Monday, January 12, 2015

Lufia: The Legend Returns Finale - Sundown

This is it, the grand finale of the trilogy. Mega-spoilers abound, as well as Milka being a Thai hooker. Read at your own risk.




But...Seena was in the party when we fought Erim. Unless that Erim was just a shadow. Actually, it'd make more sense if Erim just possessed Seena at the last minute. And she has been helping us defeat the others just so she could take over. And...wait, why did she REVIVE them at all then? They were all dead before, she could have just left them like that. Unless the only way they can truly perma-die is to be killed with Dual Blade. But still, why not just leave them un-revived if you're the only one who can revive them?

I have many questions. All I know right now is that Seena... is a Sinistral.

"Well Seena, I have to say I expected a bit more out of a Harvard graduate!"

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

She used us! She used us to defeat the Sinistrals... and she used Rudo for sex!

Dei: "What? She was with Rudo? I thought she was only with me!"

She used Dei for his body, as well? Where do her crimes end??

"This right here," says Seena, "Is the new world order of Sinistrals, brother."

Boss fight! Now that's more like it. Much sexier Erim than the previous fight.

Still, not difficult. Daos and Guard Daos were much stronger than either Erim. It's weird to be doing this AFTER what I thought was the final boss.

Wait, what? She wanted us to destroy her too? A minute ago she wanted to take over the world!

Unless... yeah, Erim must have possessed Seena, and defeating her just freed her to go back to normal. But wait...doesn't this mean Erim is now very likely possessing a different member of the party?

"I don't believe in capitalism, quite frankly."

EVERYONE GET BACK!

And...Seena dies. I think. This would have some dramatic impact, but she might pop up good as new in five minutes... who knows.

I have all kinds of issues with this possession-but-not thing that the Lufia series always does at the end.

What the hell? You again? WHY WON'T YOU DIE?

Daos explains the plot, which is pretty ridiculous as it turns out. Erim was indeed Seena the whole time, gathering warriors and making sure they got strong enough to defeat all of the Sinistrals...herself included. No explanation for how we fought Erim before WITH Seena in the party, or why she was ranting about taking over the world a minute ago... I guess to force Rudo to kill her?

ok

Seena, who is surprisingly still not dead, reveals that she was good the whole time, as she rejects Daos' overtures for her to rejoin the dark side. But...five minutes ago...she was all about taking over the world...er...

But wait! What's that in the sky? Is it another Sinistral?

...no, it's the God of Flame. Who? Why? Where's Arek?

...what? The Fire God is going to become a Sinistral by absorbing Erim? Is this like a Perfect Cell deal? This plot has completely stopped making sense.

The mysterious sixth Sinistral (if you count Arek) then proceeds to go on a rampage. Sure, fine, whatever. Let's get this over with.

I fly back to Doom Island, no longer submerged.

Note: Zalbak's dialogue in this shot is better than most of the other villain dialogue in the game.

So...he absorbed Seena, eh? I'd say you don't need to worry about her anymore, she's probably getting dissolved by stomach acids right now.

This is it, the final battle. It's pretty awesome-looking, at least. Kinda seems more Guard Daos-y than Guard Daos did.

This fight is BRUTAL, easily the hardest fight in the game. Now I know why those last few fights all felt like the game was holding back.

THWACK! Behold the power of HyperRudo.

After a difficult battle, Rudo emerges victorious. Dei also managed to survive... as did Mousse. Remember him? Yeah, me either.

What follows is an emotional scene where Seena reappears again (I guess Zalbak belched her out) and begs Rudo to finish the job. How is she still not dead?

And then...Seena dies on her own. I'd be emotionally affected by this, but I really do expect her to reappear good-as-new in five minutes...

....annnnd there it is. More like one minute.




This is actually a year later in the story. Seena has reappeared, good as new, with no explanation, and back to her normal self...whatever that was.

Welp, everything magically worked out fine at the end! Disney's Doug!

Meanwhile, Ruby is really bored. ...hands above the belt, lady.

Deckard (...remember him?) takes off to sail the high seas.

Dei gets to play the Aguro role of having some little kid lusting after him. She asks him to wait until she grows up and becomes hot, and he's like "ok"

Oh, Japan.

Most heartwarmingly of all...

...these two crazy kids and their unhealthy relationship will live on.

.....

.......

What horseshit. Fuck you, Seena.

That's a wrap. It's actually a cool game, when it's all said and done. It has some GREAT innovations like the nine-person group and color coding abilities. It's a bit too long and the dungeons are generally terrible...and the dialogue is just awful... yeah. It's an alright game, though, especially for a portable RPG of that era.

Time for the stats! That elapsed time is very deceptive since I played with fast forward on 90% of the time. Also, I spent a lot of time preparing for those Gades fights early on. I'd say this is a 25 hour game, maybe 30.

Poor Randolph had a ton of deaths because his HP never really went up. He's old. The astonishing thing is that HyperRudo took so many deaths.

I love these stat screens at the end of Lufia games. I didn't do the Ancient Cave this time around, alas.

Next up in the Lufia-verse, things take a dark turn as I cover the insanely bad Lufia: Ruins of Lore. Ruins of SOMETHING, alright. But first... other games that are actually worth playing.


5 comments:

  1. I love how that 6th Sinistral comes right the hell out of nowhere.
    In general, the finale just doesn't make any sense...maybe it'll make more sense if I actually play it...
    I probably won't, though. I've seen the full game already (due to this playthrough, obviously) and this just doesn't look like something I would spend my time on now that I know the story. Thanks for taking the time to go through it, though, especially since you were talking about how lackluster it was compared to the first two.
    See ya next time. :3

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  2. It's finally over! That was a lot of perseverance on your part. I feel like the only ending in this series that has any real consequences is the ending of the second game. At least Littlefinger is impressed.

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  3. Zalbak, not to be confused with Balzak.

    You might have issues with this possession thing, except that's not really something that happens. As this very post would go on to say, Seena was in her right mind the whole time, her plan was just idiotic. In the first game Lufia is a regular person who is told they're a Sinistral, "succumbs" to it later long enough to take the Dual Blade, then has full control of herself once again when she rejects Guard Daos. Everything after that is all Lufia too, when she asks you to kill her (and then compels Dual Blade to do it since the hero won't). Lufia 3 is a disjointed mess trying to recreate what they did well enough the first time around.

    Don't lie, you wouldn't have been emotional affected by this even if she did die forever because the game didn't earn it, you didn't even like her. Plus this was already done in the first game, and much much better then too.

    "That's a wrap. It's actually a cool game, when it's all said and done. It has some GREAT innovations like the nine-person group and color coding abilities. It's a bit too long and the dungeons are generally terrible...and the dialogue is just awful... yeah. It's an alright game, though, especially for a portable RPG of that era." - I feel the same way about it, well said.

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    1. Yeah, Seena actually dying wouldn't have bothered me. Hell, in the Dragon Quest II post I'm working on I said something about how when she pees outdoors, the ground dies.

      ...I probably should have made more use of Seena in the joke department, it isn't often that I get a character so awful to make fun of.

      The ending was lame

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  4. "I don't believe in capitalism, quite frankly." LOOL.

    I like how you're using Minka here even though she's apparently not fightworthy.

    Man, the game just committed two cardinal sins, a double tweest and a last boss appearing from nowhere. The guys who wrote this were amateurs.

    Props on beating this. On the gameplay side you did great work and on the plot side you made lemonade from the lemons.

    I'm sorry for Rudo that Seena came back.

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