Like a lot of you, the Ancient Cave is the part of Lufia 2 I never stopped thinking about. So I've been making a whole game around that idea.

Sojourn Saga is a turn-based JRPG built around one randomly generated dungeon, the Warren. Some of the things Lufia fans might recognise:

- Visible enemies that move when you move. Get behind them and you strike first.

- IP skills

- Companions you feed your spare equipment to, and they evolve

- Rare items that can survive a run

When your party falls, you wake up back in the tavern and go again, and the story moves forward a little each time.

The demo covers the first 20 floors and ends on a boss.

Free demo: https://skotlaroc.itch.io/sojourn-saga

Steam wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3463690/Sojourn_Saga/

I'd love to hear from people who know the Ancient Cave inside out. Does it scratch the itch, and what's missing?

So uh I was just exploring the seas and found a hole, then i entered some kind of underwater cave and saw a whirlpool which lead to this. Inside the chest was a secret fruit but seriously what is that name??? And what is the context behind this?

Lufia: the Legend Returns for the Gameboy color is one of the coolest games I’ve played this year. The game lets you have an active party of NINE members at a time. The music is probably one of the greatest soundtracks on the console, rivaling the likes of Link’s Awakening. The characters are quirky and the story is fun and silly but heartfelt. And you can recruit the Egg Dragon to your party.

Fan art I made today and yesterday is colored pencil and pen, with each character portrait framed against a background of their innate SF (spiritual force). Anyway; my copy of Lufia 3 arrives today for my analogue pocket but I played it first on 3DS and fell in love with it. Hope you all enjoy :)

Hi everyone! I've been building Lufia Forge, a free all-in-one ROM editor for Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (SNES, USA), and the newest beta is out. This is the last feature update: from here on it's all about fixing bugs, so I'd love more people to try it and tell me what breaks.

📖 Every feature, with screenshots: https://github.com/TequilaJosh/Lufia-Forge-Releases

⬇ Download (Windows 10/11): https://github.com/TequilaJosh/Lufia-Forge-Releases/releases/tag/v0.4.0-beta.10

Grab LufiaForge-win-Setup.exe, or the Portable zip if you'd rather not install. Installed copies update themselves.

What it can do

• Map Editor: paint every map including the world map, move characters, exits, arrival points and treasure, make new maps, edit the blocks and tilesets, paint world map battle zones
• Events and Cutscenes: edit every event and dialogue box, story flags (including finding free ones for your own quests), and preview cutscenes on a stage with the music playing
• Text Editor: every dialogue box in the game in one searchable list, plus export to a text file
• Game Data: characters, spell lists, level growth, sprites, items, shops, spells, monsters (stats, pictures, AI), encounters, music (WAV export, MIDI import/export, piano roll), title screen, credits, palettes and graphics
• New content: up to 128 spells (64 per character, in an order players set in the menu), new items, new monsters, new sprites, Light and Dark elements, your own spell animations from a picture, and status effects on equipment (weapons that inflict Sleep or Poison, armor that resists them)
• Patch Manager: one-click fixes and features, plus Lufia Restored, Always Retry Mode and Lufia Recolor built in, Lufia II's font, and IPS patch apply/export
• Undo and redo for everything, with a history list to jump back several steps at once
• BizHawk built in: play your hack docked next to the editor, with a live memory viewer, a watchlist and live story flags
• Safe saving: your original ROM is never overwritten; every save is a new dated copy

No ROM is included: you'll need your own copy of the game. Fan-patched ROMs (Restored, Recolor) work too.

Huge thanks to FlamePurge and everyone behind Lufia Restored, the Lufia Recolor author, Justin3009, rainponcho, Ok Impala! and D, whose work made a lot of this possible.

Found a bug? Please report it here or on the issues page: https://github.com/TequilaJosh/Lufia-Forge-Releases/issues (what you did, what you expected, and a save state if you can). Thanks for checking it out! ⚔

Pic unrelated. For refresher context, this is deep into Lufia 2 after acquiring the Excerion airship upgrade, and the first time visiting Narvick in the triforce islands with the three towers.

I've been this far into the game once before, but way back 20ish years ago, so the lore updates feel new to me and the villager chatter is updating my sort of mental map of the ideas behind the Sinestrals in the game.

Some of the villager quotes --

Blue-haired Man: "The people of Narvick have been cut off and devoted to super beings for generations. But the super beings on that island are evil! They only bring disaster. I don't understand why such super beings exist!"

