Atlus shrugged

Oh my, that title makes me feel witty.

In any case, the subject of this blog will be one of the worst bastardizations of one of my favorite series ever -- Lufia: The Ruins of Lore.
Lufia was once a proud and beautiful series on the consoles, but this foray into handheld tanked so hard that Maxim felt it from the prequel to the first game. This was published by Atlus, the same people that gave us such gems as Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Shin Megami Tensei, Tactics Ogre, and Trauma Center. Having received this series from Natsume, however, seems to have given them license to kill [an incredible series].
The game suffers from graphic degradation where it was very much unnecessary. The series, made popular on the Super Nintendo with Lufia: The Fortress of Doom and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals were not necessarily intense in the graphics area, but at least they didn't look like bizarre rip-offs of Harvest Moon characters (that's not a knock at Harvest Moon, I actually like that series a lot). The music and graphics feel like they were put through a meat grinder and fed to sick cows before reaching the consumer.
The other beef I have with this game is the blatant ripping off of both Pokemon and Monster Rancher in a game where it should have been unnecessary. Buying special Discs (cave, grass, etc) lets you capture monsters you have weakened and add them to your party to aid you in combat. While Lufia II had a pet system as well, it was at least somewhat original; there were only six assisting monsters, one of each element, and were discovered like treasures throughout the world. You raised them by feeding them items and equipment of various types, and they leveled up with you. What was so bad about that that Atlus decided to change it?
The story is boring as well. While previous games in the series kept me riveted for hours, I was able to put this down without any qualms about finishing it after about 4 hours into playing. The characters are bland and uninteresting, and I found myself unable to empathize with any of them.
I was very disappointed in a company that I have so much respect for. I wasn't expecting a graphical powerhouse on the GBA, but I wasn't expecting one of my favorite series to be put through the shitblender either.