Lunar Knights (Boktai 3 DS) Review

Lunar Knights Trailer

Lunar Knights is the third game in the Boktai series, where you'll once again harness sunlight to drive back hordes of vampires and monsters. This time around, though, you are put in control of two characters: Aaron, who can harness the powers of the sun with his Solar Gun, and Lucian, who is aligned with the moon, and uses darkness for powerful melee attacks. You switch between them, and use their unique abilities to battle enemies in a real-time battle system.

Story: 8/10
Vampires have enslaved the world, and blocked out their only weakness, the sun, with an infernal device called the ParaSOL. As the two protagonists, Aaron and Lucian, you hunt down each one, liberating cities from vampiric rule, and stopping a sinister plot that threatens to end all life on Earth. The story is pretty strong, and will keep you captivated.

Sound: 8/10
The music in this game is very good for a DS game. It ranges from jazzy, badass, and creepy, and the opening theme is one of my favorite tunes from a video game. (See the opening trailer)

Laplace Theme Song

Graphics: 9/10
The game itself is pretty good, with pretty good graphics, especially when you're piloting the Casket Rocket. The visuals of the sky on the top screen are beautiful, the Burst Attacks look great, and the sprites are well-designed. What will really blow you away, though, are the fully voiced, well-animated, anime-style cutscenes.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is the strongest part of the game, in my opinion. You switch between control of Lucian and Aaron in real-time combat. But you can't just rush in and own everything, it's a lot more complicated than that. You need light to empower your weapons. But there's yet another catch. Aaron's guns run on sunlight, and Lucian's dark sword is fueled by moonlight. The time of day, climate, and whether you're indoors or not, all play a part in how much energy you can harness. If you plug in the solar sensors from Boktai 1 or 2, you can get energy from the real sun, to give yourself an extra boost.

Anyway, this constitutes a large element of planning and preparation before you go into the next level, which I find to add an extra challenge.

Anyway, the gamplay itself is very exciting. It's all real-time combat, meaning you have to hack and shoot your way through hordes of enemies. On higher difficulties, though, you have to be more strategic. You can blow into the microphone to whistle, which lets you distract foes to either sneak past, or ambush them. The bosses are pretty fair on the first playthrough, but they become a lot stronger and smarter on higher difficulty levels, which can be very challenging.

Another part of the gameplay is the Casket Rocket. Whenever you defeat a vampire, they aren't really dead. You have to load them into your rocket, and fly out past the ParaSOL to obliterate them with true sunlight. You use the stylus to drag your ship past obstacles, and tap enemies to shoot them down. There are some pretty good bosses to be fought in the Casket Rocket, too.

There is also a large element of strategy, too. Certain items of equipment can gain special attributes depending on the weather, so manipulating the ParaSOL to change the climate presents an interesting challenge. Add to that elemental strengths and weaknesses for every enemy and boss, a stealth system, multiple secret upgradeable weapons, and you've got yourself a very addictive game.

Replayability: 10/10
While the story is fairly short, the game makes up for it in sheer replayability. There are a few secret dungeons, and plenty of quests to keep you entertained. You also have the option of getting all the secret weapons, and upgrading them to their max potential by collecting materials from fallen enemies. There are also lots of achievements and titles to get, by doing various things, like collecting all the items, killing one of every monster, etc. After you beat the game, you unlock Hard mode, and after that, you get Nightmare Mode. Also after your first playthrough, you gain access to Casket Rocket challenges, and are faced with an optional giant 100-floor tower filled to the brim with monsters itching to rip your head off.

Multiplayer: 5/10
The game falls a little bit short here. The multiplayer is a deathmatch, which is pretty awesome, but you're confined to only your basic weapons, which is very restrictive.

Final Verdict

Buy this game! It's one of my favorite games for the DS, and I'm absolutely addicted to it.

By the way, this game is #21 in Gamepro's top list of DS games.