
Young Wain is the protector of his small village; it’s not a tough gig, with just the occasional blob-creature to slash on the outskirts, but things are about to change. As a spiritual force awakens inside him, the powerful Sinistrels re-emerge to release a threat of “unseen terror on the land”. His bloodline and a “thread of destiny” draw Wain into a battle to save the world; yes, it’s your typical RPG set-up. Lufia: The Legend Returns is the third entry in the series that began on the SNES with a decent first game and a very good second one, but how would the series fair with the move to the Game Boy Color?
Much like the story, the gameplay in The Legend Returns sees you doing the standard RPG things — wander around from location to location, fighting a variety to monsters to level up whilst collecting gold, weapons, items and spells to help you out. Things begin with the arrival of adventurer/fortune teller Seena to Wain's village; after a brief chat she fires a bolt attack at him just to see what he’s like as a fighter. Wain storms off in a huff but it’s not too long before the pair have teamed up for an adventure.

You’ll meet a varied group of characters on your travels, though you’ll also encounter a generic bunch named things like “Sister” and “Grandpa” in multiple villages. Though not particularly original the story remains reasonably entertaining, with some interesting developments and some humour spread throughout to keep players' attention.
The series’ move to an 8-bit handheld has unsurprisingly led to downgraded visuals. Everything has a simple look but for a system with a 160 x 144 screen resolution there’s a surprising amount of detail in the imagery. At times there’s a lack of polish such as the way flames in a fireplace remain static and some locations resemble each other quite closely, but for a GBC title there’s not much to complain about with the graphics.
The music is impressive; some tracks are quite simple whilst others have a bit more going on, though they manage to avoid turning into a beeping mess. There’s excited battle themes, whimsical village tunes and plenty of others that always manage to be a good fit for what’s happening on-screen. As well put together as the music is however, some of it can get repetitive; spend too long on a section and you may find yourself sending a finger towards your 3DS’ volume slider.

Your adventuring will see you travel across four continents, so there’s a lot of content in the game to keep players busy. As you move around the overworld map there’s the typical random encounters to contend with, but elsewhere things are a bit different. For the game’s multi-levelled dungeons and caves the various ghosts, golums and other ghastly monsters can be seen moving around on the screen. Walk into them and battle will commence, but if you prefer you can just avoid them. Holding down the A button to charge a wave attack can be used to stun the various nasties if you suspect you will still cross paths, but you shouldn’t avoid every battle as you need to level up your characters. It can be difficult to judge how much of a balance to strike between fighting and legging it, particularly in the early stages as some encounters will sap energy and give you little in reward. On the other hand you may be too cowardly and later find yourself in a battle your team is not strong enough to win – and no amount of restore point abuse will change that.
During your quest you will have to make use of different items, weapons and spells; it's here that things get complicated. For example: skills can be learned from ancient text scrolls and should you wish to teach someone a skill you must bring up the ancient text menu, then go to the wave sub-menu where you convert learning points (acquired from battles) into spiritual force points. If your chosen character now has enough spiritual force you can then go to the scroll menu to teach them the skill. Luckily this Virtual Console release includes the standard electronic manual should you find yourself wondering what IP Skills are for.

