At first glance LOSTMAGIC would appear to be an RPG adventure. However, it’s
really a real-time strategy game as you don’t do anything between the battles
other than read the lines of conversation between characters that serve as the
game’s story. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, those of you searching
for a new RPG for their DS can move on while the rest of you intrigued by
LOSTMAGIC’s rather unique style of play can read on…
LOSTMAGIC follows the adventures of a young wizard named Isaac with a
powerful heritage. Orphaned at an early age, Isaac is taken in by a kindly old
lady with a penchant for powerful magic. She serves as Isaac’s tutor until
events in the world force him to meet his destiny and confront an evil that
threatens the very existence of his world.
 |
| Draw a rune, cast a spell. |
Making your way through the game’s story and guiding Isaac to victory is a
pretty linear affair without much in the way of input on your part. You move
Isaac to the designated location by touching it with your stylus, you make your
way through a conversation between two or more characters after which a battle
usually ensues. This part of the game is pretty basic and generally unexciting,
so it’s a good thing that the battles provide the core of the gameplay.
The battles all play out on the touchscreen. To move your character you click
on him and then click on the desired destination. Your attacks are entirely
magic-based and the game takes full advantage of the touchscreen when you cast
spells. Pressing the left trigger will cause a magic circle to be overlain on
the touchscreen. You then use the stylus to trace out “runes”. These runes are
various shapes and patterns that each cast a specific spell. As you’re being
attacked by the various monsters that are invading your world you’ll need to
select the right spell for the situation as some do more damage to certain types
of monsters than others, some will affect more than one target, and others are
defensive in nature. The speed with which you draw a rune and your accuracy in
doing so will affect the power of the spell, which can make the difference
between quickly taking out a monster or letting it get close enough to you to
start doing damage. Your spells are powered by mana and casting a small number
of spells is enough to quickly drain your mana meter leaving you as a pretty
useless mage. Luckily the mana bar recharges itself fairly quickly, but you’ll
find yourself losing your share of battles because you ran out of mana at a
critical moment.
Luckily for you, you won’t have to do all of your fighting on your own. One
of your spells allows you to capture monsters to add to your entourage. Once
captured you can order you monsters to attack enemy monsters by using the stylus
to select both your monsters and the enemies that they should attack next.
LOSTMAGIC’s unique battle system makes for some fun gameplay, but it is a
source of frustration as well. First of all, the constant mana shortage is a big
problem in a game where everything depends on your magical abilities. The
critical magic downtimes happen far too often and are the cause of far too many
lost battles. The control of your monsters has its own set of issues. First of
all, it a heated battle it can be difficult to tap the right monster. Secondly,
you lose that selection after you give an order so if you want to move a monster
and then have it attack, you must reselect it after it reaches its destination
before you can give it an attack order. And that’s assuming that it actually
reaches its destination. Pathfinding is non-existent in the game and monsters
will try to make a direct run for their destination regardless of any
obstructions in the way. If they hit one they’ll become stuck and then you’ll
need to select them again and guide them around the obstruction manually. This
is a real problem as the maps are all small enough that you’ll find yourself
pretty much in constant battles without the time to spare to babysit your
monsters to where they need to be.
Page 2 of 2 »
