Monday 26 January 2015

Luminous Arc 2

Going to start off with a tangent but i promise there is a point.

I started writing these little rambles in 2010(ish?) for 2 reasons.

1. I watch/read/play anything i can get a hold of and when most people only focus on the most popular things... so when i want to talk to people about what i just finished no one knew or cared... and the ones that showed interest... well i didn't want to spoil it for them. So i figured write it all down, say what i need to say and bother no one with it. I'm happy and anyone who wants to read it can.

2. I have this awful tendency to watch/play/read things right up to almost the end.
then i stop... no reason... i just don't like finishing things cause then they are over. So forcing myself to write these either after i finish things OR when i decide i refuse to waste any more of my time on it has actually helped me finished a lot of things.

So why is that important?

well this isn't a completely unheard of Strategy JRPG dating sim thingy... it's pretty niche.
However more importantly i got this game in 2008... shortly after release... and i got to chapter 26 of 30 and stopped...
and i just beat it now...

Normally when that happens i do what i did with fire emblem... i just replay the whole game.
but because i was so close to the end... I just decided to play from that point... and i was reminded that the story is pretty silly... i don't have much time left till i start work on my next show so i figure just beat it and move on.

So i'll talk about what i vaguely remember of the plot.

Roland is a knight, he ends up becoming a master which means he essentially has a harem of witches with who he can "engage" with him and give him a new outfit and new skills.

so it's like gender swapped pretear... for the few who know the anime pretear.

anyways there is some kind of end of the world plot and you and your harem (plus a few other characters too i guess) and you have to gather all the witches and stop the world from ending.
also the fire witch (aka main girl) has a lot of hidden power and that adds into things.

um... and a few main characters go through a pallet swap thought i don't remember why...

otherwise yeah the story is pretty silly... lots of made up terms and exposition.

So since i can't talk about the story too much i wanna mention the music.

as i was playing this one second i was going "wow this sounds terrible" and then other songs i'd pause and go "is this Yoko Shimomura?" (kingdom hearts, radiant historia)
so i looked it up and has 4 composers as well as the composer from the first game is the sound director... and yeah Yoko Shimomura was one of them... and honestly she should have been the only one. she has a distinct style and the songs i knew were her work were the best in the 4 chapters.

The other thing i will mention is this is the only game i can thing of where the male protagonist has a boob window.
also on that note i do not like his character design... before he looks like this it's better... but this just look ugly and awkward and i feel like it's slipping down.

ok last thing i can talk about is the gameplay.

it's okay... it's not as good as similar games like Disgaea or Final fantasy tactics... but it's cute and quick. some (read as most) of the enemies have bullshit range for thier attacks... the final boss has a few moves that almost made me chuck the game.... a 6x8 attack that did at least half everyones hp... yet she only has a 2x2 hit box.
she also has  + shape attack that would instantly kill anyone caught in it... and she could do 3 in a row if she wanted (though she never did) also she heals 350 hp every turn AND can completely revive her mp (at first i thought it was hp and i nearly cried when i saw 9999)

but yeah having characters be scape goats is a viable strategy cause you can just revive them with full health if certain characters are alive.
oh but i don't like how the EXP is done, it's hard to explain but only those that deal the fina blow get more then 10 exp but it's really hard to train others... so you have a few strong characters and a bunch of weaklings.

so overall... the game is okay, i wouldn't go search it out cause again... it's passable.
however if you love turn based grid based strategy JRPGs and you see it for cheap... give it a chance...

i don't know if it's connected to the Reveria series but it has a lot of art style similarities and those freaky looking poffin (sp?) things...
ugh.... i should probably try to beat that game as well.... but it's so old... and so frustrating.

it is a bit sad that this game didn't do well and we never got the sequels but in the end.. i had fun berating past me for nearly beating so many things and then stopping for no reason.

oh also since i mentioned it... go play radiant historia... it's such a great game.

okay now that this is done time to go make some art.

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