16-Bit Gems - #22: Lufia II (SNES)

[@Zedekar9000]

Maaaan, I didnt know a game from that era had so many features... side quests, retry mode, 100 random generated dungeons, choosing other characters, evolving pets, charge attacks...

[@joseluki]

This was the last game sold for the SNES in spain. It was also translated to spanish, and for me, is the best JRPG for the console.

[@AwkwardAndInnocent]

Best RPG on the SNES imo. The ancient dungeon is still one of my favorite things ever implemented in an RPG

[@Gpalmer16]

I grew up with Lufia 1 and 2 as well as Uncharted Water and Act Raiser. Greatest games to this day I have ever played...

[@Madeen]

I probally completed Lufia 2 since the last 10 years about 20 times, no kidding. This game marked me as a child, and every year i HAVE to relive it for some reason. Everything about the characters, world, true rpg feeling, intense emotions, and MUSIC, My god, the music. I became a musitian with years and all i do in my spare time is replay those pieces of pure art over and over Thank you Lufia 2, thanks you so much

[@zephiel87]

I'm of the opinion that the first game should still be played first as it is meant to be. The beginning of Lufia is not spoilers for the second, but rather strengthen the impact of the Lufia 2 character development. You just know how it's going to end up, but you still tag along in their struggle. When you finally get to see Doom isle rise, you get goosebumps and when "The Last Battle" cue in, you are emotionally devastated yet you press on to close the loop and have Maxim meet with his destiny. It's an amazing storytelling twist that shouldn't be overlooked due to the second game being a prequel.

[@Jay6x]

This is still one of my favorite JRPGs, and I've played a lot... though I just started the Dragon Quest series recently, and I've made it to DQ5. I'm loving the hell out of it!

[@SfaizstsMeinung]

I can't count how many times I played this game.... as a younger guy I started with Lufia III on the Gameboy Color... played it often like nearly no other game... Some years later I played Lufia II (and later Lufia I) with a Snes emulator on my pc... and now I got a snes and lufia II for a fair price on ebay and oh god I can't stop playing it xD It's one of my most loved and played games ever

[@torgogorgo1888]

Laughed out loud at the "soap box" bit. I wish this series would come back.

[@redpandacoding]

I can't tell you how much my brother played the game. I recognize every tune and every enemy of this game, even though I never played it myself - my brother still plays it on repeat today, but fortunately he's not living with me any more. Good game, however, and good review!

[@widdowson91]

My console of choice when it comes to RPGs is the SNES. The PlayStation was an amazing system for RPGs too, and it had a larger selection than the SNES (thanks to the overwhelming success of Final Fantasy VII and the boom in the genre it caused), but the SNES had significantly better RPGs. I adore games like Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, Suikoden II, Wild Arms and Star Ocean: The Second Story, but they just fall short of titles like Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Terranigma, Super Mario RPG and EarthBound. Both systems are excellent though. The PS2 definitely deserves a shout out as well. Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII and Persona 4 kick ass.

[@pilotamurorei]

DQ8 was awful. Blah, that game sucked so hard it gave Laqueefa on the corner a run for her money.

[@YoungBideo]

Man I wish this dude was still making videos. Mostly hoping he's doing well.

[@MysticMage255]

You sound almost identical to Alton Brown. Love these videos!! Lufia 2's music is phenomenal.

[@Jygerthe2nd]

Easily one of my all-time favourite games for the SNES. I am so glad one of you guys gave this a look.

[@Erkki_Mela]

I didn't get sick of it, I just started looking deeper, and luckily found this series. I too am very impressed with your work. Also, your comedy is excellent. Keep it up!

[@Goldnfoxx]

I know this is a 10yo video now, but I wanted to comment anyway. There are four RPG-related games that I reference when people ask me for recommendations that don't get brought up all the time: Crystalis, Soul Blazer (which I see you've also got a video for and will be watching right after this!), Sword of Vermillion, and this. It was the dungeon puzzles in this game that really sold it for me the first time I rented it from the local video store. I remember being REALLY hung up on one of them for several hours, and when I finally figured it out it was the kind of feeling I don't get from games a lot anymore. Kinda miss those days, kinda don't. Current evolution of RPGs has left me really not wanting to play them anymore, but the simplicity of these games in the old days is something for which I think I still long.

