Chronicles Of Lumisia

Chronicles Of Lumisia (Known in Japan as Lumisia: Of Life and Death) was an RPG Game released for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by Germ Studios and published by Atlus, the company known for the Megami Tensei series of games. It was marketed as a "love letter to the classic JRPG genre". It follows a group of heroes that join a crusade to rid the world of a worldwide threat called Daemons, a hostile species of creatures created by an unknown force.
==Gameplay==
Lumisia is a role-playing game set in a fantasy environment played in a two-dimensional world similar to that of the Radiant Historia and Chrono Trigger games. The player controls the party from a top-down perspective in areas that range from various forests, dungeons, towns, and cities. Players battle enemies through random encounters when they are exploring in hostile areas; while in civilized areas, players can interact with NPCs to acquire items, solve puzzles, and go through quests.
Most of the gameplay is featured on the touchscreen of the Nintendo DS, where the player can utilize the touch features to interact with various parts of the game. The top screen displays information such as characters' status, quest information, turns during battle, and other miscellaneous visuals.
===Battle System ===
The game features the standard RPG turn-based battle system where the area is divided between the party (on the right) and the enemy (on the left). The battle area is arranged in a 6x4 grid system where both sides can move forward or backward; melee attacks would need a character to be adjacent to an enemy tile while ranged attacks allow a character to reach the farthest enemy tile.
Who attacks first will depend on a character's agility stats and after that, both the party and enemies will take turns executing battle commands. Successfully defeating an enemy grants the player's party with money, experience points, and a chance for a dropped item. 
The upper screen of the DS shows the player and their party's HP (Health points) and SP (Special points) as well as the order of turns. Commands a player can play on the party are shown on the touchscreen through a wheel that shows in every player's turn. Player commands are the following: attack, skill, guard, item, and flee. 
The player party and enemies use physical and magical attacks to deal damage, the player can use skills and items to heal or protect their party. When a character has 0 HP, they will faint. If all the party members faint, this would mean game over and the player will start over from the last save point. 
The player's party consist of four characters. The player can only switch active characters for their party when not in battle.
Each character has their own unique perk that helps the player's gameplay on and off battle, ranging from jumping to high places and locating hidden item chests to transforming into another form and teleporting. 
===Skill Tree ===
Each character has their own skill tree the player can customize to their liking. The game's skill tree network utilizes a loadout system where in characters can only equip six skills in one loadout; each character has a maximum of four loadouts. The player cannot change a character's loadout in battle. How the player strategizes a character's skill loadout is vital to the outcome of each battle the party faces.
As a character levels up, they unlock more skills in the system to choose from. Once a character reaches a certain level, they will acquire their Ultimatum Skill, which is the most powerful skill they could learn. The player can mix and match skills that could help a character in combat and can further improve their performance. 
===Traveling===
The player can travel to different towns and kingdoms through a world map, they can just tap on the town/kingdom they want to go to and the player will just warp to the area's save point. Interior areas in towns and cities are shown in a perspective similar to that of the Pokemon games where a 2D top-down area is shown around a black background. 
==Plot==
==Characters==
The game features 10 playable characters, giving the player the freedom to play as anyone on the roster. Most of the characters are unlocked as the story progresses while some are unlocked by missions or certain conditions. Every character has a different weapon type and a unique trait that helps the player on and off battle, these are only active if a character is in the player party. The player starts with three characters:
=== Starter Characters ===
Character	Info
Ciel	
Class: Knight
Weapon: Sword
Information:
Ciel is the classic swordsman who is best in melee combat. He has a lot of techniques that can give a great amount of damage to his enemies but his lack of defense might slow him down a bit.
Unique Trait:
Rage Rush
If Ciel's HP falls under 40%, his attack stat is increased.
Olly	
Class: Marksman
Weapon: Bow and Arrow
Information:
Olly is a ranged fighter that wields the bow and arrow. He is the primary healer of the party but eventually gains better offensive ranged skills as the game progresses.
Unique Trait:
Child of Nature
When exploring, Olly can detect collectible items with their locations shown on the map.
Violet	
Class: Mage
Weapon: Wand
Information:
Violet fights with a wand and casts spells that can inflict big damage on her targets. She is the glass cannon of the roster with a low amount of HP.
Unique Trait:
Intuition
In battle, Violet can show possible enemy commands when it's her first turn.
===Unlockable Characters (By Story)===
Character	Info
Emily	
Class: Thief
Weapon: Daggers
Information:
Emily is a speedy character thanks to her lightweight weapons, her skills allow her to steal enemy items while also dealing physical status ailments to her targets
Unique Trait:
In the overworld, Emily can steal items from NPCs. These items can range from worthless trinkets to valuable treasures that can be sold at a high price.
