E3: Lufia III officially switched to Game Boy Color

[05.17.99] » Never Land's Lufia III project has been officially diverted to the Game Boy Color, and renamed as Lufia: Ruins Chaser. First info on the new title, and a likely PSX2 Lufia sequel.

   Visitors to Natsume's booth at E3 were surprised to find the next title in the Lufia series listed as a Game Boy Color title on the last page of the company's promotional booklet. Lufia III, originally announced at the Tokyo Game Show last year as an RPG in the works for the Sony PlayStation, was confirmed to have resumed development several months ago by the GIA after numerous financial setbacks rocked the project. Could the listing simply be in error, or was the news of a platform jump true?

   Much to the dismay of many Lufia fans, the booklet is indeed correct. We sat down and spoke with Natsume president Yasuhiro Maekawa and operations manager Graham Renn to discuss the company's E3 lineup. According to Natsume, the decision for the platform change was made shortly after the next generation PlayStation announcement by Sony. "Lufia was in the early stages of development," Renn remarked, "pretty much so that once they announced the PlayStation 2, we started looking at the PlayStation 2 [for development.] I can't say that we're going to do a title, but we're definitely looking into the development on the PlayStation 2. But we didn't want the consumer to wait, so [Lufia III] will be put onto the Game Boy." The company believes that the story of the next game in the series can be narrated and executed just as effectively on the portable system. The Roman-numeral "III" has also been dropped from the game's full title, making it "Lufia: Ruins Chaser." Maekawa explained that although no decision has yet been made, the company would like to leave the "III" appendix open for a future title in the Lufia series -- likely on the PlayStation 2.

   Apart from the jump to a portable system, Natsume insisits no major changes are being made within the project. As can be seen in the updated artwork below, changes are not being made to the characters, or storyline. (Older pencil sketches are available here.) Natsume also assures RPG fans that many of the same designers, programmers, and artists from the past two Lufia titles remain behind the project -- even Yukio Nakajima, who created a demo composition which played at this year's E3, will create tunes for the next Lufia, albeit on the Game Boy's limited 8 bit sound system.

   Natsume offered a few new details concerning Lufia: Ruins Chaser. The game's battle system will remain similar to previous titles, with allied characters aligned along the screen's bottom, and enemies at the top. Multiple weapons, spells, and artifacts must be used wisely within the course of the game. Also, fans of the previous Lufia titles are no doubt familiar with the challenging (read: insane) puzzles which must be solved within dungeons and towers -- like them or not, a slew of devilishly difficult dilemmas are in the works for the next title. There was even a promotional movie of the game on display at the show filled with artwork, but the project still remains in early stages of development -- no actual gameplay footage was seen.

   Further details on Lufia: Ruins Chaser's storyline are available in our detailed preview. Natsume expects the next title in the Lufian saga to arrive sometime this winter.