[Ebrey]

I'm going to pick up Lunar Knights tommorow so I have something to play for FKW. Is this the most successful viral marketing campaign ever or what?

I know some other people are picking it for their FKW game, have you started it yet? We could have a race, yo.

[nocturnedelight]

I plan on picking it up sometime after I finish Boktai 2.

PS: I wish they still called them Django and Sabata.
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[Loki Laufeyson]

i've ordered it. hopefully, twill arrive before the end of the week.

[nocturnedelight]

So is this also the Boktai thread?

Yesterday I played about two hours of the second game. I probably spent about an hour and a half just upping the skill of my Fist and Sword, since I found a nice 7-bat respawn room early on, and I figured I could ride the stationary bike while doing it. I maxed both out.

I just beat the first dungeon, passed some city, and entered an Immortal Dungeon.

This game so far seems a lot easier to play without sunlight then the first game. Mostly because of how frequent items drop from enemies.
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[chevluh]

[Leau]

[firenze]

I almost think this point needs its own topic in the main forum, but I'll say it here with emphasis:

LUNAR KNIGHTS HAS SOME FANTASTIC MUSIC.

Not just good, I'm talking pantheon of game music greatness. Among the elite. Streets of Rage 2, SF3 Third Strike, Ridge Racer Type 4, SotN, Super Mario World, Megaman 2, early Sonic, Revenge of Shinobi. Lunar Knights is in that class. It's 100% "video game" music, yet it's sophisticated. Jazzy when it needs to be, just catchy enough but also with a little complexity, perfectly fits the scenes. I can't rave highly enough about the music.

As for the game, it's good but not great. Sort of a cheesy anime story, but it's decent for what it is. Random voice acting snippets I could do without, but I do sort of like the character designs, especially the mad scientist. The sunlight sensor going away is a fucking blessing. I always wanted to love Boktai but couldn't because of that stupid gimmick. The core gameplay now has changed maybe for the worse though. It's a lot less stealthy so far, more mindless action.

Level design DOES feel like isometric Castlevania. In the worst ways - as in it compares to the oft criticized boring level design of recent Castlevania. Rooms feel so empty and lifeless, enemy placement is bland and boring. The enemies feel like Castlevania too - from the stationary turret type enemies (like the fire breathing heads and whatnot of Castlevania) to the respawning zombies and generic spider/skeleton/etc types. However, Lunar Knights is far MORE boring in gameplay than Castlevania despite similar design sensibility because you don't have a responsive jump! You don't have ANY jump, but boy can you chain slashes together. How exciting.

Also, the isometric view is not inherently bad, but it shows just how awful the diagonals are on a DS Lite d-pad. Perhaps a straight overhead view would have been a good idea? Scurge felt a little less wonky this way, maybe the levels were designed with a little more U/D/L/R in mind as opposed to the strongly encouraged diagonal movement in Lunar Knights.

Game is good but not great. Music is absolute classic. Overall good buy.

Oh, and I tracked mine down at a local Fred Meyer store (doing well for games lately, I might add). I refuse to pay Gamestop's standard $5 more than MSRP for DS games, so I checked out the usual Fry's, Best Buy, Target... no luck. Seems that this might not be in wide release yet.

[Jeff Garneau]

i actually like the combat in lunar knights. it ain't great, but it works. there are some enemies that force you to learn strategies.

i mean enemies can hit each other! that's cool. i think also that if you pull your shield right when someone swings at you you parry somehow. i know one time i made a morningstar guy hit himself at least. also the boulder dudes can be made to crash into walls.

so that's cool. talking parts are mad boring but you can just hold down b and you don't have to tap anything. the spaceship sections seem like they might totally blow but they might get challenging later on.

also the sneaking and maneuvering in this game ain't half bad either.

i mean, for a numbers-go-up-on-the-go game, this ain't a bad choice.

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

Jeff, maybe you should read the manual.

I really hope Konami produces a soundtrack for Lunar Knights, although I doubt they will. All the Boktai games had great music, and each tried for a different style.

[Loki Laufeyson]

[Wyndian]

If the soundtrack is that great, does anyone know who made it? I don't have the chance to get Lunar Knights anytime soon, so I'd be glad if someone could check up on the manual (But then again, it is a Nintendo console, they don't have enough space in their manuals to give credits).

[Ebrey]

[firenze]

[Leau]

[Jeff Garneau]

dais i stole this game

[Ebrey]

At first impression it seems like they removed all of the unique aspects of Boktai in this game. Without stealth and the sun sensor, it's just Zelda! And yet it doesn't even have the puzzles of the earlier Boktais and Zelda.

The music is awesome though. Hopefully the game picks up.

[nico]

the story sucks donkey ass.

the dialogue sucks dog ass.

the sun/moon recharge cycle sucks fish ass.

it's still a pretty fun game though.

[Loki Laufeyson]

my copy still hasn't arrived D:

[firenze]

After further review...

I don't see much difference in the gameplay here compared to S-E's generally disdained Children of Mana. The actual combat system in both is bland hack and slash with chain attacks. The dungeon/room design is boring as fuck in both.

CoM actually probably has more interesting variety with the more varied weapon types, spells, and different feeling playable characters. CoM also has better control due to the top-down view as opposed to the battling the DS Lite d-pad to play LK's isometric view (with a lot of emphasis on diagonal movement, I might add).

The main difference is that LK has a hackneyed "gothic" anime style that appeals to early teen US kids. CoM has a hackneyed fantasy RPG style that appeals to I guess the majority of Japan.

That being said, LK DOES still have the most kick-ass soundtrack I've heard in years and for that alone I feel that it was well worth my $29.99.

[mechanori]

The dungeons are a desperate attempt at design. There are simply no abilities to design around, and no gameplay mechanics to exploit. It's a very flat experience.

[v84j3gs2uc7ns4]

[Ebrey]

I don't know where you read that - you play as an annoying "I dont trust anyone" vampire hunter named Lucian (Sabata in the JP version, but not the same Sabata as in Boktai), and a solar gunslinger in a vampire hunting guild Aaron (another Django in JP). The bosses are still vampires.

The problem with this game is that without stealth and puzzles, it's an ultra generic dungeon crawler. If they wanted to remove stealth so as not to compete with MGS Portable Ops, they should have went in a more interesting direction than pure action: a Landstalker style action RPG.

[v84j3gs2uc7ns4]