Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - The Most Overlooked SNES RPG? 

Did you think Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals was a better game than Lufia & The Fortress of Doom? Why or why not? Please consider supporting me at www.patreon.com/xygorgaming OR through RU-vid membership by clicking the JOIN button above!

One of the few times a headline contains a question mark and the answer is actually: “Yes”! This game is a masterpiece. I’ve replayed it more than any other RPG other than FF6.

I played Lufia 2 for the first time back in 2018. It quickly became one of my all time favorite RPGs. Holy moly this game is an absolute gem.

I've never played Lufia 1, but I grew up with this one. It was my first RPG in which a core member had to leave and it left my astounded that something like this was even possible in interactive storytelling. I was a little boy at that time, but I still think dearly about Lufia 2. Oh an fuck the riddles! I wasn't smart enough for some loot.

Definitely one of the best rpgs on the SNES and far better than the first Lufia. You omitted one feature though that I thought was super unique and very cool. Every item or piece of equipment can be bought back at a particular shop that you find late in the game. This shop was *extremely* handy for two things. Leveling up your capsule monsters required feeding them specific items or equipment that they'd request and quite often it would be some low-level junk that you had sold off hours before. There was also actually some select pieces of equipment that you *could* take into the ancient cave. But it was also things you probably sold off way before getting there. That one special shop was an absolute butt-saver lol.

This was the first Lufia game I played as a kid so I wasn't aware that it was a prequel at the time. Abolutely loved it. Not long after I played the first Lufia. The difference in difficulty gave me a run for my money.

I'm from Europe. The Netherlands to be exact. Why does that matter? Because many highly rated SNES RPGs didn't release here originally. The original Lufia was one such game, but Lufia 2, now dubbed simply "Lufia" (similar to Final Fantasy), was released in Europe. Most console games, including RPGs, weren't translated into Dutch. Lufia 2 was. This meant that 7 year old me could read and actually understand what the characters were saying. This game holds a special place in my heart becasue of it. I helped me appreciate the RPG genre and made me a fan in a time where it was really difficult to be a fan.

Loved this game. First game that made me cry too, what with that ending...

This is one of my first RPG of the SNES and still to this day, one of my favorites

The Red and Blue statue puzzle was the bane of my first okay through. I also happened to smack a rental cartridge hard enough to glitch and unlock Extra and Dungeon mode

I remember getting this game on it's release date Took me 2 months to finish, what with getting through middle school. Definitely the best game in the series, and I spent hundreds of hours trying to get through the Ancient Cave. Really wish they'd cleaned up some of the graphical bugs that happened through a few story points, but still worth it.

Lufia 2 is probably the one game I grew up with that most defined my taste in video games moving forward. The version I had was translated in Dutch and came with an A4-sized walkthrough of the game, covering every town, castle and dungeon, with solutions for almost every puzzle and a detailed inventory for each merchant in the game. Dekar quickly jumped out as my favorite character. I think the reason it's relatively underrated is that it came out late in the SNES's lifecycle, just before the release of the N64. Lufia 2 borrows concepts from other more renowned games of the time (the tools seem a clear nod to Zelda games, for instance, while capsule monsters are basically npc pokémon), but it takes these elements and executes them perfectly. Everything is just right, up to and including having the L-button enable a kind of auto combat for when you're grinding or otherwise facing trivial enemies. There's also so much to do in the game. You mentioned the ancient cave, but not only is it a separate thing you can do or even skip, you can also find collectibles inside that are displayed in a little museum in the nearby town and items in blue chests can be taken back in when you go for subsequent explorations in the ancient cave. There's also collecting Dragon Eggs, where if you have 8 you can visit a dragon and have your wish granted. Do it enough and you get to fight the dragon in a hilariously broken fight (healing it rolls back its hp) and a town with a casino with multiple games available. Side note: if you clear the game, then clear the retry mode, you unlock the Ancient Cave mode where you can pick your own party and go cave exploring. I genuinely love this game so much, I wish the DS remake had stayed a little more faithful to the original in terms of gameplay.

Your videos are so good! I’m amazed you don’t have more subscribers! Just keep it up, you’ll get there. There’s lots of us who really enjoy your content!

