Product Description

For most of the past four millennia, peace has reigned over the Kingdom of Carnava. The Magic Kingdom has flourished due to its close cooperation with the Witches of the Rev Magic Association and the ever-present usage of magic. Unfortunately, the era of peace has come to an end. Fatima, the Shadow Frost Witch, broke from the Magic Association three years ago and has attacked magic facilities across the kingdom ever since. This infighting, dubbed the Witch Conflict, has pushed Carnava to the brink of chaos. When the young squire Roland gains magnificent powers due to a chance encounter, Sophia, the Queen of Carnava, calls upon him to bring about an end to the discord.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4325 in Video Games
• Brand: Atlus
• Model: LA-40021-8
• Released on: 2008-11-18
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Features

• Comes with a soundtrack CD packaged with game
• 30 chapters and 30 plus hours of gameplay
• take the battle online with Nintendo WiFi connection
• Refined interface offers new content and enhancements
• engagement system to connect with your witch allies

Customer Reviews

Not a Bad Follow Up
Pros:

+Some good art
+Good music
+Well written story
+Simplistic Gameplay that anyone can pick up on
+Fast paced battles

Cons:

-Graphically doesn't look much different from a GBA game
-Very easy game
-It does little to separate itself from the first game or to really try to stand out in the genre. This is a con that is subjective, however

Last year, the first Luminous Arc dropped down. It wasn't really anything special--especially if you were a veteran of the SRPG--but at it at least had merits. Anyone who was just starting out with the genre, however, may have found it a nice introduction. On the whole, Luminous Arc wasn't the greatest title, but it was far from being a bad game. It was just a bare bones basic SRPG. The same could be said for Luminous Arc 2. Overall it is a better game, but it doesn't do much to really go above and beyond the first game. In short, if you didn't like the first game, there's no real reason to think you'd like the second one.

Things don't pick off from where the first game left off. A trend that isn't really new in the SRPG realm. Nonetheless, the storyline of Luminous Arc 2 uses many stylistic things from the first game. There are usually character portraits facing one another and speaking through facial expressions. For the most part the story is well written, but it suffers from the same thing as the first. That being there is quite a bit of exposition. The other thing the story suffers from is the imbalance in voice acting; another flaw from the first game. There will be moments when you'll hear voices and then abruptly, the voice acting stops and then abruptly continues again. The story itself isn't bad, but you might find you want it to be better. There's a good sense of humor abound, and the writing itself isn't bad either. Not to mention you'll like most of the characters. While the story is by no means bad, it is a little weak and predictable. The characters make it work but you definitely won't find yourself blown away.

Gameplay wise, Luminous Arc 2 is, once again, not all that different from the first one. You move your characters around and perform attacks, usually taking turns. Characters also have special abilities and flash drives (which are fancier flashier abilities) they can use in battle as well. Nothing about Luminous Arc 2's mechanics are difficult at all. The game is easy to pick up and play. Unfortunately, it isn't too difficult either. Veteran gamers will find themselves getting through the game with no problems whatsoever.

Simplistic gameplay aside, Luminous Arc is not so stellar in production. The anime inspired art is pretty neat and most of the maps look good, but for the most part, Luminous Arc continues to look like a late GBA game. The battle animations for the spells and flash drives in particular are horrible. You might get a kick out of the art style but other than that you won't get a kick out of the visuals. The music is pretty good, though, as are some of the voices. The voice acting isn't always the strongest but for the most part it's a lot better than its predecessor.

In the end, Luminous Arc 2 is a good game, but like the first one only throws in the most basic of basic things. If you are expecting something innovative you won't get it with Luminous Arc 2. Yet for what it's worth, it is an inviting game for those who've yet to really experience the SRPG. Likewise you don't need to know anything about the first game to jump in. Unfortunately, if you didn't find the first game to be all that great you probably won't think the second one is all that great either.

Lumninous Gaming!
After playing Luminous Arc 1, I knew this game had to be added to my collection. With the added elements of the additional battles you can play in order to level up, and the even more intense graphics, you truly feel that you're inside an anime episode. Atlus is an amazing company--any game of theirs is one you should own.
As for this edition, with the music and the art book, I'm even more impressed with the final product. The art for each character, as well as some panels from the previous game are beautiful, and so vivid.
I love this game--and anyone who might enjoy an RPG, and a turn based RPG at that, will love this game.

Reluctant 3 Stars
This game is very difficult to review. I picked up the original Luminous Arc a couple years ago at an electronics store thinking it looked interesting and different enough to buy, and hoping on the off chance it was good; I was eager to get a strategy RPG for the DS at that time. Needless to say, I was unexpectedly surprised and thoroughly pleased by it. The English voice acting was some of the best I had ever seen in any game or anime.

Luminous Arc 2 continues in this vein. The characters are lovable, lively, and the voice acting is great, maintaining a sense of humor and parody that make Luminous Arc delightful, entertaining, and unique. I appreciated the fact that this game came with a soundtrack CD, which is short, but the tunes are respectable.

As a sequel, there are ups and downs. The gameplay is definitely better; I would call it a huge improvement. In terms of playability this game hits the nail on its head and refines the first game to an appreciably better system. Neither game is particularly challenging (more like SRPG-lite), but they are still fun, and this game even does a good job at tackling the rigid linearity of its predecessor. If you thought the first game was fun to play, you have to get this one.

While the gameplay is essentially better, the story line suffers a lot. The characters are little more than lame clones of those in the first game, except the characters in the first game were more lovable and charming. Both games are driven by the plot--actually playing the game is secondary to acting out the story and enjoying the characters and dialog. In this way, the first game was much better than the second hands down. If Luminous Arc had a great, unique story and cast, Luminous Arc 2 plays off as hacked and cheesy with more cliches and stereotypes thrown in (because the writers were incompetent or lazy), like a Disney straight-to-video, low budget sequel. One bad thing is that this game has too many characters, and they have awful dating-sim type personalities, not to mention their names are stupid. In sight of these blunders, the game still has that sense of humor I mentioned earlier as a saving grace.

If you had to pick between this game and the original, then get the original. Even though this one is the better -game-, neither manage to top their genre in gameplay and need to rely on their story value; the original Luminous Arc is the real masterpiece. If you're a strategy RPG gameplay junkie you'll want to get Fire Emblem anyway.

The final issue with this game is hypersexualization of the female characters. This was present in the first game but to a much lesser degree; this game unfortunately tips the scale too far, venturing into the realm of misogyny with its constant objectification of the female body. The biggest problem with this game is that the villain at the outset of this game is named Fatima and is dressed as a whore, which is an insult to the family of the Holy Prophet of Islam. If you can somehow manage to forgive these things, which were probably only done out of ignorance and naivety, the characters still have their nuances and personalities.

This is a game that deserves and wants to have 5 stars but just can't quite make it. There are too many things holding this game back, but I would sincerely look forward to a Luminous Arc 3. If you're a niche fan then you should definitely get it, but if you're a casual gamer then by all means skip it. I give it 3 stars because it's a worthy but flawed effort... it earns about as many stars as it loses.