Lux-Pain is an interesting adventure game for the Nintendo DS. Actually, it’s not even really a game. Lux-Pain is more like an interactive manga. Regardless of semantics, the real question is “Is it any good?”

There really is no short answer here. The enjoyment you get out of Lux-Pain largely depends on how you feel about gaming in general. If you are looking for an action game, this is not it. If you are looking for a traditional adventure game, again, this is not it.

Lux-Pain is essentially like a choose your own adventure book, the main difference here is that there really isn’t very much to choose. The story follows a relatively linear path, your only major input is where you would like to go first. There is the illusion of choice, but for the most part, you are stuck on the path laid out by the developer.

There is also the illusion of RPG elements — your character gains experience and levels up, but that level up effect isn’t very noticeable within the context of the gameplay. It mainly just increases the time you have to search for Shinen and Silent. Say what? Yes, let me explain the story a bit, if I can.

‘Silent’ are worms born from anger and hatred. They infect people’s minds and make them commit horrible acts. The main character, Atsuki, is determined to rid the world of Silent because of tragic events that led to the deaths of his parents.

Atsuki undergoes an operation to get the titular Lux-Pain implanted in his arm, giving him the ability to see into ghosty world. Here he can sense strong emotions, called ‘Shinen’, as well as Silent worms. This essentially gives him a limited ability to read people’s minds in addition to being able to battle Silent.

The abilities granted by Lux-Pain are called SIGMA, and apparently different people have different abilities. Atsuki’s ability, when used, basically coats the real world in a thin layer of delicious frosting that you must scrape away with your stylus to reveal the hidden Shinen or Silent lurking beneath. Leveling up also increases how much frosting you can scrape away at one time.

It’s somewhat overwhelming at first because most of the facts surrounding the game world aren’t really explained. You can read through the ever-expanding in-game database to get a better understanding of what’s going on, and unlike most games, you will actually benefit from reading the instruction manual.

Once you somewhat understand the flow of it, you can sit back on your couch and enjoy the “game” like you would a good book. To be honest, there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t quite understand, and I get the feeling there’s a bit of cultural differences that just don’t translate well to an American audience. Japanophiles should get a kick out of it, though.

That’s one of my main problems with Lux-Pain, however — as much as it feels like reading a book, I expected the story to be better implemented. There are some major issues here, not the least of which is how some people occasionally refer to the town as New York even though we’re supposed to be in Japan.

Additionally, there are some problems with the voiceovers, mainly that there are sometimes two people talking but only one of them is voiced. Some main characters that are voiced occasionally and inexplicably switch to being not voiced during the same conversation. It would be better if it would just consistently be on or off. There is also a huge discrepancy between what is being said and the text displayed in quite a few scenes. For example:

“I’d like to fall in love and get married, but, like, there’s no one at the police station.” That is what was actually voiced through the DS while the game text displayed “So I tells ‘im… if there was a good person I’d wanna marry him. BUT there’s like no people like that ’round here, right?” Essentially they are saying the same thing, granted, but shouldn’t they be working off of the same script?

There have also unfortunately been times where what was said and what was written are actually not the same and leads to some confusion, like “We’re gonna arrest you for being out so late” versus “We’re gonna be in trouble for staying on this late.” Who’s in trouble, me or them? It didn’t matter game-wise either way since it wasn’t related to the story, but it does bring down the overall impression of quality.

In the end, however, I found that Lux-Pain was interesting enough that I kept “playing” it. Instead of watching boring kid shows while I babysit, I instead watched Lux-Pain. It’s actually fairly long, too, so people interested in this kind of thing will have their dollars go pretty far. If you’re the kind of DS owner looking for a somewhat relaxing interactive comic book to read while you’re on the bus, Lux-Pain would be my recommendation despite its lack of polish. If you are looking for an actual game, however, look elsewhere.

Tags: Ignition, Lux-Pain, Shinen, Silent

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