| Lux-Pain review (Nintendo DS/DSi) |
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| Written by Edwin Hernandez | |
| Tuesday, 21 April 2009 | |
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Lux Pain Pros: Cons: Neutral: Rating: Summary:
When I first started playing Lux-Pain I had no idea what to expect. Especially with the fact that not only did I not know what the game was about, but the user manual described it as a “Youth Fantasy Action Adventure”. I was just as lost as you are now. Lux-Pain puts you in the shoes of Atsuki Saijo, paranormal investigator extraordinaire who works for an organization called FORT. What they do is track and contain infestations of SILENT, a mental parasite that results in violence and widespread suicides. The SILENT pretty much possess people and try to spread themselves as well as misery and despair. The game opens as Atsuki is trying to find a SILENT host who has been infecting people in China. The trail has led him back to Kisaragi City, where officials have also discovered a mass suicide at an apartment building. Later on, you find out that emails were sent from the scene of the suicides to a local high school. From then on out, it is your job to infiltrate the high school as a transfer student and figure out what the link is between the suicides, the incident in China and the school itself.
Gameplay The strange thing about the gameplay in Lux-Pain is that there isn’t really much game play to speak of. Just as I said before it amounts to an interactive book. Most of the game is spent simply talking to other students which just requires you to touch a point on a map and then engage in conversation. Also, you can check a message board (but not post to it) or get a your palm read. While some conversations are engaging and interesting, some amount to going to eat a hamburger…and that’s it. In fact, there’s a load of situations similar to that one. Some gamers out there might like the “atmosphere” that this creates, however this might get tiring. There were numerous times when I needed to talk to several characters about petty, insignificant things before I could advance to a conversation that actually moved the story along. For a DS game Lux-Pain does a solid job in terms of its presentation. The characters are good quality anime drawings that aren’t fully animated but almost slide-show like in movement. This along with the fact that you only get voice-overs about two-thirds of the time are probably due to DS space limitations. The voice-overs however are very good and really add to what would have been suicide inducing game-play if it was all text boxes. Menus are well drawn and you are provide with maps and a cellphone. The cellphone allows you to do things such as contact HQ and read text messages, which are boring white-text-on-blue-screen affairs. The backgrounds are, like the characters, in the anime style and provide a good backdrop to the story even if they are simply static images. Whether you love or hate Lux-Pain really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a game with interesting gameplay AND a great story, then you’re out of luck. If you’re looking for a good book, then the game should be perfect for you. It can break the monotony of those pesky stacks of paper known as books and breathe life into what would otherwise be a night of you reading mystery novels. If Ignition ever decides to add a sequel in a few years or so, they should either make it a graphic novel or add some real gameplay. Unfortunately, to call Lux-Pain a game is completely missing the mark. 
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