Luminous Arc 2

Luminous Arc 2
North American box art
Developer(s)	Imageepoch
Publisher(s)	Marvelous Entertainment Inc. (Japan) Atlus (North America) Rising Star Games (Europe)
Director(s)	Shuetsu Kadowaki
Designer(s)	Kaito Shibano
Composer(s)	Akari Kaida Shunsuke Tsuchiya Yoko Shimomura Yoshino Aoki
Series	Luminous Arc
Platforms	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer

Luminous Arc 2 (ルミナスアーク2 ウィル, Ruminasu Āku Tsū Wiru, Luminous Arc 2: Will) is the second game in the Luminous Arc series of strategy RPGs.

Gameplay

A screenshot of a battle: the top screen shows units' status and information, while the touch screen displays units' positions and turn order

Luminous Arc 2 is a strategy RPG in which characters can be moved across an isometric grid. Each character can be equipped with weapons, armor, items, and magical "Lapis" gemstones. Characters learn special skills by leveling up and are able to use a "Flash Drive" special attack upon attacking or defeating enemies. When a character's hit points reach zero, they are removed from battle, but are able to be revived.

Plot

Story

In an age when magic supports everyday life and civilization itself, peace is maintained by the queen's knights and the Rev Magic Association. Sixteen years before the game's story begins, monsters called Beast Fiends started to appear, destroying everything in their way. Mattias, leader of the Magic Association, used the evil Demon Blade to try to seal the source of the fiends, but was sealed away himself by the elemental witches. New Beast Fiends have been appearing, and the Kingdom of Carnava overextends its forces trying to protect the entire kingdom. Meanwhile, Fatima, a powerful witch of the Association with control of the rare Shadow Frost Magic, goes rogue and starts a conflict with the Association, causing more trouble for the Kingdom.

Trying to solve the crisis, the Kingdom starts a clandestine research project to produce an easier way to use magic. The story starts at the point when the Kingdom had just successfully completed this tool, the "Runic Engine". Roland, a knight in training, is accidentally imbued with this new power, and fights the Beast Fiends, Master Mattias and the Shadow Frost Witch. In the course of the game, he discovers that the Rev Magic Association had covered up Mattias' turn towards evil. However, they did not realize that Mattias did this to try and save the world, rather than destroy it. He later discovers that Bharva, king of the Fiends, was manipulating events, and joins with Fatima to prevent the Mage Queen Elicia, creator of the Fiends, from overrunning the world with them.

The player has a choice of having a romantic relationship with Fatima or Althea, and end game parts of the story, including the ending, will change depending on the player's pre-battle dialogue choices.

Knight Squads

• Roland: The main character of the story. Roland is a knight who was trained alongside with his brother Rasche and childhood friend Rina by their father, Sir Steven. At the beginning he, Rasche and Rina are about to go to see fireworks at their kingdom's festival after training, but suddenly Althea comes flying down at Roland, thrown by a Golem commandeered by a floating undead cat familiar called Josie. They run away to Steiner's Lapis Seed Research Laboratory, where then they are about to engage Josie into battle alongside with Steiner who arrived in. Steiner asks Roland to toss a blue Lapis to him, the Runic Engine, but out of fate the Runic Engine embeds itself into Roland's left hand. After chasing away Josie, he and his friends with Althea who is a messenger are taken to the Queen.

• Rina: Rina is an archer who trains with Roland and Rasche (friends since childhood)under the guidance of Sir Steven. Her older brother is Steiner. She lost her parents at a young age to a fire and has been afraid of fire ever since. She has a crush on Sir Richter. She is the niece to Roland's dad Sir Steven.

• Rasche: Rasche is the older brother of Roland and childhood friend of Rina. His father is Sir Steven. He wields a lance. He dislikes Witches for some reason.

• Sir Steven: Sir Steven is the father of Roland and Rasche. He is a former leader a Knight Squad for Carnava, the Antler Squad. He fought alongside Master Mattias and Sir Gaston in his prime.

• Steiner: The elder brother of Rina and the leader of the Stinger Squad. He invented the Runic Engine and is immensely proud of this achievement. He feels cheated when Roland is ordered by the Queen to become a Rune Knight.

• Sir Richter: The leader of the "Talon Squad". He is idolised by Roland and Rasche as the perfect example of a brave, courageous knight. The Talon Squad is often dispatched outside the castle to fight monsters. He may have feelings for Rina.

