Lost Kingdoms

EMBARK ON A QUEST TO SAVE A KINGDOM.

When a mysterious phenomenon threatens the Five Kingdoms of Argwyll, all hopes lie in the hands of one person - Princess Katia. With the help of her Guardian Creatures, she must travel the continent to discover and destroy the root of the evil force.

(from the picture captions on the back of the box)

Collect over 100 Guardian Creatures, summoning them to fight in real-time battles against hordes of enemies.

Immerse yourself in 20 hours of gameplay, taking an epic journey through magical, graphically-rich 3D realms to uncover the mysterious force that threatens the kingdom.

Make it a solo mission or go head-to-head with friends in Two-player Versus mode.

Source:

Back of box (U.S. Gamecube release)

When an evil force invades the Five Kingdoms of Argwyll, all hopes lie in the hands of one person - Princess Katia. Embark on an epic quest through an enchanted world where beasts are summoned to battle evil foes. Discover, collect and control magical Guardian Creature cards to battle an enigmatic evil while uncovering its terrible origins.

Source:

Ad Blurb (Hyper Magazine Australia)

Can you control the power of the Guardian Creatures?

The card-dueling craze goes GCN in this unique real-time role-playing game from Activision.

The backstory has Princess Katia searching for her father, King Feobane of Alenjeh. Feobane has not been heard from since he set out to thwart a mysterious mist that is slowly but surely consuming the Five Kingdoms of Argwyll -- hence the game's title. However, neither the mist, Feobane nor the Five Kingdoms have much to do with the single-player adventure.

While most RPGs emphasize exploration, unusual characters and puzzles, Lost Kingdoms focuses on fighting randomly encountered enemies in order to clear levels. The fun and challenge, which should be quite appealing to card-dueling fans, lies in the unusual battle mechanics.

Characters

Aside from Katia, the only significant characters are Gurd, an old woman, and Alexander, a young scholar of fairies. At game's beginning, Gurd teaches the basics of battling. Afterward, you can visit her Apothecary Shop to buy, sell and copy cards.

You can take Red Fairies you've captured to Alexander's Fairy House and swap them for cards. You'll also encounter lots of Alanjian Warriors, who are invariably humble but don't offer much in the way of helpful information. Katia is notably mum throughout.

Graphics

The game exploits the GCN's processing muscle for some cool battle effects, including explosions and fireballs. The luminous Red and Blue Fairies look great, too. You can change your camera view with the C Stick. The levels are underdesigned, though, with the same basic elements being used over and over again.

Battling

Katia's helpers take the form of 100-plus Guardian Creatures contained with Guardian Creature Cards. Creatures include fighting skeletons, raging wolves and fire-breathing dragons.

You start the game with fairly weak creatures, but as you proceed you will find or win new ones. As creatures gain experience points, you can transform them into more potent creatures at the Apothecary Shop.

You can take a deck of no more than 30 cards into a level. If you use up all the cards before finishing, you'll have to start from the beginning of the level. Used cards are available for later levels.

When you encounter enemies, the CPU shuffles and assigns four cards to the A, B, X and Y buttons. When you use up a card, you'll be randomly dealt a fresh card from your deck.

Cards are powered by Magic Stones, which come in three sizes. Because damaged enemies give up Magic Stones, one of the game's recurring challenges is avoiding an enemy attack while scurrying about for stones. Magic Stones also add Experience Points to all the cards in your deck.

Most cards have one of four elemental attributes: fire, water, earth and wood. Like the game of rock/scissors/paper, each has unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, fire cards are best against wood cards but vulnerable to water cards. There are also independent cards, which are evenly balanced against each of the four elements.

Guardian Creatures contained within cards attack in different ways. For example, a weapon-type creature will launch a single attack, then vanish. Until their energy runs out, independent-type creatures pursue and attack enemies. Other creatures lay traps, briefly become one with Katia, restore HP or cure special damage conditions.

These damage conditions are poison, paralysis, curse, charm and stone. If Katia is poisoned, her HP will incrementally diminish. If paralyzed, she will move more slowly. Cursed Katia will lose both offensive and defensive power and be able to use two of the four available cards. Charmed Katia is more difficult to control. If turned to stone, Katia cannot move until the spell is broken.

It's a lot of information, and since Lost Kingdoms isn't a pure RPG -- enemies can attack while you're choosing your next card -- you'll need to memorize each card's attributes before venturing into battle. Figuring out enemy attributes will require much trial and error. Fortunately, the game has a very gentle learning curve.

Two-Player Mode
You and a pal can battle head-to-head, using data saved from the one-player mode. The first to run out of HP loses. If time runs out first, though, the player with the most HP wins.

Battles take place in five different arenas. You can handicap HP levels and set various time limits.

Bottom Line

With highly linear levels, simple puzzles and lack of compelling characters, Lost Kingdoms comes up short in the epic department. However, the game's unique real-time battles, complete with animated creatures and enemies, are sure to appeal to dueling-card fans seeking something new. The two-player mode extends the game's replayability.

Lost Kingdoms is in stores now.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

When a mysterious phenomenon threatens the Five Kingdoms of Argwyll, all hopes lie in the hands of one person – Princess Katia. With the help of her Guardian Creatures, she must travel the continent to discover and destroy the root of the evil force.

• Collect over 100 Guardian Creatures, summoning them to fight in real-time battles against hordes of enemies.

• Immerse yourself in 20 hours of gameplay, taking an epic journey through magical, graphically-rich 3D realms to uncover the mysterious force that threatens the kingdoms.

• Make it a solo mission or go head-to-head with friends in Two-player Versus mode.

Source:

www.nintendo.com.au