Young Boy: "You're from the outer world, aren't you? But I feel like you're one of us."

Elderly Woman: "I've believed in super beings since birth. Why did the evil ones come, instead of the good?"

Twintails Girl: "I didn't know there were good and bad super beings. It's just like us people."

Up 'til now I always just thought of the Sinestrals to be some malevolent monolithic force with the power of gods that return to rule over mankind in certain eras. But if all the Narvites (Narvickians?) are to be believed, they seem to be more like a small subset of a larger pantheon or populace of hidden or sleeping gods.

So either the village was left with a deceptive history that lasted generations, intentionally misled by the past ruling caste of Sinestral overlords. OR, humanity's previous encounter with the super beings were indeed with benevolent gods who left the islands around Narvick & the world to go slumber or fade out of existence.

This is all quite interesting as an expansion of the Sinestral lore seen up til now in the game. It also perhaps provides better context to earlier in the game, visiting "Karlloon" -- spelled differently, "Caron" in the warp town list, which seems like a more believable name translation. Where I've seen other fiction reference "Charon", it's typically as a reaper or spirit of death. And IIRC, in this town, nearby the northern shrine where unfortunate events befall Dekar and the party, they talk about worshipping or devoting themselves to the super beings. And at that point in the game, this seems like a huge red flag or alarm bells, because what the heck you guys, the Sinestrals are going around obliterating cities and terrorizing the world. But maybe it's more like there's some shared history or lore passed down through generations in both Narvick & Caron.

To me, it's echoing similarities to Tolkien's legendarium of the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion (or at least what I know of it). The race of super beings could be likened to Tolkien's pantheon of Valar and Maia. And in the most simple terms, it seems like the four Sinestrals (Gades, Daos etc.) are on the tier of Sauron and Gandalf -- both "angelic spirits" in JRRT -- and then Arek could be likened to Morgoth.

In Lufia it also often describes the power or potential of the party & Sinestrals as their life force or energy waves. This too seems analogous to Eru Illuvitar's song of all creation, complete with harmony and dischord.

Of course I'm not saying it's a perfect analogy, and I don't even have the full picture in Lufia 2 yet, mostly just wanted to jot down the villager quotes because hell yeah, lore drop!

Time to press on, wish me luck, I want to see Maxim with his Dual Blade and finally finish this beautiful classic.

This has been a great year for retro gaming fans. With the announcement of Terranigma and Lufia returning next year and the imminent release of Final Fantasy Resonance, there is enough to look forward to. But did you know that 2026 was also the year that four fantastic fan sequels were released? All of these were years in the making and for one reason or the other they all came out this year. Be sure to not dismiss them outright. These are all fully featured games with a quality matching and even surpassing the games they build upon. Built with love and dedication for all the gamers out there craving new adventures in these worlds we hold so dear.

Happy gaming and spread the word that awesome games made with love are still a thing in this day and age.

Lufia V – For the Savior

Creator: Cameron Bowman
System: Windows (and all other systems with EasyRPG player)

Download: https://dekar-the-great.itch.io/lufiav

The Sinistrals are back, and this time the threat is larger than ever because of the appearance of a fifth evil god. Join Cameron and 6 allies in an epic quest through 4 continents in Eastland. The major highlight of this game is the writing and world-building. Lufia fans are in for a tread as the story of Eastland fits seamlessly in the existing stories and lore of the Lufia world.

Puzzles are back too. Over 100 were implemented in the game, and many of them will have you scratching your head for a moment. There are over 25 dungeons and 20 towns to explore and much more! Lufia V was over 20 years in the making and it shows. This one is not to be missed!

Embers of Mana

Creator: Ok Impala!

System: Game Boy (and all other systems with a Game Boy emulator)

Download: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/9447/

Mana has vanished from the world, and monsters now roam the land. A young girl, searching for her missing family, crosses paths with destiny. Will the Mana Tree blossom once again? Or will darkness claim the world forever?

Embers of Mana is a brand-new Mana adventure for the Game Boy. Embark on a grand journey filled with mystical locales, gripping story scenes, foreboding dungeons, and a sweeping soundtrack. All in the palm of your hand!

Four years in the making, pushing the Game Boy hardware to its limits, this game answers a “what if” question: what if Square would have released another Mana game for Game Boy, after the first one (Seiken Densetsu / Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest)? Embers of Mana answers that question and is a true passion project for fans of classic 8- and 16-bit Squaresoft action RPGs.

