Hands-On: Lost Kingdoms
Not quite an RPG and not quite an action game, Lost Kingdoms enters the dangerous realm of "hybrid" adventures. Will it succeed or simply be annoying?
GameCube fans have been hurting for an honest-to-God RPG ever since the system was released. Lost Kingdoms won?t quite be it. Instead of simply building a full-fledged role-playing game, From Software is borrowing parts from action games and strategy RPGs to create a new and fresh fantasy genre.
There are five kingdoms in the land of Argwyll, long separated from each other by treaty. As the title of the game suggests, they're becoming lost?and fast. A black fog is slowly engulfing the world, and as Princess Katia, your job will be to find out what's going on before the weather turns terminally overcast. Your only weapon: a deck of cards that will give you attack powers and summon monsters to fight by your side.
The preview version of Lost Kingdoms already looked tremendous with lovingly detailed backgrounds and summons looking every bit as cool as they should. Although the game's primary focus will be action, you'll need to apply thought to your card order, saving heal spells and major summons for bosses and other dire situations. You'll get to see how well this system works when Lost Kingdoms is released near the end of spring.
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