• Sir Gaston: The burly leader of the "Tusk Squad". He is a very loud, optismistic man and is extremely loyal towards Queen Sophia. His squad is often used for protecting Carnava. He composed a theme song for the squad, in hopes of raising the morale of his troops.

Witches

• Althea: Althea is a young witch-in-training who uses Fire Magic. She trains under Dia. She met Roland when she was in the middle of delivering a document to Queen Sophia. She was attacked by Josie and his Golems, but Roland saved her. Later on in the game, Althea is discovered as the new "Ember Witch", whose position was previously unfilled. During her transformation, she casts a spell which is very powerful, striking Master Mattias. She passes out fatally ill straight afterwards. Bharva takes an unusual interest in Althea after they meet. Althea is actually a Beast Fiend, though the only "successful" experiment her mother, Queen Elicia performed in hopes of creating perfect life. Depending on the relationship between Roland and Althea, at the Conclusion gate deep into the game, Althea turns on Fatima through jealousy over Roland. Roland defends Fatima, causing Althea to lose control and transform into a Beast Fiend. Beast Fiend Althea is described as the "Dark Ember Witch" and has purple clothing rather than white. After she is defeated, she regains her senses thanks to Fatima's fake sacrifice. She knows that she will never have Roland and gives up on him.

• Fatima: The "Shadowfrost Witch", who started a war between Carnava and herself. A wielder of Shadowfrost magic. She travels with her undead kitty cat familiar, Josie. She is working against the Rev Magic Association to revive Master Mattias, whom she trained under in her schooling days. Fatima reveals that users of Shadowfrost magic are often shunned by magic society and that Master Mattias was the only person who accepted her for who she was. It is for this reason she follows him with greatest loyalty. Depending on the relationship between Roland and Fatima, one of two scenes may occur. In one such scene at the Conclusion Gate later into the game, Fatima strikes Althea, branding her as an untrustworthy person. This is because Althea is a Beast Fiend. Master Mattias fought to eradicate Beast Fiends, and sees Althea as the same as a monster. In the battle, Josie leaves your party to fight alongside Fatima.

• Dia: The "Brilliant Witch" and the temporary leader of the Rev Magic Association. A user of Light Magic. She often rushes into her decisions which may produce bad results.

• Luna: The "Tide Witch". She speaks with a high, calm voice to match with her laid-back personality. She is a teacher at the Rev Magic Association and is highly skilled in magical languages and artifacts. She has a preference to "good water" and the tea that can be made with it. Roland is asked to find her, as she ran away with the stolen Enigmatron, a precious magical spell encrypter.

• Potpurri: Potpurri, more commonly referred to as "Pop" is the "Verdure Witch" and uses Earth magic. She is the pushy and bossy elder sister of her brother Pip. She greatly respects the previous Verdure Witch and strongly believes that magic should not be used for harm. Despite this, she constantly bullies her little brother into cooking her several crab dishes, for which she has a love for.

• Sadie: The "Breeze Witch" who uses Wind magic. Sadie is a "Winged-One", a race who have a much longer lifespan while retaining their youth and adorn beautiful white wings. She was the only Witch to survive the disaster 10 years prior. Sadie is another witch who is shunned. Her wings attracted a lot of rude and skeptical comments, so she relocated to an Ice Hermitage up in the mountains. She also guards Mother Lapis. Sadie always itches for a worthy opponent in battle.

Production and release

The game was featured at the Marvelous Entertainment Inc. booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2007. It was released in Japan on May 15, 2008 and North America on November 18, 2008.

As with the previous game, famed sound designer Yasunori Mitsuda and his studio handled all the audio mixing and mastering. However, unlike last time, Mitsuda did not compose for the game. Instead, composers Yoko Shimomura, Akari Kaida, Yoshino Aoki, and Shunsuke Tsuchiya wrote the soundtrack, while Mitsuda acted as sound producer.

The game includes a bonus music CD insert. Those who preordered the game at selected retailers received an art book named "Luminous Art", which offers content from both Luminous Arc games.

A manga based on the story of Luminous Arc 2 has begun serialization in 2008.

Reception

Famitsu gave Luminous Arc 2 28/40. The game sold 41,000 copies in Japan in its first week of release. For the U.S. release, the Metacritic aggregation reached 75% from 11 reviews. IGN and Destructoid gave the game 80% scores, praising both the humor and characters. 1UP's gave the game a B-. The 1UP review bemoaned the lack of innovation in multiplayer over the previous game, but the reviewer enjoyed most of the other updates to the game over the previous version.

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Japanese)