 Smash rock! Lufia and the Fortress of Doom might be the most hit or miss game on the Super Nintendo. Looking at it negatively, Lufia has no original ideas, and it's basically a fetch quest for items and or people. On the other hand, in a more positive light, Lufia has good battle mechanics, a good story arc with an interesting plot twist, featuring as good as a big reveal as you'll ever see on the Super NES, and it's also one of the most satisfying games to complete. In an interesting twist, you start the game in kind of a flashback sequence, actually in the Fortress of Doom, preparing to fight this epic battle against evil. You're Maxim, who's built up as some kind of legendary warrior, and you can tell because check out your stats, they're maxed to hell, plus you've got tons of items and spells already. I always thought that was a good way to introduce someone to the game, just give them everything for a brief while and let them figure it out for themselves. Yeah, it's kind of a tease, but whatever. Maxim defeats these evil guys called Sinistrals, and that are bent on taking over the world. He's successful, but it still ends tragically. Flash forward 100 years later to your main character, who's a descendant of Maxim, and the evil dudes are back, and it's up to you to stop them. That takes me to the story. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's surprisingly decent, and it's probably the best part of the game. The dialogue is pretty good, like something out of a 90s anime TV series. There's lots of bickering and humor, but even the serious stuff gets across well. Unfortunately, the manner in which the story is told in terms of actions, events, and quests, can be very, very annoying. Just ask anyone that's played through this game what they think about fixing the bridge, and just watch them boil with rage. To sum up, what happens is you end up being a gopher for this guy that has to repair a bridge for you to progress in the game. So you have to go to this far away town and get this guy to help build it, and after you do that, you go look at the bridge, and after you do that, you go way out of your way to stand on this cliff for some reason and look at it from over there, and after you do that, you have to do this, and then the whole thing is so clumsy and so unnecessary that I was starting to think, okay, they're actually evil and they're stalling me on purpose, right? Actually, no. This game is just that annoying and frustrating sometimes. Speaking of which, this game has random battles. A lot of them. And it gets tiresome. And by tiresome, I mean good God enough already. One unique aspect of the battle system, however, is that you target enemies in groups. For example, if you have two characters attack one particular enemy, and your first attack kills it, your second attack will still go after it and miss. So while there may be annoying random battles, sometimes it's not all just pressing the A button forever. You do need to plan ahead to someone. The music also, while very good at times, is lacking variety to put it lightly, and as with most RPGs, the battle theme definitely gets old after a while, but the cave and dungeon themes in Lufia are the exact same throughout the game. The artwork and graphics are also not exactly the greatest. Some enemies look really cool while others, I can't even make out what they're supposed to be. All that said, there's tons upon tons of different enemies that require different strategies and elemental weaknesses, and the game is balanced enough that you don't have to level grind that much. So while it's not without its flaws, Lufia is an okay JRPG. It's not a must-play by any means, but if you can tolerate the occasional frustration, and if you really like role-playing games from the early 90s, then you should check it out. Lufia 2, Rise of the Sinistrals is actually a prequel to Lufia and the Fortress of Doom. Remember in the first game, starting out as Maxim and his friends? Well, this is the game where you play out his entire story. That's simple enough. But just speaking as a sequel, it's everything you could hope for because it takes everything wrong with the first game and makes sure to correct it. The annoying random battles are still there, but thankfully they're just limited to the world map. But yeah, the graphics and the artwork got a massive upgrade, and the music is way better. On its own merits, Lufia 2 is in many ways a Zelda clone with the top-down perspective, the use of items like bombs and the puzzle solving. It comes across like Zelda in Sheep's Clothing for sure, but Lufia 2's additional RPG elements in its overall presentation set it apart. They truly tried to do something different with how the story unfolds. The plot and dialogue again remind me of like an anime TV series from the 90s, but this time even the storytelling is like an anime series. Each dungeon, tower, shrine, cave, or whatever is almost like its own episode, so to speak. There's never much urgency with each of these episodes since they don't pertain to the overarching story. If you're looking for one big epic story like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, while technically there is one, you'll probably be disappointed. This story just isn't told that way. But the dialogue is sharp and entertaining, and it provides a lot of laugh out loud moments. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Ancient Cave. It's a dungeon with 99 floors that are all randomly generated. You start on the first floor with no experience, no items, and no equipment. You can only use what you find in the Ancient Cave itself. When you leave, you go back to your original stats that you had when you entered, but you get to keep anything you find in the blue chest. The Ancient Cave is almost like an entirely new game within the game itself. It's a cool feature that's unique specifically to Lufia 2. Another huge plus this game has going for it is the soundtrack, one of the very best on the Super Nintendo. Each of the boss battle themes are exhilarating. One big minus, however, is that the game is just way too easy. I know all RPGs on the Super Nintendo are pretty easy, but this one you could practically finish in your sleep. Even so, if you combine Zelda mechanics and RPG elements with an anime-like episodic plot, you have Lufia 2. It may not be for everyone. Some people could get frustrated with the way the game unfolds and with certain plot holes, but it's much different in tone and pacing than any other RPG. It's definitely worth playing.