The final boss battle, on the other hand, is none of these things. It's a nasty difficulty spike of Eiger proportions; and for the first time since my insane grinding marathon, I found myself in a genuine bind. Not only do the boss and his six minions hit harder than any foe before them, but they are also hell-bent on healing and buffing themselves. And since I cannot take them down in one clean hit, even with Alph's most powerful attack, I got stuck in a vicious circle of hitting them only to see them replenish their health, ruining all my efforts in the process. Add to this the necessity to heal myself on a regular basis and you get a perfect recipe for Final Fight Failure. The rest of my crew is virtually useless because of their low levels; and since I got my fill of grinding already, there is no way I'm investing a single extra minute of my time in levelling them up. And thus I'm officially giving up on Luminous Arc after 20 hours of genuinely satisfying play.
Still, there's no denying that I had tons of fun playing Luminous Arc. This is the second SRPG in which I resort to over-levelling to break the game and enjoy myself; and I must admit that there is some kind of genuine thrill in subverting a game's rules and playing it in a way that was not intended by developers or by the genre itself. Relying on a single overlevelled character didn't fully work in Luminous Arc, but it sure took me far into the game; and had I been ready to pour a few extra hours into the game to level up a couple of units, I'm sure I could have beaten that cheated final boss and his minions without breaking a sweat. In the end, we always get back to the same point: the RPGs I love the most are the ones that give me the opportunity to play them my way, and Luminous Arc was definitely one of those. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
Yeah, Imagepooch games really aren't know for good stories, or good characters, or good setting, etc. And yet, I can't stand to play their Japanese only games anymore even if I know the story is crap.
ReplyDeleteI guess if I do play this game, I'll make it a dual run instead. I bet just having one more character would have saved you in the last fight. As long as the second character is a hard hitter, you could take out a healer every turn and once that problem is out of the way, you can just beat the boss normally. Unless the boss can revive fallen units that is...
Yes, a dual run would probably do the trick. If I ever replay that game, I'll perform a dual run with Saki and Alph, raising them to lv. 65-70 as soon as possible. If a third unit is needed, I'll go for Heath (when he joins the party again, that is) or Cecille (after her transformation in the late stages of the game). If two overpowered units cannot get rid of the final boss and his crew, three should definitely manage to do the job. :p
DeleteTo be honest, I've only had great experiences with Imageepoch games, so my rant about the story is to be taken with a pinch of salt. :p I really have no problem with RPG stories being piles of horse manure; but if this is indeed the case, I prefer them to be unobstrusive and let the gameplay talk. Like, give me a random goal at the beginning of the game and let me play to my heart's content without interrupting me with bits of mediocre storytelling. ^^