Genre: RPG
Developer: Micro Cabin
Publisher: Panasonic

Guardian War had some nice graphics, but Micro Cabin apparently knew they could push the 3DO harder. So they wrote what looks like a brand new graphics engine featuring more polygons, more detailed sprites, and some nice special effects (such as transparent water) than what was seen in Guardian War. The end result is a game that looks decidedly Final Fantasy-esque, but with 3d visuals that consoles like the Super NES are not capable of.

Like Guardian War, Lucienne's Quest has a phenomenal sound score, but it's orchestrated and adventurous, a dramatic departure from the guitar and techno work of the aforementioned Guardian War. The same person obviously did the sound effects to Lucienne's Quest, and much to my delight, they are much more clear than the sounds in Guardian War. In fact, if you listen closely enough, you can hear that some of them were taken straight from Micro Cabin's other RPG, and then cleaned up a bit.

Take a snippet of the strategy from Guardian War-- we'll call this "Guardian War Lite"-- a cute, fantasy story in the veins of Final Fantasy, and some hardcore, Phantasy Star style dungeon romping, and you're left with Lucienne's Quest, a short, cute little RPG that has some decent replay value and a very high fun factor. Gameplay is from a 3/4 overhead perspective, and while it plays like most other straight-up Japanese RPGs, the user interface is thoughtfully designed, and the quality of game design is granite solid.

I certainly wouldn't call Lucienne's Quest a crowning achievement in role-playing games, but it is the only true RPG on the 3DO, and what it does, it does very well. I am playing through it for a third time, and I've found that its level of strategy is just enough to not detract from its roots, but to still make it engaging. As probably the most rare and expensive 3DO game in existence, it might be as good of a collector's item as it is a game, and that's saying something given its excellent design.