The two themes in the final dungeon of the game give me chills to this day. Underrated, overlooked and truly special. This game deserves better.

This was like a dream come true after playing the first one and wishing the characters at the beginning could be played longer.

Another one of my all time favorite games! Again, thanks for covering these gems!

New Game+ for the double exp then Ancient Cave blue chests loot you can carry outside to the rest of the game and take back into the Ancient Cave each time you play through it. Best time to do it is when you have Dekar before fighting Gades, its even cooler if you get his sword from the Ancient Cave Blue chest loot and kill him with his own weapon.

I got this game as a little boy, I think just 4 years old or something. Growing up in the Netherlands, gaming was weird because all games were in English so I never had an idea what I was doing. Not this game. The only Lufia game released in my country, it also had a Dutch translation. I was actually able to enjoy a game and understand the story, characters and such. This game was my first real game. Lufia really is something very special to me because of this. I come back to it every couple of years for nostalgia. It means so much to me. I love it and will never forget the great times I had with it. Thanks for this little journey back through time, it really touched me ❤

I beat this game back in the late 90s when i was just a kid. I will always say this game was/is better than most stories you get in even today’s games

I somehow played this game from renting it at a blockbuster. I got like 80% through it and got stuck. Not like a glitch but I could not find out what I had to do to progress. Then like 20 years later I got into emulation and decided to give this game another try. Glad I did. I was able to finish it this time. I still remember the music when fighting a sinistral.

I really do miss the music fade, sfx turn up, slow mo white flashing boss kills after a difficult fight. The childhood dopamine is so pure

I started watching NintendoCapriSun play this game as he just recently started a let's play of it. It's the best comeback I've seen in a while as I really love the dialogue/story.

Lufia 2 is honestly more well-known than the first Lufia (which really flew under the radar). But for good reason. The game was just a lot better. Regardless, though, the twist ending of Lufia 1 is one for the ages.

TIL I learned what IP stands for in Lufia 2. Played it at least 3-4 times and never knew!

Wow. Back in the days before the internet, when JRPGs were a niche thing and there wasnt means to have a community, my little brother and I would scour the local Blockbuster for anything that remotely resembled an RPG or anime. One day, we came across Lufia 2. We were hooked almost instantly. My brother preferred gameplay over story and loved how it managed to do so many different things somehow all so well. Im story over gameplay. I thought the story was fantastic. As a ten year old kid, there was situations that were going on that I didnt understand yet but I knew they were somehow significant to life like the way the love triangle went. I had picked it up again ten years later for old time's sake. Jesus. I did not remember those parts of it. I had just remembered Dek was a badass, there was capsule monsters to collect, and that the beats slap. There was so much more than that. Anyway my brother and I rented it so much, the manager offered to sell it to us. He could have said any price. Our mother worked as a bank teller. At a bank. Where they keep money. We were smart and ruthless kids. Nimble and morally fluid. We would have figured something out. 5 bucks. 5 bucks? Deal. If he only knew. Thanks for triggering a welcomed stroll down memory lane, Xygor. I wish they would be port this with Lufia 1 into an app like the makers of Shining Force and Phantasy Star did. To answer the question, obviously 2. The quality and improvements were so dramatic, its like the difference between Final Fantasy I and 6.

You're right! I'll come back to finish the video after I complete this SNES RPG

My second favourite JRPG of all time! It's almost perfect, the music, the puzzles, the tools, the story, the capsule monsters, the characters... it's just AMAZING!

Lufia 2 is my fave snes game. Over chrono trigger and ff4. Love the characters. The gear. The spells. The story. Everything!!!!

the biggest improvement in Lufia II compared to Fortress of Doom, for me, was fixing the battle system. In Fortress of Doom it still had the NES RPG caveat where if you have multiple party members select the same enemy for an attack, if an earlier attack kills it, the others that were meant to go after that enemy all miss. in Lufia II, they get randomly re-directed. A fantastic game, and one I spent so, so many hours playing. Definitely in my top five SNES games.

Always hope these two will show up on the VC.

