Lost Kingdoms II

by Fennec Fox
January 14, 2003 00:00 AM PST

Activision sends another charming lass out on a card-flipping quest across the land of Argwyll. Their game's matured a bit over the past year.

The original Lost Kingdoms, despite its faults, was one of the more original stabs at the RPG genre we got to see in 2002. From Software, fortunately for us, listens to their fans: the sequel, imaginatively titled Lost Kingdoms II, will address nearly every issue gamers had with their addictive but flawed first game.

The last time we visited the kingdom of Argwyll, a comely lady named Katia was prancing about the countryside, throwing magical monster cards at evil demons and trying to figure out what happened to her domicile. Lost Kingdoms II revisits this wonderful land 200 years after the original, as the kingdom finds itself with a bit of a provincial problem. A border nation named Kendara is experimenting with the artificial creation of Runestones, those strange rocks that were the source of Katia's original powers. The queen of Argwyll doesn't like this at all, but she can't do much about it 'cos her Runestone was secretly given to her twin sister, Tara, as a young child. Tara, who was raised by bandits and knows nothing of her royal heritage, has blossomed into a master magician, and soon it'll be up to her to save the continent from the flames of war... a hefty responsibility for a young lady with nothing but a deck of 30 cards on her side.

Although the basic structure of Lost Kingdoms II is roughly the same as its predecessor�visit a couple dozen maps, use cards to summon monsters, and beat the snot out of other monsters with them�the game's been rebuilt from the ground up to be more user friendly. For one, there's no separate "battle" screen�you can see enemies on the game maps, and you're free to fight or avoid them as you please. If you do want to fight someone, then the game's new targeting system (you can switch between targeted monsters with the C-Stick) allows you to pinpoint your attacks and terrain effects far more precisely than before. This system, combined with the much freer camera (it's fully user-controlled this time), makes LK2 look and feel completely different from the original.

One of the biggest complaints gamers had with the original was the fact that you couldn't revisit areas after clearing them of monsters. Lost Kingdoms II neatly takes care of this by restructuring itself into more of a standard RPG. As mentioned before, Tara doesn't have any idea that she's the sole hope of a doomed realm�as far as she knows, she's just a sprightly lady with a magical bobbin on her back. As a result, she'll have to explore cities, talk to her friends and enemies (the game's fully voiced in English this time), and figure out what area she ought to be visiting next. Many maps have multiple exits, too, meaning that visiting old locales isn't just a nice amenity�it's required to get to the end.

The number of monster cards has been doubled to roughly 200, and Tara�along with her wacky card-throwing Kendaran enemies�can do much more with them than Katia ever could. As before, every card requires a certain amount of crystals (the game's power source) to invoke. This time, though, some cards allow you to alter the number of crystals you apply to them�in other words, you can double the power behind a guardian golem's thunder strike by applying eight crystals to the card instead of four. Other summon cards actually let you become the summoned monster, which is necessary to solve certain puzzles in the game maps. "Oh dear, how can I cross this canyon to reach that treasure chest over there? Oh, I know! I'll just transform into a gargoyle and fly across..."

Activision is expecting the U.S. version of Lost Kingdoms II to hit stores sometime later this spring. If From can keep the alarmingly engaging gameplay from the original intact, then this game could be the final nail in the coffin for anyone who thinks the GameCube's worthless for RPGs.