What it lacks in originality Luminous Arc makes up for with fun, addictive gameplay
Luminous Arc is a fairly simple game, at least by SRPG standards. You'll assemble a party of warriors and mages, traverse the world by moving from city to city, and initiating battles. It's basic fare and Atlus didn't really try to rock the boat here -- they took what worked and used it. The game is divided into chapters -- 25 in all -- each of which consist of story content and then a battle.
The battle mechanic is also quite basic, but it's still a lot of fun. You get an isometric view of the map, and select your troops to deploy (there's a limit for each map). From there, it's typical turn-based strategy, where your soldiers as well as the enemy troops take turns performing actions. On a character's turn, he or she can move, attack, use skills, spells, or Flash Drives, use items, or just wait around for his or her next turn.
These are all actions that are going to be pretty familiar to SRPGs veterans, and this is the core of the game. There are a few minor additions, but it's nothing that huge. Each character has stats in various different areas. On the battlefield, there's a gauge for HP (life points), MP (allows you to use magic), and FP. FP is something mildly original: the gauge fills up for each action that a character performs; everything a character does earns them FP. Naturally, killing a tough enemy will net you more FP than just moving around. The FP bar can fill itself up 3 times total, and these points are consumed to use Flash Drives (stronger Flash Drives require more bars of Flash Points). They're essentially just a different class of skills, except for the fact that they usually include a status effect in addition to dealing damage. You can even combo these Flash Drives (the combos are called synergies) between certain characters and unleash even more damage.
One thing about Luminous Arc that I really love is that it does a great job of balancing the strategy and role-playing aspects of the game. You never really feel that tactics are unimportant, or that you can win a battle just by being clever. Instead, it's going to be important to level up your characters properly as well as use smart strategies in battle. It's a well-rounded gameplay mechanic and this nice mix is part of what makes Luminous Arc so fun to play.
Traditional role-playing elements are all present in Luminous Arc, including experience points, new skills, job classes, stats, and the like. And of course, the strategy is also there, but it's in this respect that you get the feeling that the development team just lifted off ideas from Final Fantasy Tactics. The tactics aspect of this game is largely characterized by such actions as attacking enemies from behind, seizing the higher ground, and teaming up on enemies who are as tough as you are. On the other hand, Luminous Arc generally throws more enemies at you than Final Fantasy Tactics -- and these enemies are no pushovers -- so you are going to have to be pretty smart to take them all out. In terms of strategy, it's a definite step up from Final Fantasy Tactics -- but it still borrowed a ton of mechanics from that game.
Leveling-up is a traditional role-playing mechanic, of course, but it's one of the few examples of how Luminous Arc has taken such a basic implementation and made it surprisingly interesting. Fighting enemies gives you experience, of course, and reaching 100 experiences allows you to level up. What's cool is that leveling up refills your HP and MP, and this can definitely be used to your advantage. If you've got a character with, say, 75 experience, you can go ahead and throw him into a crowd of enemies. Use him as bait, then defeat a foe the next turn. He'll level up, refill his life, and the baiting technique allows other characters to get in position to attack. It allows for a lot of strategy and thinking out your level-ups in advance is a smart way to play.
Luminous Arc is fun, but compared to the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, it's really simple. For example, the skills and jobs that played such a big role in FFTA have been scaled back drastically or cut out from Luminous Arc. Skills are learned not by equipping items, but rather once a character reaches a certain level (some are also obtained by reaching certain plot points in the game). Likewise, while characters do have job classes, you can't switch between classes and the job that a character has really only determines what sort of weapon he or she can wield.
There are a few other little additions to the core gameplay, but they don't really add that much to the overall experience. For example, after a certain point in the game, you can infuse your weapons with magical essences that you receive as rewards for beating battles. By taking them to a certain area, identifying them, and then "infusing" a weapon with them, you can make said weapon stronger. All that really happens is that you give your weapon a little stat bonus -- kind of useless when you take into consideration that shops throughout the game are constantly offering stronger weapons, and it's foolish to invest too much money in a weapon that you'll probably sell in the near future.
Luminous Arc is one of those games that's greater than the sum of its parts, and one of the biggest intangible aspect of the game that greatly contributes to its quality is that it's designed quite well. While the mission objectives are nearly always the same (with a few exceptions, you've always got to defeat every enemy), the design of each map works in a way that requires you be strategic. There are some quirks with the game design along the way, one of the biggest being the "random" battles. They're not actually random, but by entering a non-story icon on the map, you'll initiate a battle. The problem is, these battles are ALWAYS the same for each icon, and fighting the same fight over and over again to level up is fairly annoying. Also, the game has some cheap ways of forcing leveling on you, like placing two or three random battles before you can reach the next plot area.
Atlus did a good job of working the plot into the game; each chapter has some optional plot that you can take part in, and at the end of each battle you'll get to see what happens after your victory. The storyline itself is fun to take part in, but it's also really predictable and cliché-ridden. That said, the dialogue is well-done, and the characters and engaging and charming. The story's nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done. Another little addition (these seem to be popping up all over the place!) is the "Life of Kopin" scenes at the end of every level that include a black-and-white sketch and a few lines of text from a Kopin (a type of minion that trails around a certain character). These scenes range from weird to downright funny, and add a lot of personality to the game.
Just because Luminous Arc is a simple game doesn't mean it's an easy one. Of course, you can feel free to level grind to your heart's content -- thanks to the non-plot battles, it's certainly possible. Some leveling is required, of course, but most players will be able to get by with just the necessary encounters and some sound tactics. The title's learning curve is nice and smooth, but as you progress through the adventure the difficulty increases significantly. This challenge is part of what makes the game so fun, and just barely squeaking by on a tough level is really satisfying.
Luminous Arc also promises a fairly lengthy adventure: it'll take you anywhere from 20 to 30 hours to complete the main story. The conclusion is satisfying, but sadly there's not a whole lot of reason to replay the main mode. That said, there is reason to keep the game in your DS, mainly in the way of some surprisingly fun multiplayer. Local multiplayer allows you to link up with a friend who has a copy of the game. You've also got some solid unlockables, such as voice work, cutscenes, music, and more.
While it is undeniably simple, Luminous Arc is also a lot of fun. It's a great game for those new to the SRPG genre, but at the same time there's enough addictive fun here to ensure that vets of the genre will have fun with it. Presentation and voice work are both fine, though nothing particularly special (although there are a few stand-out voice actors), and even with only one guaranteed play-through it's still worth your money. All told, Luminous Arc is a great DS game that's certainly worth a shot. And with a sequel confirmed for release sometime in the relatively near future, there's never been a better time to check out this worthwhile title.