Lux Pain Preview [DS]

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Posted March 7, 2009 by KPabst in Features.

 

There are few kinds of games on the DS; mini-game collections, ports, original games, and what are essentially digital novels. Lux Pain fits best between original games and digital novels, although there is nothing wrong with this. Last year’s Hotel Dusk was both praised for its magnificent storytelling and interesting characters, yet lauded for its minimal and dated gameplay.  Lux Pain follows suit, putting you in the role of Atuski, who’s trying and solve the mystery of the Silent, and the death of his parents. The game puts more focus on the story than the gameplay.

If you were wondering, the Silent are worms made from the hate and sadness of the people of the world, something like the pink ooze in Ghostbusters II, but much more menacing. To combat the Silent, Atuski has an operation to have the mysterious Lux Pain implanted in his left arm to aid him in his vengeance, making his right eye glow a golden color when in use.

The game looks to have much in common with traditional Japanese ‘dating simulations’, without the dating aspect. There are dozens of characters scattered throughout the game to help solve the mystery and interact with. You’ll use the power of the Lux Pain to save different characters from the threat of the Silent’s infection, and conduct autopsies of dead Silent to find clues. There are a few anime sequences throughout the game which probably are used to extrapolate on more detailed plot points, and will hopefully add some breaks between the text heavy remainder of the game.

Something I’m looking forward to is exploring Kisaragi City to meet, interact with, and learn all there is to know about the different characters. If there is one thing that Japanese developers know how to do amazingly well it’s creating interesting and humanized characters. We’ll see how they hold up, but at the least the character designs for the characters I’ve seen so far are interesting and varied from one another and are a cut above stock anime characters.

Tagged as Ignition, Japanese, Killaware, Lux Pain