Lunar Knights Updated Hands-On

Lunar Knights for the Nintendo DS is an action role-playing game that follows the adventures of Lucian and Aaron, two young warriors on the warpath against a league of vampires known as the Dark Tribe. The game, being developed by Kojima Productions, combines elements of RPG character building, outlandish characters to fight with and against, and anime-influenced character designs, all wrapped in a setting that is one part gothic dungeon crawler and one part sci-fi space shooter.

Two kids, a sword, and a solar gun are all that stands between humanity and a horde of evil vampires in Lunar Knights.

The game begins with some obligatory exposition, setting up the universe in which Aaron and Lucian find themselves. It's a world overrun by vampires, and, worse yet, these are vampires with a plan. Using a weather-controlling doohickey known as the paraSOL, the vampire horde plans on permanently blotting out the sun, allowing the light-fearing bloodsuckers to roam freely outdoors at all hours. Enter our two heroes, both of whom have different personalities and abilities, which you discover in the opening chapters of the game.

Chapter one focuses on the vampire hunter Lucian. Armed with a mighty dark sword and accompanied by a talking cat named Nero, Lucian has just one thing on his mind: offing vampires with extreme prejudice. After overhearing a conversation in a local bar, Lucian gets a bead on a particularly bad vampire boss, known as Margrave, holed up somewhere in a mansion. A quick ride in his spaceship is all it takes before Lucian is storming the mansion gates, with Nero and his trusty dark sword at his side. Early foes you face include gelatinous blobs, tiny bats, and red-skinned monsters, and most of them can be defeated with a swipe or two of Lucian's sword, which you swing by pressing the Y button. Pressing and holding the button will allow a single strike, while tapping the Y button will let loose chain attacks that can cause major damage.

However, that's not the only weapon in Lucian's arsenal. After all, Nero is there for more than just helpful advice. Nero is known as a terrennial, and both Lucian and Aaron can harness the power of terrenials like Nero to upgrade their weapons. To do so, you hold down the left trigger and then scroll through the available terrenials (listed on the upper screen of the DS) with the D pad. Terrennial elements are more effective on certain foes than others, so you'll want to make sure you're always equipping the correct one.

The downside of using terrennials is that they sap your energy level. Lucian and Aaron both have life and energy meters you'll want to keep an eye on as you play the game. If you deplete your life meter, you're dead; if you run out of energy, you won't be able to access your terrennial powers. As you progress through the levels, you'll find various items to replenish your life and energy meters, as well as specific stations where you can recharge your batteries. Lucian's powers are tied to the moon, so he can replenish his energies by standing in direct moonlight (or underneath a skylight that allows moonlight in), while Aaron's sun-based powers mean his energy is always regenerating on a sunny day. As a result of this, the weather in Lunar Knights will play a big role in determining how quickly Lucian and Aaron can recoup from fights or what powers they can access.

Using Lucian's trance power will let him unleash some seriously powerful attacks.

A third meter, known as the trance gauge, is another big part of gameplay. You fill up your trance gauge by landing blows on enemies. Once it's filled up, a small "TRC" icon appears in the lower left-hand corner of the bottom screen. If you tap it with your stylus, you'll transform Lucian or Aaron into an extremely powerful form, with attacks that are incredibly powerful. However, you can only stay in the trance state for so long, so you'll want to make sure you devastate as much as possible while you can.