Reader Response: Atlus answers your Luminous Arc questions

Remember how we gave you a chance to ask questions about Luminous Arc to the staff at Atlus? Clayton Chan (Editor) and Mike Meeker (Editor) are back with answers for you and some more details about Luminous Arc for you to read.

Badfish asks: "Wifi battles are going to be included right?"

Clayton Chan: Yes, Wi-fi battles will be included. You can also play local multiplayer, as well.

Jeffrey R. asks: "How many hours of content are we talking in relation the main game and extras? I’m sure the main game will be only so long. What makes a tactical game really fun is the extras you can shoot for."

Mike Meeker: "A single playthrough of the main story will be somewhere around 20 hours, (the save game clock will only record the amount of time spent in battle, though.) but actually completing everything is sure to take much, much longer."

The New Game+ Mode gives you an extra incentive to play the game over, with all your favorite skills and abilities already unlocked! In addition, an entirely new area opens, filled to the brim with fiendishly difficult enemies. There will also be other fun little extras that a completed game save will give you access to."

Clayton Chan: "There are also a number of side-quests that you can find on your first playthrough.  You’ve got to do a bit of digging to find them, so any tactical RPG gamer who likes their extra content should be happy with what Luminous Arc provides."

Pichi asks: "Any plans to add more difficulty and the likes?"

Clayton Chan: "Unfortunately, due to time constraints the developers couldn’t really change the code.  The developer can’t really afford to put too much extra time into the US version of the game, as the Japanese developer is naturally going to place a higher priority on developing new games for the Japanese market. If you don’t power-level your characters, this should still be a worthy challenge."

Leigh asks: "Will they be adding an option for the JP voiceovers along with the US ones? They’ve done this in quite a few of their games, so I’m just curious.."

Clayton Chan: "As you can see with our upcoming titles Odin Sphere and Riviera PSP, if it is feasible to do so, we’ll put in the dual-audio tracks.  In this case, it’s just a matter of space limitations."

Jay asks: "Can you see the amount of space an enemy can move now?"

Clayton Chan: "Yes.  Put the cursor on the enemy and press A.  The enemy’s movement range is shown in blue.  I believe it was like this in the Japanese version as well."

JeremyR asks: "It’s not stylus only is it? I really hate using the stylus for games like this (Ruined Mage Knight DS for me)"

Clayton Chan: "Sorry to hear about Mage Knight DS.  Luminous Arc is not stylus only.  Hitting the Select button while in battle will allow you to switch seamlessly between control schemes.  There are schemes for both right and left-handed stylus use, and a scheme that doesn’t use the stylus at all."

SomeDude asks: "What part of the game did the localization team like working on the most?" and "Do you like this game better than Final Fantasy Tactics?"

Clayton Chan: "Personally, I liked working on the Intermissions the most. I think I liked it so much because Mike and I just divided up the characters we were most familiar with and were really able to let their personalities shine in these little sequences. Aside from that, I really liked working on the names for the random characters and the items.  Those are special to me because when I needed a bunch, I let everyone pitch in. It’s nice to see the various contributors beam with a little bit of pride when they see their suggestion memorialized in silicon. Sometimes, a little thing like a name can mean a lot to someone.

As far as comparing this game to Tactics, that’s a tough call for me.  I worked on Final Fantasy Tactics, so that game’s got a special place in my heart just for that reason alone.  I’m going to have to say that in terms of gameplay, FFT wins, but I liked working on Luminous Arc more, and I like the characters in Luminous Arc more."

Thanks for the interest and the questions, guys.  It’s always a pleasure to interact with the fans.

Thanks right back to you guys for answering our reader’s questions and thanks to all of the readers who participated in this discussion.