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Lost Magic finally arrives on the Nintendo DS. Does it create a magical experience, or is the design lost on too much complexity?
May 1, 2006 | 11:48 PM PSTby: Stephen Smith
As more and more games are being released that take advantage of the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, the leap from no online play to online play is finally starting to sink into the minds of most Nintendo DS fans. Even though we are starting to see a quasi-standard design for most online enabled titles, there are still new genres unexplored. Which brings us to Lost Magic, the new RPG/strategy game developed by Taito and released here by Ubisoft.
Lost Magic may have an atypical design, but its story couldn’t be more standard. You play as a young boy named Isaac, who was orphaned when strange creatures attacked his village. Isaac ran for his life, and found himself alone, and isolated. He then collapses from fatigue, and would have surely died if it wasn’t for an old woman who saved him from this horrible fate. She took him in, and raised Isaac as her own, and even taught him the ways of magic. One day Isaac’s father appeared to him and said not a word, but gave his son a mysterious wand. Before Isaac could reply, his father disappeared. Thus this begins Isaac’s quest to find his father, and to try and solve the mystery of what has happened to this world.
If the story sounds familiar, the actual game design is far from it. Lost Magic actually has more in common with a real time strategy game than a RPG, but I am getting ahead of myself. First and foremost, Lost Magic is designed specifically for the Nintendo DS and uses the touch screen to control almost every aspect of the game. Moving from different locales is accomplished solely by tapping on the map screen. Events are triggered as you move about the map screen. Sometimes you meet friends and a dialog screen may appear. More often you will encounter monsters, with which you will have to fight because they are much too hard to reason with.
Touch Battle
If you meet enemies on the map screen, the field screen will appear. This field screen will display the battlefield from a top down perspective, showing Isaac and his allies, as well as his enemies. Each character gets their own status bar located just above their head. Movement on this screen is accomplished again by taping on Isaac, or a fellow member of his party and then tapping the location. You can also draw a circle to envelop your army to give a general order to multiple units.
Do You Believe in Magic
The only way Isaac can attack is through magic. This is the most unique aspect of Lost Magic, at least as far as I am concerned. Now the game supports left or right handed players, so you will either use the L or the R button to call upon the magic symbol screen. Then you simply draw the symbol of the corresponding magic spell. These symbols are called runes in the game, just for clarification. If done correctly, all you have to do is tap where you want to cast the spell. If you didn’t draw the rune correctly, or run out of MP(Magic Points), then a slightly annoying tone will announce your failure. If you run out of MP, fear not, they automatically start to replenish after you stop trying to cast a spell.
Drawing runes is fun, and easy.
Magic Types
As far as magic goes, there are six basic types:
Fire: The first fire spell you learn launches a fireball at your enemies.
Water: Uses the mighty power of water to eradicate your enemy.
Wind: Call upon the powers of the wind.
Earth: Harnesses the power of Earth against your foes.
Light: Healing powers restores HP (hit points).
Dark: This magic is used to capture your enemies.
These different types of magic may seem very basic, but as you progress through the adventure you will learn how to combine these different runes into one spell. For example, you must weaken a monster to capture it, a la Pokemon. You can combine a fire rune with a dark rune to effectively weaken the enemy and capture it all in one action. So there is a lot of to be had in the magic system.
Ensnare A Party
Well, earlier I did mention that Isaac has the ability to capture monsters, and this plays an integral role in Lost Magic. After all Isaac is just a magic user, and it takes him some time to cast spells. Not to mention he lacks the fortitude to withstand an attack from most monsters of any considerable size. So what is a magic user to do? Start capturing some help, that’s what. Once you captured a monster, they will appear in your next battle. Even better, these monsters can level up, and even be equipped with items to add to their attributes. So in effect, you will be fighting monsters with monsters, and the game allows for you to capture any of these beasts.
A Lost Look?
The game design may give way to a huge amount of depth, but the graphics and presentation, and even sound are all somewhat under par. Not saying that these areas are bad, far from it, but all theses aspects of the game could have easily been done on the Game Boy Advance. The dialog scenes are done pretty well, but all the characters on the field map are really tiny, and not very detailed whatsoever. Granted, I would rather them spend necessary development time on the actual game play than just making a dull, but beautiful game, but does it have to one or the other?
