Although it is probably too linear for folks accustomed to having complete freedom to explore game worlds, towns, and grind dungeons indefinitely, Luminous Arc 2 keeps things moving through about 30 hours of gameplay. Everything in the world of Luminous Arc 2 has a nice weight to it, and you'll find that as much forethought went into crafting the plot of the game as went into the beautiful designs. The game isn't so open-ended that it allows you to switch sides, but the enemies you'll face are far more than cardboard cutouts with a grudge and a sword. Very quickly, it becomes clear that Roland is on one side of many that are mutually against the threat to Carnava, but in competition with each other, and convinced that their side is the right one. After a mishap with some experimental technology being developed to battle a threat to his homeland Carnava, Roland hits the road with his older brother Rasche, their fellow Knight-in-training Rina, and a mysterious Witch-in-training named Althea. A full cast of new characters are featured in Luminous Arc 2, revolving around an aspiring Rune Knight named Roland. This is a game that is heavy on story, and RPG fans do love their deep stories. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Luminous Arc 2 is very much in debt to classic titles that came before, which doesn't prevent it from being a wonderfully playable game. What's neat is how Luminous Arc 2 lets you ogle the ladies while poking fun of itself through characters like Kaph, that totes a camera around to post pictures of beautiful witches for fanboys. There's a serious otaku thread that runs through the game even in the art book, you'll see each of the women's, ahem. There are some small but very nice visual touches in the form of animations that sprawl across both screens, usually of a beautiful lady. Each time you enter an area, you'll see unexplored areas marked on the menu as "New" so you know right away what's been done or not. ![]() This creates a lot of menu navigation, but Luminous Arc 2 takes a nice approach to keep things from becoming confusing. There is lots of world to explore within the game, but only from moving place-to-place via menus, rather than free exploration. The scenes during battle are top-down and appear to follow the same kind of sprite-based character models seen in many other places, at many other times. The speaking roles are played by static character models that have varied facial expressions, but no animation. With this in mind, is it any surprise that Luminous Arc 2 turns to the past, as did last year's release of Luminous Arc? The character designs are very retro, including some classy anime styling during cutscenes and story sequences. Perusing the DS catalog over the past year in the RPG category, you'll find a mixed bag, and the strongest games are arguably the classics. Thoughts of Level 5 output such as Jeanne D'Arc come to mind, which of course wasn't available for DS-only gamers. Gamers playing across several platforms have been graced with good RPGS in recent years, some of them updated quite a bit and breaking from the old formulas. This is nice for fans that have played every Virtual Arcade RPG download on their Wii, bought the classics like Arc the Lad, and slathered attention on all the "lost" Final Fantasy titles. Luminous Arc 2 is somewhat of a throwback visually. The developers were smart to use voice actors instead of relying on text, because there is a huge story contained in this game that would test the reading tolerance of even the most resolute RPG fans. ![]() The voice acting is quite good, with an impressive cast of characters. Luminous Arc 2 features lots of spoken dialogue, in addition to a slew of content delivered as text-only. The tunes are a fun mix of traditional RPG fare, the kind of martial ditties popularized through Final Fantasy and the like, and more pop-oriented tunes. To reinforce this, Luminous Arc 2 ships with a soundtrack CD. Each time you break away from battle, you'll see a ticker that shows the song currently playing, almost like you'd associate with a racing or other action game. Music plays a special role in Luminous Arc 2 I don't know that I've seen any RPG put as much focus on its soundtrack. ![]() Paging through this book, called "Luminous Art," really highlights the thought behind the characters designed for the game. Fans with advance orders on file will also find delivered with their game an impressive art book showing the character designs, for Luminous Arc 2 and its predecessor. The minute this game powers on, it bursts into song and shows you some animated sequences that are like a teaser-trailer for what you will experience while playing. First appearances are probably the best things that Luminous Arc 2 has going for it.
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