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LUFIA & THE FORTRESS OF DOOM Company: Taito Released: December 1993 Genre: Turn-based RPG Graphics: 8.0 Control: 6.0 Sound/Music: 7.5 Storyline: 7.0 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 SUPER-NES.COM

This is where the Lufia series begins. At least sort of. Lufia & the Fortress of Doom is the first Lufia game developed and released, but it actually takes place 90 years after Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. Confused yet? Lufia 2 is one of the greatest rpgs ever made, and most who've played it will agree. So most people that have played Lufia 2 would expect Lufia & the Fortress of Doom to be pretty much the same quality of game. Most people would be wrong. Although Lufia 1 shares a lot of the same ideas that made Lufia 2 such a legendary rpg, the first game in the series suffers from some serious flaws that keep it from reaching the greatness Lufia 2 achieved. While Lufia 2 was a nice looking game, it was never one of those "blow you away visually" type of rpgs. Lufia is just a step below Lufia 2, in terms of visuals, but still manages enough crispness and detail to retain its' 16-bit look. Ardent Lufia 2 fans will notice small differences, like the way buildings in the game have no roof, thus when you enter them you can still see the area around you, unlike Lufia 2 where the buildings had roofs on them and entering them pulled up a screen showing you inside the building. It's little things like this that just don't seem to feel right after you've played Lufia 2. Most of the dungeons look very similar to those found in Lufia 2, and are probably where you'll see the more impressive of the visuals in the game. You can tell, from playing this game, where Lufia 2 got it's visual stylings, but Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, while adequate, just never seems to have the type of flashiness, that Lufia 2 displayed in some areas. By itself, however, this is a fairly nice looking game. Once again, I'm sorry to keep comparing this game with Lufia 2, but it's the best way I know of to gauge the quality between the two. The soundtrack in Lufia 2 was outstanding. In fact, bordering on Square-quality. Unfortunately, the best way to describe the soundtrack in Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, is average. It has the stylings of an rpg soundtrack, and even in some areas ventures a little beyond average, but it never seems to reach any type of pinnacle and also never seems to capture the overall mood of the game itself. It's yet another area that seems to almost be spoiled by the fact that I've already played Lufia 2 and seen what this game could have been. That's not to say that it's not at least adequate, but it could have been much better. It would seem difficult to ruin a turn-based rpg. But this is the category where I'm going to have to rant a bit, so bare with me. The responsive and easy-to-navigate turn-based combat system of Lufia 2 was one thing that really drew me to that game. It was strategic, yet simple enough for even beginners to use. While I'm glad the developers of this game got it right in the second game, I can't help but wonder what they were thinking when they put together this combat system in Lufia. My main gripe is the fact that there will be times when one of your characters will attack a blank space left by an enemy that was defeated before your attack could be carried out. In Lufia 2, you character would automatically attack another enemy that was still alive, instead of attacking a blank space just because at the beginning of the round when you made your character's attack selection the enemy was still alive. It does, however, make you have to keep up with approximately how many hit points certain enemies have unless you want to have all your characters attacking thin air. Another gripe I have is the random, and invisible, enemy encounters. In Lufia 2, you were able to see your enemies in dungeons and you could avoid them if necessary. In Lufia you're gonna spend a lot of time fighting random enemy encounters as, for one thing, you can't see them, and two, these encounters happen way too frequently. It adds a certain annoyance to the dungeon sections that wasn't present in Lufia 2. Again, I'm afraid I may have been a little too spoiled with Lufia 2's ease of movement. The bottom line is, the combat system does have a very similar feel to Lufia 2's system, it just doesn't feel as refined or responsive. If you have never played Lufia 2 you'll notice these occurances, but they won't be as glaring as they will be if you have played Lufia 2. Slightly flawed, but still adequate, turn-based combat system. My final gripe comes in the fact that most of the tricky dungeon puzzle found in Lufia 2 are missing, and that to me was one of the most original and redeeming qualities of Lufia 2 to begin. Bottom line is, the gameplay in Lufia is adequate when compared to a lot of other rpgs on the Super NES, as long as you don't try comparing it to Lufia 2. Then it begins to pale a bit. I'm gonna get some hate emails on this one I can already tell. I know there are many Lufia fans that love this game, but I had to be honest with my comments. Maybe if I hadn't played Lufia 2 first, then this game's differences might not have bothered me so much, but I have played Lufia 2 and it's light years ahead of this game in almost every area. If you're a diehard Lufia fan like me, then you need to at least give this game a try. It's still a good rpg challenge, and a long one at that. My advice is, if you've never played Lufia 2, don't play it until after you've played this one. Because if you do, I'm afraid you're gonna find yourself doing what I did, and comparing it to Lufia 2 the whole way through. And truth be told, that's like comparing Final Fantasy Mystic Quest to Final Fantasy III.