Characters are small, and lack detail.
Despite Lost Magic's high points, the experience is brought down by numerous problems. For starters, controlling Isaac and his monster horde on the battlefield is far more difficult than it should be. Why? Well, the designers didn’t allow for characters to properly navigate the world on their own. For example, if I click on Isaac and then instruct him to walk across the screen, if there is something in his way, he will walk right into it and stop. Monsters are the same, so when you give orders, you have to make sure there is a clear path for your army. This may not sound that bad, but both Isaac and his minions and even his enemies move at a painfully slow rate.
I am going to dedicate a entire paragraph to the crazy amount of difficulty found in Lost Magic. Yeah, I will be the first to admit I am not that good of a gamer, but the difficulty level is set so high I believe it will frustrate people more than entertain them. The tough control scheme doesn’t help matters one bit, and often due to the small size of characters I would inevitable cast a spell on the wrong one, and this would inevitably cost me yet another battle.
Multiple Monsters
One of the biggest features in Lost Magic is the multiplayer. Not only can you play with your friends wirelessly, but you can challenge players all across the globe with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can play with your saved data from the single player mode to go up against another player’s army, or you can opt to both play a duel with a standard characters, with preset monsters, and magic. So regardless of your progression in the game, you can jump online, and compete on almost a level plane with your opponent. The reason I say almost is because Lost Magic suffers from being somewhat lag-ridden. Now I have played all of the current Nintendo Wi-Fi enabled titles extensively, and none seem to lag as much as Lost Magic does. But to be fair, there is a lot going on, and the only real lag that I have experienced is when you try to use magic during a battle. When you play locally there is no visible lag, so the design of Lost Magic is just too extensive for the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. This may be why Nintendo has been skimpy on features of their first generation of online titles. It is a shame, because I vastly enjoyed the multiplayer more than the single player, but you can get used to the lag to a certain extent. But just like the difficulty of this title, it will take some getting use to.
A Magical Experience?
Lost Magic is one of those games that comes along, and you can’t help but want to like it. Some will find that the problems that are so prevalent in the design are just way too much, and what fun to be had will come at too great of a cost. Initially, I was one of these people. The level of frustration I experienced while playing this game was so irritating that the only reason I kept playing was I needed to finish this review. However, I kept at it and ultimately found the experience both enjoyable, and rewarding.
-- Stephen Smith
Lost Magic may have an atypical design, but its story couldn’t be more standard. You play as a young boy named Isaac, who was orphaned when strange creatures attacked his village. Isaac ran for his life, and found himself alone, and isolated. He then collapses from fatigue, and would have surely died if it wasn’t for an old woman who saved him from this horrible fate. She took him in, and raised Isaac as her own, and even taught him the ways of magic. One day Isaac’s father appeared to him and said not a word, but gave his son a mysterious wand. Before Isaac could reply, his father disappeared. Thus this begins Isaac’s quest to find his father, and to try and solve the mystery of what has happened to this world.
If the story sounds familiar, the actual game design is far from it. Lost Magic actually has more in common with a real time strategy game than a RPG, but I am getting ahead of myself. First and foremost, Lost Magic is designed specifically for the Nintendo DS and uses the touch screen to control almost every aspect of the game. Moving from different locales is accomplished solely by tapping on the map screen. Events are triggered as you move about the map screen. Sometimes you meet friends and a dialog screen may appear. More often you will encounter monsters, with which you will have to fight because they are much too hard to reason with.
Touch Battle
If you meet enemies on the map screen, the field screen will appear. This field screen will display the battlefield from a top down perspective, showing Isaac and his allies, as well as his enemies. Each character gets their own status bar located just above their head. Movement on this screen is accomplished again by taping on Isaac, or a fellow member of his party and then tapping the location. You can also draw a circle to envelop your army to give a general order to multiple units.
