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Luminous Arc is an anime-flavored strategy RPG with clichéd characters, insipid dialogue, and pedestrian gameplay. Noteworthy features such as voice-overs and Wi-Fi support for head-to-head action against a friend or an online opponent aren't quite enough to keep Luminous Arc from outshining earlier handheld titles like Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre.

Sleepless Knights

After 1000 years of banishment, witches are now free to roam the world, and they are not too happy about it. Monsters under their control are attacking nearby villages, and the powerful church has ordered its loyal knights to wipe them out. Your party, a group of young knights-in-training, travel the world battling these elemental witches, who are led by a leather-clad minx named Vanessa, the "Witch of Immolation."

The game is divided into a series of chapters, each prefaced with lengthy dialogue sequences. Conversations appear on the top screen, with large portraits continuously sliding in from the left and right against a static backdrop. If the constant shuffling of character images doesn't give you a headache, the dialogue will, forcing you to tap through seemingly endless screens of inane chatter with maybe one useful piece of information.

Army of One

Once the battle ensues, things get better but not by much. Luminous Arc has a clunky touch-screen interface, as tapping squares on the grid-based battlefields don't always register. You can't rotate the maps, which is awful since characters often obstruct your view of nearby squares. Even the command list is tedious, requiring you to advance through multiple screens to perform basic actions, and having to end each turn with a confirmation. Battles are more a test of your patience than a test of your tactics.

And this brings us to Luminous Arc's biggest problem: the challenge. Battles are surprisingly easy, with underwhelming enemy AI and overpowered classes. A fighter-type character like Leon is a beast, automatically earning skills that can take out enemies in one hit. And since the most experience points are awarded to the character that lands the killing blow. Powerful characters become even more powerful by leveling up during each encounter, which automatically increases their stats and replenishes both hit points and magic. Who needs strategy when you have a one or two-man wrecking crew?

Tactical Mistake

The lack of character customization is another issue, with fixed classes and no input allowed on individual skills, attributes, or spells other than purchasing armor, weapons, and accessories each time you visit town. This ultimately hurts multiplayer viability as well, since most users will pit identical groups of characters against one another, each armed with the best equipment money can buy. Luminous Arc's quirky storyline and simplistic play may appeal to hardcore anime fans new to the strategy RPG genre, but most will find Luminous rather dull.

Article by: Scott Alan Marriott
Video Produced by: Jeanne Goshe