[@Marc_Araujo]

Sword of Vermilion and Shining in the Darkness were two of my favs growing up...both are underrated gems in my opinion.

[@SirenoftheVoid]

so Lufia 2 was originally meant to be a PC game?well what do you know! interesting.no Lufia 2 review is complete without mention of the Ancient Cave.Lufia 2 is essentially 2 games wrapped into one,as the Ancient Cave is so big it's practically an entire game on its own.it's quite impressive and a lot of fun to play.i think the IP attack system is what sets this game apart from the rest,along with its puzzles.i'm really happy to have played this game back when it was released! a must-have

[@gullpayne]

Never get tired of watching these

[@Batsonoutdoordesigns]

Lufia 2 to this day is still my favorite RPG of all time

[@DemitriosX]

It's December 2024 and I still miss this guy and his work.

[@Pendoza84]

I played it when I was 12 (35 now) and started it again last week on the same SNES as back then. Wonderful game.

[@YoshMaster]

My favorite game of all-time! I've cried so much at the ending and the song still to this day make me cry.

[@atate101]

I actually subscribed to this channel a year ago because you showed Xenogears in this video (my favorite game of all time). Turns out you introduced me to a few more incredible rpgs, such as this one. Keep up the great work!

[@mikepic]

I'm a huge fan of "J"RPG games from the 90s, not sure how this gem escaped me. I tried the DS version first and found it to be a bit clunky (thinking it would be the more improved version), but I'm falling in love with the SNES version. Glad I watched this video or else I probably never would have given it a shot. Ty

[@MysticMike]

While Lufia 2 is before Lufia 1, i still recommend going in release order. Surprises in the first game are pretty much casual reveals in the second. So playing the second one first then going to the first loses many surprises

[@THEGREATMAX]

You lose the entire ending to the superior game by doing it your way

[@rontwg]

Gray wolf, your videos are great and so informative. I'm definitely going to look through your videos for reviews of other old school games I loved.

[@vaendryl]

like he mentioned in the video, the golden sun games are an excellent example of rpg with puzzles, though lufia 2 still reigns supreme in my book. for games with randomized dungeons google around for 'roguelike'. lufia 3 (game boy) is strictly random dungeons, but not a very good game. lufia 4 also has a 'ancient cave' , as does the DS remake. the DS remake of lufia 2 also features some pretty good puzzles, btw.

[@DekarNL]

You give me goosebumps showing this. I problably played this game over 20 times :D I still use Dekar as an avatar name in games.

[@SDekar]

Elroy Kerstens hahaha ;)

[@menswear2112]

Very good work. You have a nice sense of humor and comedy, which is always a plus. Pertinent comments makes this a success. Kudos!

[@bamskates218]

These videos are really well done! You should definitely make more 16-bit gems videos!

[@SuperScootz]

Lufia 2 impressed me at some parts in the game and disappointed me in others, but overall, imo, it was a very strong effort. It may not be as legendary as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy, but it kicked ass. I personally LOVED the music. Very catchy but at appropriate times touching. The ending was one of the most bitter sweet I experienced at the time and like really, I was close to shedding some tears due to the incredible and kind of sad/romantic music playing in the background. Awesome game.

[@Yuriofwind]

Fantastic review!

[@LightFykki]

This game is truly a hidden gem. I have heard about it before, but never actually played it. Thanks to your videos I can now clearly see what piece of history I missed, so that I can finally look forward of going back and trying to fix it.

[@Girfred123]

This game is a masterpiece. Thanks for the care of reviewing it :)

[@olemanshavadoo7893]

holy shit the break with They Might be Giants cracked me up. that's one of my favorite songs from them

[@OlDirtyChinesRestaurant]

Really enjoy this series. Wish new ones could come out. 😓

[@Zeppelin211]

Your videos are so interesting and it shows that you put time into them.