By far one of my favorites RPGs of all time. Love the story, the feeling of growth in the characters and the whole arch. A masterpiece for sure

This was a HUGE series in the late 90s and early 2000s but has mostly been lost to time. Really need to finish this game sometime, watched enough Ancient Cave runs at this point to try myself lol

I distinctly remember the writing from this game as a big plus. Yes there's humor here and there but I distinctly remember some very mature characterizations and moments. Though, there were some serious glitches that soured my experience a little bit; some stuff to do with the menus, and also I remember a big mess of almost unplayable graphics when I was going to get the story's MacGuffin weapon.

It released as Lufia 1 in EU and it works very well, the unspoiled ending, damn. Great game.

My very first RPG and my favorite game on the SNES. It has great music, great dungeons, and cool battle system. The dungeons were so engaging. Thanks for covering this!

Final fantasy 4 has a mod called ancient cave that is, for all intents and purposes, a direct take on the famous Lufia 2 dungeon.

Lufia 2 is in my top 10 GAMES ever not just rpgs.. just games in general. I dont fnish games multiple times many times but this one ive played through a couple of times. The story, soundm tower, character and ending.. amazing its easily (1 of) the most underrated RPG ever. Dekar is also my fav of the bunch.

This is my second favorite SNES game. It’s right behind Brandish for me. I love the Casino where you can win monsters and help them grow as a party member.

Top 3 RPGs on the snes easily. Right up there with Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. The bland of Zelda puzzles and RPG combat was amazing. Optional roguelike dungeon was ahead of its time and fun Pokemon type stuff is great. I have told so many people who played the SNES to try this game. Truly a under played game.

First game i played as a kid and still number 1 to me.

One of my favourite old school RPG's. When The remake Curse of the Sinistrals was released i sadly couldn't get into it, I wish they had not of remade Rise of the Sinistrals and did a remaster instead with high quality graphics and a revamped battle system while keeping the story 100% intact.

This game is great because of a memory I have of it. My older brothers best friend lent it to me so that I would stay quiet about staying home alone while they went out and had fun. One day while fighting the literal final boss he asked me: Him “where’s your healer?” Me “what healer? I thought only potions could heal” Him “the girl from the first town is supposed to be with you!” Me “what!?” Him “you did the whole game with 3 characters and no healer?!” Me *turns off snes, deletes save-file, restarts and gets healer* Even if it was an accident, and not intended by the game. It was my first game ever with choices and consequences and I loved it. I will forever recommend this game.

Will you do front mission 3 I just decided that's what I'm gonna play it's a really solid game with 2 different storylines and all the customization

The ending to this game made me cry....one of the few games to make me show emotion

top ten on the SNES? woefully underselling it. its up there with FF6 as the best on the console, and is one of the all time greats across the board. Its a blueprint on how do a prequel the right way in any medium. the fact the ending is known and is quite literally the opening of Lufia 1, and still manages to land on every level is mindbogglingly good execution. actual character growth with the secondary characters such as Tia? game was ahead of its time for storytelling (tho still held back by some of the limitations of 90s era JRPGS as a whole) I rented this game for months and months in a row as a teenager. the store eventually made me stop so someon else could rent it~.

One of few games I go back and play every do often. Hence I found this because I'm playing it again.

Oh...and the Dragon Mountain fire arrow puzzle contributed to putting me in an anger management after school program. 😐

I traded my copy of Dragon Warrior 3 for this game at a pawn shop, given that the battery died and as a 12-year-old, I didn't want to get all the way back to the Dark world, I was pretty sad because that game was fairly esoteric, I didn't have the ability, the tools (The iron, and special screwdriver), or even know how to solder a new (Recycled) battery back onto a NES cartridge, and I didn't even know what the internet was. Anyway, I beat this game pretty fast, used to run up the hill from school to get home before my older sister who would want a turn, but kids are selfish, and I was faster! Thinking about how much is in the game, maybe it's not that big of a deal, but I remember leaving my SNES on when I went to school, and sticking something in the controller, a nib of cardboard, maybe paper, I don't remember how I did it, I do it now with paper when I want to gamble in a game while I'm gone, but anyway I did it to play slots while I was at school. Unlike Dragon Quest/Warrior you gamble with actual game money in Lufia II, not essentially a Pachinko machine, but the Dragon Warrior games let you win "Gold" that you had to buy with in game money, that you would then trade for items, only Lufia II uses in game currency, and when I got home from school I had way more money than I would need to finish the game. I loved this game very much when I first got it, still has a spot on my old PSP, so that I can come back and play it when I want, because that cart has been gone for decades now. Looking back, I think I was smarter as a kid, because some of these puzzles trip me up pretty hard... Being outsmarted by Blue and Red tiles in a video game you beat as a child, can really make a man fell at least a little dumb.