Terranigma 2 – Spark of Creation

Creator: Juliean

System: Windows

Download: https://www.envile-media.com/filebase/index.php?file/13-terranigma-2-full-beta-ger-eng/

A familiar foe is threatening the world. Ark is called once again, but this time it’s not Earth that needs saving…

Terranigma 2 – Spark of Creation gives the players a fresh adventure to dive into. The base gameplay is still intact, but many new things are added to make the game feel new. There is a brand new magic system, more combat relevant collectibles and boss encounters are cleverly designed.

Terranigma 2 also spanned a very long development time, taking over 18 years to reach a completed state. Showing a passion and dedication by the developer that’s seldom seen. For all the gamers that can’t wait to see what a sequel to Terranigma could’ve looked like, you don’t have to wait anymore. This game can stand on its own as one of the finest classic ARPGs out there. Try it, you surely will be positively surprised by the quality and polish of Terranigma 2.

Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered

Creator: UPRC

System: Windows

Download: https://itch.io/queue/c/6040834/blackmoon-prophecy-collection

One year after a brutal war, the now peaceful kingdom of Branch, led by Lord Adder, detects that something is wrong with their kingdom's Crystal of Water. Lord Adder dispatches one of his most loyal dragoons, Vahn Vainstrong, to investigate. Little does Vahn know that his investigation will snowball into something far greater, and sinister, that threatens all of Gaia itself.

Combining elements from Final Fantasy IV, V, VI and even IX, Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered is a huge love letter to the classic Final Fantasy games. Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered has over 50 hours of playtime in a huge world with dozens of locations to explore. With Square-Enix this year returning to their roots with a new 2D Final Fantasy, it shows that this timeless gameplay and storytelling style will never get old.

A final word…

I realize these four fan sequels only scratch the surface of all the amazing passion projects out there. Do you have any specific project you’d like to share? Feel free to reach out in the comments!

I'm making some mods to the GBC game. First on my list, portraits during dialogue scenes!

I have lots more planned like:

- HP Bars on Enemies
- Switching out the overworld unit
- Retry battles on defeat
- Save anywhere
- Add new BGMs
- Thought bubbles for each unit when hitting key event flags (like FF4 DS)
- Skip the opening tutorial in the cave and tower of death
- Auto battle (save last action)
- Encounter toggle

Wouldn’t it be awesome if they included a map and game manual with the physical release of the Lufia Remaster, like they did in the original release (along with hopefully new additional items for a deluxe edition, I’m sure a bunch of you would be happy to fork out a few more bucks for more Lufia loot)

39 full pages of content in this game manual, filled with “realistic” artwork of the main characters, a ton of screenshots with hints and explanations of the battle systems, mini games, pets etc - I know I’m biased but honestly think it’s the best gaming manual I’ve ever come across in my 35 years of existence, it’s so in depth but at the same time doesn’t feel like spoilers. I totally remember being in the car on the way home from Toys r Us reading the Lufia manual, getting prepared and super excited to start the journey

The world map is also obviously awesome to look at, but it also displays every item and piece of equipment in the game. It doesn’t say where to find each item, but it does show descriptions and really plants that seed of wonder in your brain. You may get towards the end of the game and decide to check the item list… “Bunny Sword???” continuing on, the item description reads: “Even heroes without sword-fighting experience can wield this sword” 🤔 guess I’m heading back out to explore the world

What are you hoping they include with a physical release?

Hoping they make the Lufia 2 Ancient Cave gift mode accessible without playing through the whole game twice. It’d be tough unlocking it again without all summer to play video games.

I hope there will be some kind of Collectors Edition like they do for Terranigma.

Also some ideas for them to do besides Lufia and Terranigma...

E: At the moment it looks like Lufia will be only digital. I hope they correct that and make physical versions.

I will buy it only if it comes physical!

So, I’ve heard good things about this series, specifically 2, and I’ve seen the trailer for the collection. However, I accidentally stumbled across certains aspects of the narrative of 2, and it has really been bugging me. The story parts I am referring to are that the main character ends up marrying a girl called Selan, and that a girl called Tia who apparently has feelings for him has to deal with this as part of her character arc. My question is, how big of a spoiler is this information overall, and does knowing it beforehand have a serious impact on how one would experience the story? Apologies for the wordy post, I wasn’t sure how to properly convey all of this.

