Tales of Luminaria - Guide to Episodes, Raids, and Gacha Elements
2021-11-12
Tales of Luminaria is brand new Tales anime RPG game from developers Bandai Namco Entertainment that has made its way to Android and iOS in selected regions as players await a global launch. The game boasts of a high-quality anime RPG game with as many as 21 protagonists to play with.
Not many mobile players enjoy Tales series games, but at the same time, they've been interesting to many players over the years. Tales of Luminaria offers 21 protagonists and promises that each of them has episodes centering around them.
Unlike the previous mobile offerings, this game doesn't have, say, a self-insert of sorts who will interact with its predecessors' cast. It's brand new, and it gives us the feeling of having a low-ish entry hurdle for those who aren't familiar with the renowned JRPG franchise, without having to ponder why Yuri Lowell and Leon Magnus have been blacklisted from popularity polls. Aside from any late arrival spoilers, that is.
What to Know before Starting
Players would expect a landscape perspective, but Luminaria is only available in portrait mode. I don't think it's a huge deal, but I'm sure many others did, especially since it was addressed in their Q&A video. We tried out the Japanese edition, which was released sooner than the worldwide version, as promised.
Surprisingly, we were able to play it with English text and English vocals. As a result, we believe the game uses the default language settings on your device. The worldwide release will only feature the English dub, while the possibility of adding Japanese due to public demand was mentioned in the Q&A.
The English voice actors did a good job in their parts, so it'll be a preference if you think their voices aren't quite right for the characters. The majority of players will most likely prefer the Japanese cast. Aside from that, many low-cost phones and certain mid-range phones may struggle with medium-quality graphics. The game harkens back to its console brethren with its 3D models, cutscenes, and recreated settings.
The user interface is also rather intriguing. The main menu displays everything at once, and you can scroll down to see characters at a glance, as well as tasks and current events. If that's too cluttered for you, use the tabs at the top. You can customize your character's look with some items and the clothing/weapons you acquire from the gacha, which we previously thought was exclusively restricted to accessories.
Gameplay
Tales of Luminaria is an action RPG that's played vertically. It's a pretty novel game as well. The execution, however, leaves much to be desired. The verticality makes it feel like there's not much room to maneuver as you want properly. It would help if you flicked to dodge, but many players won't enjoy its responsiveness enough.
The attack commands also appear to be limited to a single tiny tap region in the bottom center of the screen, which appears to be a major oversight given that you would have likely moved your finger away from that location.
You run around the world fighting any opponents you come across. Countering is feasible thanks to a prompt that appears above the enemy and a screen slowdown. In addition to your standard combinations and charged attacks, you have active Artes tied to your equipped weapon and Mystic Arte on your costume. For better or worse, that aspect is not difficult.
Episodes
The Episodes of each character is broken up into chunks to serve as checkpoints for auto-saving and allowing you to return at a later time. The area will be primarily linear. However, you will be able to venture slightly off the beaten path to demolish barrels/crates for stuff, locate shards of premium cash, and acquire items other than monster drops. These "cracks" can be found for Secret Missions, which are essentially challenges. For what it's worth, the scene transitions are fairly flawless, albeit the model quality could be better.
MP Raids
Then there are multiplayer raids, in which up to four people can join together to take on a boss. If you're defeated, you can be revived if you wait a specific length of time, but you'll have to stay down otherwise. It appears that non-food healing is linked to the acquisition of specific weapons, which is awful for folks who desire to play a support role. Why don't they all begin with a healing Mystic Arte? When it comes to food, a character can have their favorite dishes to make them more successful, yet the cooking is largely a function of gathering the necessary components.
Gacha Elements
It appears to be quite generous, with a 5-star rate of 5%. Because this is an equipment gacha game, there are a total of 21 characters for whom you could potentially obtain equipment. Weapons and accessories may be shared without trouble, thus collecting their clothes for stats or Mystic Artes is all that's left. Each duplicate of an item increases its level and, as a result, its potency. A 10-pull costs 300 in-game currency.
It could be worse, we guess, if universal objects are restricted to a single character rather than being shared. The game currently offers a daily free summon that gets upgraded to guarantee a 4-star with a pretty cool premium pass.
Conclusion
There's a lot to admire and look forward to in Tales of Luminaria, considering that the game is still not available in certain regions when writing this article. The global launch might also cancel out the Japanese dub, making it unplayable. While some players might find it awkward to stick with the game after this change, we believe it's for the better, and it'll drive more players to spend time on it.
Tales of Luminaria is currently available in select regions, and you can head to the Google Play or App Store right away to confirm the game's availability in your region. That'll be all on our brief beginner's guide, and we hope you've found it helpful.
