Luminous Arc

[Centy]

Right well as most people will know I've been looking forward to this title since before the Japanese release and have been following it closely and was delighted when Atlus picked it up for a Us release knowing its Atlus and the game looked good i didnt see how i could have been dissappointed.

And well I wasn't! The game isn't quite on a Par with the Fire Emblems or Final Fantasy Tactics but after playing about 3 hours and working out how to change the controls to my personal preference im loving the game. The overall presentation is absoultely superb the musical score in particular is highly impressive for a DS title and the voice acting is actually very good for the most part it gives some characters a much bigger personality than reading the text would and several times I've laughed out loud at them.

Graphically the game isnt upto much GBA standards throughout but it adds to the overall charm of the game and the simple visuals compared to Hoshigami don't effect any sense of storytelling infact they give it a much more unique feel. Leading on to the story its all pretty basic stuff so far nothing compelling but its moving along at a fine pace.

What I will add is if you are a newbie to this genre of games this has a fairly simple system and shouldn't tax you too much all adding into what Hoshigami failed to be, a genuinely fun and highly playable game.

So I have unlocked WFC play which i can imagine would be great fun over a VoIP service the random battles seem to be filled with long waits and "disconnecting because they are loosing" players but obviously friend battles are where its at.

Single player wise the lack of depth is beginning to become more apparent and the story far too predicable though i am feeling its moving along at a pace that isn't emphasising the storys flaws quite yet and has been a good mechanism of explaining a new part of the game. At 6hrs in (I've replayed a few battles for the exp) I now have a choice of 10 characters to deploy into a battle, the limit so far seems to be 8 units per battle.

It's odd as right now I know that I'm enjoying playing the game but unsure if I like it, perhaps I'm being just being odd but the game isnt giving me the warm fuzzy feeling that even lower end TRPGs such as Onimusha Tactics give me, never mind the level of Fire Emblem or FFTA. I do hope that will change as the game is fun to play just has a very empty feeling but again i'm not having to force myself to play it so we shall see how I feel over the next few hours of gameplay.

After the pain in the arse that was chapter 14 im now tearing on the story is becoming a bit more bearable as there are more random encounters inbetween each lot of talking. I now officially have 2 favourite characters who are just beyond awesome Leon who is a cocky ladies man and is an excellent fighter at this point he's acting like a tank just destroying enemy lines and leaving the easy kill for the weaker units to get more exp, and of course the lovely Mel she's the Torrent Witch (she downloads pirate movies ) she's the Water Witch and is both an excellent healer and water caster she's also brilliantly voiced and over all fun.

The battles are getting a bit more fluid now and more challenging and i'm gaining more units all the time and will probably be taking this on into multiplayer a bit more now.

I can highly recommend this game to anyone who wont be put off by the long winded chat bits and who wants a TRPG that isnt genre defining but is infact just a good game.

Sorry if some of that doesnt make sense i pieced it together from posts on other boards and you should check out the DSR thread for me trying to defend this game.

[Hendo]

"Mediocre" is the word I've heard recently about this game - as soon as I heard it described like that (by a journalist who loves these kind of games) I thought you'd be frothing at the mouth.

To be honest though Centy, it sounds like you're trying to defend it because after all this time you feel you have to.

[Centy]

I was initially because I wasnt enjoying it that much but now I am really enjoying it yes granted there are some much better TRPG games out there but none on the DS. As I said to Chris on the DSR forums I think i've been able to see past the games flaws and enjoy whats there and to sort of compare it I wanted a TRPG on the DS for soooo long and Hoshigami came along first and i panned that.

All I know is im enjoying the game more now than the first say 10 hours and if it keeps up i'll be a happy bunny.