Nintendo has been in a bit of a rut with RPGs since days of the SNES. Hopefully the appearance of Lost Kingdoms (Rune in Japan) is a sign that we will be seeing more RPGs on the Cube early and often. Lost Kingdoms is an excellent entry point for the young system too. It's certainly a different prospect than your standard console RPG, and it's not too difficult (which I understand could be construed as a down side). The user is presented with a mix of genres that is pretty short on story, but introduces a card-collecting quest that directly influences the battle heavy plot.

Lost Kingdoms has been associated with new terms such as Trading Card RPG or Collectable Card Game Action RPG, but there really isn't a label that fits. While cards are used to battle in the game, it is far removed from your standard CCGs such as Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon Trading Card, or Yu-Gi-Oh. Players looking for a straight up card game need not apply, but those looking for an interesting adventure that still relies heavily on deck building and action RPG type fighting, this will be right up your alley.

Now that I've tried my hardest to confuse you, let me start again at the beginning. In Lost Kingdoms, you take control of a princess, Katia, who is looking for her father, the king, who has not returned from fighting this imposing black fog. The black fog has brought with it a slew of monsters and demons that are overrunning towns and killing off armies at will. When the player takes control of Katia, she discovers a Rune Stone that gives her the power to control creatures contains in cards. She wears no armor and carries no sword and is absolutely helpless in a fight without a store of cards to draw from. After the Rune Stone is in your possession, you are presented with a very small deck of cards. These cards represent one of three types of creatures, weapon, independent, and summon. On top of that, each card/creature belongs to one of four elements, wood, earth, water, and fire (each stronger than the one that follows it, wood > earth). Weapon type creatures may often be used more than once before they are burnt, and they consist of a single attack emanating from where Katia stands. This is most akin to a regular action RPG and often appears as a sword slash or a fire beam or a claw swipe in real time. Summon creatures are called upon for a specific service and actually replace Katia on the battlefield for a brief moment. They are very much like Final Fantasy summons where they will appear and perform an attack or heal and then fade away. These are burnt after one use. Finally, the most intriguing, Independent cards are thrown down on the terrain and spawn an ally creature. These creatures are computer controlled (so you can go on playing other cards) and perform actions such as attacking the opposing monsters, providing protection, or boosting strength. Independents have hit points, so they can actually be used across a span of battles before they are completely burnt.

Your first fight is against a lone skeleton, and once the screen switches to battle, four cards are drawn into your hand. Each card is activated by pressing the corresponding button on the controller face, and once a card is used up, or burnt, then another card is drawn from your deck into your hand to replace it. For example, in this fight, you might first throw down a Man Eater independent (walking, fighting plant). While the Man Eater is going to work on the skeleton, you sneak up behind it and finish it off by unleashing your Lizardman weapon card. This attack is a short-range sword slash and can be used three times before it's burnt.

Battles continue throughout a stage in similar fashion. When one is completed, you are returned to the world map (Grandia II-like) where you can choose your next destination. It is also from this screen that you are able to save and edit your deck. There is also an apothecary where an old lady companion of yours will let you buy, sell, copy, and transform cards. Deck building is very important for a number of reasons. You want your deck to be strong against opposing elements of monsters. You want to balance your deck so that a number of creature cards gain experience points, and you'll probably need to make sure that you have a good mix of summons, independents, and weapons lumped in. Your deck can only be made of 30 cards, and outside of some cards found in treasure chests or gained by capturing creatures (by throwing the card with the L button at a near-death creature), that's all you have for the whole level. If you run out, you lose. Thank you. Try again.

Lost Kingdoms, while highly enjoyable to play, doesn't have the look of a next gen system. The graphics are fairly comparable to Grandia II on the Dreamcast. It sports some pretty good textures, but the characters and environments are a little thin on polygonal detail. It does wear on you though. From the high angle while running through the stages, the terrain is pretty to look at, and even with many enemies on screen, there are no bouts of slow down. Some of the summoned monsters are cool to look at but are miles behind the creatures in Final Fantasy X. The card art isn't too shabby. I just wish they would've used a higher resolution to display the card when it's blown up on certain screens.

The music was often forgettable, but there were a couple pieces I really liked. The score playing in the apothecary was my favorite, and I almost feel like I've heard it somewhere before. There is no speech in the game. When you chat with an NPC, they mumble a short line of gibberish, but that's it. The sound effects are pretty cool, and there are plenty to be heard. Each attack and monster has its own array of sounds. I'm especially partial to Trickster and his manic giggling.

There are some downsides to Lost Kingdoms, such as the lack of difficulty. I breezed through the game in about six and a half hours, and only had real trouble with the final boss. That's not to say that the game is over after you run through it the first time. I know, I know, all RPGs say there is replay value in playing through a second time, but Lost Kingdoms is one of the first times I've ever taken them up on it. Each level during the story gives you a rating from 1-5 stars upon completion, which in turn lets you choose to pick between 1-3 cards from six placed in front of you. One of those six is usually a rare, like the boss from that level. Going back through the second time lets you replay all the levels at your convenience trying to earn the five star ratings and earn all 105 cards available in the game. On my first pass I only had 86 cards, so I was more than willing to go back for more. The gameplay is so engaging it doesn't feel like a chore.

During your first run through, it is also annoying that you can't re-enter a level you just completed. Once it's done, it's done until you play through the second time. This keeps you from accomplishing all the goals on the first pass through, which I found unacceptable. It is possible to abort a level at any time before killing the boss and re-enter it without penalty, but you never really know what your rating is going to be when you do finish. I also had a small problem on a few battlefields with vision. When you enter a battle in Lost Kingdoms, you fight right where you're standing on the terrain, but they quickly fade to a new screen where there are boundaries (confined within a square area). When you are actively running around on this screen it's easy to lose sight of the enemies due to poor camera placement (you can only rotate it in 90 degree increments) or sub-par transparencies on the obstacles on the terrain, like trees. Now, I love the fact that there are trees and stones to hide behind, but sometimes there just get in the way of vision or even hold you back because of imprecise collision detection.

Those are all really minor in the grand scheme. Lost Kingdoms tried something a little different like Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story had done before it, and it worked out quite well. Some may be turned off by the short length of the game or even by the fact that it's not a true CCG or even RPG for that matter. I still highly recommend that you take the time to play it as I find it to be a worthy purchase. The urge to complete the card collection, to beat up on lowly demons with monstrously powerful cards, or to indulge in the two-player affair is enough to keep most people coming back for more. An excellent start on the Gamecube and perfect for passing the time this summer.