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Lufia: Curse Of The Sinistrals - Nintendo DS Standard Edition

by Natsume
Platform : Nintendo DS

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3 new from CDN$ 56.83 2 used from CDN$ 39.99

Game Information

  • Platform:   Nintendo DS
  • ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
  • Media: Video Game
  • Item Quantity: 1

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Product Details

  • ASIN: B003UI518A
  • Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 13.7 x 1.5 cm ; 86 g
  • Release Date: Oct. 12 2010
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #11,675 in Computer and Video Games (See Top 100 in Computer and Video Games)

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2.5 out of 5 stars
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Most helpful customer reviews

As far as action RPGs go (And lord knows these are among my favorite types of RPGs) I had plenty of fun with this... but as an RPG in itself. I was judging it as a game on its own, not as a Lufia game and what I got was satisfying. The gameplay was solid, it controls well, and at the end of the day, that should be the most important aspect.

I guess as far as story goes, I feel like they improved at least some aspects, especially Tia who pretty much got a makeover (in every way possible) and ultimately ended up being a better, more well developed and even more useful character because of it. (No, seriously, the original version of Tia was unlikable, underdeveloped and pretty much useless in combat... also, I think this version of her is more attractive. Just saying) Am I saying the story as a whole is better than the original? Not quite, but it's still good for what it is, though not gonna lie, the original did have more going for it in terms of plot.

I'll admit, I still have a personal attachment toward the original Lufia 2, but as an RPG, this is enjoyable too. I guess what does prevent me from giving it a perfect score are 2 things, one of which is minor and the other being not-so-minor. The not-so-minor problem is that the puzzles are a tad on the easy side. Because this game isn't limited to a grid movement, it's much easier to clear these and figure them out. The more minor issue is this option to increase your level by 5 if you die a certain number of times, and yes, it's a permanent thing. The reason this is minor is because, like a lot of 'make the game easier' gimmicks in DS/3DS titles, this is optional, so you don't actually have to use it if you'd rather beat a big boss fairly or grind before taking it on.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful By Cheryl E. Sutherland on Dec 9 2010
I have no clue why they decided to go the direction they did with this game but its an absolute disservice to the original Lufia 2 and to the entire Lufia series.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful By Holly Vincent on Nov. 20 2010
This is a classic game that I loved when I was a child. It was for the Super Nintendo, Lufia Rise of the sinistrals and Lufia and the fortress of doom. The battle system is lame, now you fight with one character, when that character dies, you go to the next character etc and it's not turn based like the old school version. I was really excited when I saw that they were making this game and pre-ordered it, I wish that they would have just left it alone rather than make it a mediocre piece of crap. Overall the whole game stinks, thanks for ruining an awesome game Natsume
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful By Jonathon Carter on Jan. 16 2011
Lufia 2 ranks up there as one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and definitely my favorite SNES RPG of all time, so I was incredibly excited when I heard that they were making a remake.

When I first seen the screenshots, and information came out, I was even more interested in how the battle system had been changed from the traditional turn based style to a new, almost Y's kind of action based combat. Usually nowadays, remakes are just the same game with shinier graphics, it was a nice change to see Square changing it up with Lufia and going in a whole new direction. The purist in me wishes they didn't change the game as much as they did, but it is still an enjoyable experience.

The battle system, like I had said, is kind of a mix in Y's and Star Ocean, but you can free roam wherever you want, except in perspective fixed boss battles. An interesting feature that was added is a free level up if you die to a boss you have the choice of accepting a 5 level power up for your team. There are no rules to this, so you can abuse it if you want, but you would be depriving yourself of some fun if you did.

