Lucienne's Quest

Sega exclusive

A legendary story from unknown worlds beyond our time. The adventures of little sorceress Lucienne is a tale in the making...your own making. Work with Lucienne and her friends to defeat Death Shadow. Their fate is in your hands...Let the adventure begin...

Also known as: Sword and Sorcery
Released: 1995
Platforms: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Sega Saturn 3DO
Genres: Role-playing
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Fantasy Comedy
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: Japanese

About

Lucienne's Quest is a role-playing video game developed by Microcabin for the 3DO, and is the sole traditional Japanese role-playing game released for the system. The story follows Lucienne, a teenage girl who sets off on an adventure to find a cure for a man's lycanthropy. Between adventuring from town to town and exploring the world, the player must battle with enemies using a turn-based battle system on an isometric grid.

Lucienne's Quest was first released in Japan in 1995 before being localized for a North American release the following year along with a Sega Saturn port in Japan. Critics gave mixed reviews. Some appreciated the game's light-hearted story, simple game mechanics, and short length, but many found the experience unfulfilling compared to the deeper and more complex RPGs of the time. Lucienne's Quest is considered one of the best 3DO games in retrospect, and the North American release has become an expensive collector's item.

Keywords

anime

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Lucienne's Quest is a standard Japanese role-playing game. The player controls the main character Lucienne as she adventures from town to town with others to find a cure for Ago, a man cursed as a werewolf. The game has a day/night cycle, which affects when Ago is in human or wolf form, changing his strength in battle. At each town, Lucienne can take on quests to help the town's citizens, buy new equipment, and explore dungeons.

Every few towns, the player gains a new party member and the plot thickens. When exploring towns and dungeons, the player can destroy objects in the environment to clear paths and get items.

Development

Lucienne's Quest was developed by Microcabin for the 3DO. a. a. Blazing Heroes).

It was released on 14 September 1995 in Japan, and later localized by Panasonic for a March 1996 release in North America. The Japanese version requires the kanji buffer RAM only found in Japanese 3DO systems, making it one of the few games that cannot be played on systems from other regions. The game was ported to the Sega Saturn with changes to the graphics, controls, and camera, and released on 31 May 1996 exclusively in Japan.

Reception

Lucienne's Quest garnered mixed reviews. Critics found the story not as substantial and fulfilling compared to other RPGs, commenting that it resembled a series of sidequests which the characters had no compelling reason to undertake. The game's writing and dialogue was criticized for its lengthiness and juvenile humor, with a Next Generation critic describing it as "the literary equivalent of having a conversation with a hyperactive 10-year-old." Ryan Lockheart writing in GameFan felt that the light-hearted story lent itself positively to the game's charm, and was overall much more receptive of Lucienne's Quest.

He blamed the poor dialogue on the localization effort, saying that Lucienne was more arrogant and mischievous in the original Japanese version, while the English version characterizes her as absent-minded and stupid. Regarding the game's simplicity, critics also considered it excessively short, with most saying they were able to complete it in slightly less than ten hours. Lockheart explained that Lucienne's Quest does have a considerable amount of content, and the short length is due to the game being balanced such that the player does not need to spend any time on grinding.