Summary
Final Fantasy meets Zelda
The Good
Lufia II is a great RPG that unfortunately never got the same attention as the
Final Fantasy or
Dragon Quest games, although it would have surely deserved it. At first glance, it looks like a perfectly average console RPG, but it has many features which set it apart from its brethren.
The turn-based battles play pretty much the same as in other RPGs, but the IP-bar makes things a little more interesting. Every time a character is hit his IP-bar fills up which enables him to perform special attacks. Unlike the Limit-Breaks in Final Fantasy, you don't have to wait until it is filled completely only to perform one special attack. Instead,which special attacks are available depends on which weapons and armor a character has equipped and their effects range from stronger attacks and healing your party to elemental attacks, draining HP/MP, status changes and others. Furthermore, they only take up a certain amount of IP depending on their strength and efficiency. This adds a small amount of strategy to the equipping of characters as weak weapons might have very useful IP-attacks, so you don't just have to buy the next biggest sword without thinking. The battles are still pretty easy, in general, and only require a minimum of leveling-up from time to time, but Lufia 2 is still a little more challenging than many other late SNES RPGs because items/spells for reviving dead characters are very rare, especially in the beginning, and some boss enemies are either pretty strong or have to be defeated in a special way.
Another nice addition are the Capsule Monsters. Several Capsule Monsters can be found throughout the game (some of them are quite well-hidden) and in battles they fight alongside your party controlled by the A.I. In the beginning they are very weak, but they can be fed with old equipment and special fruits in order to evolve and learn new special attacks.
Graphically, Lufia 2 offers nothing spectacular,but it looks pretty good for the most part. The maps and characters look nice and are detailed enough. In battles, there are some well-animated spell effects and you'll encounter a good variety of monsters. The characters may look a little too deformed and childish for some people and for some of the monsters a few more colors could have been used, but these are only minor problems and do not hurt the overall solid impression.
The music fares equally well, as most of the tracks fit the situations well and some are actually quite memorable. Some of the tracks sound a little derivative though, and a few more (and longer) tracks wouldn't have heard either, but what is there is pretty good for the most part.
Where Lufia 2 gets really interesting though, is inside the dungeons. First of all monsters are visible inside dungeons, which is unfortunately not the norm for (console-)RPGs and a large improvement over ... let's say
Final Fantasy X. Not only are they visible they also only move when your character moves and every enemy type follows a different pattern. If you know these patterns you'll have a better chance of avoiding battles and for some puzzles you'll have to navigate enemies onto a certain spot/switch.
Speaking of puzzles, this is where Lufia 2 truly shines. While in most RPGs (and even most Action-Adventures) "puzzle" means "pull lever to open door" or "push block to open door" (or, when the designers suffer from a sudden burst of creativity "push block to reveal lever which opens box that contains a key for the damn door that you cannot break with your huge two-handed battleaxe"), Lufia 2 features puzzles which actually deserve the name. This is largely thanks to the fact that your character can use several items outside of battles. These items "slightly" resemble those of
Zelda 3. Namely they are: a sword for cutting down grass, Arrows for stunning enemies and activating levers that are out of reach, Bombs to break weak walls and floors, a Hook to stun enemies and get over chasms, burning Arrows to set things on fire (and stun enemies), a Hammer to crush walls and a Spell to to "reset" a room if you have made a mistake. With all these items and a little creativity one could create some very nice puzzles, which is exactly what the designers have done. While some of the puzzles are still pretty easy, most of them are original and challenging and even dungeons that are more combat-intensive usually contain a few decent puzzles. The dungeons themselves are very well-designed and would be more interesting than most dungeons of other RPGs even without the puzzles.
If you are looking for a diversion from the main quest, there are many secrets, a few mini-games and, of course, the Ancient Cave. The Ancient Cave is a randomly generated, 100 stories large dungeon that is different every time you enter it. This is made interesting by the fact that, upon entering the Ancient Cave, all of your equipment and experience points are taken away from your party. There are 4 different ways of leaving the cave: Dying or escaping, which only allows you to keep the items that were found in special chests; finding the "Hand Of God" which allows you to keep all the things you have found; and, of course, surviving all 100 stories (which can take quite a while because you are not allowed to save). Once you leave the cave, you get back all your experience points and equipment plus the items found in the Ancient Cave.
The Bad
The story is as simple as it gets: you are a monster hunter and while trying to find out why so many monsters have appeared recently. Much to your surprise, you discover that there is probably something more dark and dangerous behind it. You are even more surprised when a mysterious woman, a complete stranger, tells you that you are the only one who can save the world and destined to travel and fight. Although the woman didn't even tell you her name and you had no idea of the world being in danger, you decide to believe her, since you have always had a vague feeling about being destined to travel and fight and so you start to, well, to travel and fight. On your journey you meet some companions, who are also destined to travel and fight. When you eventually find out that the world is being threatened by the Sinistrals, extremely powerful beings, your traveling and fighting finally has a proper goal and you can continue your quest by trying to destroy them.
When Lufia 2 was released, the story of the local monster hunter having to save the world wasn't quite as overused as it is now and it isn't quite as bad as it might seem. Fortunately, the characters are likable and actually develop over time but the plot stays unoriginal, even by the standards of 1996.
However, the plot itself isn't the biggest problem, as many other RPGs have presented us with worse versions of the same story. What is more annoying, is the way in which the game handles traveling. You can freely wander the over-world, but if you want to continue to the next area you have to visit a shrine which teleports you there. The problem is that these shrines are usually blocked until you have solved a problem which very often doesn't have anything to do with whatever it is that's blocking your way. This doesn't mean that the game is entirely linear though, as you can always go back to locations you have visited, which becomes more and more interesting with every new item you find, especially because there are many secrets that are really worth finding (Capsule Monsters and other interesting things).
As far as RPGs go, Lufia 2 is a bit on the short side. It isn't too short, but some people might be a little disappointed by the fact that it "only" takes between 25 and 35 hours to finish the game, depending on your playing-style and how much time you spend in the Ancient Cave.
The Bottom Line
If you have only a small interest in Console-RPGs (or RPGs in general), you owe it to yourself to play this game. While it has some problems typical of Console-RPGs (easy battles, clichéd story), it set itself apart from most of them with its great dungeon- and puzzle-design and the pleasant absence of random battles and as far as the gameplay is concerned, it can easily hold its own against "bigger" games like
Final Fantasy or
Dragon Quest
