Yesterday my review copy of Lux-Pain arrived in the mail. After taking a few minutes to look through the 'bonus" art book I broke out the instruction manual and started reading.
I have never played any of the Phoenix Wright games but I am a fan of the Arkham Horror board game put out by Fantasy Flight Games. I also played the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu game in my teen years. With that in mind the theme behind Lux-Pain certainly has my interest.
In Lux-Pain you play the part of Atsuki Saijo, a 17 year old boy who is a member of the secret organization known as FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Risk of Terrors). After Having "Σ" transplanted into him he gained the power to read peoples minds and find things that exist in the space between worlds. This is done in game by having you scratch the DS touch screen with your stylus to rub away the darkness and see the things that live in the darkness.
Your quest is to track down and destroy Silent, an evil force that has caused uncounted violent crimes to occur in the world. This force (also known as a worm) was born of hate and sadness. It infects people and causes them to do violent and atrocious acts.
The game takes place in Kisaragi City, Japan. There is a large cast of characters for you to interact with and an amazing amount of peripheral ambiance to the game. There is an Internet cafe in town where you can check the local BBS (that's a Bulletin Board System, they were the Internet forums of the world before the Internet) and read notes left by other people in town. There is also a broadcast show you can watch every day that informs you of the current events going on in the world of Lux-Pain.
The designers of this game clearly did an excellent job on the theme and background of the game. I know what you are probably wondering, how does it play?
Unlike many quest-based games there is not a lot of hunting and gathering across an over-sized game world. Even when I have encountered a form of 'go here, get that, come back' it has taken only a minute or two to do it. (This is the complete opposite of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass where you had to constantly go half-way across the world just to continue through the game).
When I first read about using the stylus to rub away the darkness and combat the evil powers of the game I thought it would either be real awesome or real bad. I am happy to report that it is of the real awesome variety.
Using the stylus to rub away the darkness and remove the worms and other bad thoughts and memories just works and feels right. After you find and remove a memory you then imprint those memories back on the character and the upper screen reveals the thoughts as a series of words dance across the screen. Keywords are colored and the pacing of the letters and words on the screen (as well as their placement) gives you an added sense of the emotions behind the thoughts.
As you discover clues around Kisaragi City your list of keywords to ask characters about grows. Your friends back at FORT are always a phone call away and ready to help. Don't overuse their powers or they may run dry when you really need them.
Now, there is only one thing that bothers me about the game. This game was clearly designed for a male anime watching audience and it shows. All of the female characters are close in age to Atsuki Saijo (even the adults appear to be in their early 20's). I also could not get over the feeling that at any time this game might make the jump from Teen to Mature based on the interactions with said female characters.
Perhaps I'm too old but it just seemed weird when the school nurse winked, gave me her email address and told me to call her. I joked with my wife that I'm playing an "Edward Cullen" character in the game!
I think I have only scratched the surface of this one so I'm not going to call this a review. Consider it a "first look" article and stay tuned for the final review once I complete the game.
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…I have never played any of the Phoenix Wright games but I am a fan of the Arkham Horror board game put out by Fantasy Flight Games. I also played the……
Hmm, this game sounds rather intriguing. I take it that’s what most of the game is, is going around and gathering clues, probably being pointed towards new locations, until you reach your goal? It may be worth checking this out – it kind of reminds me of the old Deja Vu games for the NES/GB Color. Is this a game that’s available now, or is it yet to be released to the public?
The game is available now and the first issues came with an art book.
I am desperate to have my hands on this one! Excellent stuff.
I have played this game and I really like it.. The graphics are great and it has kept my attention. Normally I don’t like games like this yet, a friend got it for me as a gift. I think I will look into more like it.