Way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay underappreciated
A friend of mine (japanman2) and I drove to gamestop to check out some games (of course). Lost Magic was in the back of both of our minds as a game we may get, my reason being the lack of RPG's on my ds. We both knew the game had received only decent reviews at best, but we were still interested being fans of Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem. Besides the magic system of drawing and combining seemed cool along with the "Pokemon" style monster ranching. We had the same thoughts going through our heads as anyone else that didn't have this game: "Does this game suck?" That's mainly because the game is not made by the well known companies that would make a game like this, so we were rather anxious. Taking the chance, we each bought it and went back to his house to try it out. I'd have to say we were surprised--very, very, veeeeeeeeeeery surprised. This game is what you call a hidden gem, an underappreciated classic.
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
Drawing the runes is fantastic and the strangest way (but best way) ever to use magic in a game. The more accurate your rune is the more powerful the spell is. There are 18 spells and 400 combined spells--yes combined spells. This is FUN. The first fire spell is a fire ball, the first earth spell is a protective wall. Drawing the first fire rune then the first earth rune will make a stronger earth projectile attack. Drawing the first earth rune then the first fire rune will make a stronger fire protective wall that burns enemies that walk into it. 2 first fire runes make a strong fire projectile attack. 2 first earth runes make a strong damaging earth protective wall. You can also combine up to 3 spells but only in certain ways. This is just 2 spells with only their duo combinations. And then there are monsters. Think Pokemon and Starcraft mixed together--yah. They are your prime level of defense. One thing about this game that makes it fun is, you can never permanently lose monsters. They may die on the battle field but they'll be back to use again in the next battle. This allows you to sacrifice and experiment a lot more. There is no such thing as a game over in this game; if you lose then you'll continue at the place right before that fight, not losing any data. That's not to say the game isn't hard, because it can be. There is a surprising amount of strategy involved. And of course there's multiplayer, and it's up there in fun factor with MPH and MKDS.
GRAPHICS: 8/10
Not much to say here. Look at the pics. The graphics are simple enough for the gba but still looks nice and clean. There's a lot of different environments in this game with plenty of obstacles. Not the best graphics, but they're not bad at all. Besides what do you expect from a game with so much data in it anyway?
SOUND: 8/10
The sound is pretty nice, fairly catchy and diverse; fitting the scenes in which they are played.
VALUE: 10/10
A long story mode, branching story paths, different endings, a special mode after beating the game, plenty of monsters, tonnes of spells, MULTIPLAYER, MULTIPLAYER ONLINE, what is there not to love about this? This should keep anyone busy for a nice long time.
REVIEWER'S TILT: 9/10
With its flaws being only technical (graphics, and hardly a flaw) this game is very good. My only real problems with this game is:
-the game is one of a kind.
-because of the bull **** reviews, there probably won't be a sequel.
-games with big brand names are overrated compared to this underappreciated game.
So there you have it. Stop reading this review and steal a copy from your local Gamestop.