Lufia: The Curse of the Sinistrals Review

Platform: Nintendo DS

Playtime: 30+ Hours (I played it 2 times)

Genre: Action-Puzzle Solving RPG

Story: The world was created by four gods, or Sinistrals, as they are called here.  One day, Gades decided to bring humans underneath his control.  Maxim decided to make it his mission to protect the world from Gades' destruction.  Along the way, he meets some friends and allies, and even love as he travels the world to bring the end of the reign of the Sinistrals.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Where to the begin.  Overall, I liked it, but not enough to keep it.  If you need a filler game, like puzzle-solving, and like action RPGs, this is for you.  Just don't expect too much.

Pros:
- First, I like the characters. Their antics were absolutely hilarious.
- The dialogue was witty and the plot was pretty decent.
- The dungeons are not your usual dungeon crawlers.  Mostly, you'll get a bit of monsters that pop up in a few places but will not reappear once they are killed.  However, if you move into another screen and come back, they will return.  Now dungeons are full of puzzles!  The first time I played through this, I hated it!  Believe me.  It took me 45 minutes to get through the follow the mining cars game.  However, the second time I played through, it was definitely much easier and faster to get through.
- Another added benefit in this game, if you died, you have the option to start over from your last check point and add 5 addition levels with no negative impact.  I absolutely love it.  With most RPGs, you have to do EXP-crunching.  Here, it helps you not waste time.
- Graphics are perfectly decent.
- The BGM is pretty good as well.  Some were catchy.  But not memorable.

Cons:
- The fighting system threw this game off.  Why?  The controls were difficult using the DS keypads.  It was difficult to angle yourself in the direction of the enemies.  I feel this game would be perfectly suited to the PSP.  This is a remake of an old SNES game, I believe.  Never played it.  But it was a traditional RPG, where it was turn based.  Now, they changed that.  Here, you have one fighter and the others in reserve.  You can switch during battles if needed.  I'm not a big fan of this.  First off all, I only use Maxim, since he is the strongest and best fighter, imo.  So in the end, he would around 60, while everyone was 50.  I hate not using everyone.  *sigh*
- The item storage system.  I hate the limitation here.  You're allowed to carry a set amount of 9 per item.  This is rather annoying when you are low on health and no one can heal you.  The only thing you can do is go back to town and start the dungeon over.

The Ending:
The first time around, you get the original ending.  Which is sad.  I read that you can get an alternate ending if you played it a second time around.  Of course, I wanted the happy ending.  So, I played it one more time.  The ending was same with a few minor changes.  Much happier.  Also, when you play the second time around, be aware there is one more boss battle that I didn't expect.  Make sure you have extra Miracles on hand.  There is a bonus dungeon, the Ancient Cave, that opens up.  I never really interested in doing that.  I hate fixing my mystic stones after coming out from there.


Yeah!  This is my first review.  Not the greatest, but I hope I will improve with time.  Leave comments if you questions or some things I can add or fix.  Please be kind.  Thanks for reading!  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.  Also, I will reviewing 2 Harlequin Romance books: Diana Palmer's latest, Will of Steel, and Patricia Thayer's Daddy by Christmas.  It will also posted on Amazon as well.