Game - $29.99, Nintendo DS - $129.99, The Joy of Taking Down Vampires and Their Minions, Priceless
Is it really possible for the joy of taking down vampires and their pitiful pawns with extreme prejudice to ever wane? We've done it in so many gaming franchises like Resident Evil and House of the Dead, and seen it in who knows how many movies. Well, even though it's taken forever to make its way to COE review land, it could never be too late to learn why Lunar Knights, a Nintendo DS-exclusive, deserves some time out of your gaming day. Now I realize that this Kojima Productions' game is in direct correlation to the GBA Boktai series, but since I've never seen it first-hand, this critique won't be referencing it. Sorry if that upsets you, but oh well, nothing that can be done, so take this as-is.
Lunar Knights follows a somewhat heartfelt journey between two unsung heroes, Lucian and Aaron. The former is a dark knight, wielding the all-powerful dark sword Vanargand, wishing to exact revenge on all vampire for reasons that aren't quite clear until the very end. Aaron, on the other hand, is an apprentice solar gunslinger of the Acuna Guild. While each have their motives, they along with the humans want nothing more than to break the vampires' stronghold on the world due to their Casket Armor and paraSOL. The blood suckers want eternal night for this planet and they're forcing the terrennials, the world's elemental guardians, to lend their powers in order to craft impenetrable armor.
While LK's play time lasts along similar lines of most current-gen action titles with eight to ten hours, the game is a fairly solid testament to how action RPGs should be done. The adventure contains six chapters, one dedicated to each character, while the others are executed in co-op fashion. The main idea is to make your way through a series of sizeable dungeons (small to large progression), eventually encounter a major role vampire, best him/her in battle, and take them into space to be purified. If that last part sounds especially strange, don't worry, it did for me too at first. It's because sunlight is needed for the process, and because of the paraSOL, the Sunflower station is your only means of accessing the sun's rays.
Making your way from point A to point B in any particular dungeon feels well-paced. There's a whole lot of sword swinging/gun slinging and some puzzle sprinkled on the side. My biggest gripe would be the repetition, because Lucian's combo attack animation never changes after the first time you use it, and well, Aaron's is the very definition of one-dimensional: point and shoot, repeat about a thousand times, and hoo-ha. Thankfully what could've made for exceptionally boring gameplay due to such is wonderfully offset by the rescuing of those very terrennials mentioned before, along with a minor but familiar RPG structure. Any vampire minion that Lucian or Aaron defeats earns him experience points, which at some point levels either up, imagine that. Upon such an event, skill points are available to be distributed among three attributes: Vitality (health), Spirit (energy) and Skill (offensive ability). This upgrading along with wielding a terrennial-influenced weapon, such as Lucian's sword being flame-induced by Ursula (fire), helps keep battle in Lunar Knights fresh and attractive enough to keep you playing. That's coming from someone who restarted the game four times, yes, four, and still managed to enjoy himself.
The purification process seems out of place given the core ideals of LK's gameplay, but even it is still pretty fun as a space shooter. Essentially, you pilot Lucian's ship, the Laplace, with the casketed vampire boss you defeated in cargo, blasting your way through a series of odd-looking enemies trying to prevent your trip to the Sunflower. The thing is, while I didn't necessarily have any problems with controlling these sequences, I could easily see others being the exact opposite. Reason being, you move the Laplace with the stylus and only the stylus, while also having to use the plastic stick to shoot down enemies by tapping on them as they engage. In other words, any time you shoot, Lucian's ship is sitting totally still, which leaves you open to devastating attacks if you can't be quick enough to continue skimming it around in the touch screen. It's pretty cool though that once you start saving the terrennials, you can also change the Laplace's weapon system with the elemental property of any that may be with you.
It's also worth discussing that releasing the vampires' grip on the terrennials unlocks various climates. During Lucian's first mission, you are referred to Dr. Sheridan, an old scientist who not only specializes in weapon upgrades, but also hacking into the vampires' paraSOL to change the planet's climate. This is very useful in boosting your battle prowess (stronger equipment = good), but a good deal of the dungeon puzzles requires a particular climate to be brought about. On one side, it feels a little forced because you often have to leave your current dungeon to return to his mansion for the change since there's no other way to, but at the same time, it helps to make these minor brain benders a bit more unique that what you've probably seen in the past. Each dungeon also has certain paths blocked by elemental pillars that can only be removed by having a certain terrennial aiding you, which serves as decent incentive for those that love pursuing 100% completion in their games. Lunar Knights is a mostly fun game that has nasty repetition issues, but offers enough variety to keep every step of the adventure feeling dynamic.
How LK looks also isn't bad at all either. If you've played the PS2/PSP Disgaea games, you'd be instantly familiar with this game's presentation dealing with both the character sprites and dungeon layouts. Now of course there's a bit more detail, which definitely does well for bringing more liveliness to the player, so if you're into isometric, sprite-based games, Lunar Knights won't disappoint you in the least. Animations are decent, even if unfortunately more repetitive than fighting altogether, and the anime-style FMVs are excellently produced to the point that you wish there were a whole lot more. The color, the way each scene draws you in and makes you feel like you're really there, and the smoothness in general is especially attractive to those who appreciate the kind of art style they promote. The special effects are great too, mainly due to the terrennials' abilities, but even the more common battle tokens could make you nod in approval.
Easily the biggest mixed bag in Lunar Knights, at least for me, is the sound quality. It's both disappointing and not, which ultimately confuses me when it comes to considering its ability to appeal. It's mostly in part because of the voice acting. When it comes to games that have voice in this day and age, I tend to prefer 90% utilization for the entire duration, with some text dialogue stuck here and there if deemed necessary. Well, LK isn't remotely close to that, as it's easily 90% text with some voice, which bugs me, because the actors sound talented, but you're never treated to it to a level of satisfaction that could be obtained otherwise. But the music is awesome, so by all means plug in a set of headphones, just bear in mind that you may not be whistling anything unless you had to do what I did to beat it the first time. Really, it's great-sounding material, but it doesn't have the delivery you'd expect to have it stick with you. What you hear in battle is top-notch though, as Kojima Productions certainly made no mistake. You may hear a lot of the same from start to finish, but it's nothing at all to complain about because it fits too well.
It's comforting to know that at least one more online source (obviously that being COE) now has positive things to say about Lunar Knights, but it could be too little, too late. If you didn't know about this game and enjoy action-driven RPGs, I encourage you to see what LK is about. The story may not be the most riveting you ever encounter, and the space shooter scenarios may [and not surprisingly] raise an eyebrow or two in concept alone, but Lucian and Aaron's adventure is something to behold, and that should warrant some additional attention. The very apparent shorter play time and lack of value afterwards (the wireless multiplayer was just thrown together, the unlocked difficulty doesn't change much, and the sidequests are derivative at best) definitely rears its ugly head, but Lunar Knights is a Hideo Kojima product that makes you think about life sometimes, and it does so in a surprisingly provocative way.