Lufia: The Legend Returns
Third Lufia title and first handheld entry in the series.
The third Lufia title and the series’ first handheld release, this Game Boy Color role-playing game launched in 2001. Neverland handled development, while Taito, Natsume Inc., and Ubi Soft published it in Japan, North America, and Europe, respectively.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Neverland
- Publisher
- Taito (JP)
- Natsume Inc. (NA)
- Ubi Soft (EU)
- Director
- Masahide Miyata
- Designer
- Tomonari Matsumoto
- Composer
- Yasunori Shiono
- Akiko Ishibashi
- Tomoko Morita
- Yukio Nakajima
- Platforms
- Game Boy Color
- Released
- September 7, 2001 (JP)
- September 20, 2001 (NA)
- October 23, 2001 (EU)
- Genre
- Role-playing
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Lufia: The Legend Returns is a role-playing game that uses random battles, like its predecessors. It keeps the series' IP System, where characters learn special abilities called IP Skills by finding Ancient Texts in dungeons, rather than equipping them. To use these skills, characters need enough Spiritual Force, or SF. Most of the action happens on the Battle Screen, where players face enemies from simple Red Jellies to sea creatures and evil gods. Up to nine characters can be in a battle, but only three can attack each turn, with one character per vertical column. Characters in the front row deal more damage but take more, while those in the back row take less damage but deal less. Between rounds, players can move characters around the screen to swap positions and make the best use of their abilities. If a character's HP drops to zero, they are out for the rest of the battle and earn no Experience or Learning Points, but they revive automatically with 1 HP afterward. Reviving them during the fight has no penalty. A new feature in this third game is the Spiritual Force, which has four types and lets a character learn one IP skill each. The Ancient Cave, a popular mode from Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, returns here. It has a randomly generated layout with 200 floors, and players must work their way down to the bottom.
Plot
A century after the events of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, and two centuries after Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, the world is once again threatened. The game opens by recounting the Doom Island Wars, describing how the four all-powerful Sinistrals were first defeated by the hero Maxim and his three companions two hundred years ago, and then again by his descendant one hundred years later. The story centers on a teenager named Wain, another descendant of Maxim. One day, a mysterious woman arrives in his village seeking a swordsman. She spots Wain on the street and asks if he can fight. Unimpressed, she dismisses him, and Wain storms off outside the village to take out his frustration on monsters. When the player returns to the city, a strange force appears at the nearby Tower of Death, setting a house ablaze. Wain pulls a girl from the burning building, collapses from smoke inhalation, and is later nursed back to health by the woman, who reveals herself as Seena, a renowned fortune teller from another continent on a "Great Adventure." She persuades Wain to join her quest, and the pair head for the tower. At the top, they confront Gades, one of the four Sinistrals. Though Wain and Seena are soundly defeated and Gades escapes, their purpose becomes clear: they must gather powerful allies and stop the newly awakened Sinistrals to save the world.
Development
Several characters initially created for the cast of Lufia: The Legend Returns were not included in the final story. These included Chelsee, a girl who dreams of becoming a teen idol; Bareia, a self-aggrandizing half-vampire; and Panapas, a precocious artist. The game was originally in development as a PlayStation title called Lufia III: Ruins Chaser, also written as Lufia: Ruins Chaser. It was revealed to U.S. publications under that name, with an expected release in late 2000 or early 2001, but Nihon-Flex, the company working on it, went out of business during production, and the project was scrapped. Shortly afterward, long-time Lufia series developer Neverland picked up the game, significantly downgraded the graphics, completely rewrote the story, and created new characters, resulting in the released version.
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