A playthrough of Taito's 1993 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom.

This video is part one of a two-part playthrough, showing the beginning through the receiving of the Falcon from Professor Raile. Part two can be found at [ Ссылка ]

Lufia is traditional turn-based JRPG with gameplay that closely resembles the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior NES games. It was released in the holiday season of 1993 to generally positive reviews, though it was massively overshadowed by Secret of Mana, which had appeared in stores just two months earlier.

The game kicks off with one of the best introduction sequences I've seen in an RPG. Maxim and his band of heroes arrive at the Fortress of Doom, a castle on a floating island, to put an end to the wicked group of demigods called the Sinistrals. In the ensuing battle, the hero Maxim and his wife Selan are lost, but the Sinistrals are finally defeated.

Peace was achieved, but of course, it wasn't to last. 100 years later, monsters are appearing in greater numbers and there have been reported sightings of one of the fallen Sinistrals. You, as the descendant of Maxim, feel the call of adventure and take it upon yourself to finish what your forebearer started a century ago.

The intro does an incredible job of amping you up for the game to come: being thrown in at the deep end of the story with a powerful party in possession of a wide range of abilities is exciting, and that music really makes the scene. The intro only lasts for fifteen minutes, though, so what about the rest of the game?

Well... unfortunately, it pales in comparison. Once you're set loose in the first town, the best of what the game has to offer is firmly behind you. That's not to say it's bad - it's solid, but it's too by-the-numbers to ever thrill you.

You wander between towns where you'll receive a fetch quest of some sort. You'll then have to fight through a cave or a fortress to perform whatever task is given to you so that you can return and be redirected elsewhere to repeat the cycle.

The battle system is just as standard, but it feels old, even by 1993 standards, and the random encounter rate is absurdly high. There's no ATB system to keep you on your toes, and just as in the original Final Fantasy, if someone tries to attack an enemy that has already been defeated, they'll swing at thin air and waste their turn. The spell animations are pretty cool, though.

The dialogue and the characters are probably the best part of the experience. There are lots of goofy little exchanges between the characters that keep the tone light and fun. I must say, though, that I really hated Lufia's character. She subscribes to the whole "I'm a bratty young girl that likes a boy so obviously everything in the world revolves around me" archetype, and everything she says can be boiled down to "I like you so I resent you." It's insufferable. I almost stopped playing the game at several points because of her character alone.

All things considered, though, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom is a competently put together game that's not without its charms, but it can't hold a candle to the system's best RPGs, including its own sequel.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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