I have waited a long time for this game. As soon as I heard that the game was about vampires, slayers and spaceships I was sold. I like unique and crazy ideas and that’s probably why I like Kojima games, but has Lunar Knights successfully pull of these ideas?
Lunar Knights
Graphics:
We all know the Nintendo DS is not a graphical power house. Most DS games that attempt to do 3d are pretty bad. Lunar Knights is a different story. It kept its 3d elements to a minimum. What Kojima Productions have done is taking a style and running with it. They were consistent from their 2d element moving to their 3d element. Let me first start with their 2d game. The game was done in isometric view. The color palette that they used had a great contrast between the dark and light levels. The sprites in game were all beautifully hand drawn and animated. We don’t get to see these a lot anymore; everything is done in 3d, don’t get me wrong 3d is nice and the wave of the future but I love 2d games. Lunar Knights 3d elements resided in their shooting section. The models were pretty simple and plain but it worked. The 3d play had the players 3d space ship viewed from behind the back and flying into the screen the enemy we simple and flew towards and from the screen. The 3d element worked well with the 2d game play; it wasn’t overwhelming nor was it under. Besides the 2d and 3d elements, Lunar Knights is the only DS game that had cut scenes embedded in the game. I have to say that I’m very impressed with this feature. The animations were some what compressed but still looked great as compared to a lot of stuff out there on the DS. If I can brag about anything in the game, I would tout its graphical uniqueness and style. The production value in this section is absolutely stunning.
Game Play:
Lunar Knights had some real issues in the game play elements and balancing. I found this to be the weakest section of the game. I had great expectations from my initial play sessions. The game allows you to play as two characters, Lucian and Aaron. Each character is played differently, Lucian is the melee character and Aaron is the gunslinger player. The concept of switching between the two players to do different tasks in the game is great, but the reality of this mechanic is flawed. Players can get through the whole game with barely playing as Aaron. Lucian is the dominant player. Aaron would be useless if some of the level did not require him for simple puzzles. Another reason why he is useless is the game mechanic of an energy meter. The energy meter dictates the player’s ability to used elemental fusion with their weapons. If Aaron wanted to fire his weapon he would need to equip an element with it and on top of that he would need energy in the energy meter. You can imagine where you can get in trouble with this mechanic…boss fights… where there are few recharge options. There are also other balancing issues such as the over powered trance meter. This meter gave the player the ability to transform or use an element at its max power. For example, if the player had the wind element equipped and used the trance function, (which is triggered by touching an icon at the bottom screen) then they were able to create tornados to attack the enemies. I was able to defeat all the bosses in this manner. All I had to do was build up the trance meter by normally fighting the AI and then save it for the boss battles. Now that I have given you my secret to beating Lunar Knights, I demand payment!!
Sound:
Lunar Knight’s sound is very appealing and impressive. First and foremost this game has voice acting. What other DS games have voice acting? It was just a few tutorials and lines, but they were able to do it constantly and impressively. When you first talk to a character, they say one intro line and then proceed to text. This is fine because I know there’s a great limit to the DS cart. Just having these few lines of voice acting brought the production value up in my opinion.
Lasting Appeal:
The game took me about 12 hours to finish, maybe less. My character’s XP level is at 23 and my life, energy and skill level is only a quarter of the way to being completed. My guess here is that the game is unbalanced but leaves a lot of room to back track in defeated areas and fight enemies to gain more experience if you really want to. I on the other hand have better things to do than slain blobs and skeletons over and over to gain more XP. The potential is there to make more playing time but I don’t suggest it.
Fun Factor:
The Lunar Knights is a pretty fun during the first half but then get pretty repetitive in the second. The same formula of finding the right element to counter against another i.e. water beats fire, can get boring. Dark element bats are coming at you…guess what pull out that light element gun! Good!!! Now do that a few more times…sounds fun? I sometimes even skip fighting enemy AI because I knew there would be the same tap Y button over and over. There’s no other strategy besides finding the counter element. The space shooting section however is fun. How do we get to the space shooting part you say, well in order to get here, you must defeat a boss. After defeating level bosses, the vampire slayers Lucian and Aaron trap their defeated foe into a casket and fly them into space in their awesome spaceship to purify their souls!! In the space shooter fights the player maneuvers the ship and shoot via the stylus. This is an interesting mechanic and I like it very much. It’s chaotic and at the same time tests your reflexes. While you’re tapping at the enemy to shoot, you rush to drag you ship out of the way of enemy bullets. Trust me this gets you very involved and blinking is not an option.
The 411:
Lunar Knights is a mixed bag. It’s all over the place. You could see the great production values from the start, but then when you enter the start and UI screens you wonder what the hell happen. You’ll see the beautiful art work and animations, but then you see some lame enemy characters. I know I sound pretty negative at some parts of Lunar Knights but that’s because I had such high expectation for it. The game still has great potential and could evolve into a more kick ass game if Kojima Productions fix the balancing issues and repetitive fight mechanics, maybe even add better puzzles and sneak missions to help spice things up. Lunar Knights is fun don’t get me wrong. People should truly try this one for themselves. Like I said it’s a mixed bag, dig in and see what you get.
Graphics
9.0
This game has beautiful hand drawn art and good complementing 3d assets.
Gameplay
5.0
The game is unbalanced. I could run through most of the levels.
Sound
7.0
There’s freaking voice acting, ooh yeah and the music is not half bad.
Lasting Appeal
5.0
The game is not too long, you could make it as long as you like it seems.
Fun Factor
6.0
The game is fun but I could imagine people getting bored with it easily.
