Collection essentials #213: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES)

The first Lufia won’t be making this list, as it’s frankly not that good.

Lufia II is actually a prequel to that game. And it’s a clever idea for a prequel, too. At the beginning of Lufia 1, you control a powerful group of four warriors who confront and fight a big powerful bad guy in his lair, and then there’s a time skip to the future when the main events of that game take place. Lufia II as a prequel tells the story of those four warriors that you briefly control at the beginning of Lufia 1. But you certainly don’t need to play Lufia 1 to enjoy or appreciate Lufia II, and…well, you probably shouldn’t play Lufia 1, so that’s good news. 

These games are turn-based JRPGs. A lot of times dungeons and such in JRPGs are fairly simple, with just some branching pathways and maybe simple puzzles that aren’t a big focal point. But Lufia II takes things in a more Zelda direction and has really fun puzzle-based dungeons. And while the game does have random battles on the overworld map when going from place to place, the enemies are visible when you’re in the dungeons and combat doesn’t happen unless they touch you (which sometimes they will try to do). This was a great idea, because random battles can be really obnoxious in areas with complex puzzles due to how much they disrupt the puzzle-solving process.

There are other cool gameplay things too, like the capsule monster system. You can have these special monster companions that help you out in battle, and you can feed them items from time to time to help them grow. The game is playable even if you choose not to bother, but it’s a nice touch and something to do with those excess items that you inevitable have a lot of in games like this.

The “Ancient Cave” bonus dungeon is a really cool addition, which is randomly generated and resets your character levels temporarily back to 1 at the start, so it’s basically a “roguelike” mode for people who are into that sort of thing. A really neat thing that you don’t normally see in games like this.

The story itself isn’t particularly remarkable, but the characters are likable and the dialogue is well-done, with some nice humorous moments.

Notably, this game was released late in the SNES lifespan, and it was pretty rushed to get out the door as scheduled. As a result, there are some glitches that you wouldn’t normally see in a released game. There’s one room late in the game, for example, where the graphics are just totally glitched out. Oopsie. They fixed it in the European release, so it’s better to play that release if one has access to it.

There’s tons of competition among RPGs on the Super Nintendo. And for that reason I wouldn’t say Lufia II is one of the VERY best of that bunch, but that’s more a testament to how great some of the other games are rather than anything negative about Lufia II. It’s definitely in the top 10 conversation, at the very least, and is a slam dunk for top 10 if you’re only counting American releases. It’s kind of shocking that this game still hasn’t been re-released (as of 2024), and I hope that wrong is righted at some point. A true essential for anyone who loves them some JRPGs and also some puzzle solvin’.