Lunar Knights
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| Lunar Knights (Working Title) | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Kojima Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) | Q2 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
Lunar Knights: Vampire Hunters (also known as Bokura no Taiyou: Django and Sabata in Japan) is the first title in a brand new series of games developed by Kojima Productions, announced at E3 2006. However, even though Kojima appears to be erasing many Boktai references in the English version (mainly in the form of changing character names), it can be considered the spiritual successor to the Boktai series.
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[edit] Overview
Your ultimate goal in Lunar Knights is to destroy a number of boss vampire enemies, known as Immortals. The boss on display at E3 was a fire-oriented vampiric centaur (Margrave Rymer), that dashed around the arena in which we fought him, leaving fire in his wake. After the boss enemies are defeated, you'll get into a Casket Rocket and attempt to purify them with the intense solar radiation in the stratosphere. The ship (Laplace) is controlled from a third person persective with a stylus.
The game revolves around two vampire hunters, Aaron (Django in Bokura no Taiyou DS) and Lucian (Sabata in Bokura no Taiyou DS). Lucian is a melee fighter, using a sword named Ankoku ken Vanargandr, a scythe named Ankoku gama Jormangandr, and a spear named Ankoku sou Hel. He's also imbued with the power of darkness, and can change into a vampire after he builds up a Trance (shortened to TRC in-game) meter by fusing with his Terrenial, Nero, which allows him to absorb life out of his foes, a mechanic that debuted in Boktai 2 as Black Django. Aaron is an apprentice sharpshooter, and uses a variety of ranged weapons to deal damage to his undead foes. Some of these include the Knight (uses a Charge Shot, similar to the Gun del Sol), the Ninja (dual-wielded machine guns), the Bomber (explodes in a radius shot), and the Witch (homing rockets). Unlike Lucian, Aaron has light powers, and can temporarily become an avatar of the sun when needed by fusing with his Terrenial, Toasty (known as Otenko in Japan), much like Sol Django in Boktai 3.
Terrenials are elementally-oriented pets that accompany you on your travels, with fire (Ursula), ice (Ezra), wind (Alexander in English, Otfried in Japan), earth (Tobe), and other elements represented, in addition to the solar (Toasty/Otenko) and dark (Nero) pets that are only available to the correctly aligned Hunter. When these terranials follow you around, you can use your TRC powers if you desire, but they'll also add their elemental attacks to your weapon strikes (Aaron cannot attack without a Terranial to aid him but Lucian can have a neutral damage attack from any one of his melee weapons), at the cost of some ENE (energy). If you strike an ice monster while your fire pet is following you around, you'll obviously deal extra damage, but if you hit him while your ice pet is following, you'll barely dent him.
Interestingly enough, all Immortals in this game have some form of an Exo-Armor type device, much like in Zoids or Gundam, but on a smaller scale.
Note about game setting: Lunar Knights producer Kensuke Yoshitomi confirmed in a 1UP interview (dated 9/23/06) that although both Boktai DS and Lunar Knights take place in the same world as Boktai, but at a different time period with fresh characters, it is still not a direct sequel to Boktai. He stated that the many Princess Zeldas and Links throughout the LoZ franchise are a good representation of this[1].
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] paraSOL
Hideo Kojima has announced that the player will be able to use the Game Boy Advance Boktai games' sun sensor to play Lunar Knights like the original Boktai games, officially dubbed "paraSOL." This option, according to the Lunar Knights producer, gives the player more of an advantage: paraSOL allows the player to store in extra sunlight by adding additional slots to the in-game solar sensor gauge. It also enables the player to play in sunlight regardless of the in-game world's weather.
[edit] Trance meter
The Trance meter is a fairly familiar gameplay mechanic: It's built up as you land blows on your enemies, like the Overdrive in Riviera: The Promised Land, as well as in the Final Fantasy series, or the fury meter in the Sword of Mana series. When it's full, you'll be able to use the powers of one of your pets to launch into an extra powerful attack that affects multiple enemies. The transformations mentioned above are two of these attacks, but some are more magical in orientation, and often revolve around interaction with the touch screen.
[edit] Burst attacks
- Fire: Draw small circles on the bottom screen. Pillars of fire will be sent to these locations.
- Ice: Blow into the microphone to freeze over enemies
- Cloud: Use the stylus pen to spin around a tornado
- Earth: Shake the bottom screen using the stylus to make rocks fall down
- Dark: Button input (B and Y buttons) will cause Lucian to attack everything in his reach (radius) or attack the closest/locked on enemy (He will draw blood like a vampire but not in a 1:1 ratio like Dark Django did before). Continuously pressing will allow Lucian to continue feeding.
- Sun: Button input (B and Y buttons) will cause Aaron to attack everything in his reach (radius) whilst creating a Solar Emblem on the ground or attack the closest/locked on enemy (with his feet). Continuously pressing will allow Aaron to keep combing the enemy.
[edit] Other Gameplay Features
- During rain storms, thunder will allow you to see otherwise invisible items.
- After rain, certain platforms will raise from heightened water levels.
- Blowing into your microphone allows you to glide across ledges in your hang glider.
- Whistling into the mic will draw attention to enemies.
[edit] In-game weather system
The game relies on an in-game weather system.
It has a thermometer, and measures water saturation and wind chill. The weather is generated from the game itself, not from the local outside environment. There are 5 types of known weather:
- Humid
- Arid
- Tropical
- Cold and moist
- Snowy/Rainy
[edit] References
- ^ [1], TGS Lunar Knights Preview, published September 23, 2006