Overall, for a series I never thought I would hear from again, Curse of the Sinistrals was a surprising and enjoyable take on the old classic, is it for everyone? no, but this game gets a lot of undeserved hate for not being just a port with shinier graphics. If it was not titled Lufia, it would still be a fun experience.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Amazon.com: 34 reviews
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Not good, not bad. Just.....in the middle Oct. 20 2010
By Techie2009 - Published on Amazon.com
Lufia 2 Rise of the Sinistrals is the video game that I grew up with. It had everything: dastardly puzzles (Dragon Mountain), enemies that gave a real challenge (Idura, The Giant Spider), and a storyline that was so engaging it was the first real RPG that I played through. I still dig around for my copy of Lufia 2 to play whenever I go home.

Now we get Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals. It was a god try on Natsume's part to bring the game for a whole new generation. The game was somewhat the same as its original counterpart: four super beings are intent on destroying the earth. There are other similarities in the story (characters reappear, certain scenes play out the same), but for the most part, the Lufia magic is taken away.
Let me explain before I continue on. I did play the game all the way through and I enjoyed the storyline. With the music and appearances from familiar characters, the nostalgia factor kicked in big time.

Here are the differences:
Rhythm Games: Aside from Guitar Hero, I cannot do a rhythm game to save my life. This makes things very difficult early on in the game with the mine cart minigame.
Kingdom Hearts type battles: While fun in their own right, I do miss the turn based battles that made Lufia 2 so much fun (there was more strategy to them. Now it's just hack n slash).
No Lexis: Yes, I know Lexis shows up as a sidekick for Maxim from the start. But to be honest, he was my favorite character in the original game, his high intelligence made his spells the most powerful in the game.
Ancient Cave: Though it returns, the ancient cave starts out with only a handful of floors (I think around thirty), and you have to beat the game before accessing the other ones. This is a personal gripe for me, who loved going through the entire Ancient Cave in the original story.

As I said, I loved (still love) Lufia 2. It will always hold a special place in my heart as a game that I can always sit down and play. Lufia, Curse of the Sinistrals was fun in its own right too. With a lot of gameplay and some fun nostalgia factors, it can be awesome. However; without the turn based battles, the fun strategy needed to play is gone. The rhythm games, however, were the final nail in the coffin.

Final review:
Visuals: 10 out of 10
Sound: 10 out of 10
Story: 7 out of 10
Gameplay: 6 out of 10

One last warning: If you do decide to get this, it's not Lufia Rise of the Sinistrals. Don't make the same mistake I did.
42 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Lufia: Curse of the SquareEnix Trolls April 26 2011
By Jeffery - Published on Amazon.com
My wife and I played the original version of this game, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, on the Super Nintendo together. We loved it. The characters were genuine, the plot was excellent, the dialogue was wonderful (although sometimes poorly translated), and the love story was great. At the end of Lufia II, my wife and I were both in tears, it was so moving. Half an hour after starting Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, we were in tears for another reason. Neither of us wanted to believe the reviews that said the Lufia remake wasn't as good as the first. We hoped that they were overstating their case. In our opinion, they seriously understated it.

We knew that we were in trouble when we started the game and saw that Square-Enix had helped to develop the new version. Square-Enix's work has received...mixed reviews in recent years, and none of their new work has appealed to us. I largely blame Square-Enix for the terrible, terrible way that this game was remade. Let's take the very beginning as an example. Rather than establish any of the characters' personalities or do any world-building, the game starts with the bad guy proclaiming in a loud, 80's-dubbed anime-style voice that he is going to destroy the world. Then you see each of the playable characters, one by one, say things like "I've gotta stop him!", and "Not if I kick your butt!" and so forth. Then the main character charges up to Doom Island to challenge the bad guy, which didn't happen until the very end of the original. At the very beginning, the developers bash the player over the head with the blunt end of the plot, eliminating most of the storytelling elements from the game.

Incidentally, the quotations above are a good example of the character dialogue. It is terrible. The character's attitudes, lines, and personalities have been severely dumbed down from the original game. This fact, primarily, will spoil the game even for people who haven't played the original. You like witty dialogue? Too bad, you get terrible jokes that a ten-year-old couldn't miss. You like character development and exposition? Sorry, kids don't have the patience for that anymore. The authentically-written characters of the original game seem to have been replaced with stock characters from some generic RPG or fantasy book. Even the character designs have been altered almost beyond recognition. Why is the houswife-ish Tia wearing goggles? Why does the mighty Dekar have a tie and pink hair? Why does Guy look like a shaved gorilla?

