Luminous Arc - Pocket Tactic RPG

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Hello everyone! It´s a new year, so it´s time for a new entry! How did you start this new year? All good? Beating the crap out of anyone who crosses your way? Now, now, I was talking about the versus fighting game of which I talked about in the last entry. Please, leave the beatings for videogames and be good boys and girls, ok? Anyway, in this entry I´m going to talk about yet another interesting JRPG hidden among the enormous catalogue of Nintendo´s popular double screen portable system, a game called Luminous Arc, a title that went kinda unnoticed at the moment of its release, perhaps due to the small amount of copies of the game that were shipped (as unfortunately it always happens with this kind of game), and to the fact that in 2007 everyone had their attention focused already on the back then new generation consoles that were starting to show to the gaming community the first titans that would end up ruling the whole generation such as Gears of War, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Assassin´s Creed, Bioshock, Halo 3 o Mass Effect. So let´s see what this interesting little Tactic JRPG has to offer.

Developed exclusively for the Nintendo DS by the already extinct Imageepoch in 2007, fathers also of Nostalgia, the classic style JRPG of which I already talked a few entries back, and produced by Marvelous, Luminous Arc is a Tactic JRPG that follows the path of classics such as Final Fantasy Tactics, in fact, we could almost say it´s a clone of Squaresoft´s classic, although fear not, for is good clone. The story of Luminous Arc takes us to the world of Shtraberl, where a 1,000 years ago a war took place between the Dragons, the Witches and God and his celestial army. The battle was long and cruel, and thousands died, leaving the world in ruin, till it all ended one day. The Witches where blamed for the catastrophe due their heretic acts, and the surviving witches had to hide in order to avoid the wrath everyone felt for them, while God entered a long slumber in order to recover his powers, and so the world went back to peace for 1,000 years. Now people lives under the protection of the Luminous Church, waiting for the return of their God, although the recent increase of monsters activity indicates the witches could also be getting ready for their return. However, the Luminous Church was ready for it, as they had been training a special unit known as the Garden Children, which purpose is to fight those that threaten the harmony of the Luminous Church and its followers. The Garden Children receive the order to investigate the recent increase of monsters, and eliminate any witches that could be behind this in order to avoid a new upraising, thus taking us on an adventure around the world of Shtraberl as we follow the Garden Children and other allies that will join them for different reasons, however, we will soon discover that all this good versus evil was not as simple as it seemed.

As for the gameplay of the title, Luminous Arc a is a traditional turn based Tactic JRPG that follows exactly the same formula used by classics such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vandal Hearts o Disgaea. Just like we could see in Squaresoft´s classic, exploration in Luminous Arc will be limited to the use of a map that will display the places we can visit, being these towns where we will be able to buy items and equipment, which will be able to customize with magical runes, as well as gather information about the game´s world by navigating several menus, or the battlefields where the actual combats will take place. Luminous Arc does not include any secondary missions or alternative routes whatsoever, focusing instead in the game´s main story, however, we will be able to repeat the past battles, although the enemies will be exactly the same, which means that once we level up our characters will be just too strong for our enemies to suppose a threat, thus taking away the challenge. Just like the games I mentioned before, in Luminous Arc we will control a small army of characters which we will have to use to defeat the enemy army. During the battles the game will make us of the typical isometric camera that so often is used in the genre to display the battlefield, which will be divided in a grid. The movement and attack range of our characters will be measured in squares of the grid. To make a character move across the battlefield, we will have to select the desired character and then the square in the grid inside the character´s movement range to which we would like the character to move, with this varying depending on the character. Once we finish moving, we will be able to select the action we want to perform, like attacking, or using and item or a skill (or do nothing at all), and then it will be the turn of the next character. As I said, the typical stuff. But where Luminous Arc sets itself apart is in its special attack system. Just as we can see in many versus fighting games, our characters will be able to perform special attacks know as Flash Drives once their power gauge fills up completely. On top of this, they will also be able to perform Synergy Attacks, which are similar to the previous ones, just that this time around it will involve two characters performing a devastating special attack at the same time when they both have their power gauge maxed up and are close to each other in the battlefield, however, this system will be limited just to certain characters. On top of this, the game also includes a feature that will allow us to develop the main character´s relationships with the rest of characters. Once the battles finish, we will be able to choose a character to talk to in order to learn more about the selected character´s background. In addition to this, if we choose the right answers, the characters relationship will improve and they will both receive a boost to their profiles when they are close to each other in the battlefield, and even obtain special items from them. Although it won´t actually affect the gameplay that much, is still a nice addition that definitely helps to give the title more personality. Another thing worth to mention is the game´s multiplayer option, which is something quite rare in this kind of game. Once we reach a certain point in the story, we will be able to use our characters to battle against other players characters via online matches, and although the mode is quite limited, I feel is still a nice addition.

The Garden Children, the main protoganists of the adventure.

Finally, we have the graphics, which frankly speaking, are pretty damn good for a game of this kind. The characters, enemies and stages have all been masterfully crafted pixel by pixel with a huge attention to detail, which will surely please all the pixel lovers and fans of the 16/32-bit era games. All in all, Luminous Arc is a highly recommendable title for all the fans of Tactic JRPG games, for despite not bringing anything new to the genre, it surely is a solid title in all of its aspects, and I´m pretty sure that should the game had been released in other times, it would have probably got the attention it really deserves. As it often happens with this kind of games, the number of copies released in the US and Europe (especially Europe) was rather small, so the game might be a bit pricy for this kind of game in today´s standards. Actually, Luminous Arc received two direct sequels also exclusive for the Nintendo DS in 2008 (Luminous Arc 2) and 2009 (Luminous Arc 3), both developed by Imageepoch and produced by Marvelous, although the third entry in the series never made it outside Japan, probably because at the time everyone was already getting ready for the much anticipated Nintendo 3DS, and which is a real pity, since both sequels kept the same quality standards of the first entry, expending even more the already extensive catalogue of JRPG games for the Nintendo DS. The forth and last installment in the series so far, known as Luminous Arc Infinity, was released in 2015 exclusively for the PS Vita, and so far there are no planes either to bring it to the west. So remember, if you feel like playing some good classic Tactic JRPG, you should give a chance to Luminous Arc. I´m pretty sure it won´t disappoint you. Enjoy!

GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmAog8yuGh4