So, I finished Lufia II last night...

[Steven]

AWESOME game. I was extremely satisfied, even if the ending left a little to be desired.

Now I see why so many gamers heap praise on this game and call it "best of the rest" after FFIII and CT. In fact, I've even read some gamers who prefer Lufia II over those two. Of course, opinions vary, but now that I've played it, I can understand the hype. With capsule monsters, IP, an innovative combination of seeing monsters and not (see in dungeons, don't see on world map, very cool!), and all those bloody puzzles... Lufia II is definitely a journey worth making.

What do you guys think of this game?

BTW I wish there were more 'legit' boss battles, but it's a small complaint. Legit in terms of one big bad boss, not a collection of crappy knights with low HP.

Oh, and Dekar FTW. What an endearing character :)

[kupomogli]

Lufia 2 is a amazing game. The only bad thing about the game is the world map. Each location in the world was a town, a dungeon, and an exit point leading towards the next island. Atleast until the very end of the game.

I'd suggest trying out the Wild ARMs series next. They're like a spiritual successor to Lufia 2 and then some. Just like Lufia 2, in dungeons, they're pretty puzzle heavy where you have to use bombs, lighters, wind mouse, etc, etc, to either progress through the dungeons or get treasures in the dungeons. In battles there's an FP system which is similar to the IP system from Lufia 2, but instead of using certain items, you use four force abilities which are all, except one, different for each character. One character actually has a force ability that draws out an items hidden power, and even works on weapons and armor(only works on weapons and armor in the first game though) so take that as you will.

As great a game as Lufia 2 is, though, the Wild ARMs games are better. There hasn't been one bad game in the series, infact, there hasn't been one game that's less than amazing, unless you count Alter Code F, which really isn't bad, it's just worse than the game it's a remake of. Each game expands on gameplay of the series, with Wild ARMs 4 and 5 taking an entirely different direction for gameplay, as did Wild ARMs XF which is the series pure tactics counterpart.

[aingevt]

Nintendo Power sold me on this game back in the day. I got it the same Christmas I got Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. Honestly, I enjoyed it just as much. I agree about some of the bosses being pretty lame. I thought the ending was fantastic though. Very emotional. The only complaint I could level at it would be that I didn't have anyone to talk to about it back then. I had to lend it to friends just so I could talk to them about it later.

[Shulamana]

It's a great game (I am not ashamed to admit that a tear rolled down my face at the end when I finished it age 15) but a few things keep it from being in my top 3 favorite games on the console (or in general).

First off the translation is fairly bad, not nearly as horrible as say, something from Enix, but could definitely be better. Second is the horrible job of QA that was done on it. I think Natsume should have been ashamed that the game ended up on store shelves with entire main quest locations having completely corrupted graphics, not to mention some occasions of garbled text later on in the main quest.

That said, if it weren't for those issues, it would probably challenge Final Fantasy VI as my favorite game on the SNES and favorite game of all time, it's one of those games that deserved a respectful PSP port like the various Final Fantasy games, rather than that saccharine action RPG "remake" we got on the DS. Excellent soundtrack, great and different (for the time) battle system for a turn-based RPG. Would definitely recommend to any RPG lover.

[Aussie2B]

Nintendo Power sold me on this game back in the day. I got it the same Christmas I got Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. Honestly, I enjoyed it just as much. I agree about some of the bosses being pretty lame. I thought the ending was fantastic though. Very emotional. The only complaint I could level at it would be that I didn't have anyone to talk to about it back then. I had to lend it to friends just so I could talk to them about it later.

Almost the exact same situation here. I got Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger in probably the same year, and loved both those. The Lufia II coverage in Nintendo Power had me add it to my want list, tracked it down shortly thereafter, and loved it to pieces too.

Anyway, even after all of these years, Lufia II is still one of my very favorite RPGs. I love almost everything about it. I even own both versions of its soundtrack (the series compilation soundtrack released a few years back and the very rare original release that used to sell for hundreds of dollars). I'm still disgusted with the direction taken with the DS remake, though, and refuse to play it.

[aingevt]

Almost the exact same situation here. I got Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger in probably the same year, and loved both those. The Lufia II coverage in Nintendo Power had me add it to my want list, tracked it down shortly thereafter, and loved it to pieces too.

Anyway, even after all of these years, Lufia II is still one of my very favorite RPGs. I love almost everything about it. I even own both versions of its soundtrack (the series compilation soundtrack released a few years back and the very rare original release that used to sell for hundreds of dollars). I'm still disgusted with the direction taken with the DS remake, though, and refuse to play it.

I looked for the rare original soundtrack for years but refused to pay the outlandish ebay prices. I do, however, own the newer compilation soundtrack. I too was excited when they announced the DS Lufia game. I was nervous when they said it would be a remake. After I saw the trailer for it, it totally killed all my enthusiasm. I don't know why it's so hard to create another good Lufia game.

[mobiusclimber]

I really don't like this game and don't get all the praise heaped on it (but I never finished it either). Game feels very generic and downright boring in the beginning, and each dungeon is pretty much the same: go into a room, solve an annoying floor puzzle, go into next room and do it all over again. I love puzzle dungeons in RPGs when the puzzles at least sort of make sense (go up and read about Wild Arms to see what I mean here) but changing all the tiles to a certain color is a puzzle that was imported from another game entirely. It has no context within an RPG. It would be like if each room had you solve a hangman puzzle or sliding squares to form a picture! Heck, the puzzles in the Professor Layton series are integrated better into the storyline, and they're just kinda there! XD

Yeah, I really don't like this one. This is not my kind of game.