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

a lot of this game's charm reminds me why I love Golden Sun so damn much~

[@pendragnx]

hello 7-year-old video.. you're still excellent to re-watch

[@cravis123]

One of the best 16 bit RPG ever made! I love this game, beautiful touching story, great gameplay, superb soundtrack! I recommend it! Very clever puzzle but sometimes, too hard, almost in a sadistic way! Truly a gem!

[@aragorn100000]

the weird thing with the review of this channel is that a lot of the review is not even about the game who he is supposed to be talking about. And that's great imo :)

[@badazzboxer]

Wow, the only real review of this game, and there isn't one for the first Lufia. Damn, people are missing out! Have both of these fully complete, and in very nice conditions!

[@SageOwl]

0:58 All of my favorite 16 bit SNES RPGs on one screen.

[@AmonKhan438]

It's too bad Lufia 1 is so overlooked. As a kid I nearly wept at the very ending.

[@killiandw]

Me too dude. But I was a teen by that point. it was a good story

[@raphaelseltzman7914]

I'm gonna check it when I finish II

[@nighthoodlupin3500]

Lufia 3 as well. I mean, 'The Legend Returns' (AKA Really Lufia 3). Once you get used to the scale-down going from SNES to GB and a lot of missing Lufia 2 things and the more lighthearted dialogue/story and the unique but ultimately rewarding battle system (ok I admit thats a lot of things to get used to), it should be seen as probably the greatest GB RPG ever, and probably still one of the greatest handheld-exclusive RPG ever. The wave system is honestly brilliant once you get used to it. The music is some of the best GB music ever too. The problem with Lufia 1 is, even though i believe it has a better story than Lufia 2, Lufia 2 is the famous one because of its gameplay and people only recommend it or tell ppl to play it first, which makes it harder to play or even notice Lufia 1... Now I'm thinking the order should be Lufia 3, 1, then 2... lol

[@Kohdok]

I've Played "The Legend Returns". It's the only Lufia game I've played, but it was pretty fun, despite how many people unfold out of your pockets during cutscenes.

[@thefakepsychic]

The They Might Be Giants cut literally made me laugh out loud. Well played. (TMBG is my favorite band, for the record.)

[@Jinzo126]

Lufia 2, one of the first RPG have played

[@OzymandiasWasRight]

The Fortress of Doom poster stayed on my wall longer than any other poster of my childhood. I never finished the game, mostly Im just commenting on every video in this series in a futile attempt to will Roo back to KZbin, but it was definitely one badass poster.

[@K0DeX]

The soapbox gag had me laughing so hard I spat coffee all over my monitor. Very subtle, yet VERY clever! xD I actually can't wait to try Lufia, as it never popped up at any point in my childhood, although that could be because I'm in the UK. Thanks for the heads-up on the sequel-prequel thing, too! I'll be playing Lufia II first!

[@beyondthegrave2005]

Finally~~~~~~ I was waiting for someone to mention Lufia.

[@JesseRay89]

My first memory of this game was watching a friend playing around with a pen and paper trying to solve a dungeon puzzle for a Dragon Egg. I managed to solve it for him, the one where you put a block in the door to stop it closing. Ended up buying the game off him a year later and still have it. I can only assume my SNES, controllers and games must be worth something like 400 dollars these days.

[@looshkin66]

i can appreciate that. I bought a nes and snes controllers to use on an emulator and felt fine doing so.....i am 33 years old and have given PLENTY of hard earned cash over to Nintendo over the years. I play onward without guilt.

[@hundredpercentjuice]

That El Cid joke is fantastic.

[@Happytreefriendsfan3]

love your reviews man,keep them coming :D

[@gerardow92]

dude, I just discovered your chanel thanks to vsauce. I saw some great videos you made :P but omg.. then I saw you made a video of my favourite game.. subscribed!! keep this up :)

[@TrueBanditKing]

Lufia 2 is one of the best games for the SNES.