It's legit one of my favorite games. I really love the original as well, but Lufia 2 is a masterpiece.

This is my second favorite game in the series, behind the third game, but I love it. I definitely enjoy it more then the first game, the GBA, or the remake.I had a lot of fun but I remember having to replay most of it before actually beating it the first time due to one of my cousins accidently overwriting my save file when he was playing it during a sleepover

I loved this game…and grinded so much, that I could beat Gades in the first encounter and took is Sword the Gades Blade which only Guy could use. Unfortunately after the fight he was surprised to be beaten down and knocked the party down anyway for the story 😂

Lufia 2 much better than the first one. Personnaly I loved the Zelda 3 dungeon puzzles, the grapple hook, boomerang, bombs etc...and quite liked that monsters were visible and moved at the same time as us. Speaking of puzzles I never managed to solve the "world hardest" one where you need to move pannels to get a chest come to you. I also loved the ancient cave roguelike where you always start naked and at level 1. You could find super treasures there that you could bring back to the real game and you could also use them in a new run. That was the way to be op (especially if you got multiple items on all your characters) in the begining of a run and kill every mobs for a headstart so you could go lower and lower with each run.

I actually prefer this game over FFVI and Chrono Trigger. I know it's heresy in the retro gaming community, but to be honest, most people never heard of this game because it came out so later in the SNES life cycle. It's so good though!

I love this game - it's one of my favorites! It's such an improvement over the original for all the reasons you pointed out. The puzzles are so fun to me - until you get to the Dragon Grass puzzle. I always have to look up the answer to that one.

An all around masterpiece that was unfortunately overlooked at the time due to the popularity of Squaresoft's iron grip on the RPG genre, with Chrono Trigger, FFVI, and SMRPG. Still an amazing game today, and is still popular in the speedrunning community, especially the Ancient Cave, which is a genius work!

I loved Lufia 2 as a kid. I never actually played Lufia 1, but they are both games I plan on revisiting someday once I’m through my backlog.

The only thing that knocks Lufia II down a little in my book is the inconsistency between Selan in the story, and Selan in your party.

For me it's a top 5 snes rpg for sure. This game is incredible.

Its a masterpiece, my gamertag has been dekar since i first played this in 1998.

I not only played Lufia 2 more than 15 minutes, but beat it. A much better game than the first.

Can someone do a video about the big box PAL snes jrpgs? We paid 125CHF (currently 125 USD) but had a a4 sized strategy guide included.. Quite a different experience probably..

i played so many games on the Snes, but Lufia 2, or just Lufia in Germany, always managed to be my alltime favourite. Good thing is that apperently only the American Version had some bad Translation Errors that the German Version didnt have.

Never played first one but the 2nd played the hell out of it. I want to try the gba remake(could be wrong) but heard it sucks so haven’t tried. I think the music and the puzzles was what I fell in love with on this game.

I missed this when it first came out but in 1999 I scored it from a local video game shop and it sat in my collection unplayed until 2013. When I finally played it I couldn't believe how much better it was than the first game. It is one of the best 16bit games ever made. The mechanic wherein you have to use specific key item skills with different party members to advance in dungeons is something that I thought WildARMs invented but it turns out that this game had that exact system first. I've wondered for years if Rise of the Sinistrals and WildARMs 1 shared development staff for that reason. The two games really do have the exact same unique mechanic and came out only a couple of years apart in Japan.

I'm definitely going to have to play through this one over the upcoming summer! Back in those days by the time Lufia II had been released I had largely moved on from the SNES and was deep into PC gaming. So unless a SNES game was getting a ton of hype in 95 like Killer Instinct, DKC or Chrono Trigger did I mostly overlooked it. Heck, I even bought FF3/6 in the fall of 94 and didn't play through it until almost 96.

