The mission objectives lack the inventiveness seen in Final Fantasy Tactics and the game relies heavily on the risible, wafer-thin plot in order to encourage the player to soldier on. The core building blocks are all in place but unfortunately Luminous Arc becomes repetitive far too swiftly.

Magic – both offensive and defensive – can be used to turn the balance of the battle in your favour. Attacks from the side or the rear usually inflict a more significant amount of damage and having the advantage of higher ground also allows you to dish out greater punishment. Combat is a matter of placing your fighter within range of a foe - some characters need to be adjacent to the enemy to successfully land a blow, whereas others possess ranged weapons like bows and arrows that allow them to engage from a greater distance - and confirming the action. Each character can move a certain number of squares in each turn and can also attack enemies or use items. To the untrained eye the gameplay seems very similar to any other title of this type you start each mission with a certain number of characters and the general aim is to defeat all the enemy units on any given map. Although it cannot be described as an ugly game, Luminous Arc is a disappointment when you consider the capability of the DS hardware. When the action heats up, things remain distinctly underwhelming – combat is accompanied by special effects that wouldn’t look out of place in a SNES release. Sprites are blocky and dumpy-looking, enemies are entirely non-threatening and the levels are dull and lacking in character. Although Luminous Arc is certainly no slouch visually, it’s far from perfect. So far so good.Īfter several minutes of exposition you eventually stumble into a combat situation and it is at this point that unfortunate cracks start to appear. Presentation is generally of a high standard throughout. The opening scene continues this bright opening, with crystal-clear spoken dialogue and half-decent voice acting. Upon firing up the game things appear positive – the anime intro may showcase a cheesy J-Pop theme tune and few too many large-breasted ladies for my liking but, it’s of an impeccably high standard and sets the tone nicely. When this title was first confirmed for release it sets chins wagging worldwide – could this finally be the true successor to Final Fantasy Tactics?

Ever since FFT was released, any similar-looking game has been compared to it, and so far (in our humble opinion, at least) nothing has come close - ironically, even SquareEnix itself struggled to replicate the magic formula a second time with the likeable but ultimately inferior GBA-based Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.įorgive the long, rambling intro but I thought it necessary to adequately set the scene for our latest review – Luminous Arc. Not only did it feature a robust game engine with layers of depth thanks to an intricate ‘job’ system, it also managed to incorporate a mature and involving plotline that neatly circumvented the usual light-hearted ‘good verses evil’ stories that 99% of Japanese role playing games are saddled with. Sired from the loins of the SNES classic Tactics Ogre, this sublime turn based strategy title was nothing short of a masterpiece.

Final Fantasy Tactics – produced in the late ‘90s for the original Playstation – is one such title. You may not like them much as a company but, even the most dedicated anti-Sony zealot would have to admit that some sterling releases have appeared on their machines. One manufacturer that is almost impossible to ignore is Sony. While it’s certainly true that we’re all hardcore Ninty fans here at Nintendo Life, it would be silly to suggest we don’t dabble with rival systems from time to time.

Luminous arc