Other things about the game that could be viewed as positive or negative are the lack of a world map and the new battle system, which other reviewers have described very well. One fact that we hadn't heard before we played the game absolutely stunned us: if you die in battle, you can choose to go back to the last save point...with all of your characters' levels increased by five. For some people, this may be an advantage, but it begs the question: why are you playing an RPG if you're so terrible at them that the game has to help you like this? It's not as if the battles are particularly hard. You just keep pressing the button. The fact that this feature was included in the game felt like it was insulting us.

On a positive note, the graphics in the game are very nice. The dungeons and towns are very well done, although they do have a definite Square-Enix touch (why is there a giant crystal floating above a building in the first town? No idea). The music is also very nice, but it's the same as the first game. I was expecting the developers to make better use of the DS' capabilities; perhaps by using some synthesized instruments. Oh well.

Let's sum it up -

Great music
Great graphics

Terrible dialogue
Awful characters
Transparent plot

If you did not play the original Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals and you like Square-Enix's games, you may enjoy Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals. If so, good for you.

If you've played the original Lufia II, or if you like classic RPGs, don't take a chance on this game unless you also really, really like the new Square-Enix games (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, etc).

If you played the original Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals and like classic RPGs, but don't like the "new" style of RPGs that Square-Enix has made, please learn from our mistake and stay away from this game.
23 of 28 people found the following review helpful
First Impressions - Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals Oct. 14 2010
By S. Posey - Published on Amazon.com
As a hardcore RPG gamer, I tend to buy a lot of RPGs that hit the market. I might not finish them all at once with some taking months or even years to complete, but I do pick them all up eventually. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is a game that I have had my eyes on for some time. Being that it's a DS game, my wife would approve of the purchase because playing it means I can sit in the living room while she watches whatever it is she watches on the style channel. Lufia is actually an older franchise that had a couple successful games on the SNES console. This is actually a re-imagining of the game Lufia 2. How does this game fare in the first couple hours of gameplay? Hit the jump for my mini first impression of this DS game from Natsume.

Lufia used to be a turned based RPG when it was on the Super Nintendo system. The guys at Natsume decided to do away with that and create a new system in the game. Gone are the turn based battles instead replaced with action platforming. You hit a button to swing your sword, another to do a special move, another to jump, etc. It works well in the game and my only complaint is actually that I'm not familiar with action platformers on a DS system. My hands are taking a little while to get used to it and I sometimes hit the wrong buttons due to lack of memorization and confusion of they keys. Nothing big but a hurdle nonetheless.

The game is actually about a monster hunter name Maxim. He sets off to confront an evil god like creature who is threatening the world. This god, a Sinistral, wants to burn it to the ground and rebuild it again since humans are getting too powerful. Maxim finds out he is some sort of chosen warrior and the only one who can confront the Sinistral and he sets off to find other warriors to help him take down this enemy.

The story isn't a big drawing point, at least in the beginning, but I've been told it gets better as it goes on. Lufia 2 was considered by many to be a classic on the SNES. The game, as I mentioned before is a action RPG/platformer and it includes many puzzles. Every dungeon you go to will include a puzzle that will require you to use a characters special move. For instance, Maxim can shoot across chasms while Tia has a mechanical arm in her suitcase that can latch onto poles/objects and either fling to them or bring the object to her. Each character has a special move and you'll have to use them all to get through the dungeons puzzles. I've found that the puzzles aren't too difficult but do take some brain power to figure out. I spent a good 30 minutes on one puzzle only to have the answer dawn on me (and it was a no brainer) at the last moment before I was getting frustrated. As someone who doesn't really like puzzle games, I find this one refreshing. It's more of a combat game with puzzles so I think that's why.

