Lost Magic

Lost Magic is a pretty solid adventure for the Nintendo DS.

For quite a while I have been wondering what it would be like to have a game like Starcraft ported to the Nintendo DS. One thing that would be even better is if you could draw on the screen, surrounding the specific units that you wanted to control. I have thought of this, as well as being able to go up against other people (Including on the WiFi connector), and still that thought warms the cockles of my heart. Well, luckily, this could be the first step in the direction of Starcraft like games being released onto the Nintendo DS. In a way, Lost Magic is a game that is helping the system dip its toes in real time strategy, to see if the DS can handle the game-play. Immediately after you start playing, you find out that it can, and do it quite well. Of course this does not mean that the game is a one trick pony, rather it does have quite a bit to satisfy.

The story begins with a deity -- the Diva or Twilight -- whom is trying to bring monsters into the world to hurt the humans. In fact she wants to overwhelm the world with monsters, and apparently put an end to the human reign. To do this she needs to gather all the mage’s wands in the world, so that she has enough power to accomplish this dream. The Bishop of the mages -- the main character’s father -- opposes her and he goes to battle against her. He does end up losing, and with that he becomes her slave. He would have surely lost his wand to her as well, if he had not given it to his son before hand. You play this boy, the son of the Bishop, as he travels the land as he tries to figure out what happened to his father. Your main job is to use this wand to try and restore peace to the world, which includes saving the corrupted sages, also enslaven by the Diva of Twilight

There is a spell system in this game that is quite diverse. There are eighteen different core spells, and as you progress through the game, you will then be able to combine multiple spells. This will give the spells different properties as well, ranging from a laser blast, taking down a line of enemies, to a poison mist that drains the life of those in its cloud. There are six different elements with fire, wind, water, earth, healing and trap/shadow. Since there are eighteen different core spells, and six different spell elements there are three strengths/levels. Now this may sound minuscule at first, but when you combine them you create hundreds upon hundreds of combinations.

Moving back to what these different spell elements are about, most of them are pretty straightforward, but there are two that are a little bit tricky. One happens to be the element of earth. How it works is it creates pillars from the ground. If you create one below an enemy it can damage them. If you pull it up in front of them, they can become blocked by it, so that they may be forced to be on the sidelines of the battle. This tactic works extremely well if you block them against a wall, and attack with one of your beefy creatures.

The second one happens to be the trap/shadow powers. How you use it is by first weakening your enemies, either by using magical spells or having your own creature offer up a good thrashing. Once it is in this weakened state, use this trap to try and imprison it. Later on you can also mix the spell in with different elements, increasing the chance of capturing the creature of different colours, as they may be able to struggle free from the spell without it.

Your main character, and the creatures he brings into battle, will gain experience at the end of each level. Along with this, depending on how you use your spells, your elements used may move up in level too. Neglecting different spells will cause them to also move down in level, so balance is the key. These will allow you to pull off stronger magic attacks, if you take time to raise all your abilities. The effectiveness of each spell will also depend on how well you draw your runes, so if you want the best magical attack, you have to ensure that your wand (your stylus) draws the proper motions.

The game-play is where the bread and butter of the game is, since the storyline comes up lacking. You can control a plethora of creatures, and all you need to do is capture them. You will have a top down view of the battlefield, allowing you to movie quickly over the world, and see where your enemies are festering. You can see the magic seals that generate the creatures, as well as the treasure chests that you can open. The game lacks a “fog of war”, so everything is immediately viewable. There are also tons of battlefields, which change at every section you visit. This provides a lot of verity so you will not be battling over the same map again and again, unless you want to gain a few extra levels.

Continuing with game-play, you control your characters by highlighting them with the stylus and then targeting the map you wish them to visit. While it does sound simple enough, there are a few problems. The first problem involves the movement of the AI. Simply expanding on how the system works, a character will go directly from point A to point B, which is in a straight line. While sometimes this works well, a lot of the time there are problems with obstacles being in the way. How this affects you is simple, your characters run into that walls, and they will continue walk into them until they give up, which happens after a few seconds. Another issue is when you control a group of creatures, they will rub up against one another, and if you walking down a narrow passage. Some characters may get pushed into other exits and become separated from the group. This may cause some of your creatures, if you are not keeping a watch on all of them, to be picked off by random enemies.

Another habit, which becomes a problem, is that they automatically move around to try and attack enemies that are near by them. While this is normally a good thing, they will try and go through anything to do this, which includes walking on to a lava pit. Normally this would not be so horrible, but the enemies they are attacking are also made of lava, so they get a life bonus, while you sustain damage. Your creatures will also have a limited range where they are willing to approach an enemy. This means if your characters remain stationary, creatures can lure them, one by one, into a group beat down. This forces you to try and keep creatures as close as possible.

At least there are loads of different creatures, and each has their own speeds for movement, which can include flying. Each has their own attack style, which is repeated over and over. Each has their own defensive abilities as well, where some may be able to hold off heavy magic attacks, or some may be able to defend against physical attacks. Since the magical system is also broken down into six elements, some creatures may have a huge advantage against other creatures.

With creatures though, a plus side is that you can have up to ten characters in battle per side, at least in player verses player. Depending on which level you are on, you may summon different levels of these creatures to the field. This is automatically done for you when a level starts, so you do not need to worry about spending time to make them. On the downside though, you are limited to the creatures that you bring into battle with you. This means once they are dead, you are not able to bring them back. These creatures can also be equipped with different items, which will raise their abilities in combat, speed, or defence, so it does allow them to be quite versatile. They will also be selected outside of battle, and unless you change them, you will have the same ones throughout the game.

Battles do have a set requirement as well, where it involves either defeating all the enemies on the screen, or... defeating a dark mage. There was more hope for the battle requirements early on, where I was additionally treated to an escape requirement, but overall these are fairly bland. If all else fails you may just need to protect some villagers. Something in addition to the requirements are time limits. These time limits can be a little difficult to achieve on the first run through the level. Because of these limits, you may find yourself losing level after level, if you are not actively pushing your characters to the max. The set time limits are five minutes when you need to beat all the creatures in the level, or ten minutes when you need to just defeat a dark mage. It does seem a little backwards, but it does make the boss battles easy. The sad part is losing causes you to get bumped back to the last save point, so you will need to save a lot.

In the end there is a lot of diversity in the game, from all the different elements of the spells/creatures, which will leave you playing a game of rock paper scissors. Even if you do lose in this match-up, your characters will not be pushovers, as they should hold down the enemy long enough to bring over your mage to give them a blast. The map area is quite large, so there are plenty of fields. On the downside though, the AI is a little... retarded. With you being able to go only in straight lines, and the random attacking of your creatures, it does leave a lot to be desired. The storyline is a little weak, but you can take the battle online and play against other people. There is also a downside with them, since you could be matched up with people that have several levels on you. All and all it is a satisfying game, but it could have been a lot better, especially when it comes to those nasty time limits. In the end, Captain Gordon gives this game…

Review by Gordon Edward - courtesy of Gameshark.com