[@prolitify]

man I used to go over to my buddy's place and play this game all the time I was fully obsessed with it!

[@badazzboxer]

So damn underrated!!!!!!!! Play this today!!!

[@danielsolthe]

Those D&D 4e books on the shelf. I always knew Roo was a man of culture and taste.

[@Zylo82]

14:10 X'D If you dont understand or get the joke. the correction is that the picture is Agumon from Digimon and Blue Eyes White Dragon is a Yugioh monster card. there not Pokemon.

[@canag0d]

I really like your reviews. Keep up the good work.

[@GamePowMasters]

Great video! That soap box scene was awsome!

[@Cubeface]

Nice! I love this game so much :D Good video man, you're hilarious!

[@Rakiarmas]

I have to try this. I have this in rom format (because Snes is dead & burried here in Finland) , but havn't played it yet. I love old classic JRPGs. They are such a fun games in overall & there's so many good ones on the world. I love them so much that I even dream about creating my own card/board game with this style. I even done some fanart in inspired by these games. Thanks for doing this video. It was great & made me aware of Lufia series.

[@Nyquil_SR]

16 bit gems is fantastic. Love this series.

[@aziztarghibakkali9596]

lufia 2 and secret of mana best rpgs on the snes in my opinion

[@olemanshavadoo7893]

something to note about the version on the DS...It's made bySquare....and they did a fantastic job

[@Xman80888]

The 90's in General was the golden age for JRPGs, both the SNES and PSOne have amazing Libraries of JRPGs, after the 90's Great JRPGs moved to handheld systems, the PSP, PS Vita, DS, and 3DS also have some great JRPGs as well and also have some decent ports as well.

[@saiyoucho]

Comparing the Lufia 2 graphics with Rpg Maker is an insult. And I never had any trouble finding story elements in the beginning of the game. Lufia 2 is also THE best Snes game ever made. The music in the game is at least a hundred times above any other music on the Snes.

[@ClanOfTheGrayWolf]

@berugaslabor Yeah, I felt bad a little saying how much the beginning story didn't really grab me, but I had to be honest. Things get much better about 1/3 of the way through the game. In fact, the ending is quite touching.

[@wormsblink2887]

You forgot to mention the worlds most difficult puzzle! That took me over an hour to solve ._.

[@RPGtourguide]

I did actually do that silly thing of playing the first Lufia game before the second. While I'd also say the best way to play the games is chronologically according to the story, I prefer the way the game plays in the second game. So it is a little hard to go from playing Lufia 2 to taking the step back to Lufia 1. But I guess that's the sacrifice to be made if you want to avoid spoilery goodness. :P

[@HolyAvgr]

Lufia2 has the best fucking dungeon ever.

[@tim2113buffam]

I love your PSA on the JRPG term. It's very well thought out and informative(no I'm not being sarcastic).

[@Atamoss]

I stop playing the first Lufia because there's TOO MUCH battle in dungeons, but now I think i'll give a try to Lufia 2, great review Roo !

[@KingofKeys2000]

another great review man. i envy your SNES collection. im working on mine right now. to bad it costs so much to get the good games

[@MasterEm243]

Thank you very much for the Gaming in the Clinton years reference. Very clever!

[@RavenAshe]

Fantastic video, sub'd. I remember the "Move x number of blocks to turn them all red" sent little kid me into fits of rage...oh the days before internet haha

[@Sheepy007]

Winter is the best time to play RPGs, the days are short and Nights are long and it's to cold or wet or dark to go outside and do something useful, instead stay in your cozy room and spend alot of time in some epic quests

[@jaygold33]

Nice review. Just picked this up for 50 at a local retro game store. Think it will be one of my favorite rpgs~

[@Ruudos]

You didn't pick Dekar to go into the Ancient Cave. Big mistake!