The game also has RPG elements added in. Early in the game you get access to a board where you put gems on it. Depending on where you put these gems decides how your character upgrades and grows. You could focus one character on intelligence for spellcasting and another on strength for melee. It's a tried and true method with little in the way of innovation but it's a nice addition.

If you are looking for a new DS game to play that isn't too heavy in it's RPG roots ( a la Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light or other grindfest RPG's) then Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals may be for you. The puzzles can be a little tricky at times and require you to stress a little more than usual, but more times than not the answers came to me after tinkering around for a bit. All in all, it's a quality title and you don't need to know anything about the franchise to enjoy the game. So, if you enjoy action rpg games with some puzzle elements thrown in, give this one a try.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Meh. And that from a long time Lufia fan ~ Dec 6 2012
By Christopher Barrett - Published on Amazon.com
Verified Purchase Fun:   
Natsume has some decent games under their belt. But I don't understand what went wrong with Lufia. This is basically a remake of Lufia 2. I think the company did this because the story of Lufia 2 was better than Lufia, and the game is the first chronologically.

I expected an RPG, or at least an action RPG (like Zelda). I didn't expect Kingdom Hearts meets Lufia though... It's not a bad game, it is just very bland game. It bears little in common with the original game it is based on (which in itself isn't bad), but the problem is that the game is going to merit comparison to the SNES original which was better in almost every way.

The combat system is very similar to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy Dissidia, though without as much depth or balance. It feels like I'm playing Dragon Ball Z Budokai... basically just tapping away without any real strategy.

The translation is so-so, the voice acting is pretty terrible (not as bad as Suikoden Teirkreis though!), and the music is average. Save your money and get a SNES emulator with Lufia 2, you'll be happier in the long run. Lufia and Lufia 2 were among the best RPGs for the SNES, and I would rather see a straight remake (like the Dragon Quest titles) than a knock off that tarnishes the franchise name.
I liked it but...(SPOILERS in the marked areas,beware!!) Dec 27 2010
By Comedian 138 - Published on Amazon.com
Verified Purchase Fun:   
I liked this game but...I wanted to LOVE it. I have been a fan of the Lufia series since they first hit our shores back in 1993. I still have my original Lufia and Lufia 2 for the SNES in their original boxes, maps and all! (I have the gameboy color title too) Now, don't get me wrong, there are so many things that this game does right, but it could have been so much more. First I'll get the bad out of the way. My biggest gripe?...WTF is up with Maxim???? He looked WAY cooler in the original! His slicked back hair older look set him apart from other JRPG heroes. NOW he looks like your typical 17 year old Japanese teenage spiky haired protaganist who saves the world, but is home before dinner. And a leather jacket? Why??? Oh well, at least the other characters look cool. My other problem with the game is the lack of a world map. It just makes the game go by way too fast, and it just feels like something is missing. I mean, I'm a single dad working 12 hour shifts a day and I beat the game in a week! That's too easy! That's another thing, the game is too short! The original took me at least a month to beat!(Granted I wasn't as good at games back then, but STILL...!) And last but not least...(SPOILERS!!!!!)(SPOILERS!!!!!!) I liked how Selan died before Maxim had to stop Doom Island in the original. It made it much more dramatic and sad that Maxim had to save the world alone and then die alone. I dunno, it just feels like something was lost in this new version. But on to the plus sides of the game...I LOVE the new combat system! It's a personal thing, I know. I have always preferred real-time combat over turn based. So that's just me. I also think that for once, the English voice acting is decent.(Rare!!) Although I am a bit of a purist and would have preferred the Japanese voices, the English voice actors did well. I also like how Iris's character is developed more, she seems more like a real person now. And one of my favorite new features? It's great how the characters are not super deformed anymore!!!(Big head little body) That drove me nuts about a lot of the old school RPGS! Lastly, I like how you can play through again and access more levels and get a different ending(The first ending is the REAL one though!) Anyway, like I said, good game, I just wanted it to be a GREAT game. Let's hope the developers continue these remakes and fix these problems huh?