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Lufia & the Fortress of Doom(JP) is a role-playing game released for the SNES in 1993. It was developed by Neverland and published by Taito.
Plot[]
The story of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom begins, in accordance with an ancient prophecy of the Lufia world, with a massive floating island with a large castle located on it emerging into the sky one dark day. Dubbed the "Fortress of Doom", this castle served as the base of operations for a group of all-powerful beings known as the Sinistrals, who planned to use their strength to bring the world to its knees.
In response, the people sent four of their bravest warriors: Maxim, Selan ("Serena" in Estopolis Denki), Artea ("Arty" in Estopolis Denki), and Guy, to infiltrate the dark fortress and destroy the Sinistrals before they could do any harm. The game begins with the player controlling these characters as they prepare to engage the Sinistrals, and eventually defeat them. However, after the battle, the fortress begins to collapse, with Maxim and Selan becoming trapped on the other side of a deep chasm that forms when the Sinistral throne room splits apart. Unable to teleport them to safety, Artea and Guy leave the falling island alone, and their trapped allies apparently perish when it crashes into the earth below.
Peace reigns for ninety years after the heroes' encounter with the Sinistrals, and the actual game is set nine years after that. The story is told from the perspective of a red-haired boy the player is in charge of naming, and along the way he gets caught up in a struggle to save the world once again from the newly emerged Sinistral army.
Gameplay[]
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom plays much like a traditional role-playing video game and features 2D character sprites and environments. The player advances the story by travelling through several harsh dungeons, encountering monsters along the way. These battles occur randomly (every few steps or so) or in scripted situations, and winning them yields experience points that go towards leveling up the characters, giving them access to new abilities and making them stronger in the process. The battles themselves take place from a first-person perspective, and require the player to use each character's strengths, such as physical attacks or magic use, as in many other mainstream RPGs.
Development[]
Taito began to develop a port of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, but the game, primarily intended for a North American release, was not released because of Taito America's closure in 1995. At least two full-page advertisements were made in U.S. magazines, the second one announcing a delay to spring 1995, with the tagline "It's worth the wait". A ROM image of the Mega Drive version was leaked online in 2014 by a former programmer of the port.
Reception[]
In the United States, it was the top-selling Super NES game in February 1994.
Upon release, Electronic Games scored it 93%, calling it "the best RPG so far this year".
External links[]
- Lufia & the Fortress of Doom at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Lufia & the Fortress of Doom at GameFAQs
- Lufia & the Fortress of Doom at MobyGames
| Lufia series | |
|---|---|
| Main series | The Fortress of Doom • Rise of the Sinistrals (Curse of the Sinistrals) • The Legend Returns The Ruins of Lore |
| Related | Neverland • Taito • Square Enix |