Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Lunar Knights

1. Official Site
2. Platform: DS
3. Publisher: Konami
4. Developer: Kojima Productions
5. Release Date: 02/06/07
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Mitch Youngblood

Lunar Knights is a game that will stupify you at the outset. This isn’t to say the game is bad or meandering, quite the contrary. But if someone hands you a game where vampires have ruled the earth for centuries and you take control of a kid with an eye patch, sword, and chip on his shoulder that is hell-bent on eradicating undead by the bushel, you’d have the sinking feeling you walked into the middle of something and no one bothered to sound a warning.

Now, it bears mentioning up front that Lunar Knights is an absolute blast to play and once you get into it (the ending of the first dungeon should suffice) then players will discover a solid role playing game for the DS that may be bizarre and even frustrating at times, but is very rarely boring. If anything, Lunar Knights feels like Kojima Productions felt the need to cut loose and have fun instead of forcing head games and melodrama into their action titles, and the result is an anime-inspired action-RPG that liberally cribs from Gunsmith Cats, Trigun, and Outlaw Star as much as it does from Final Fantasy Tactics.

This is a strange title, but I mean that in a good way. It’s quirky, action-packed, laugh out loud funny, and keeps your interest for as long as you play. Despite a cumbersome control system that, if anything, tries to do too much Lunar Knights ensnares the elusive "just one more minute" feeling that so few games manage to accomplish. It’s a testament to the developers that you’ll enjoy yourself immensely even if you wind up scratching your head wondering what exactly is going on.

Lunar Knights evokes old school charm in its clever use of sprites. Since developers have finite resources to work with for DS titles, what they lack in razzle dazzle they make up for in attention to detail. As you move the characters through one dungeon after another it’s obvious each one was built with a completely different vibe. Its fun to see overturned motorcycles and cobble streets in the towns, but then feel like you’ll never see sunlight again when in the sewers and tunnels. Plus, little touches abound like streetlights that turn on or off depending on the time of day, and the entire day-night cycle along with the various weather patterns are very well done all around.

The cinematics are what truly floored me the first time one unfolded. This is classic anime complete with voice acting and special effects and seeing all of this on the DS blew me away. These are worth playing for and happen at the end of every chapter and at special junctures along the way. Every time the main characters have to go to the space station there is a very cool cinematic of their ship detaching and coming down to pick them up. Also, these appear when special events are reach in the narrative with one of my favorites being the first time the Solar Gunslinger fires his weapon. These add a huge amount to Lunar Knights and are great fun to get to.

I never expected full voice work and excellent sound effects from the DS so playing Lunar Knights was a shock to the system. The anime cinematics were crafted by the team behind The Animatrix and it shows in their energy. Throughout the game, characters speak periodically but you never know exactly when. A key phrase or exclamation is when a voice kicks in and the effect helps accentuate whatever situation the characters find themselves in. Weather effects, all of which play a vital role in the game, sound appropriate whenever they kick in. Rain storms rumble and roar, and it would have been especially cool if the DS had a vibration function built into it.

The sound effects for the various weapons are cool by themselves, but they’re especially fun to listen to once you fire off advanced combinations and power moves. Combining magic with hand-held firepower results in some dazzling sound effects and Kojima Studios should pat themselves on the back.

But the true gem of the game is in the musical score. Every dungeon and location has its own theme and while the nature of the DS dictates scores be repetitive, never once did I mind. The music is at times elegant, at other moments solemn, and then it will soar in the very next sequence. You never know what emotional notes the score will hit, but throughout the game it remains a pleasure to listen to. This is an excellent use of limited resources.

The top screen of the DS provides information on the environment during gameplay. Players can tell whether it is day or night out and also what the exact weather is at any given time. For instance, if players are in a dungeon during a night cycle and are playing as Lucian, then they can find a moonbeam to recharge their magic with. But if a rain storm kicks in then the moonlight is gone and players will have to adjust on the fly. This is also the screen where players shift weapons and elements around.

The low score for the controls is directly tied to how the developers tried to do too much with too small a console. I applaud them for their efforts, but the result will frequently leave gamers scrambling to use the stylus to activate a special power while under attack from either a boss or multiple foes. The special move each player has available is noted at the bottom left of the touch screen and you have to activate it with the stylus. So in the midst of running from a boss monster, some of which are huge, you have to maneuver with your left hand while holding the stylus with your right hand all to activate a special move that requires you to drop the stylus immediately upon activation and start rapidly hitting the buttons on the right side of the console. This is a bad, bad move, guys.

The left and right buttons scroll through selections while in the menu, but during gameplay the right button locks onto your targets while the left one lets you change weapons and elements. The control pad is for movement except during the space sequences when the stylus shifts your spaceship around the screen. During the dungeon crawls, holding down the X button and pressing on the directional pad will let you look around. The Y button is your basic attack, the A button runs and activates items and people, and the B button blocks and cancels actions. Hitting Select will switch characters on the spot.

The appeal of Lunar Knights is tougher to classify than one might expect. At first, it appears to be little more than an anime-inspired dungeon crawl and even by the end of the game that feeling still lingers. Yet somewhere along the journey, the title’s inherent charm won Yours Truly over and the result was a desire to see it through to the end consequences (Ed.: and deadlines) be damned.

Running through a series of iso-metric dungeons battling hordes of various monsters is all well and good, but somehow feels like the perfect thing to play on the DS. Maybe it’s the chance to curl up in your favorite corner of your favorite room and take down vampires all in the palm of your hand. Maybe it’s the truly bizarre storyline that is so crazy is actually makes sense if you think about it.

Lunar Knights mixes things up just enough by including a number of puzzles in each dungeon, though it is only natural the tougher ones don’t show up until later in the game. Some will leave people scratching their heads wondering how they should solve it (I’m thinking of an ice skating puzzle in the final castle in particular) but everything clicks if one thinks about it long enough. Either that or they’ll go crazy and smash their DS and this review will thus be rendered moot. But Lunar Knights remains entertaining and, more importantly, fun to play start to finish. This is a gem for the DS and one I highly recommend.

Aside from the game just being fun to play, you have several options included to extend the life beyond the main story. When you go into the town bar you can listen to the various music tracks you’ve unlocked, as well as access different quests from the information broker. The quests themselves vary from wiping out all the monsters in a specific dungeon to running through the same dungeon while trying to beat the clock. These aren’t available at first but if players keep checking back as they progress then a surprise or two might be waiting for them.

You can also replay the space battles courtesy of the resident mad scientist and his assistant. When players are at this house they can choose the Gun Battle option and try to complete the space missions faster than they did the first time, or try to beat it without taking damage. In general, these are fun little diversions by themselves but there are plenty to choose from. Of course, Lunar Knights is just fun by itself and is worth replaying in the future.

Lunar Knights is 15 hours worth of dungeon-crawling fun. There are enough challenges, random things to do, and sheer fun to keep people entertained for the entire length. Sure, there are a few hiccups here and there, but that "just one more minute" feel combined with the anime cinematics, quirky characters and environments, and the various quests and equipment all add up to a game that is worth owning for the DS.

Gaming Trend Score

91

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 94
3. Controls: 80
4. Gameplay: 94
5. Value/Replay: 92
6. OVERALL:91