[@peruforza2]

I've played lufia 2 so far really great. One thing about the capsule monsters: figuring out what to feed them is a little easier just checking the item's name on a separte rectangle above the commands. Your video convinced me to get the game, really great video. On a side note: it's true the story is weak, though sometimes it definetely seems to improve even before that 1/3, but some NPC dialogue doesn't help too much though, or make any sense...

[@JohnGallagherSJC]

Hey Roo, excellent review as always!!

[@Grayheart]

I got to admit though I thought your humor was a little stale but when you got on your soap box you had me chuckling.

[@The_Scouts_Code]

Pretty good Video. One of the top 5 JRPG on Snes IMO. 1) Star Ocean 2) Tales of Phantasia 3) Final Fantasy 6 4) Lufia 2 5) Seiken Densetsu 3

[@Rakiarmas]

Nice video. One of my favorites. I really have to find some time to play this game. I love these old fantasy RPGs. One question though about evolution of those sidekick monsters: What kind of evolution we are talking about? Is is like "Get strong enought to evolve into form 2" or is it like "feed fruits to get form A or feed weapons instead to get form B".

[@Scrawny2864]

"In cyberspace everyone can hear you scream." That's a great line!

[@SquarishLink]

I am highly impressed by the level of depth in your reviews. Please don't stop, there will be a time when avgn's fanboys will be sick of the 2-dimensional lets get angry at everything reviewing style. I find this approach to be quite informative and entertaining.

[@kiyoaki1985]

This was the only SNES game that was ever translated into Dutch (for whatever reason). It came in a big box with a strategy guide and a poorly drawn comic book. It was almost a perfect game and with the AC I probably spent more time on it than I did with Link to the Past, but what it needed were more memorable characters. They all had personalities, but none were particularly pronounced.

[@LadyTink]

I rofl'd at you saying "Blue eyes white dragon" is your "favorite kind of pokemon" while showing a digimon on the screen XD

[@DarkRubius]

this is my favorite RPG of my childhood. It sits there with FFVI, ah good times.

[@vaendryl]

'games like earthbound and chrono trigger really pushing the envelope' excuse me, earthbound came out only 6 months before, and chrono trigger quite a bit after this game.

[@lawrenceb4954]

I always get a kick out of saying a game is hard to find. I have emulators for the, NES, SNES, TG-16, and Sega with every game ever released in the states for said systems. I also made sure to back all of that up in many locations, so that it is never lost. I'm not purest, and am perfectly happy playing these classics (some less than others) through a emulator. I also don't feel bad in the least about not paying for decades old games, many of which no longer offer convenient methods of purchase. Hell, 90% of the ones I want to play I owned at one point or another anyway.

[@rowbot5]

i wish i still had my guide box and other stuff of lufia 2 but it was released when i was 2 so it was damaged but still got my snes with a copy of lufia 2 great comentary keep it up :)

[@Time4rpgs]

Your videos are amazingly informative, and I'm sure others love it besides me. But you really need to add subtitles. Especially since it's so much info. Just do the research. It's a damn good audience you're missing :)

[@Time4rpgs]

oops forgot to say if your future videos already have subtitles then my bad :)

[@Saxonation]

@BrokenFWD It comes from the old tabletop RPG's, which RPG games got their foundation from.

[@MVS.NEOGEO]

Put these out more often, damn it.

[@asmodeus58XX]

That's because it's legal to download a ROM of a game you physically own. In other words, if you buy the cartridges, it's legally okay to download tough as nails games like Ninja Gaiden and save-state the hell out of them.

[@MegaWolfe]

i just got lufia 1 and i was wondering if anyone knows if there is a place to find lufia 2? i know ebay exists but everyone on there is selling *complete* w/box and everything and i just want a cart

[@badazzboxer]

Buy it complete (I would say try an auction), then turn around and just sell the box manual and inserts, but with no game of course. DER!

[@ivanorozco9673]

that game at the 5:00 is xenogears for the ps1 made by square-enix i hope that awnsers your question