Once upon a time, there was a trilogy of JRPG games where each installment revolved around the generic premise of a red-haired hero fighting evil gods. One day, some fellow came along and said, "Hey, why don't we take this series of games with the same generic premise...and make a spinoff game with a different generic premise?" And thus Lufia: The Ruins of Lore was born.

Ruins of Lore is set twenty years after the adventures of Maxim (i.e. Lufia II). Instead of focusing on Maxim or one of his descendants, the game instead revolves around the adventures of Eldin, a boy whose most common response to anything happening is a silent wide-mouthed smile.

Eldin and his buddies Torma and Rami aspire to become Hunters, a profession that amounts to "idiots who do fetch quests in a randomly-generated dungeon". Fortunately, Eldin chances upon a mysterious blue-haired priestess who leads him and his friends onto a much more exciting adventure: a quest to stop the Gratze Empire's conquest of the world, fuelled by an ancient monster known as "the Beast". Despite my poking-fun at the whole "generic premise" idea, the plot is actually solid. There's some nice twists along the way, some interesting lore, and plenty of throwbacks to Lufia II. Torma and Rami could have used some more personality beyond "bickering idiots", but the supporting cast makes up for that: Rubius, the aforementioned priestess who tags along but doesn't fight; Bau, the half-monster man looking for his place in the world; and goddamn Dekar. (Granted, Dekar doesn't have that many "total idiot" moments in the game, but he's still utterly awesome.)

Field gameplay is similar to Lufia II, where enemies appear on outside of battle and you use your characters' special abilities to overcome obstacles. (There's no traversable overworld, presumably to avoid players trying to visit locations from Lufia II that don't physically exist in this game.) There's definitely not as many Lufia II-esque puzzles as one would hope, though. Battles use a speed-based turn system akin to the first Lufia game or Final Fantasy X. Eldin, Torma, and Rami can learn abilities through jobs, which modify their stats and permanently unlock abilities once they gain enough experience in a job. Much like most games with job systems, some abilities are completely worthless (i.e. Blunt Hit, which kills your own party members) and some are absurdly overpowered (i.e. Rapidfire, which damages all enemies, raises the user's Agility, and doesn't cost anything to use). In short, the gameplay elements are simple and not particularly original (the Job system is very similar to Dragon Quest VI/VII), but they work well. A small annoyance for fans of the prior game is that you don't start with an ability to stun enemies on the field, which is instead obtained through the Chemist job.

The game features a monster-catching system where the three main heroes can each have their own captured monster in the party. Up to four characters (of eight total) can fight at a time, with a limit of two monsters. It's simple, but devoid of annoying elements other games with Mons have. Monster gain a set number of moves, and once they gain all of their abilities can evolve up to a third stage by using fruits found throughout the game. Moves can also be learned by sacrificing a monster to pass one of its abilities onto another monster. The Monster Compendium shows what moves a monster learns, so that removes some of the guesswork. It's actually quite easy to breed a monster that can hit every enemy in battle without cost, such as with the aforementioned Rapidfire attack. Naturally, many of the monsters are from Lufia II, though without the adorable chibi art style. (The Lions are incredibly cute, though.)

The series's Ancient Cave returns, though in a much different format than the rest of the series. Only Eldin and his monster can enter, they're not reduced to Level 1, and you can bring in any gear they have equipped and spare items—the catch being that you'll lose everything you brought in if Eldin wipes. (Hello, load game.) There's 60 floors filled with containers that may contain random treasure or monsters, along with various shrines that can have beneficial or negative effects. Each floor ends with a Floor Master mini-boss, most of which are generic enemies and some of which are returning bosses from within the game. Only at the end of each floor can you "camp" and access the menus out of battle. It doesn't really work, because unless you're at end-game levels, you're going to get your backside utterly annihilated by B11's Floor Master due to a quirk of that monster's attack. The aforementioned Hunter's Guild quests typically involve retrieving a randomly-generated item from within the Ancient Cave, though those items are best put to use making rings at the blacksmith's.

It's safe to say that Ruins of Lore doesn't do anything particularly unique, but it doesn't do anything particularly bad either. It's a fine nostalgic little romp. It brings to mind how many other series could benefit from whimsical spin-offs that explore different conflicts in their settings. (Like when Final Fantasy IV had FFIV: Significantly Less Stupid Heroes Repeat History.)