bit-tech Shopping: Atlus Lumines Arc (DS)

Rating: 6

Time with product: 2 Weeks

Strengths: Interesting tactical games. Great characters and cutscenes.

Weaknesses: Typical story.

Summary: Luminous Arc is an interesting tactical JRPG with all the familiar trappings of Anime. You got the typiocal anime characters but they're done so over the top they are a little more interesting than usual. That includes the guy who thinks he's cool, the love struck hero, the pushy witch, the little brother, and all the oother bits. The cutscenes are also terrific.Howeverm the gameplay is just okay. it's not bad, and has a specific rythm. But it isn't exceptional. but it's a nice fun romp while it lasts.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Good FF tactics-like battle system, relationship points between characters help engage you in the story

Weaknesses: voice acting gets obnoxious fast, no directional keypad option for battles, lots of exposition in between battles

Summary: Luminous Arc is a turn-based strategy game in the style of final fantasy tactics. For anyone familiar with that genre of game, you should recognize a lot of similarities. A band of diverse individuals join your hero in order to stop the "evil" witches. The story evolves through moving on an overland map in a more or less linear fashion with certain locations providing set battles and encounters. The combat system was fun and there are a plethora of characters to choose from by the end. Based on your responses, different relationships develop between the characters and will allow for synergy attacks. The use of the touch screen is required rather than simply an option and I often wished for a directional keypad option.What I found sort of daunting was the sheer amount of exposition. It felt like I was reading a novel rather than playing a game and it was hard to resist the urge to simply fast forward to get to the next battle.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Days

Strengths: first strategy rpg for ds, where you can battle online, good music-sound producer was renown yasunori mitsuda. intermission system-raise other character's friendship with main character, receive items.

Weaknesses: lags/slowdowns in certain stages, voice acting is really bad, controlling units with stylus is slow and cumbersome.

Summary: This is a nice strategy rpg if you're a fan of the genre. its also pretty easy so even a newcomer could play and beat the game. This is a nice first effort for its developers-Image Epoch-this was their first game. A sequel to this game has already been annouced-so hopefully that will improve on the series.