Preview: Lux Pain (Nintendo DS)

Lux Pain
Developer: Kilaware
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: 03/24/2009

Lux Pain is a game I’ve had my eye on for a while. From watching gameplay videos, it appeared to be a cross between Trauma Center and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I showed the game a while back to Mark B. and his reaction was the same as mine: “This is either going to be amazing, or really awful. It has the potential to go both ways.” The closer we get to the release date (March 24th), the more I feel Lux Pain will fulfill its potential.

Lux Pain takes place in the fictional Kisaragi City. Kisaragi appears to be a curse city, as residents seem to go mad, commit suicide, or engage in murderous rampages across town. Eventually it is discovered that a parasitic worm, named “Silent.” These worms appear to feed on negative emotions and memories, and cause their victims to go psychotic. That’s where you come in.
In Lux Pain, you’ll be playing as a character named Atsuki. Atsuki lost his parents to the Silent infestation, and to avenge his parents in a manner befitting Bruce Wayne, Atsuki vows to destroy the worms by any means necessary. To fulfill his obsession, Atsuki goes through an operation that gives him the power of Lux Pain, which is basically telepathy and other psychic powers. For a nice extra visual effect, Atsuki’s left eye turns gold when he triggers his powers. Now as a member of FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Rising Terrors), Atsuki travels around Kisaragi City, removing the psychic worms from their prey and restoring sanity and civility across the land.

The basic flow of the game is talking to people, using your psychic powers to examine their “shinen,” which should not be confused with “The Shining” unless you want Groundskeeper Willie and Bart to get sued. Shinen is basically strong emotional residue. You examine the shinen for signs of Silent infestation. If it’s there, you enter Sigma mode, which is the Trauma Center-esque aspects of the game.

Lux Pain sports a very weird, and, at times, a very morbid story. It will be interesting to see how the game fares state side. Again, Lux Pain hits March 24th, and for more information, you can visit the official website. Check back here later this month as Diehard GameFAN will be there to give you a comprehensive review of the US localization of the game.


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