Most RPG fans in the 16-bit generation remember games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III. Low budget titles like Lufia & the Fortress of Doom never stood a chance against those juggernauts, but games like this often managed to carve out their own niche. I didn’t play Lufia until long after it was released. When I was young my gaming budget was extremely limited, and therefore I rarely took a chance on a purchase I wasn’t sure about. This is the main reason I missed out on Lufia, but a few years back I obtained my own copy to see what I was missing out on. It’s a fun game for sure, but it’s painfully traditional and doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
Lufia’s story begins on a very non-traditional note. The game takes place in a fantasy world wherein four demi-gods, dubbed ‘sinistrals,’ have lifted a castle into the sky. It is from this fortress that they cause the people living below significant grief. Four warriors; Maxim, Guy, Artea and Selan are called upon to defeat the sinistrals and bring peace back to the world. This is where the game begins. You control this party of fighters as you climb the fortress of doom and battle the sinistrals one by one. After defeating them the tower begins to crumble and the heroes are trapped inside. Guy and Artea manage to escape, but Maxim and Selan are killed in the crumbling debris.
The game then flashes forward to almost a hundred years later. You play as a descendant of Maxim who lives in the small village of Alekia with his best friend, a mysterious girl named Lufia. The number of monsters roaming the world has been steadily increasing, and rumors are spreading that the sinistrals are returning. The two young soon-to-be heroes venture out into the world to solve the mystery. Along the way they are enveloped into a grand story wherein they travel the world, make new friends, and set out to stop the sinistrals once more.
The storyline starts off in a really interesting manner, but it soon slows way down. The idea of starting off at what seems like the end of another game is amazing. It pulls you in immediately. I just wish the main quest could maintain that sort of momentum. The characters are forgettable and lack personality, and the writing is exceptionally hollow. Lufia isn’t the most interesting RPG in terms of plot. Pacing is also a huge issue here. In some areas of this game you will find yourself playing for hours upon hours without a single plot development or even any significant dialogue. This is one of the game’s biggest weaknesses, but it isn’t enough to ruin it.
Lufia is an extremely traditional role playing game. You wander across a vast world map fighting turn based battles against randomly encountered enemies, into deep dungeons full of treasure and monsters, and through several town areas wherein you advance the plot and purchase supplies. If you’ve played one game like this then you’ve played them all, and Lufia & the Fortress of Doom brings almost nothing new to the table. Usually I don’t care as long as battle mechanics are solid, but here they’re even more contrived than usual.
Battles can be a little stale to be honest. There’s nothing wrong with the system and mechanics; Lufia just doesn’t do anything to set itself apart from the many other 16-bit RPGs. The action pauses as you input commands for all of your party members (up to four at once) and when finished all actions are carried out. The menu is a little unorthodox as it makes use of a cross design for icons. Additionally your characters all appear in a display boxes on the bottom of the screen, and these also show their hit points as well as magic points. Each party member features minimal animation and detail, but the monster designs are pretty interesting at times. Unfortunately the battle sequences don’t feature background graphics and instead rely on what is on-screen as exploration transitions to fighting.
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom at times can be quite difficult. It’s never unfair, but at the same time no area of this game is a cakewalk. Throughout the adventure enemies are frequently challenging and inflict a myriad of status effects. Bosses are seldom encountered, but always put up a big fight which will force you to either level up or add additional tricks to your battle strategy. After the boss rush against the four sinistrals at the beginning of the game I was looking forward to many of these encounters. Alas, I was left disappointed.
Unfortunately you can only target groups of enemies (which is similar to the original Phantasy Star) and the AI automatically chooses where within the group your attack will land. This can be annoying because often an enemy will be a singular hit away from death but your commands are targeted elsewhere. This is a problem that once plagued the genre in the previous generation but had since been solved since Lufia’s release. Why they returned to it I’ll never know. Lufia & the Fortress of Doom features only four different characters after the introductory sequence, and you are not allowed any customization beyond their equipment. Thankfully they are all quite different from one another and learn separate spells. You have the typical mages, fighter, and all rounder though. Nothing really unique in that aspect.
If this game has one major weakness (aside from not being inventive) it is definitely the dungeon designs. Lufia’s caves, castles, etc. are often very tricky to navigate. Dungeons generally feature too many paths that are simple dead ends, and while trying to figure out where you need to go you’re being assaulted with battles. I found dungeons extremely frustrating to get through because enemies are constantly wearing you down every step of the way. Additionally this game has an abnormal amount of treasure chests on every floor of every one of these areas.
These developers absolutely love teasing players by placing treasure chests just in view which tempts you to retrace your steps and take alternate paths in an effort to locate the item. Most of the time these are basic supplies you can buy in any shop, but every once in a while you’ll find a useful piece of armor or weapon. This happened just enough that I forced myself to find every treasure chest, and let me tell you it made Lufia extra frustrating.
The graphics are pretty weak by Super Nintendo standards. The colors are extremely plain, and all characters are pixelated. The backgrounds are quite plain and very dull, but some areas feature small animations that spice things up a bit. Unfortunately there are only a few different tile sets in the entire game which is no doubt an effort to keep memory costs down, but it makes things highly repetitive. All buildings feature the same exact visual design, as do the dungeons and towns as well.
As I mentioned earlier the battle sequences are also quite plain looking. The developers couldn’t be bothered to even make background graphics for monster encounters. You aren’t whisked away to another screen so much as the enemies and your characters are just plopped over what the screen was already displaying. It looks very plain and kind of ugly to be honest. Overall this game looks like it almost could have been done on something like the Sega Master System.
Lufia’s soundtrack fares significantly better than its graphics. The music is extremely well done, and falls just slightly short of the likes of Nobuo Uematsu’s work in Final Fantasy. I’m especially fond of the high energy world map theme as well as the bouncy battle music. The dungeon and cave themes are also quite enjoyable. Sound effects are unrealistic, but they fit the game pretty well and I have no complaints. It’s often good, but rarely is it ever amazing. There’s hardly anything less than pleasant here.
Controls present no major issues, but the interface leaves a little to be desired. The menus are extremely plain and could have benefited from a visual upgrade. Furthermore the developers gave the magical spells some extremely weird names. It’s almost impossible to guess what any of the magic actually does until you cast it, and the developers should have stuck with a more traditional naming convention. It’s not game breaking by any means but it can be a little frustrating.
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom isn’t a bad game, but it just doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the crowd. It was released on a console with a ton of Japanese role playing games, and with that in mind it’s not hard to see why this one was lost in the shuffle. The story isn’t particularly interesting, but it does feature a few surprising twists. The battle system is so traditional it feels generic, but it’s solid and puts a fair amount of strategy at your fingertips. It’s not a great game, but Lufia is worth playing for fans of the genre.
