saving him.

I'm sure this is in no way relevant and will never be brought up again.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

...Well, I will say that his ability to craft duplicates does come up again.

Back to Parcelyte to finish the quest. You talk to Jaffy to obtain the Glass Apple, and the game introduces the Mystic Stone Board.

The Mystic Stone Board is a grid. It's divided into four 6 x 6 areas and two 12 x 3 ones, each corresponding to a character. On many of the panels are specific bonuses for that section's character. You get said bonuses by placing Mystic Stones on the board. The stones have to be touching either a start point or an active stone to have an effect, though. The stones also raise base stats.

How the stats work:

• Derived stats:
  • ATK: STR plus weapon bonus. Determines physical damage.
  • MAG: INT plus weapon bonus. Determines magical damage.
  • DEF: STR plus armour bonus. Determines physical resistance.
  • MDF: INT plus armour bonus. Determines magical resistance.
• Natural stats:
  • STR: Used for calculating ATK and DEF.
  • GUT: IP regeneration. Not really necessary, considering how quickly it regenerates to begin with.
  • INT: Used for calculating MAG and MDF.
  • CRT: Critical hit chance.

So, you go give the Glass Apple to Rochy. He's completely fooled, and gives you your reward. Which turns out to be the paltry sum of 1000 Gold, because the character forgot to specify how much they were working for. Rochy mentions that things have been strange lately with the priest Idura acting odd. After you exit Rochy's place Guy shows up, and promptly attacks (cutscene only). His forceful sparring is interrupted by news of Guy's girlfriend, Jessy, getting kidnapped by Idura. He apparently went to Tanbel Mine. Maxim manages to convince Guy to let him and Tia help in the rescue effort (read: Guy joins the party).

So, Guy. Mostly faded into the background in the original game, and lacked any spells, but hit hard. Here he has some personality. Some. He still doesn't get much spotlight. Initially characterized as a Boisterous Bruiser, but that gets ignored in favor of him being a meathead that dislikes others noticing it, and commitment anxiety. Gameplay-wise, he's a Mighty Glacier. Hits hard, but slowly enough that his DPS isn't too great, and he runs the risk of getting hit. Special and charged special suck, since they have enormous lead up times. On the other hand, his charged attacks are quite nice, being Spin Attacks that let you move around, hitting repeatedly and keeping enemies away. Unfortunately, all strategies for him run the risk of enemies berserking.

...This'll start going faster once I run out of things to introduce.

Back to Tanbel Mine. Fortunately, this is entirely in an area that was blocked off the first time. See, Tanbel Mine has loads of crystals that can only be broken by explosions or Guys IP moves. A lot of the crystals don't strictly need to be destroyed, but will give a Mystic Stone if you do.

You get a mid-dungeon cutscenes with Idura. He mocks Guy, summons some enemies, and teleports away. Apparently teleportation is a forgotten magic.

The dungeon introduces the game's main Goddamn Bats; these weird plant-octopus things. They have ranged attacks, a poison attack, and loads of HP. They'd be Demonic Spiders if the game was actually hard.

This area is home to the single most irritating puzzle in the game. You have access to a bomb slime and a regular bomb, and have to blast two crystals at roughly the same time, but one is only open when the other is destroyed. I think you're supposed to blast one with the bomb, then the other with the slime, but that's borderline impossible. My first playthrough, I got lucky with a bomb throw and got both at once. This time I manipulated how the bombs work (picking up and putting down a bomb that'd already started counting down) to get both at once. Worse, said puzzle is right before the save point.

One easy puzzle later, and it's cutscene time. Idura plans to kill Jessy and us as sacrifices to his god. Cue boss battle. He summons skeletons, uses a lightning attack, and teleports onto platforms. The game suggests you destroy the platforms with Guy's charged special, but his charged attack works better. All in all, it's quite easy.

Idura survives and teleports away, but the party saved Jessy, and that's what counts.

Once you return to Parcelyte there's a cutscene. Selan is irritated at Guy for going off on his own with some unrelated people, instead of letting the army take care of it. Then she tells us to talk to the president. The president tells us to retrieve the Legendary Sword from Soma Temple. It's quickly clarified that the Legendary Sword is actually a legendary piece of shit, but it'll be good for morale. Selan asks to come along as well.

So, Selan. Fairly similar to the original version; a Lady of War. Instead of the ridiculous leotard she wears what look kind of like a more functional qipao. And they compromised between her field sprite sword and in-game staff and gave her “disks”. They're sort of like a chakram, but with an unbladed part, so you can use them in melee. Gameplay-wise she's a Squishy Wizard. She's not very good at melee, but her INT is quite high. Her special is a Precision-Guided Boomerang that you get to steer. It does crap damage, and is only useful for puzzles. Her charged special is the same, but piercing and hits multiple times. Still not that great, but necessary for a single puzzle. Basically, she's supposed to use charged attacks and magic. Mostly magic. Unfortunately, charging is kind of risky, and her magic hits a small area. I don't find her very useful.

edited 4th Dec '10 9:55:45 PM by Hylarn

Off to Soma Temple. Again. Going down instead of up this time. The party quickly comes across a glowy circle on the floor they don't recognize. Guy steps into it because he's an idiot and promptly gets teleported. Maxim cases after. The girls take some time to debate what to do, then all go at once.

Unsurprisingly, you can only use Tia and Selan for this dungeon, and can't escape. Also unsurprisingly, seeing as this is the first dungeon with Selan, most of the puzzles involve her ice blade.

The first area involves collecting purple... things and putting them on a specific platform. The second area also involves collecting purple things, but it's only necessary early on, and mostly a red herring; your real goal is to get to the other side of the area (the map has arrows pointing to your destination, but I hadn't realized this at the time I was first here).

There's an exceptionally irritating puzzle in the second area; it involves four different timed elements and isn't obvious that it's a puzzle at all; you have to blow up some block to move a platform upward, but the block appear to keeping a switch out of the way, rather than acting as weights.

Towards the end of the second area you come across the first climbable wall. These are kind of cool, but make you move very slowly and screw up the minimap.

Third area has right over the lava. Convection Shmonvection and similar tropes apply. Much of the area involves riding platforms over the lava (apparently stone is less dense than lava). Notable mainly because the platorms are generally not going the direction you want, necessitating some quick jumping. The lava doesn't respect any no fall damage abilities you might have. Annoying, as it otherwise acts like a standard Bottomless Pit.

Fourth area; you find the boys. They got teleported to t a small platform with no exit. You have to ride a series of platforms along the edge of a lava whirlpool to reach them. Then you fight a bunch of enemies for no reason. They drop the Legendary Sword, also for poorly explained reasons. Then a teleporter appears in the middle of the formerly exitless platform. Convenient!