1. Who's going to want to memorize 350 different runes in order to cast spells? And how unique can each rune possibly be? There's nothing worse than trying to cast a fireball on an enemy and accidentally healing him because the runes are too similar...

Posted at 4:29PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Spidey

2. I suppose for some this will make the game more "immersive", in the sense that you feel as though you are actually casting the spells as opposed to just hitting a button. In my opinion, this is tedious and unnecessary perhaps it should be used for a few "special spells".

I think this problem that will continue to plague the DS and the Revolution (when it is released). In Red Steel you will have you "nod" with the Revmote to signal a 'yes' etc. Sounds like a gimmick to me.

Posted at 4:34PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Flying Caveman

3. Well, first of all, if it's like most fantasy games, I'd say that 90% of the 350 spells will be useless.

I like this idea for this spell system. I'm glad it's "more involved than merely selecting the appropriate command from a menu." Since when is adding difficulty, elements requiring skill, or greater interactivity a bad thing? And since when is drawing a simple shape considered difficult?

I don't know what any of the Runes look like, but if they're relativly simple, I could this as an improvement over traditional spell casting. Say you're in the heat of battle and you need to heal all your party members, rather than dig through all 350 spells in a disorganized list, you can just hit one button and draw a simple shape. That doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

Posted at 4:56PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Probot

4. Ok, you dont memorize 360 different runes. There are 6 different runes that you can COMBINE to make over 360 spells. The runes are simple to draw and its rather fun.

Posted at 5:06PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Alucardd

5. Sounds like wiccan skool

Posted at 5:26PM on Apr 17th 2006 by DAVe

6. here's my gripe: if we're gonna have to use a menu to select "spell," then draw the rune, then select in a menu which enemy/ally on which to cast the spell... that would be totally ridiculous.
i bought Lunar DS on the day it was released and i was absolutely stunned at how shitty it was/is. the way *i* wanted it could've been so much simpler: why can't we just draw on the enemy or ally we wish to be effected by the spell? cant i just "slash" over an enemy for "attack"? or draw a little rune over an enemy for a particular spell?
if lost magic is laid out *this* way, i will be REALLY REALLY HAPPY. someone confirm this please :P

Posted at 5:44PM on Apr 17th 2006 by tactics

7. This system of spells will work for some, and for others (like me) it'll take a lot of getting used to.

My only complaint about this game is that it has a time limit on almost all levels. I have had bad expieriences with time limits.

Posted at 6:10PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Marc

8. Yes the actual drawing of the runes is part of the gameplay. The more accurate the rune drawning the more powerfull the spell. So penmanship counts.

Posted at 6:15PM on Apr 17th 2006 by idioteraser

9. Ok, again, some clarification. You press and hold L and it brings up the semi transparent screen to cast a spell. You can see whats happening while your casting the spell. Drawing the spell takes only a second to do, and its ok if you forget what spell because it shows all the runes on the top screen. When you let go of L, the spell screen goes away and you select which enemy you want to attack. There arent any actual menus you go to. The battle system works great, so dont worry people.

Posted at 6:27PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Alucardd

10. Kudos to Alucardd!! That bit of information is something I actually have not come across up to now! I have all the confidence in the world that Lost Magic is going to be an excellent game, with satisfyingly lengthy gameplay. The 350 spells will come to you in time, and you will not notice how easy it will be to cast them! The method is a reminiscence of Opera browser mouse gesture and Black and White creature command. I wish there are more games like this in the market. However well the Big N is in developing games, I'm a bit tired of watching moustachy plumbers and the gangs always running the show. Go Lost Magic!!

Posted at 7:40PM on Apr 17th 2006 by riviera

11. umm hello..... does anyone remember casting spells in Black and White? now if thats not a pain in the A** then I don't know what is. Granted that was a mouse and this is a touch screen, so I'll give it a shot

Posted at 10:11PM on Apr 17th 2006 by Nik

12. after watching enough fullmetal alchemist, drawing spells looks like fun. and this is a spells drawing strategy game, so a menu really wouldn't work. and i suppose from the developer's view, if you wanted a non-touch enabled strategy game, any other system would have been fine.

Posted at 2:22AM on Apr 18th 2006 by jadenguy

13. I actually think that's great.
You can have access to all your spells at anytime, as opposed to oblivion, or so many others where you have to map a limited number of spells to a limited number of buttons.

Posted at 4:13AM on Apr 18th 2006 by fielin

14. Not enough info. What if you can only 'carry' or 'memorize' 6 spells at once? You would obviously forget weak heal spells as better ones came available. So I fail to see the problem...

Posted at 10:48AM on Apr 18th 2006 by Squints

15. You guys should check out ign.com for some screenshots and gameplay, or gameinformer.com for first impressions.

There are 18 Rune Spells. 3 spells for each of the 6 elements of fire, water, earth, wind, light, dark. When you get the ability you will then be able to combine those 18 runes in combination or double runes. So like Fire plus Earth might make a fire wall. Then after that you get the ability for triple rune spells. So basically when you get the Rune spell (the symbol you draw) You unlock a whole different combinations.

Well thats just the beginning of what i heard. The only problems i heard about gameplay is moving your units and the challenging time limits.

Posted at 1:09PM on Apr 18th 2006 by RexZero

16. I think the rune system sounds cool. It sounds like a real challenge, and creative way to add something new to the tired old menu based system.

Even better would have been to use something like Chinese characters instead of Runes. That would have added an educational aspect to the game, and it would have been a great way to help me learn another language.

Posted at 2:04AM on Apr 19th 2006 by Archestratus

17. moving units can't be harder than any regular rts.

Posted at 2:10AM on Apr 19th 2006 by jadenguy

18. Drawing a rune isn't fun in CASTLEVANIA (don't you love fumbling with the stylus to draw some stupid symbol when 99.9% of the rest of the game uses standard controls?), and it's not looking fun, here. Another forced-stylus gimmick, probably coerced on the dev by Nintendo, wanting more 'games that use the stylus in an innovative way'.

Selecting units? Sure. Good use. Tapping to drag and drop items as an option over d-pad navigation? Also good. Forcing you to draw out runes to do staple functions in the game? BAD.

Damn. I was really getting interested in this - looks like a solid interface, UI and design, too. :(

Posted at 10:02PM on Apr 19th 2006 by pixelator

19. I've played this game, and besides the hard difficulty level, the combat system is a ton of fun. Comboing rune spells one after the other is a piece of cake.

Posted at 10:05AM on Apr 21st 2006 by Matt

20. I bought this game yesterday, and cannot put it down, the combat is indeed much fun and the story is deep as well, however it does have a big challenge at times. I would say and anywhere from an 8 to 9 out of 10 is appropriate.

Posted at 5:23PM on Apr 30th 2006 by Keith Wangler