Finished it! With 45% completion! I got both [spoiler character] and [spoiler character] to survive, and went for Inaluna’s ending, which was both blah and bittersweet at the same time. My percentage would have been higher if I’d chosen to view the Kopin theatre, but I hate kopins, so screw that. I probably should have done more of the hot spring battles as well. Popuri (yes, that same Popuri from Luminous Arc 2) creamed me good when I got to her, but I think with the use of those 100% status-effect items, I could take out her kopins and take her down in no time at all. Will try on my next playthrough.
Anyway, Luminous Arc 3
MVP: Yuu. You HAVE to use Yuu! His magic stat is phenomenal and hits a very wide area, though you really have to watch his HP.
First runner up: Eruru. Her healing saved the battle for me at least 50% of the time, especially once you can improve her speed with a lapis. Also she struck the final blow on the boss for me, which was awesome.
Second runner up: Inaluna. By herself she’s a rather mediocre unit, but her Haste spell makes it possible to get really good use out of Yuu and Eruru in the second half of the game, so banzai!
Honorable mentions: Refy (post class change), Ashley (in the first half before being overshadowed) and a certain spoiler character who joins your party and has reasonably good AOE magic.
Fun game, I think I’m going to play it again in a bit. But first I got a bad ending in Lina no Atelier (which isn’t as bad as I thought) so I need to replay it for a better ending.
I’m so bummed that this game wasn’t localized. The first two were, so why not this one? I’m sure there are heaps of valid reasons for not having localized it, mind you, but my stance is that if publishers start localizing a series on a given system then they should go all the way and release all entries released on that system. But maybe that’s just the game collector in me speaking.^^
It’s the game collector speaking. Localizing a bad game is a waste of resources, even if it IS in a popular series.
Not that LA3 was bad, mind you. IMO it’s the best of the three games and a very fine and enjoyable SRPG. We’ll probably never know why it wasn’t licensed, but I’ve heard three theories.
(1) The first two games weren’t as profitable as the company expected. Just because a game sells a lot of copies (and we don’t know how many the LAs sold) doesn’t mean it was profitable.
(2) The DS was dying and piracy was rampant so it wasn’t worth the risk of localizing it.
(3) The gay ending with Dino would have been controversial with Western audiences so they didn’t want the hassle.
If you ever meet a decision-maker at Atlus it would be a good question to ask.