PixlBit

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals brings the Lufia series back in an entirely new form.

Lufia: Curse of The Sinistrals is a very different experience than its original source (the Lufia series from the SNES). Unlike its turn-based RPG SNES predecessors, this Lufia is action based. It was good for what it was, but I'm not sure if I like this transition yet.

When I got to the demo, the game was right before the demo's boss, but I also played some of the demo from the beginning.

The demo began with Tia coming on screen to discuss what I was about to play. She detailed the fact that it's just a demo with weaker enemies, to talk to nearby staff if I needed any help, etc. (I know the demo staff wanted people to be able to experience more of the game, but I wish they would include at least a normal difficulty setting to get a more realistic feel of the game's actual difficulty.) There was some dialogue between party members, and the story was detailed. Then I started in a mine level. I had access to three characters: Maxim, the red-haired, sword-wielding protagonist; Guy, the burly blonde with a hammer; and Tia, the suitcase-that-extends-and-retracts-a-punching-glove-and-also-a-hookshot-type-thing girl. (I'm going from memory on the names, but based on some characters sharing the same name as Lufia II's characters on the SNES, they should be OK.) I could access the menu to switch between any of these characters and control any one of them at a time. I could also access the item menu to check out potions, revival items, etc. The equipment menu didn't have additional inventory that I saw.

Each character could jump, roll, jump and roll from the air. They also had two type of attacks, both of which could execute from the air, at least for when I tested Maxim and Guy. The R-button would charge a glowing sphere of light around the character, and then they could perform special attacks. Some of the special attacks were wide reaching, caused a flurry of attacks, or would dash a character across part of the stage for the attack. For Maxim, their second attack button would also perform a different special, fire-based attack. I think Tia could also perform a special attack with the second attack button, but I didn't test it. Both Maxim and Tia could change their secondary special attack with the L-button. Guy only had one special attack with the first attack button. I assume this is because he could not cast spells in the SNES Lufia games, which makes sense. Performing special attacks, including the secondary attack button I think, drained from a bar labeled, I think, TP which was right below the HP bar. After exploring the mine and defeating a few enemies, I needed to stop playing the demo. But before I started from the beginning, I played the boss battle.

At the end of the demo was a boss fight to save a girl from a priest named Idura, if I remember the story correctly. I was playing as Tia. The goal was to hit the platforms he was on until they fell apart, then hit Idura as he was on the ground after falling. The platforms were arranged in a circle around a purple, crystal looking mountain. Idura was out of reach while on these platforms. There were skeleton henchmen to deal with on the ground during the battle as well. He'd then teleport to another platform. He'd also teleport from platform to platform between attacks while on-top of a platform. I was able to destroy platforms even if he wasn't on them, so it may have been possible to just destroy all platforms and have him stay on the ground. He may have attacked differently that way; not sure. While Idura was on top of the platforms, he would cast lightning based attacks. I just had to keep my character moving to avoid the periodic blasts from the sky, and also avoid lightning whirlpool things on the ground that would try and follow me. More skeleton monsters would also appear a little after defeating the other skeleton monsters. It seemed like they were summoned by Idura, but it was hard to tell. After socking him several times with Tina's suitcase-puncher after knocking him from a few platforms, he was apparently defeated and the mountain that the fight surrounded crumbled from the top.

The game proceeded with a little more of the story with the party members and, I think, the girl I was supposed to rescue from Idura. While they're talking, a girl character named Selan walks onto the screen. I didn't play through the entire demo, but I think was the first time she appeared. The party members said hi to Selan, and then said that Selan would be in the full game. Selan was a major character in Lufia II, so it was pleasing for her to make a cameo. Then the demo ended and told me "Thanks for Playing" and a graphic for saving the day.

One other thing I noticed from gameplay footage outside of the demo's areas was that it looked like the player chose locations from a map of the world with key locations emblazoned by landmarks, like a large fortress. The game footage showed a list of names being cycled through before selecting a location. It's hard to say if a location was being chosen or not, but it looked that way.

The game was fun. The characters moved smoothly. The attacks were relatively fluid, but the 1-2-3 sequence was pretty noticeable. The text was in English, but the voice acting was still in Japanese (and was a little repetitious at times... and sounded like a guy sometimes when I was playing as Tia. Maybe there was another character outside of my vision?). Otherwise, I couldn't really hear much of the sound or sound effects. It wasn't too inspiring graphically, but the atmosphere was fairly fitting, if not a bit generic. The game didn't seem to have the same distinctive feel as its originals, but between nostalgia and playing only segments of the demo, it's probably too early to judge it that way. I want to see more details and gameplay footage before I'd be willing to pick the game up, but it wasn't as bad as part of me was expecting.