Back in June 1994 I went to a new videogame store in my area and took a chance on the original Lufia, seeing a used copy. It essentially was the replacement for DQV for me, since that was never coming here to NA on the SNES at that point.
I'm so glad I bought it. It just clicked with me soooo well just like DQ did. The writing/localization was one of the best at the time. The way the characters interacted was leagues above other RPG's at the time on the SNES and Genesis. The scene at the beginning with Lufia and the main character in the flower field still stands out. The music was very atmospheric and while the game even then was pretty derivative, there is something to be said for something done RIGHT. Lufia was done extremely right. Besides, at that point, what other RPG's were out? Even BoF hadn't hit yet and FFVI was 4 months or so away as well.
Eventually, when Lufia II hit NA in the summer of 1996, I got that as well, and it was pretty much the best RPG sendoff we could hope for over here all things considered at the time. DQV was STILL not coming, and hell, neither was DQVI. Plus Square and Enix's NA branches were all gone at this point anyway. I cannot stress enough how much of an improvement over the original this game was. Even with some of the glitches (Dual Blade scene in that underwater temple or whatnot? Nearly incomprehensible to navigate.) I remember at a friends home, I was at one of the lowest levels of the random dungeon when he accidentally shut off the power bar that the SNES was hooked up to.
...
Never made it that far since.
Great swan song for the SNES in NA, and made me forget about the PS1 at the time.
I have the other 3 portable games, but I've not invested any considerable time in them, so I can't really comment. From the sounds of it, I've not missed much.
The only problem now is... I can't find where I've got my NES and SNES games stored... I hope they were not accidentally given away or thrown out over the years... =(
For this new game... no gimmicks please. Just take what was in the 2 SNES games and build upon there. I'd love for spritework to stay as well, but being on the DS... probably polygons.
Whatever, just please be good.