Another feature of the caves and dungeons is that the layout is randomly generated. Whilst this may sound like a good idea; a different experience each time, in reality it is poorly executed. The problem (ironically) is that each floor becomes extremely similar. Whilst there is the occasional hidden passageway to be uncovered with your sword there are no puzzles, so instead you just wander around collecting items and fighting monsters on route to the next floor. Some stages have a lot of floors and your search for the staircase that will allow you to search for another staircase quickly becomes dull, though in an act of mercy the random nature of the stages sometimes places the required staircase just a few tiles away.
A better feature is the game’s combat system in which up to nine characters can be included in your party. A variety of warriors are met during your adventure including gambler Ruby, elf Milka and Deckard (a pirate, not a Blade Runner). They have different strengths and you can rearrange them on the 3 x 3 formation they are placed in. Even if you have a group of nine, only three characters can be used per turn (one from each column). Strength of attacks and vulnerability decrease as the rows move back so those at the front have the strongest attacks, but will also take more damage. Additionally the game features colour coded Spiritual Force powers where lining up characters who share one of the four assigned colours will increase their abilities. The system is explained early on in the game but takes some getting used to — nevertheless, it’s one of the better parts of the title.
Conclusion
This is a big adventure with plenty to keep players occupied. It looks good for a GBC title and features some decent (if sometimes repetitive) music and there are a few features to set it apart from other games; unfortunately one of those features is the randomly generated sameness of the dungeon floors. There are other problems such as overly complicated menus, but the combat system is a good one. Lufia: The Legend Returns is not a bad game, but it's unlikely to excite players the way previous games in the series did.
Comments 29
Never heard of this game!
In other words, it's a rogue-lite with good combat and deep customization. Sounds right up my alley.
Eh. I downloaded it on day one. My first in the series, so nothing to compare it to. I wasn't expecting a Final Fantasy VI by any means.
They should release Lufia 2. It's no doubt the best one in the series and even one of my favorite games ever.
Bring this to the 3ds virtual console in the US/NA region.
This game, Fortress of Doom, and Ruins of Lore all needs to be remake for Wii U and/or 3DS like Rise of the Sinistrals did (which eventually became Curse of the Sinistrals), I would buy those immediately if that happens.
@andrew20 they did. This is it. Comes out on the 28th
@russellohh On a Friday? Could please tell me where you did read that?
27th* it was announced when Natsume announced Harvest Moon 2 last month
@Evermore see above!
@russellohh I hope you are right, because Mighty Final Fight is already scheduled to 27th, November. And they use to release only one 3DS Virtual Console at a time...
This game is extremely challenging. I rate it 7/10 you get a lot of charecters and the random generated dungeons can be a pain, but all and all cute story. It's an 8 bit RPG and it is different from its predecessors. It still is enjoyable and it is one of the few RPGs on the 3ds virtual console. So get your RPG on.
"Great gamr, grrat play, great art, grrat music - no identifiable problems... were going to go ahead and rate it a 9 out of... hold it, whats that? Procedural gemeration? 6 ouy of 10!"
@retro_player_22
[youtube:umDr0mPuyQc]
@jakysnakydx well it's little wonder that the actual content of the game might have the greatest power to skew the score. And it's unlikely that all the pleasant trappings could make a dungeon slog feel any less burdensome.
@Kewlan lufia II rise of the sinistrals is actually the first even though it was made second. Lufia and the fortress of doom was the second
Once I have time for them, there are better RPGs for me to download; namely FFIV, FFIV: The After Years, FFVI, and Chrono Trigger; not to mention that the previous games in this series never made it to the VC.
@russellohh not in the US / NA region
I hope we get the GBC Dragon Quest games soon. I don't care for them on the NES.
7.8 too much water -IGN
@Bass_X0 - Don't count on it. Square Enix have stopped releasing any DQ games in the west that aren't just iOS ports, and they've never really supported the VC.
@CanisWolfred
Cool. I might actually pick this game up once my backlog gets unlogged because I like the series so much. I'd really love to see Lufia1 & 2 for Wii U virtual console. Gah, the first game wasn't even that great...but I LOVE IT. I was crushed when there were rumors it was coming to the Wii Virtual console but it never happened...I may just buy this to support it.
this game is waiting on a release date from NOA
deritive compliant never made sense to me the only reason to complain about "more of the same" is if you find the core gameplay it's self bad.
Look, if you really want to make a very interesting Lufia game, I had a vision that when Amon, Gades, Erim, and Daos were about to make themselves a home at Doom Island, a whole new set of Sinistrals came out of nowhere and sent the original four Sinitstrals down to earth powerless. The new Sinistrals are:
Gonun, Sinistral of Tragedy
Rent, Sinistral of Disaster
Elma, Sinistral of Fear
Zim, Sinistral of Mayhem (Leader)
The original Sinistrals maintain a way of living starting off with Amon as a farmer living with his parents. There came a day when he went out cutting down some deadly grass (gaining EXP from it), then later in the story he discovered that Gonun and Rent destroyed Amon's home and killing his parents. From there on, Amon teamed up with Erim, Gades, and Daos, eventually regaining their powers, and heading over to the new Sinistrals' Doom Continent. Also, all of the original heroes of the previous Lufia releases (including Maxim, Selan, Artea, and Guy) are nowhere to be found, so that is why this game would focus primarily on Amon, Gades, Erim, and Daos. Perhaps Maxim's soul would also appear with a Dual Blade, turn it into the new Quad Blade, and let Gades use that to help battle the new Sinistrals! Anyhow, the original four Sinistrals are out for revenge, get yours!
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m107/quad8steve/sinistral2_zps73ae35da.jpg
Lufia: Revenge of the Sinistrals
I completely disagree . This game is fantastic!!!
Why didn't Square Enix publish this? They own the franchise!
I loved this game so much as a child. The nostalgia is strong with this one.
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