Do You Believe in Magic
The only way Isaac can attack is through magic. This is the most unique aspect of Lost Magic, at least as far as I am concerned. Now the game supports left or right handed players, so you will either use the L or the R button to call upon the magic symbol screen. Then you simply draw the symbol of the corresponding magic spell. These symbols are called runes in the game, just for clarification. If done correctly, all you have to do is tap where you want to cast the spell. If you didn’t draw the rune correctly, or run out of MP(Magic Points), then a slightly annoying tone will announce your failure. If you run out of MP, fear not, they automatically start to replenish after you stop trying to cast a spell.
Drawing runes is fun, and easy.
Magic Types
As far as magic goes, there are six basic types:
These different types of magic may seem very basic, but as you progress through the adventure you will learn how to combine these different runes into one spell. For example, you must weaken a monster to capture it, a la Pokemon. You can combine a fire rune with a dark rune to effectively weaken the enemy and capture it all in one action. So there is a lot of to be had in the magic system.
Ensnare A Party
Well, earlier I did mention that Isaac has the ability to capture monsters, and this plays an integral role in Lost Magic. After all Isaac is just a magic user, and it takes him some time to cast spells. Not to mention he lacks the fortitude to withstand an attack from most monsters of any considerable size. So what is a magic user to do? Start capturing some help, that’s what. Once you captured a monster, they will appear in your next battle. Even better, these monsters can level up, and even be equipped with items to add to their attributes. So in effect, you will be fighting monsters with monsters, and the game allows for you to capture any of these beasts.
A Lost Look?
The game design may give way to a huge amount of depth, but the graphics and presentation, and even sound are all somewhat under par. Not saying that these areas are bad, far from it, but all theses aspects of the game could have easily been done on the Game Boy Advance. The dialog scenes are done pretty well, but all the characters on the field map are really tiny, and not very detailed whatsoever. Granted, I would rather them spend necessary development time on the actual game play than just making a dull, but beautiful game, but does it have to one or the other?
Characters are small, and lack detail.
Despite Lost Magic's high points, the experience is brought down by numerous problems. For starters, controlling Isaac and his monster horde on the battlefield is far more difficult than it should be. Why? Well, the designers didn’t allow for characters to properly navigate the world on their own. For example, if I click on Isaac and then instruct him to walk across the screen, if there is something in his way, he will walk right into it and stop. Monsters are the same, so when you give orders, you have to make sure there is a clear path for your army. This may not sound that bad, but both Isaac and his minions and even his enemies move at a painfully slow rate.
I am going to dedicate a entire paragraph to the crazy amount of difficulty found in Lost Magic. Yeah, I will be the first to admit I am not that good of a gamer, but the difficulty level is set so high I believe it will frustrate people more than entertain them. The tough control scheme doesn’t help matters one bit, and often due to the small size of characters I would inevitable cast a spell on the wrong one, and this would inevitably cost me yet another battle.
Multiple Monsters
One of the biggest features in Lost Magic is the multiplayer. Not only can you play with your friends wirelessly, but you can challenge players all across the globe with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can play with your saved data from the single player mode to go up against another player’s army, or you can opt to both play a duel with a standard characters, with preset monsters, and magic. So regardless of your progression in the game, you can jump online, and compete on almost a level plane with your opponent. The reason I say almost is because Lost Magic suffers from being somewhat lag-ridden. Now I have played all of the current Nintendo Wi-Fi enabled titles extensively, and none seem to lag as much as Lost Magic does. But to be fair, there is a lot going on, and the only real lag that I have experienced is when you try to use magic during a battle. When you play locally there is no visible lag, so the design of Lost Magic is just too extensive for the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. This may be why Nintendo has been skimpy on features of their first generation of online titles. It is a shame, because I vastly enjoyed the multiplayer more than the single player, but you can get used to the lag to a certain extent. But just like the difficulty of this title, it will take some getting use to.
A Magical Experience?
Lost Magic is one of those games that comes along, and you can’t help but want to like it. Some will find that the problems that are so prevalent in the design are just way too much, and what fun to be had will come at too great of a cost. Initially, I was one of these people. The level of frustration I experienced while playing this game was so irritating that the only reason I kept playing was I needed to finish this review. However, I kept at it and ultimately found the experience both enjoyable, and rewarding.
-- Stephen Smith
November 20, 2009
