Lunar Knights
Platform: DS
Shows just how awesome a DS game can look in 2D.
Review by Sirus

Lunar Knights is a sequel to two games that totally flew under the radar. Boktai and Boktai 2 were GBA games that used a sun sensor built into the cartridge to force players to spend their time gaming in the sun. A similar feature is built into this game but it is not required and needs one of those GBA games to work (if you can find it). Lunar Knights is the tale of a dark swordsman, Lucian, and his quest of revenge over the death of a loved one. His quest conveniently puts him against the vampires who are attempting to enslave the people of earth. Later on in his quest, Lucian meets up with a member of a guild named Aaron. Together they fight, each for their own reasons, against the vampires that are destroying their world. The story isn’t anything very deep but the dialogue is well written enough to make the short story sequences moderately enjoyable.

The game consists of a series of dungeons selectable from a world map that you must navigate with your stylus. The world map also contains a few towns where you can go to shops but the towns are completely menu based. You also get access to a laboratory of a scientist who helps you strengthen your weapons, change the climate, and replay some of the game’s ship battles. Combat is fairly simple with the Y button used for attack, B for block, X used to look around, and the L button used to bring up a menu through which you can change your weapons and the element of terrennial you take with you.

Lucian only uses melee weapons, while Aaron uses only guns. Terrennials are similar to elementals spirits in the Mana series of games and make your attacks stronger while draining your energy with every attack. Your energy is charged by either standing outside or under a window when the moon or sun is out (Lucian needs moonlight and Aaron needs sunlight) or by using a recovery item. If you have extra money you can also put charge in reserve so that you can refill your energy at stations found outside boss rooms. Your shield absorbs all damage but has a durability meter that goes down as you take hits. Underneath your health and energy gauges, you have a trance gauge that fills up as you attack. Once your trance is full you can use a special trance attack that either unleashes a special form of your character or does an elemental damage attack by tapping on the circle that appears on your screen with the letters TRC inside.

Lucian needs to have Nero, the dark terrennial, equipped to transform into Dark Lucian and Aaron needs Toasty, the light terrennial, equipped to turn into Sol Aaron. The transformations are a lot more useful than the elemental attacks because Dark Lucian absorbs HP from enemies he attacks and Sol Aaron absorbs energy from enemies he attacks. After defeating certain bosses, you will have to take them up into the atmosphere on your ship but they aren’t just going to let you go. At these times, you initiate ship battle sequences that are controlled only with the stylus. The sequences are well done and a lot of fun to do although they do require some practice. Thankfully the game doesn’t force you to fight the boss again if you die and you can just continue until you beat it.

You can use the continue feature throughout the game as well. If you die on a boss or any normal enemy, you can just continue from the beginning of the room again. This makes the game moderately easy, assuming you have a decent amount of gold. The game takes only 200 gold to restart a room but, if you suck enough, eventually you will get a game over. Gold is used mainly for buying junk parts used to upgrade your weapons and sometimes to buy healing items. You can only hold a limited number of items at a time but you can store things you are saving in the bank as well. Upgrading your weapons is well designed and keeps players going just to increase the power of the weapons.

Every time you level up in the game, you get points to allocate to your stats how you see fit. One stat increases your max HP while another increases your max energy and the final one increases your attack power. Dungeons in the game are well done with a few well designed puzzles. The biggest problem with the game is that it forces you to use the stylus in some portions and won’t let you use it in other sections. It would have made the ship battles a lot easier if you could have moved the ship with the directional pad and only used the stylus to shoot.

The music in the game has a great jazz feel to it making it stand out. The game does have a few scenes with voice acting that is well done and adds to the experience. The graphics in the game are great and show just how awesome a DS game can look in 2D. It took me 16 hours to get to the end of the game the first time but there is also a bonus dungeon you unlock and can go into when you beat the game. If you are a fan of isometric action RPGs and own a DS, Lunar Knights is a worthy purchase.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Final Score: 7.8/10