My review
As a child growing up with video games in the NES and SNES era, I enjoyed gaming. But my parents rarely bought me games. I did play RPGs/JRPGs on PC and D&D on the side.
Final Fantasy II and III on the SNES were great; I loved storytelling.
When I was a teen, I got access to a device that copied SNES games onto 3.5 floppy disks. So I would go to video stores, rent games for 3 dollars, copy them, and play them.
This truly opened my eyes to Enix, Square, and such. There were so many unique Enix IPs: Robotrek, Brain Lord, and The 7th Saga.
Then I tried Lufia. It was generic in its story, like a Kemco-type JRPG today. Funny thing is, the story showed the ending of the first title, so it was a game I became hyped to play. I did like it as well, but it was not on par with Final Fantasy.
So I got into Lufia II. This journey had puzzle-solving before the internet, but it was all able to be done. I liked the capsule monsters and the music. The music is probably the best of all SNES JRPG soundtracks.
The ending put the game above Final Fantasy. Not only was a sacrifice made that will hit you differently as a child versus a parent, but it also left an everlasting mark on me as a gamer, as well as on the survivors.
By the time Lufia 3 and 4 came out, I was quite old. I don't remember much besides the Ancient Cave—a cave that randomly regenerates itself upon every entry—and puzzles.
So Lufia to me is known for story, puzzles, and exploration.
The Lufia games had puzzles that were all different and well thought out. They were a breath of fresh air because they weren't overcomplicated or requiring you to look them up like in Crimson Desert.
The turn-based combat system was kinda outdated. Too many times you can over-level an area in need to farm gold, but that's okay. That won't help you on bosses.
For boss fights, you need to think a bit, but they get interesting as they add mini action games to finish them.
The game added a little voice acting from the main antagonist, and all the main party members get decent stories. On that note, it's nice that the original music is part of the game.
Ironically, I think my favorite storyline is about a party member from Lufia II.
The game, with all it showed off that the engine can do, should be showcased to upcoming game developers.
And with the ending of the story, you will feel like the developer did for his favorite game as a child: moved. The game is on par with Lufia II. I won't say it is the best, as there doesn't need to be one.
If you're into nostalgia, storytelling, and puzzle-solving without needing to look everything up, this game is definitely worth your time. And it's free on itch.io.
I played the whole thing on my steam deck for reference. The game itself says about 30 hours. But it took me about 50. I didn't look up puzzles excluding 2. So I spent sometimes a few hours trying things out until successful. And perhaps grinded 3 to five hours to have enough gold and levels at a certain point in the game. But that was optional.