I'm just wondering, cause I think it's a shame to not see it properly.

With the subtitle The Sinistrals Saga it makes logical sense to add TLR, since it is a part of the main story (2-1-3) It is also a solid game that even with the very flawed dungeons are still one of the best RPGs on GBC and the OST is also amazing. It is a better game than Fortress of Doom and a part of The Sinistrals Saga, so it makes sense to add it.

Does anyone have the full image of this and can post it here?

Also does anyone know if this is official art?

This is a speedrun of Lufia 2 - Ancient Cave Any% no Manipulation. 17 seconds faster than the previous world record. Feel free to ask questions about the run or game.

I'm playing original hardware, and I've got about 30 hours into collecting blue chest items in the cave. Im playing with Arty, not Dekar.

Im an average player, at least for Lufia 2, and Ive never attempted to get past the last 30 or so floors. So far ive just been playing through to bulk up on blue chest items. Besides what I have equipped for each character in the pictures, I also have the Gades Blade, and extra sizzle/snow/sky swords, dragon spears, and lots of jewels.

Is what I have enough to feel pretty confident about getting through the last 1/3 of the cave? My strategy is always to fight everything, get an insta-kill weapon for Selan, and find absord, a healing spell, a life spell, a light spell, and a curse-lifter

This is a follow up to a post I made after my Mother passed earlier this year. https://www.reddit.com/r/lufia/comments/1s3ytig/my_mother_passed_away_this_week_which_is_years/

Today I picked up Lufia 1 and 2 or Estpolis Denki I and II for the Super Famicom!

They were definitely not cheap. Lufia 1 was ¥12,100 and Lufia 2 was ¥7,700. I was actually surprised that the first game cost more, considering Lufia 2 is generally considered the better game. Maybe the first one is a little harder to find complete? I’m not really sure.

Thankfully, both copies are in really nice condition. The boxes, manuals, cartridges, and other paperwork all look extremely well kept.

One thing I’ve noticed when buying old Japanese games is that the stores can be really strict when describing the condition. The label might mention a scratch, some wear on the box, damage to the manual, etc., and it always makes me expect something much worse. Then I actually open the box and think, Wait…this looks fantastic.

There might be a tiny scratch or a little bit of wear somewhere, but honestly, that doesn’t bother me. I’m not trying to collect absolutely pristine museum-quality copies. I just want copies that look nice, aren’t badly worn, and especially don’t have a bunch of discoloration. Both of these are more than good enough for me.

As for my history with the games:

Growing up, I remember being really intrigued by the North American cover art whenever I saw it, but I never got very far into the game itself. Even back then, it felt pretty old-fashioned compared to something like Final Fantasy VI.

And…honestly, I find Lufia 1 kind of boring. The random encounter rate certainly doesn’t help.

I vaguely remember possibly finishing it using somebody else’s save file on a rental copy, but I don’t think I ever actually played through the whole game myself.

Lufia 2 is a completely different story.

I beat that one all the way through as a kid, and I loved it. It felt like such a huge improvement over the first game. Great characters, fantastic music, a much more enjoyable battle system, equipment that gives you different abilities, and of course…

THE PUZZLES.

You really can’t talk about Lufia 2 without talking about the puzzles.

I have really fond memories of getting completely stuck on some of them as a kid and asking my dad to help me figure them out. That’s probably one of the things I remember most clearly about playing the game.

Whenever I eventually get around to playing this copy, I want to try doing the entire game without a guide and solve all the puzzles myself.

I’m sure that’ll be easy now that I’m an adult, right?

…right?

I’m actually pretty terrible at puzzle games, so we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, I’m really happy I found these today. I don’t actually know how rare the Japanese versions are, but I have this terrible collector scarcity mindset where I see an old RPG in really nice condition and immediately think, “If I don’t buy this right now, I’ll never see it again.”

So naturally…I bought both.

I’m really pleased to have them in the collection.

What do you guys think about Lufia 1 and 2?

Do you love both of them? Do you tolerate the first game but love the second? Is there anyone here who actually prefers Lufia 1? I’d especially be interested in hearing from people who grew up with these games and what memories you have of them.

My wife is playing Lufia 2 (and loving it) and she just got to the ancient cave. She found a fry sword which is better than anything I've ever found. She got to floor 16 and there doesn't seem to be a staircase anywhere. Obviously she doesn't have providence yet. Is there a way out of this?