Luminous Arc review

The top-heavy and repetitive storyline gets in the way more often than we would like (there's a mountain of text to tap through), as Arc goes to some serious depths to establish the characters and mythology of the game. Truth be told, though, we would have preferred more action and less reading. We get it- the Church hates witches and your job is to get rid of them. Plotting the right moves and when to deploy your best attacks? Fun. Reading the umpteenth paragraph about runes and enchanted forests? Not so much.

Early on, you'll rely heavily upon the leader Alph to dole out bulk of the damage to enemies, and much less so on the rest of the Garden Children (as the group calls itself when the game starts). As you make your way across the land, you'll lose a few mates but pick up many more. After each dustup, Alph can chat up one of his pals to improve their relationship; this pays dividends on the battlefield moving forward. Eventually- if you can keep them alive long enough in battle- your motley crew will level up and contribute much more toward final victory.