DAWNBOMB'S PROFILE

I have been on RMN for afew years lurking, making small non release things, and for some time wanted to start up a actual project, but ofcorce there the realization that if i try to make anything origonal without actually already creating a fairly good project in this engine, it wouldn't get to far

And so i'd like to remake one of my favorite games, Lufia, the legend returns, and see if anyone would assist.

Questions?!?!?

What is Lufia the legend returns?

The legend returns (from now on called TLR as i now realise that is a very long name) was a game boy color game in way back when, with a great story, plenty of characters, a form of random level generation and amazing new battle system (at the time)

I believe however that although it is a fairly small game, it was great because of all its content

Whats the story?

lufia TLR is about the hero Wain, meeting a mysterious fortune teller who comes to his village and attack him, to test his skills and recruit him as part of a fortune she fortold, to save the world. shortly after the town is destroyed by one of the four "sinistrals" and they go off on a quest to stop him, getting a character or two along the way, changing into a quest to destroy them all and save the world (or something like that)

Whats the gameplay?

The gameplay is somewhere between normal and interesting. you can raid towns, for just about anything, and the story keeps you interested as even tho your end goal is to destroy the sinistral of the current location your at, the heros tend to be in more of a tons of story advancement with all kinds of characters (made possible by the sheer number of playable heroes) raiding pirates, helping monk shrines, ect and all kinds of randomness, while somewhere along the line they all go "oh ya we should take care of that sinistral guy" (or girl) and go take them out, then continuing into the randomness of the story. dungeons (that can be the normal actual dungeons, to our semi silly but acceptable fields and caves, with a few super silly ones like mansions. The interesting story with the fun battle system and interesting character advancement system always keeps things fresh, and everytime you get a new character, its like its a whole new battle system.

so WHAT is this battle system

there abit complicated, but awesome, and partly why i love this game so much. The battle system first is ofcorce normal enemies (altho they semi often seem slightly OP) and then there is the heroes

Your heroes are aligned in a 3x3 grid (like old harvest moon crop planting) the top person in each column is kinda responsible for that column because if all 3 column top most person dies, you get a game over (even if the other 6 people are alive) in each of these three columns (they go like ||| ) on your "turn" you can only select one person in each column to act (like say having the top person in each column attacking, or having the top of the first and second column attack, and the bottom right (third member of the third column) could cast a healing spell) this makes a "turn"

to summerize that means there is 9 people, and only 3 people can act on a turn, one from each column, with the top 3 being responsible for a game over.

next is getting into battle, on the field enemies move at the same time you do, and if you do a wave shot (normal sword swings cut grass for items or wall vines for secret passages also randomly made) wave shots move and stun enemies on the field then you can try to get them from the sides, for the normal extra turn. BUT, if the enemy gets you from say behind, your battle formation is flipped and those 50 hp mages you more then definatly threw in the back are now going to be the "front" to the enemies, and you will game over if they die. if your hit from one of your sides your formation is like a rotation depending on the side they hit you from. this makes where you throw characters important.

Character advancement

so whats that? you will just throw squishy characters on the sides? of the center? or scatter them so you might always have a squishy character up front nomatter the battle rotation but always someone with lots of HP? but character position is even MORE COMPLICATED! (omg!)

Each character has a "color element" (this was Game Boy Color, what did you expect?) the hero is red, and the "fortune teller" *coughf* mage healer *coughf* is blue, there is also green and yellow. after battle besides exp and gold, you also get points to up a characters element (they all start at level 1, and are unchangable in element) the elemental boost will, say, for wain the hero who is red, up his max HP and attack. Blue is MP and magic attack, green is defence and evasion, yellow is evasion and luck (or something like that) and to make battle positioning more complex, everyone in the same row or column as a hero, gets the same elemental boost as them.

this means is a healer is at the bottom left, and the column (top left hero and left most hero) are both red types with 5 red, she would have say, 4 of her own blue boosting her magic, and 10 red boosting her attack and HP, AND if there is another red in her row (like one next to her) they also boost her! this means say mixing green and red heroes up front can have a team with high HP attack and defence guarding you from game over!

...if only thigns were that simple, IT GETS MORE COMPLICATED

IP DRIVES (overdrives)

IP DRIVES are basicly overdrives, they dont charge super fast, but they charge at a good enoughf speed. as you collect characters and having more people gaining IP to use IP skills every turn (IP carries between fights BTW, and maxes at 100) you can use them more and more often. unlike other games, their not super OP, but balancing what IP drives you want in each row (remember you can only have 1 person in a row act on a turn) makes selecting who goes where even more important. making sure you have someone who can cure status effects in more then one row, incase you need to cure more then one a turn (very likly with enemy AOE skills and all kinds of mayham) important, as well as diffrent types of healing and their AOE's (like a IP heal that heales everyone in that persons row, but not their column)

could it get any more complicated? why YES it can

you see, a IP has a recuirement to learn. their not like overdrives you learn at X level, you need to find them like items, their not exactly rare, but you might have to run a dungeon more then once to find a specific one if you know where it is (and almost all IP drives can be learned by more then one character but none more then 3 or 4 characters) why does this matter besides being slightly anoying? well for starters you do get them quite often, and most old ones you can buy (naturally in a town after their almost out tiered, if not for the fact you dont have anything better yet either) but IP drives require those darn elements to learn!

A ability to say, attack twice might take 4 red and 4 green, or a great IP spell for a mage or a healer might need 22 blue 8 green 7 yellow. meaning they would NEED to be in a place where they are in a row or column with a green and yellow hero (and more then likly another blue one to help boost that heros own blue element) high enoughf to learn the IP

thankfully, you only need this to LEARN the IP, but you have to use double IP to use any IP skill that you dont currently actually meet the requirements to use. what this means is when you can learn some healing skill on a character, you can make a formation to learn it, then return to the formation you had before, with a understanding that it will take twice as much IP to use. (on any IP skill that is over 50 IP to use, it is naturally impossible to go over 100% IP bar charge, and thus cannot be used unless you once again meet the requirements)

tons of skills have all kinds of variety in who can learn them, and their requirements, making your decisions on who to teach it a usability vs formation stability issue.

and if that wasn't bad, like just about every rpg ever with rows and columns and stuff, people in the front get hit harder, and their attacks do more damage. (meaning a formation rotation throwing squishy units up front without most of that red and green elemental buff and damage boost to them from the enemies, means a very swift death

In Summary

this is a complicated beautiful game. there are tons of characters to play, and a almost unlimated number of ways to approach a battle, with it growing way faster then any other game, as the battle system itself almost seems to expand with each new character you get, with another element to add, new IP's and formation possibilities. Thankfully altho the tutorial tends to teach you everything at once, you only start with 2 characters, and are eased into it at a reasonable pace as characters are added throughout the game, players usually seem completly confused at the beginning, but somehow understanding it completly by the time they have enoughf characters, without ever really learning it.



I would really love to give a remake to this game, it has tons of gameplay, plenty of characters, tons of moves, neither side is OP and bosses last mayhaps a little longer then you would like, but not to long to be anoying (it always seems like they last just long enoughf to kill you, and more then once will you win with a full roster of 0 MP mages and healers in heavy peril. basically, its fun

So, is anyone who has played this game interested in a remake or assistance?
(ending post abruptly due to GTG) ignore no spellcheck

edit: did i seriously caps that title? why cant i edit that >.>

oh well thats cool to, but if you went all the way in this, you should keep going lol
games like this have a ability to become master peaces

id test something LATER if you want....like...not this week lol ( so maybe once you get even more stuff in...im a victum of dungeon defenders ATM xD, no time for anything but that)