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This is more or less your typical save-the-world RPG, with a bit of a romance theme mixed in on the side between the protaganist and Lufia. Early on in the game, the two promise they'll "never leave" eachother, and a bit after that, a woman who knows Artea tells Lufia that her support towards him is "more important than any sword or armor!" The random battles can get annoying, but that's easily solved by carrying around Sweet Water that more or less stops all encounters for roughly a minute. On the other hand, if you want to level up your characters fast (for example, if you're in a dungeon next to an HP/MP restore point) you can use a Foul Water to get into an encounter every step you take for roughly ten steps. The translation is pretty good, and there are only a couple of errors here and there. The dialog is also not too bad, and while it is a bit predictable, it fits all the characters well and each has their share of funny little scenes. The graphics look dated for an SNES RPG, but the few frames of animation that each character has are good enough to not make you feel like you're missing anything, and the spell effects are actually very good. Sound is above average, and actually not annoying. Boss battles and normal encounters are catchy and even shops have their own little jingle when you visit them. Anyway, while Lufia II is graphically better than this game, it doesn't stop me from loving this game. I've beat it once already probably five years ago and I'm going on a second play-through now! (Oh, and the ending song is actually sad-sounding and fitting for some of the last scenes, but the very last part of the ending doesn't dissapoint for this romance/save-the-world RPG!)Read full review
Graphics and music can be fairly subjective. While I like both, some may not. This uses the old style rpg graphics and chiptune type music. The overall story is fairly standard with you being a hero and going on a journey to defeat the big bad. Much of it is well done, but some of the minor details may be lacking somewhat due to limitations of the time. Now, gameplay-wise, the game had some unique/nice elements. The puzzles are not the hardest, but there was some effort put in the hints that are incorporated into the level design in many places. There are several items that do require you to find before doing certain tasks though, including one item that is especially powerful. This gives the players a bit of a choice where they can grow stronger than normally needed to push through for extra rewards or just play normally. There is also a secret questline that gives the player choices. Some players will always choose the same options or even skip the questline, but it does allow for differences between runs. Unlike newer games, you will need to plan out your battles a little if you aren't significantly overleveled for an area. When you attack a group, you are stuck attacking that group even if the group dies. For that reason, you need to somewhat plan out your turns to deal just the right amount of damage. You should have just enough MP to run through the intended areas as long as you are about the right level, but MP management is important until mid-game when you can buy MP potions easily. Of course, being an older game, there are limits of what the game can do and this was back when games could be brutal. One misstep can set you back greatly as your main hero is the only one that will revive if you wipe and it can be costly to revive your party in the early game. Even at the appropriate levels, a stroke of bad luck can wipe your party. You'll also experience plenty of limitations, such as how many items your party can carry (you can somewhat expand this at a cost). This forces the player to actually plan out what items to keep. Battles are also rather plentiful even with the encounter decrease item and unfortunately, there is no real way around that. The game is somewhat paced with the encounter rate in mind though as fighting every battle should mean you need little extra grinding to be the intended level (though the game will be much more difficult at the intended level). There are a surprisingly good amount of options for various playstyles, including ignoring the developers' intended gearing. While not every option is viable, your options are vast, including building for a one character carry, running luck based builds, and so on. This game does feature a sort of NG+ mode, which is somewhat surprising considering the age of the game. This mode makes grinding much easier by multiplying your exp and money gain.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom is one of the first adventure quest games for home play. In it's day the graphics were extraordinary. I can still remember the excitement I felt as a teenager when I first opened the box. I wasn't disappointed then, nor am I now by the in-depth, yet straightforward nature of the game. I might be wrong, but I think the Final Fantasy series was directly influenced by Lufia. Even the little tune you hear after winning a battle sounds almost identical. True, the dialog can be cheesy at times, but it was aimed at kids, right? Nonetheless, I find myself playing it now nearly as much as I did then. If you like nostalgia and loved Final Fantasy, then you'll fall in love with Lufia. Rolling your eyes? Don't believe me? Well then go buy yourself a copy and play it for a week. You won't be sorry.Read full review
If you're considering trying a RPG game, Lufia is great to start with in my opinion. It's text commando based so it's like for example Final Fantasy. I started of with Secret of Mana and wanted to move on to something else after going through that, but I didn't feel like starting on something as big as Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger etc.. I was then advised to try Lufia as a beginning so that I could get to know the basics of RPG games. The game was great for that and it helped me to understand the other games a little better. I can only recommend this game to anyone who likes RPG games. The story is great, the music is lovely and the characters are fun.
What I liked about this Lufia title (other than briefly playing Rise of the Sinistrals, I wouldn't say I have a good or complete knowledge of the series as a whole)was that its basically an old-school rpg for the SNES. If you like 2d graphics and care more about gameplay than stimulating visuals, than this might be a role-playing experience you won't want to miss. For me it was distracting when during or at the beginning of a random battle the view of the characters on the screen didn't really change at all. The only block-building annoyance after that was that the stat-increase of each character while remaining class specific was altogether random. If your character is about to gain a level, save first-- then pass it. Do this until you are satisfied with the level gain. It is time consuming (or can be) but its well worth it. Unlike most other rpgs that I have played, progessing the story line was a strong motivation for a sense of having fun while playing this game. I wouldn't strongly reccomend this particular title for someone just discovering the genre. But if your wanting to get back to your roots, perhaps this is the game for you.Read full review
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