A fun, challenging game with a charming style and hours of agressive gameplay.
The DS has been rather unfortunate when it comes to quality RPGs, with only a few games even worth mentioning at all. Luckily, for RPG and RTS enthusiasts it looks like that trend may start to dissolve starting with Lost Magic.
In Lost Magic you take the role of a young orphan boy, who lost his entire family and home in a monster attack. As time goes on, he is raised by an old witch and taught the ways of magic and eventually is confronted by his own–supposed dead–father who gives him a power magic staff. The fate of the world falls on his hands as he stands up against the evil Sage of the Twilight and her otherworldly monsters.
Lost Magic is a RTS (Real Time Strategy) game, and it is far more challenging than one might guess at first glance. The action takes place on the bottom screen, and you can move you or your allies by selecting them with the stylus. Once you’ve moved to where you want to be, however, you’ll want to take offensive action against the enemy. This is usually done by casting spells via the touch screen and stylus, drawing different symbols casts different spells and as you level up and gain more power you’ll even be able to combine the symbols to create more spells. Master of the spell system is key, as the action in Lost Magic can go from easy-going to near death in seconds. Not only will you have to be quick on your feet–or hand in this case–but you’ll also have to gather a wide variety of allied monsters. To do this, you must weaken a monster in battle and capture it via the ‘dark’ rune spell. The higher your level, the more powerful and numerous your monster allies can become.
As stated above, Lost Magic can go from being very laid back to fast and furious within moments. This is because the game doesn’t stop while you’re moving or casting your spells. If you think an ally needs healing, waiting until he’s in critical condition to start a spell is unwise because he could very well be dead before you even pull off the rune drawing. To master Lost Magic you’ll have to think fast and execute your actions both quickly and efficiently.
For the most part, however, the game is pleasant and rather fun. When you start out, you’ll only have a few spells and little to no allied monsters–but if you put a lot of time into it, you can end the game with a myriad of spell combinations and an army of powerful creatures by your side.
Graphically, Lost Magic has a very nice style that separates itself from other RTS games in a variety of ways. The in-game sprites are much larger than most other of the RTS variety, and while this makes it a bit harder to plan your attacks and movements–it does look very nice. The story is told by conversations that take place between the characters, which are drawn in a quirky style that almost seems inspired by anime in the vein of Hayao Miyazaki.
The sound is decent, although it could have lived with a bit more variety on the music front. The sound effects are nice as well, and different spells and actions create different sounds accordingly. It’s not the high point of the game, but sound isn’t truly neglected either.
Lost Magic is one of the few RPGs for the DS that is actually any good, it puts games like Lunar: Dragon Song to shame, and while it doesn’t reinvent the RTS genre it certainly succeeds in creating a nicely made, assessable game with enough challenge and charm to keep you playing for hours.