Released on the Super Nintendo back in 1996 by Nintendo and Natsume, Lufia II is actually the prequel to Lufia, showcasing the exposition of the series with Maxim and pals going up against the terrifying Sinistrals - "super beings" of evil that wish to force chaos and destruction on the world. Compared to the first game, Lufia II is a breath of fresh air, with moderately better music and graphics, but most importantly a more intuitive battle system. "Capsule monsters" also make an appearance in this title, allowing the player to choose one to aid them in battle as if it was another player character, though its actions are scripted. Rather than random battles throughout the game, battles are only random while on the world map. Inside of dungeons and caves, monster sprites appear on screen akin to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, though they move about when the character does, allowing for some battles to be avoided. This mechanic ties into the tools the player is given - in total, a bow and arrow, hookshot, hammer, fire arrow, and bombs. These are used either to stun enemies or interact with dungeon elements, including solving puzzles. Lufia II includes several puzzles throughout the game's many dungeons, some far more difficult than others. When the player character receives a new tool, it is put into use immediately by means of some kind of logic puzzle.
Player characters also have a new gauge to monitor in battle this time around - the IP gauge - which is tied to new skills available through equipment options. Available by choosing the icon of a flame in battle, any equipment with an IP skill will appear. These skills are largely similar to the game's spells, allowing for healing opportunities, magical attacks, or buffs. Certain skills have more cost, though they're not specified anywhere; the player must use a skill and remember its cost later on. The IP gauge recharges when a player character is damaged in battle by an enemy, though it is depleted entirely upon their death. The mechanic is welcomed as an interesting change from Lufia, giving non-magic users the ability to use some of the same effects their companions can with MP.
REVIEW OF NEW MECHANICS
Capsule monsters: seven capsule monsters can be found in the game, though many of them need to be hunted down, as they do not appear in the main storyline. Capsule monsters act as a fifth party member, but display no status gauges in battle. They will usually physically attack, but sometimes use IP skills; if their HP falls below a certain threshold, they will usually flee from battle. Once a capsule monster is defeated, it dies, but is resurrected to full health upon completion of the battle or by fleeing. Given the difficulty of some battles, it was certainly nice to have another party member available, and having them level at the same pace the party does is encouraging. Capsule monsters also have five available forms; you encounter them in their first form, helping them grow into other forms by feeding them your spare equipment. Some capsule monsters seem to prefer certain equipment types, but I never seemed to pick up on the pattern, choosing to feed them mostly random offerings until their forms changed ("This isn't even my final form....!!"). All in all, this was a pretty neat mechanic that was executed non-obtrusively.
Non-random battles: battles inside of caves and dungeons are not randomized; rather, they are initiated by stepping next to an enemy sprite. The direction which the player faces relative to the enemy sprite will sometimes affect preemptive and back attacks. Enemies in these areas typically have a movement pattern that moves toward the player, but some enemies move on a set path or are behind barriers; by manipulating enemy movement in a room, sometimes switches can be triggered so that doors open, et cetera. This played well with the next mechanic.
Puzzles in dungeons: from the get-go, the game throws puzzles into the player's face, forcing them to solve innocently simple logic teasers in the beginning, moving into far worse offenders later on. From my memory, I cannot recall a dungeon that didn't have at least some kind of puzzle element in it, though the colored block puzzles were certainly the most annoying, at least in my opinion. Nonetheless, puzzles were also found after receiving new tools for use in dungeons, leading us to the next mechanic.
Tools: this was a very welcome addition to the series, forcing Mr. Bond and I to think creatively while crawling through the endless dungeons the game threw at us. While arrows stunned enemies, fire arrows would burn grass, bombs would cause chain reactions and blast cracked rock, the hookshot would allow us to cross gaps, and the hammer would push objects further away so we could grapple to them safely. Instead of having the game rely entirely on random battles and scripted story events, the tools made the game feel fresher, as if it was a hybrid Japanese/Puzzle/Adventure roleplaying game.
IP skills: these, once we figured them out, were incredibly helpful in battles, as they gave the characters limited-use abilities that often got us out of tough situations. The females generally had curative IP skills, while the males had either status buffs or massive attacks. Because the skills could only be used as often as the IP gauge could be filled up, their use was rationed; this added an element of strategy past our normal "mash A to not die" montages.
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PLAYTESTING
While we didn't encounter too many problems, the game still had some peculiar issues, some of which can be pinned to iffy localization, others to bad coding in general. Certain strings were not properly translated from Japanese to English, notably "gorem" instead of "golem" and "'3y Kingdom" instead of "Gratze Kingdom". When switching equipment, the equipment name isn't cleared out before the new string is put in its place; e.g. if an equipment slot was originally "Gades Blade" and was replaced with "Stick", it would say something like "Stick Blade". This also occurred while switching between character screens if their equipment text length was shorter than the equipment listed before the character page change.
There was a point in the late game after rescuing the mermaid princess that a cavern's map was entirely garbled; Mr. Bond needed to "feel" his way around to the exit in order to continue. I'm not sure if that was just our copy of the game being weird or not, but it only affected this one area.
UNEXPECTED STORY ELEMENT
Seeing as the game begins with Maxim and Tia going out and beginning their adventure together, it came as a huge surprise that Maxim decided to, seemingly randomly, get married to Selan. That entire part of the story was ridiculously rushed and unplanned, and was probably a means of getting Tia out of the picture, considering she wasn't seen until the game's closing cutscenes. Even now I still have no clue why the writers decided to go in that direction.
CATCHY MUSIC
I don't own a copy of the soundtrack for this game, but that may change in the near future; many tracks were extremely good at becoming earworms. For me, the most notable track was the boss battle theme - it plagued me for nearly three days once last month. I can't recall coming across a song I didn't enjoy, and that says a lot coming from me.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The game's translation and coding made it difficult to take it seriously, and the seemingly random story in the middle threw me off big time. The game took Mr. Bond and I about 31.5 hours (3.5 of that was spent in the Ancient Cave because roguelikes are really fun!), but it got really repetitive after awhile, especially after we stopped getting new tools to use. Puzzles became annoying at the end, and I got frustrated quickly because the game just seemed to drag on and on. Had developer Neverland cut out some of the fat and reduced the story by about five hours, the game would have been a lot more enjoyable for me. The new mechanics between Lufia and Lufia II were well-received, and I'm happy that Neverland deviated from the standard JRPG grindfest that was typical in that era. In all, I'm glad I had the opportunity to play; the game was entertaining, and it gave me plenty of things that I want to avoid in my own games in the future.
