Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES)

Should have gone with Lufia 0.

Another German game cart that I had to patch so I could read the damn thing. Also another of the Clan of the Grey Wolfs reviews. I actually thought I had got Lufia I: Fortress of Doom since the cartridge just says Lufia, but when I checked it out Lufia I was never released in Europe. Which is sad, but at least doesn't confuse people since Lufia II is a prequel to I that ends where Lufia I starts. Why make it easy?

So the game follows Maxim, a boy travelling the world for adventure. Apparently he is a really strong human and he gathers a party of other strong individuals to stop the Sinistrals, four beings of evil that threatens destruction on the world due to the dual blades started ringing. One thing that the German original translation probably gets more correct than the english is that the Dual Blades actual name is Lufia... it's gotta be, otherwise the name has no purpose in the story, or maybe it's something in Lufia 1 cause the game ends with a to be continue after some dialog from someone named Lufia.

In reality the story is kinda bland and the dialog is really bad. It's very simplistic. The graphics on the other hand is really good, the intro sequence especially. That was my first hint that this might not be the first game since it looked too good. Music is also bland, except the sinistrals theme, it rules. Although I will probably remember the boss and battle themes for a while. Gameplay beyond the normal RPG is that you also have overworld items that work like Zelda-games for some puzzle solving, which is rather fun, but I found certain puzzles a bit of a stretch, but maybe I'm just impatient as an adult.

As noticed, I probably don't have much to say about it. It's just go to the next town, find the right person that opens up the nearest dungeon and after that return to the town to open up the road to the next town and so it goes on. Very walled in. I miss a map as well when you finally get a boat since it's rather easy getting lost on the high seas. I also think the language patch screwed with some of the graphics since the credit crawls was all white lines and name of equipments in the equipment screen would get strange. Beside the main quest you could also gather 8 dragon eggs for the dragon, which I didn't do since it would unlock a super boss that I don't really would like to fight. Then we had the ancient cave. A randomly generated 99 level cave where you start from level 1 and has to fight your way down to level 99. Now with save stats you take the pressure away and thank god for that since the last 20 levels are horrible with the damn MP stealing attacks or insta kill spells. 

It has it's charm, but I don't find it that interesting. Maybe not worth the 100 $ or € I paid for this.