-->
Lufia: The Legend Returns
Developer: Neverland Company
Publisher: Natsume
Release date: Mid/late 2001 (NA)
System: GBC
Location in Lufia's world: Southland (Hero hails from Patos)
Place in storyline: Fourth. (200 years after Lufia II, 185 years after ROL, 100 years after FofD)
It had been more than five years since Lufia II, and all that has come out of it for the series was one cancelled game. News came in early 2001 of a new arrival on the horizon for the Game Boy Color to be called Lufia: The Legend Returns. And with that the legend DID return.
This time, instead of going backwards, we go forwards to the Third Battle of Doom Island, this time our target is Southland, our seemingly stupid descendant of Maxim is Wain, and our mysterious blue-haired figure is Seena. (She claims to be a fortune teller from Northland.) In a more interesting start than some Lufia games, destruction hits home with a lightning bolt that seems to have come from the Tower of Death to the north of Wain's village. This event becomes the start to a very long and dangerous journey.
Along with the return of a modified IP system, TLR brought in a completely new concept: the Active Matrix Battle System. This system allows the player to select up to nine characters to place on a 3x3 grid for battling. On each turn, (battles are turn-based, much like Lufia II) you select three combatants, one on each column, to act, which would include a physical attack, a spell, use of an item, use of an IP skill, or to just defend.
Well, at this point it sounds kind of useless to have nine characters fighting at any one time now, does it, right? Wrong. Each character's positioning has an effect on their ability to physically attack and defend. The more forward they are, the more damage they deal, but they'll also take more damage from a physical hit. For this reason, physical-based characters are normally suited for the frontlines, and magical-based characters can attack from the middle or back row without having to worry about their stats being affected in those areas while taking less damage physically. Another misconception to this battle system is that you would think that all your characters would have to be taken out before you lose the battle, right? Wrong again. You lose the battle when your front three are defeated. This expresses the need for a "tank" to be on your front row. In other words, you want to make sure you have someone with good defense, magic resistance, and lots of HP on your front line, along with good attackers.
The redesigned IP system makes things a whole lot different compared to Lufia II's. Now, IPs aren't tied to equipment, but are learned through finding ancient scrolls. Now, to learn IPs, it's imperative to know about two new stats/points introduced in TLR: Learning Points (LP) and Spiritual Force. (SF) LP is used not only to learn spells, but also to raise your characters' SF. In order to learn an IP, a character must be receiving a certain amount of each SF colour (influenced by characters in the same row and column as the target character). Once the IP skill has been learned, you don't need to keep that same amount, but if you don't the skill will cost 1.5 times more IP to use.
Okay, so it's confusing, is it not? Well, if you are, the game script will probably confuse you, too. I'm not talking about the actual code, but the dialog, as there are so many errors that even Webster should be shocked. (This includes the famous phrase, "THIS is what I would call frue destruction!") The random dungeons are also another drawback to this game, as it takes out the puzzling challenges from Lufia II and makes the game really easy. All in all, this game is really just a big fight-fest from beginning to end, and you'll find that the only real thing to do in the game is battle your way through it.
The Ancient Cave also makes an appearance here, except that it's much MUCH longer now. Although it starts short, it eventually becomes double the length of that in Lufia II. You better have a LOT of time before doing this one, folks!
Lufia: The Legend Returns: ©2001 Natsume (U.S.)
Copyright © 2006–2010 by The Ancient Cave. All rights reserved.
Lufia ©1993-2006 Neverland company
Layout ©2006 Priphea
Powered by Etomite 1.1 (Prelude).
Proudly hosted by Surpass Hosting