Lunar Knights (Nintendo DS, 2007)

Graphic wise, it's no zelda phamtom hourglass, but it does have nice cinematography. Though I havn't completed the game, I am at the last stage, so I've faced quite a bit thus far. Now I won't go into detailed infor like others, but I will say a few things about it.

This game quinched my need for a new game, and my rpg love, it also has touch screen space battle, which can become a bit stressing if you don't fire on the ship and dodge the fire back in time. Stage 3 of that part, annoyed the crap out of me, kept dying, but I got faster on reacting to enemy fire. For me The Dakr Terrennial, Nero was best for me on the space battles, it's rapid fire made best, although Alexander's four missle strike had it's momnets.

I also enjoy being able to upgrade the weapons, though getting or buying the material is a bit hard, expensive, and of course annoying. Well worth it though, I prefer Lucian's Vanargand over the Jormungandr, just easier to strike the enemies. As for Aaron, his Knight is best, I also use the ninja, witch. The Dragoon and bomber are a bit annoying, especially if the enemy are those skeletons with swords, I have to keep running around to use the bomber effectively, and the dragoon sucks against the dogs (elemental).

Okay seems I'm writing more then I said, oops? The fruit will rot causing you to gain life, but be poisoned, given you don't use it after a while, the orange fruit though, will dry into a bulb giving you more enegry as a result. I'm sure there is a way to make the meat turn into the dry meat rather the rotten meat, just havn't figured it out yet.

Also there will be parts in the game you can't get to untill you gain the opposite terrennial, I.E. Alexander destroys green blocks, while Tove destroys purple blocks. Those places tend to have some special treasure chest as a result and sometimes some annoying enemy or object that hurts you. Also there are spots with statues, these statues are affected by the climate control. You gain climate control after each succesful purification and gained terrennial.

Purification is done after you get past the space battle which is entered after each defeated boss, after purification, you see the defeated boss, he/she says something, then you get whichever terrennial...there are only four terrennials not including the light and dark ones.

Also when you get these terrennials you get a climate control, five climates, each doing something different...like the artic climate will freeze the poison swamp water in some areas with the statues.

One thing that annoys me is that qith aron you must have a terrennial equipped to use his weapons, while lucian needs no one to use his. Another thing that annoyed me or more so was a tad frusterating are the spots were you have to sneak past the enemy or game over. I know it's to add challenge, but meh! 200 coins to restart the game where you left off...it adds up. Hey when you're buying materials to upgrade your weapons, every coin counts.

As far as the store goes, I never buy anything, just replay some of the places and you get the health items and money as you go. Don't forget to charge the machine at the bank, so many times I need energy and those machines have helped me.

On leveling, you personally pick which stats to level, I go strongly with Skill and Vit on Lucian...some Spr, and with Aaron I do Spr and Skill...some Vit.

Overall, I'm glad I got the game, could be longer, but oh well.

Lunar Knights is an action game where you play as two charectors who battle vampires. The two charectors vary dramatically where one uses close combat (swords) while the other uses distance weapons (guns). And as you can switch between these two charectors on the fly, you will probably favor the use of the sword as it costs no energy to use.

Energy gathering is what makes this game so unique. The upper screen displays the time of day along with other weather conditions. The two charectors will rely on both the sun and moon's energy, so if you are outside or see an area where light is shining through a window, depending on your charector, you may harness the energy of the light. The energy you gather may then be used to power your weapon with various elements that you will collect through the game. Each element offers strengths and weaknesses against certain enemies.

After defeating enough enemies, your charector can also use a special move which is unique with each element. Unfortunatley, the special move you start with for the bladed charector seems to be the only one you will use. Even more of a drawback is that this certain charectors ability can usually wipe out any of the main bosses.

The bosses of the game are each very unique, but sometimes do not offer much of a challenge. After defeating the boss, the game then turns into a space shooter.

The space shooter portion of the game takes some getting used to, but once gotten the hang of, it can prove to be quite fun.

Charector building and weapon building also play a roll in this game. Charectors build levels by destroying enemies meanwhile weapons build up by collecting certain elements which you then bring to a shop keeper.

There are a number of other interesting smaller aspects to this game such as the ability to manipulate weather (which will alter stages), armour which relies on the elements, in game speech, interesting storyline and so forth. Each of these smaller additions only add to the uniqueness of Lunar Knights.

So all in all, Lunar Knights is a game that offers such a unique experience in comparison to other DS/GBA action games that it should definitley not be over looked.

2007 is turning out to be the best year to own a DS, and Lunar Knights is a gem that you don't want to miss. One of my favorite games for the DS; it is an extremely polished action adventure game filled with cut scenes and the occasional 3d space shooter sequence in between. The graphics still look and feel like boktai but without the solar sensor. There are voice clips for every character in the game that really adds to the dialog. There are 3 difficulty levels to play and if that wasn't enough of a challenge, Konami also through in a monster filled tower with more than 100 floors to beat. Starting a newgame+, you can choose to retain all your items and power ups (which will be handy with the nightmare difficulty). Earning the bonus wallpaper with the passwords obtained after beating the game is not easy. You must earn "titles" through completing tasks in game to unlock these bonuses.

This game is by far my favorite DS title to date. Everything from gameplay to the cut scenes is awesome. There is a strong storyline and the replayability is very high. Once you beat the game, on top of getting prizes on the Lunar Knights website (Wallpapers and such), you also get to start the game over again with all the same weapons, items, accessories, and levels that you beat the game with! Also, a secret level opens up, as well as a boss fighting sim.

The games before this (Boktai) had solar sensors on the cartridge so that you can increase the attackpower of the hero depending on how light or dark it was. For the Lunar Knights, you can insert that cartridge into the GBA slot and use that to increase the light gauge or dark gauge! That amount of integration just left me in awe. The only thing that is missing is a GBA cartridge with a mini weather station so that it could detect the temperature, humidity, and wind speed. Those three things have huge bearing on the game. They determine how effective you armor is, and they allow you to go to secret areas. Blowing into the mic causes your character to whistle, which causes monsters to come to where you whistled, or, if your elemental hero is glowing, they will give you an increase in a stat. Whistling is useful for pulling monsters and for getting them to stand on buttons so that you can go in doors and over spike traps.

This game is the most solid game I have ever played for any portable gaming system.

I bought this game because I had enjoyed Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand for the GBA. This game is the spiritual successor of Boktai, so I thought I'd give it a go. I was not disappointed. The game makes good use of anime style cutscenes and has a unique weather system that plays well into the story.

The primary frustration that I encountered was that the game seemed a little too easy at times. Also, it seemed like there was almost no penalty for getting killed, as all it does is charge you 100 or 200 Sol (the game's currency) and set you right back where you were.

The boss battles were great, but sometimes too easy. I really did enjoy the space shooter style sequences that immediately followed each of the boss fights. It was a welcome addition.

After completing the game there isn't a compelling reason to continue playing. One bonus dungeon is opened up, but that's about it. I found it too repetitive to continue playing long term.

Overall, Lunar Knights was an excellent experience with a few flaws that I would reccomend to anyone who wants a great action/adventure game.