Nolan	
Class: Priest
Weapon: Staff
Information:
Nolan is a support character and is used for healing and providing buffs to the party. He has weak attack stats but high defense, in which the player can also build him as a tank.
Unique Trait:
After every battle, Nolan heals the entire party with 10% of their HP and revives fallen characters with 5% of their HP.
Amelia	
Class: Maid
Weapon: Gloves
Information:
Amelia is a close combat fighter character who uses her quick punches and kicks to deal damage. Her skills also allow her to feed enemies with food that deal debuffs and status ailments.
Unique Trait:
When cooking, Amelia has the chance to double the amount of food cooked.
Akihiko 	
Class: Ninja
Weapon: Tanto
Information:
The ninja Akihiko has a wide range of attacks but his main weapon is the tanto which serves as his basic melee weapon. Akihiko is a mix of a ranged and melee fighter as he can also throw projectiles like shurikens and kunais that can cause offensive status ailments depending on his skill loadout. 
Unique Trait:
Akihiko can teleport to any distance in his tile range within his turn.
Leofric 	Class: Dark Knight
Weapon: Spear
Information:
Leofric is a tank character with high defense stats and low speed stats. He can pull enemies closer to the party and shield party members with his skills.
Unique Trait:
As an experienced adventurer, Leofric can detect chests in the overworld where their locations can be seen on the map.
== Development ==
Chronicles of Lumisia was developed by Germ Studios as the company's first ever game. The studio pitched the game concept to numerous publishers with Atlus striking a deal with Germ to publish the game in hopes of providing an RPG for the Nintendo DS system.
The concept of Lumisia was pitched as a 'love letter to the RPG genre in the form of a video game' with the original storyline being set in a fantasy world divided into two realms: the realm of humans, where life and light thrives; and the realm of demons, where monsters often go into the human realm to wreak havoc. The original story draft involves the protagonist assisting a demon princess who accidentally ends up in the human realm in going back to her home amidst an antagonistic church that runs the human realm set on hunting the pair. However, this concept was rejected by Atlus as the concept of demons was too similar to their own Megami Tensei series. This led Germ to revise the story to the much simpler and linear plot the game features in its release.
==Reception==
The game was received mixed reviews from game critics at the time of release. Critics expressed negative opinions on the game's originality: Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu criticized Lumisia for its lack of innovation while MetaCritic called the game a 'carbon copy of its inspirations' and added that 'consumers are better off buying the games Lumisia was copying off of'. The game received further criticism for its predictable story and setting, critics noted that the developers utilized every RPG cliche there is in the book. However, Lumisia was praised by some critics for its art direction and character design. With IGN saying that the game's use of the Nintendo DS' graphic system was put to good use paired with the fresh art style that blended the art style of Korean comics and JRPG anime visuals that differed from its contemporaries. The general consensus of reviews with Lumisia notes that Germ Studios' effort for their first game was too ambitious for them to handle.
=== Sales ===
The game was considered a commercial failure, with only 6000 units sold on the first month of release in both Japan and America. By the end of the year, the game sold less than a million copies worldwide. Poor sales prevented the studio to push for more sequels of the game series. 
== Legacy ==
With poor sales for their first game, Germ Studios turned to developing webcomics on local webtoon publishers such as Naver and Webtoon where they proceeded to retell Lumisia in its original plot framework. This garnered success in South Korea and it eventually reached popularity in the west. In 2016, with multiple Chronicles webcomic and manga published, this prompted Germ Studios to pitch the anthology series again to bigger game companies. This eventually led to the studio being bought by Nintendo in hopes for the company to capitalize the studio's webcomic IPs further into video games that they can sell.
==Gallery==
===Beta Art===
Ciel headshot.png|Ciel (Beta Icon)
Ciel render.png|Ciel (Beta Art)
Official Art
Logo col.png|Official Logo
Ciel NEW.png|Ciel (New)
Violet NEW.png|Violet (New)
Olly NEW.png|Olly (New)
Emily NEW.png|Emily (New)
COL Ciel.png|Ciel
COL Violet.png|Violet
COL Olly.png|Olly
COL Emily.png|Emily
alistair.png|Alistair
COL amelia.png|Amelia
==Trivia== 
*The game is inspired by titles such as Final Fantasy, Radiant Historia, Chrono Trigger, and the Tales of series. It is called by the creators as a tribute to the inspirations.
Category:Original Games
Category:Nintendo DS Games
Category:Chronicles (series)
Category:Germ Studios