E3 ’10 Hands-On with Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals

When Natsume announced that the original developer Neverland would be remaking Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals for the DS, it immediately sparked feelings of nostalgia and warmth in me. The two Super Nintendo Lufia games had given me hours of pre-teen enjoyment, and I never forgot the tender love story that each game attempted to convey. It was games like Lufia, and obviously Lufia itself, that attached me so firmly to the JRPG genre of games.

I had read about the changes they were making to the game, and had even watched a video, but I don’t think I realized just how drastic the changes would be. This is not the same Lufia that I played as a young man. In fact, from my hands-on with the game at E3 this year, the only thing that felt even a little reminiscent was the character names. Aside from Maxim wielding a sword, the two incarnations don’t seem to have anything in common. Nevertheless, I’m not disappointed with what Neverland is bringing to North American shores. I think the game I played has real potential. My only confusion is why they bothered to couch it in Lufia lore to begin with.

The demo I played featured three characters, each usable and interchangeable. Gone is the four party system from the previous game and instead the new Lufia features six playable characters with only one usable at at a time. Maxim is the main character of the game and sports stylish good looks and a sword. He has the ability to shoot some type of projectile across the screen. Guy, the brute of the group, can smash crystals, and Tia, the only lady in the demo, had a grappling device for crossing predetermined gaps. Each of these abilities plays into the puzzle-solving portion of the game. Anyone who remembers the original Lufia will know that this is vital to the experience.

I think I may have started out in a pre-cleared area because I didn’t come upon any fights for the first portion of my playthrough in the Abandoned Mine. Instead, I navigated through a maze-like area full of crystals to destroy and gaps to cross, bringing each character’s puzzle-solving abilities to hand. The game controls very well, using the D-pad for movement and buttons for actions, while character switching is done by tapping the proper portrait on the bottom screen. The bottom screen features the party member portraits, the dungeon map, and other menu-based icons.

The game is fast-paced. The characters are always running and you can move through the dungeons fast. I appreciate this as even what little I played suggested that dungeons could get quite complicated, and bogging a player down with random battles and slow movement speed is the best way to alienate your game.

Combat-wise, the game is truly an action title. Each character has a standard attack and special moves utilized by holding a shoulder button and tapping attack. The game seems to take an “overwhelm the character” strategy because I found myself fending off quite a few enemies at once when I finally did find a fight. This wasn’t a problem because Maxim and company are pretty tough. Players can roll and jump and the special attacks are often area or line-based, which lets them clear out quite a few enemies at once.

Eventually I came to the boss of the demo. Interactions play out in classic Fire Emblem style, with floating character portraits above and text below. After a classic comic interaction, I started the boss sequence. Surprisingly, this didn’t involve a one-on-one battle. Instead, it seemed to feature the level itself, with me rushing through a gauntlet of sorts and being required to bash down platforms that the boss was standing on. It was actually more chaotic and confusing than I was ready for, and he ended up killing me and ending my demo time.

I think Natsume and Neverland have a winner on their hands with the new Lufia. It is truly a re-imagining and bears no gameplay similarities to the original Super Nintendo classic that resides in a fuzzy part of my memory somewhere. Regardless, I think it’s stylish enough and plays well enough to be a hit when it comes to North America later this year. It has all the elements of a good action RPG DS title, and I can only assume that once I start actually going through the story, those memories of a decade ago will re-surface and bring forgotten smiles back to me.