Introduction
Today we are going back in time to the year of 2002 to review one of the earlier games from Fromsoftware! We all know about Dark Souls and the success of that franchise, But before that, Fromsoftware created other games like Lost Kingdoms! This game is a Card using action RPG, this might be one of the earliest attempts at an RPG card game. You will play as Katia, it is your goal to collect the rune stones and fight the black fog!
What did I think before playing Lost Kingdoms?
After playing Tainted Grail, I was very interested in Lost Kingdoms. It has been a long time since I played this game, this time my wife will join the game, we will be taking turns in taking down the hordes of enemies! You can only take one deck into a level, using a card means it will not come back for that level until you exit the level and restart. There is only a Wikipedia site for information, let’s go there!
The Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Kingdoms
As you can see on the website, this game is mostly known in Japan as Rune. There are also some regional changes, some of them can be huge! Collecting fairies will grant you new cards, you can also capture wild enemies! All cards also have elements and act differently!
Rating
I rate Lost Kingdom with a 7.4 before playing.
Just knowing that this is a card game and Fromsoftware developed it, we got excited to play this game! However, there is not a lot of information anymore since it is a game from the Gamecube era!
Story
The story starts with the black fog ravaging the land, killing people and summoning monsters. When the castle of Katia is attacked, she takes the runestone to fight back! After driving the monsters back, she decides to use the cards to fight the black fog and find her father!
Rating
I rate the story of Lost Kingdoms with a 6.7
Even though there is a lot of lore and the story is fun, it does feel quite lackluster at important story moments.
Gameplay
The gameplay can be quite harsh in the beginning, you start with only a few cards. When you start a level, you need to be careful when you use your cards. If you have used them all up, you cannot use more cards, and you will need to retreat! This means that you will need to start over the whole level! There are several elements in the game, you will learn what is weak against what! If an element you use against an enemy is weak you will need more cards!
It is important to note what card you are going to use. One of the cards will attack, this is simply an attack, but you need to position yourself correctly. All attack cards have a different range! I recommend the banshee, you get this card early and can even use it to defeat the end game boss!
Another card that you can use are the independent cards, these cards will take matters into their own hands. They will come to life and will attack your opponent, however there are also independent cards that will do something different. There are also summoning cards, these are one time use only, they will all do something differently. If you are looking for something exotic, there are also spin cards, however, there are only three in the game!
When your cards kill enemies, the cards will gain experience points! You will need these experience points to either transform them or copy them. If you are looking for exotic cards, you will need to collect red fairies. If you collect all 100 of them, you can get a special card that will kill the endgame boss in one hit! You can also get this card by transforming a white dragon! There is a lot more to Lost Kingdoms, I will let you figure that out for yourself!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Lost Kingdoms with an 8.7
The gameplay is amazing, but it has some flaws, collecting all the cards is very fun though!
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics do look good for the year that this game came out, 2002. The graphics did not age very well, but it is not bad to look at. The card designs are quite amazing though! I also like the user interface for this game, but it does feel clumsy at a lot of moments!
Sound
The soundtracks are a bit boring as are the sound effects but for the year it came out, it was great!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Lost Kingdoms with a 6.8
There is nothing special with the soundtracks, the graphics have not aged well despite the card designs looking good! The sound effects would not have a wow factor even in the year 2002.
What did I think after playing Lost Kingdoms?
My wife and I loved our play through of Lost Kingdoms, We made a lot of different card decks and tried out many strategies. However, finding the last two fairies was impossible, thus we evolved the white tiger to complete our card collection! Tracking down the fairies is impossible as the levels have no clear indicator if you have collected all the fairies!
I had hoped there would be cards that you could transform into and then attack! I think this was possible in Lost Kingdoms 2, we have to review that game too in the future!
Rating
I rate Lost Kingdoms with a 7.4 after playing!
There are quite many levels to play, there is however a problem! Once you complete a level, you cannot play it again until you have finished the whole game!
What are my personal thoughts about Lost Kingdoms?
Even though the graphics did not age well. And the soundtracks are quite boring, this game is still fun! My wife also enjoyed the game, but she was mostly capturing enemies to complete the card collection! She left the exp grinding to me!
Rating
My personal Rating of Lost Kingdoms is a 7.3
Even though the game is lackluster, this game was very fun!
Last Words
Pros
- Experience the story of Katia fighting the black fog!
- Many different cards to collect, 105 to be exact!
- Different types of cards that you can use to create many different decks!
- Level up and transform your cards!
- Look in every nook and cranny to collect all the 100 red fairies!
- Complete side quests to gain new strong cards!
Cons
- The graphics have not aged very well
- The story is quite lackluster at important story moments.
While this is a great game, it has not aged very well. If you do not mind the graphics though, like us, this game is very fun!
Final Rating
7.4
Let me know what you think of Lost Kingdoms in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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Didn’t know about this game and looks pretty cool.
Maybe you could try it one day!
I liked review and game.
Great to hear that!
The game system looks unique and interesting.
Indeed!
Very interesting read! Too bad it hasn’t aged well.. fromsoftware has came a long way!
I hope Lost Kingdoms 2 has aged better well!
nice one
They need to remake this.
Would be amazing!
2002 were good years.
It’s kinda similar to some Castlevania games.
The castles do look like one from Castlevania, however I would rather have a 2D castlevania!
looks similliar but i see this game first time
It is a very fun game!
a little bit too oldish for me, would be nice to see a remake!
It’s great…except GRAPHICS
Yeah, I agree!