It’s also only half way through the game before you gain access to the Enchantment System. Basically you obtain Runes as you go about your adventure and after paying a price for them to be analysed, you can infuse them into your equipment to customise stats.


You don’t get to use the Enchantment System until half way into the game.
Presentation wise, I think it’s fair to say the graphics are wonderfully drawn from the beautiful opening animation to the story backgrounds and characters. The designs may remind you of the .hack series but they’re done by a different character designer, namely Kaito Shibano. The game BGM is great to listen to too, mostly soothing peaceful music. There’s a fair bit of voice acting involved but only for a few lines per episode. It’s kind of sad to suddenly hear the voice acting stop all of a sudden just when you’re enjoying the dialogue but it’s enough to flesh out the characters more. Lines are, as with most Japanese games, delivered very well by experienced voice actors such as Akira Ishida as Alf (Zala from Gundam SEED) and Fumiko Orikasa as Lusha (Lukia from Bleach).


Nicola the researcher can’t help himself when he sees a witch.
You have your typical cast of Anime characters each with a different personality but you’ll find quite a lot of hilarious events take place throughout the adventure. Just wait until you meet the witch fanatic Nicola who literally runs into any witch he lays his eyes on, only to get cast away. It’s a clich joke used in a lot of Japanese media but it’s still hilarious all the same. Even though you don’t actually see anything apart from the usual posing characters, the voice acting really brings it through! Oh, and we can’t forget this strange little guy named “Kopin” popping out now and then who turns round if you tap him on the right place.


Game is beautifully presented with excellent artwork and voice acting.
Luminous Arc is a beautifully presented with a fairly interesting story and fun cast of characters to interact with but it lacks a bit in terms of gameplay content. There are few sub-event battles and you don’t really have much freedom to explore on the world map. Not to mention its slightly cumbersome interface and menus need some reworking too. If you don’t mind all that however, it’s still a fairly fun and enjoyable SRPG to play through lasting just over 20 hours.


The game is very straight forward, only one way to go. You may have problems with a few missions such as the one where you have to catch Vivi by moving two characters right next to her. Other things you’ll miss out on are the story, the jokes and of course, the “after break” talks with the characters.

• Beautifully presented graphics and music.
  
• Excellent voice acting.
  
• Some hilarious dialogue.
  
• Optional talks with characters lowers amount of dialogue.
  
• “After Break” talks with characters increases immersion.
  
• Didn’t scrap traditional button controls.
  
• Enchantment system for customised equipment.
  
• Wi-Fi versus mode support.

• Cumbersome menus.
  
• Checking enemy stats and movement range is tedious.
  
• Very linear, no exploration. Only one path to go on world map.