Image: Clear River Games
Clear River Games, in association with Taito, has announced that two classic 16-bit adventures are set to make a grand return in 2027. Lufia I & II: The Sinistrals Saga will launch on PC and console platforms sometime next year.
Originally developed by the long-defunct studio Neverland, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (1993) and its prequel, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, (better known in Japan as “Estpolis Denki”), tell a generation-spanning story that follows a succession of heroes, each attempting to stop an ethereal, god-like clan, the Sinistrals, from conquering the planet.
The story is told from the perspective of multiple generations of the same family, with players venturing as a party of heroes – led by the legendary warrior Maxim – along with as a party of their descendants in a timeline set 99 years later. Action takes place in classic top-down, 16-bit form, with players exploring dungeons, battling monsters, and looting magic, weaponry, and equipment.
Lufia II, a prequel to the original game, is noted for its rudimentary roguelike dungeon, which challenges parties to face 99 randomly generated levels on a run-by-run basis. This was the first Lufia game released in Europe, under the muddled titling “Lufia”, which caused players to confuse it with a port of the first game’s U.S. release
Images: Clear River Games
While Clear River Games reports that Lufia I & II: The Sinistrals Saga will be “enhanced for modern play”, details are thin on the ground as to what these enhancements entail exactly. There is no mention of the word “remaster”, so we can only assume that this will be a “save state, rewind, quality-of-life” style rerelease. The Sinistrals Saga follows the publisher’s recent announcement of a release date for Terranigma, another classic SNES RPG that will be making its return in the coming year.
It should also be noted that this is not a Lufia “collection” While the two 16-bit SNES adventures are included, the later releases on Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS are not.
Lufia I & II: The Sinistrals Saga launches 2027 on PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
Kris has been playing video games since 1986, back when people saw in black & white. Former editor at Destructoid, Kris’ thoughts and reports on media taste forgot have been featured in Eurogamer, Starburst, and Retro Gamer. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Current Digital Puncher. Graduated from Galaxy High with honours.