Lost Magic Review (no fat)

Game Description

The Nintendo DS is a new gaming platform, being radically different compared to anything to exist before it. It is because of this that people generally tend to take any new games on this platform with a grain of salt. It will take some time for this platform to mature and, despite being an overall good game, Lost Magic comes to prove the DS's youth.

Lost Magic Gameplay

Unless you've owned a PDA before, a stylus must seem like a pretty clumsy way to control a game, and for some types of games this might even turn out to be true. But the crew at Taito had a very good idea when they decided to crank out Lost Magic. This game has controls similar to those you'd find in RTS game. To select a unit you tap over it once and another tap in some other place on the map will make the unit move there. Now this doesn't really seem really innovative. But...

Besides the RTS element this game comes with an added bonus. The character you control is a magician. However, in order to have him cast certain spells you must draw certain runes on the screen. The cool thing is that there are nearly 400 spells to learn and these come in 6 categories, each of them being very good against a certain kind of elemental (earth vs. wind, water vs. fire and light vs. dark).

There's also a spell that lets you capture the monsters you fight when they are really close to dying. You will do this a lot and the contents of your party will dictate how easily you will be able to pass certain levels.

But despite having some good parts and an innovative gameplay, this one does show off quite a few imperfections as well. Most of these, however, can be tied, in one form or another, to the painfully stupid AI.

For example, when you send the components of your party in some direction they will move in a straight line to that very point. They won't go around walls and they won't fight anything that comes in their path until they reach their destination. As you probably realize, this becomes incredibly frustrating.

This means you'll have to attend to every little thing each one of the members of your party has to do. Couple this with the fact that your mana level recharges incredibly slow (and there's not much you can do without mana in this game) and this game will have you on your toes for quite some time. Of course, what effect this has on you vary from one player to another. While some players might find this an infuriating aspect of gameplay, others might consider it a tough challenge and nothing more then that.

Lost Magic Graphics and Sounds

While the game's graphics and sounds may not be the coolest thing you've ever seen since your first experience with the Mario series they aren't all that bad either. All one can say about them is that they're rather bland. In short, they just don't stand out, which is a shame.

Lost Magic Multiplayer

While the single player gaming experience may be a bit frustrating, one would expect such a game to be quite a pleasing experience in a multiplayer mode. However wildly depends on whether you play the game locally or over the Internet.

Even while the offline game is fun and engaging, especially coupled with the fact that you can bring your characters along from the single player missions, online gaming is just near impossible due to the lag. This game requires a great deal of speed and accuracy and, well, any form of lag is just bound to blow away any coordination you might have.

Lost Magic Overall Impression

While Lost Magic is, overall, quite engaging and fun, and requiring quite a lot of speed and coordination, it also bares many glitches which will raise your stress levels from time to time.

Add to this, the inspired graphics, which are just that – inspired - and you're not really left with that much. While the game could have been an instant hit with anyone who owns a DS, it turn out to be just another good game, balanced somewhere between forgettable and remarkable, more towards the former.

Lost Magic Pricing

Lost Magic is currently available for the sum of $29.99.