I actually played Lufia 2 before the first one. I loved it. I like the original Lufia also. I've never played the other Lufia games that came after 2 though.

My mom wouldn’t buy me the game so I rented it once a month for like a year, and had to restart the game every time so I never beat it lol. Loved it.

Il be honest. I never played the fortress of doom, but this was my first ever RPG as a kid. Even before i played pokémon i played this game and i have a couple of fond memories of watchig my father play this game on his snes. And offcourse of playing it myself.

I agree it’s overlooked most of time when you think snes rpgs you think of the square games, enix published games or games like breath of fire or earthbound. Both snes Lufia games tend to get overlooked

Lufia 2 is a fabulantastic RPG that marked my teenage. It males me sad that the Franchise basically Perished after the second game, because the following three other games Didn't manage to save the Name of Lufia.

The story, characters, soundtracks forced me to play this game. I love your outro music of Terra from FFVI.

Definitely underrated and under the radar and over looked T_T. ANd a game SE made a decent genre swap on the DS but man Id love to see a modern rendition of this masterpiece.

My Favorite SNES RPG, played it before the Original and enjoyed both but this one definitely hut the right spot between Zelda like puzzles and RPG adventure and wonder with great characters that you definitely care for by the end. And yes, Dekar is the best. Also its probably the first time a video game ending made me cry.

Oh yeah, best Lufia game. First actual Lufia game IMO. Fortress was dragon quest with more dialog

My experience wasn't too memorable when I played it as a kid. It was beautiful and fun, but it's competing with Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 6. I should give it a replay, it's been a long time...

New to Lufia production lore!.. was Pokemon inspired by these capsule monsters?!

The amount of hours that I, my brother, and my mother spent in this game. One of my all time favourites.

Fortress of doom all the way brother. I could never find Lufia 2 growing up.

Yes, Lufia 2 is an amazing game. But you forgot an important thing here: It's got more localisations than any other SNES game. Dutch, French, German, etc. etc..

Secret of Mana is still my favorite of all time

Ohhhh my Fav!!!

Great game has two big bugs glitches one if you use a statue not in battle it could erase your file and it resets your game and second config go all the way down and then hit left it will give you weird items and such and it can alter your name in some versions of the game

"This is a top 10 RPG..." yeah, the sentence should end right there |-) That ending though ;.;

I only owned 2 snes games, terranigma and lufia 2. Yes I missed some games (was able to borrow bof2, and played a lot of som2 with friends), but I think thats still an ok snes jrpg experience..

Timeless classic. We'll never see it's like again

When I was a kid I always thought the first Lufia had an AMAZING Story.

Just beat live a live on switch may play this next i shall see

I'm late but playing rise of the sinistrals first in the series currently

A masterpiece ❤. Im playing Trials of mana atm and it makes me realize why the Lufia remake was so hateable XD. I still enjoyed it tho :)

IP seems like a precursor to the limit break in FFVII as well, very cool!!

Tried it a couple times it didn't catch me...tho I'm having the itch and I've beaten ff7 Chrono trigger and 7th saga enough times.....(7th saga only once and Jesus not again love the game but the grind is just insane) but idk hopefully I find something good

it's one of my favourite rpg of all time

One of my favs. I wish it was hardee tho

Great and fun game.

lufia 2 was real tight, but it wasn't that obscure! bahamut lagoon, now there's one that just everybody overlooked

Absolutely overlooked

Are we just not going to talk about the North American version... where "Capsule Monster Cave" gets corrupted characters, and specific tiles were removed, Making the Dual Blade Shrine and Floor 99 of the Ancient Cave simply not render correctly?

This is such a good game in so many ways, it is truly a sleeper hit. It does a lot of things I whish other rpgs, especially new ones did and it has such depth. The puzzels are challenging and it has so many good minigames with the casino and then there is the ancient cave which is a full roguelike.FF6 sticks with you more as an experience, but as a game, Lufia2 is better I would dare to say.

I really love this channel 💖💕❤ you revisit the game most of us Jrpgs gamers who experience such stories. Lufia is tbe best💖💕

I played both games for the first time last year and I better liked the first one exactly because of the lack of puzzle