Lost Kingdoms

Nintendo exclusive

A dark mysterious force has taken over the five Kingdoms of Argwyll, and only one person can solve the mystery and save the world--you, as Princess Katia. Now you must travel through the kingdom and explore over two dozen unique 3D worlds filled with graveyards, forests, mountains, and fortresses. Interact with characters, uncover secret areas, and unravel the mystery of the evil forces. During your adventures, you can summon over 100 guardian creatures to help battle hordes of monsters. Make it a solo mission or go head-to-head with friends in two-player Versus mode.

Released: 25 April 2002
Platforms: GameCube
Genres: Adventure Card game Real-time tactics Role-playing
Developers: FromSoftware
Publishers: —
Series: Lost Kingdoms
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB T
Composers: Kota Hoshino

About

Lost Kingdoms is a 2002 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Activision. The game was released in Japan in April, in North America in May, and in Europe in August. Lost Kingdoms is a card-based action role-playing game where battles are fought in real-time. A sequel, Lost Kingdoms II, was released in 2003.

Keywords

magic
summoning support
female protagonist
undead
gods
boss fight
card based combat
werewolves
card collection
treasure chest
side quests
not-so-bad guys

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Lost Kingdoms is best known for its unique system of combat. Battles are played in real-time, where the player has to keep their character moving to avoid enemy attacks and plot tactical points to attack. Katia uses her cards for battle purposes only, as she cannot fight. Lost Kingdoms also has a multiplayer system in which two players can use their own decks to battle one another.

When compared to single-player, the multiplayer has various restrictions to make the fight fair. Healing and one-hit kills are forbidden. Since some cards have the ability to return used cards back to the deck, these types of cards are also prohibited.

Story

The story begins with a substance known in the game as black fog. This fog is known for consuming people, towns, and other signs of civilization or life, nothing ever to escape from within. In Lost Kingdoms, the fog invades the land of Argwyll, home of the main character Katia, who is also the princess of this kingdom. The fog has been terrorizing the land for a long time, and Katia's father - the king - eventually ventured out to help try and deal with the deadly substance. However, since her father hadn't returned in some time, Katia soon leaves to find him.

Before she leaves, however, she is granted access to the castle's runestone, a key item in this game. With the runestone, Katia is able to use special magic cards to battle for her against the monsters that have spawned inside the black fog. Using this runestone, Katia is granted to leave the castle in the hopes of saving the kingdom, as well as finding and possibly rescuing her father. Unfortunately for her, she later finds that monsters killed her father.

Reception

Lost Kingdoms received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Fran Mirabella III of IGN cited the game's smooth framerate, deck customization, and two player mode as pros, but cited repetitive music, stiff graphics, average gameplay, trial-and-error, and random battles as cons. Mike Bracken of RPGFan was more positive, calling it a solid game marred by lack of polish and short length. In his review he praised the gameplay as addictive and a highly polished and impressive mix of its influences, but tempered his review by noting the simplistic story, graphics, sound, and translation.

However, Chris Holoka of AllGame gave the game three stars out of five, calling it "A well-conceived concept suffering from a somewhat lackluster execution." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 33 out of 40.