Lost Kingdoms

A real-time action RPG adventure.

RPGs were a genre that the N64 didn’t get many games in, at least outside of Japan. So it was promising that the GameCube got one fairly early in its life, from a developer that is far more popular these days: FromSoftware, who make games that I personally don’t like.

Lost Kingdoms is an RPG where you take control of Princess Katia, whose kingdom is being invaded by a mysterious fog, which brings monsters with it. She needs to use a runestone, which lets her use cards to perform attacks and summon creatures, to find the king and save her kingdom.

Lost Kingdoms uses a tilted camera, which is kind of like an isometric game in full 3D. There’s no ceiling to the environment, and levels take place in a kind of a “void”, which gives it a unique and rather pleasant look, as you can see a lot but it’s never too busy. Overall, it looks really nice, especially with the surprisingly detailed graphics.

One thing I did hate was the camera, which moves 90 degrees with every push of the C-stick, which felt awkward as you were always walking at an angle. Thankfully, there is an action replay code that gives you a full analogue camera. There’s also an additional one that changes it to a “flat camera” rather than an isometric one, but that didn’t fit the style of the game.

When a battle starts, which can be random in some areas or specific battles in others, the game has a cool transition to a small arena. This isn’t unrelated to the area you’re in like many RPGs, though, but a cut out of the actual part of the level you’re on, which looks absolutely wonderful.

The card-based battles take place in real time, with crystals used to pay for cards. You can only have a small amount of times, so will have to rush around the battlefield picking more up as you hit enemies.

There are three main types of cards. Summon card will spawn the creatures to fight alongside you, attack cards are a (usually) quick attack form Katia, while monster cards will transform Katia into that monster to perform a single action – either an attack or recharging health or cards.

Learning how each card functions is extremely important, as they all attack in unique ways, and you’ll need to position yourself correctly to use it. Thankfully, the card designs are very easy to remember and it isn’t as taxing as you might imagine to learn it all.

Staying alive isn’t the game’s main challenge, as you can learn how to avoid enemy attacks and you can’t be damaged while casting a card. The bigger challenge is using your deck well, as you can only take 30 cards with you into levels, and they have to last though multiple battles. There are a few ways to manage this, though.

In an individual battle, you can discard a card if the ones in your hand aren’t suitable. You can’t use the card again in the current fight, but it will come back in other battles in the same level. Cards you find within a level can also be added to your deck at recharge points. Some cards, like the expensive to cast Mind Flayer (if you don’t have enough crystals, you can sacrifice health to use card), can bring back spent cards.

Levelling up is also interesting, you gain more power as you discover the additional runestones throughout the story, but the individual cards you use gain experience as you use them, eventually letting you transform them into new forms, or letting you duplicate them instead. It’s a very deep system, but also easy to understand.

Lost Kingdom is fairly short (although there are side quests you can do, especially if you want to find all the cards), with a fairly predictable story told in some simple cutscenes and text. However, the overall style of the game, and the combat itself, make this a rather wonderful experience.

Great

Anyone familiar with the depth and brilliance of Magic: The Gathering will be right at home with Lost Kingdoms. Each cars is also classified as an elemental type – either Earth, Water, Wood of Fire. As tradition dictates, water-based creatures will be more powerful against fire-based ones, and so on. As more cards are collected, the combination of attacks and strategies becomes mind-boggling.

Mark Walbank, NGC Magazine #70

Remake or remaster?

A remaster of both games would be great. A better camera (like the action replay code provides) and a faster walk speed outside of combat would be welcome changes to the first game.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Lost Kingdoms.

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

FromSoftware gamecube RPG