And that, my friends, could only be a plotline from an RPG. LostMagic is a bit different to the norm however. All the ubiquitous features such as levelling up, equipment usage, battling and magic are present, with the latter being (obviously) a major factor in the game. What is original is that instead of the traditional battle format, LostMagic opts for real-time strategy combat.

Given that the control method of the DS lends itself to the RTS genre, the only real surprise is the length of time taken for one to appear. All commands are handled through the stylus, except for panning the camera about and calling up the rune template used for drawing magic symbols. You'll be seeing that rune a lot of times; every magic spell requires it to be drawn on the screen. Thankfully the top screen displays all the magic known currently should the desired symbol be forgotten at that moment.

Although starting the quest alone, enemies can be captured at short range in a similar way to Pokémon. Up to three groups can be "held" at any one time, and they fight on your side during each battle, are able to use items found and acquire experience to level up. They also do not die; if defeated they return to their magic prison but cannot be reused until the next battle. A good idea here otherwise the game would be far too difficult in general.

Everyone on your side can be individually commanded, or by dragging the stylus over the screen to envelop multiple units, they can be sent as a group somewhere. Whilst the interface is extremely easy to fathom and use, the less could be said about the pathfinding code that works out where your units move; a lot of the time they seem hell-bent on walking in a direct straight line, as opposed to figuring out they have to go around some obstacle. Hence movement tends to be a series of small commands instead of a great big one.

Aside from this blip, everything else is handled smoothly and efficiently. So much so that often you will need to think quickly how to manage several groups at once and make sure one of them doesn't get wiped out whilst helping another - all part of the resource management inherent with RTS games. Those RPG purists who are unfamiliar with this type of genre may find the going difficult to begin with as it requires a lot more than just pressing a few buttons to attack or defend although there is consideration for statistics and personal attributes.

There is also, unfortunately, the odd brick wall to encounter, figuratively of course. Every so often the difficulty spikes up and at that point, you either have to develop some radical new tactics, or realise you haven't captured enough monsters earlier on to develop them properly to be a sufficient level to survive the coming battles. Frankly, it's annoying and the first time prompted restarting the game from scratch because it was just too hard with the monsters possessed at that time.

The other annoying aspect is that none of the cutscenes can be skipped. If you die, you can continue just before the last location visited, even if there has been no save, which is a very good idea. However any conversations that took place will be repeated; sometimes this can mean lots of button pressing to get through it. And if it's a battle that is quite hard with a large chance of dying... well it does mean that your thumb will probably get a large workout.

Outside of combat, things are very much in the realm of your standard RPG, if on a slightly simpler scale. Movement is performed via the touch screen, tapping on the next location to visit. Items can be allocated to the monster units or discarded if not needed anymore. Conversations happen between the hero and NPCs at various times, usually at locations marked with a symbol on the map. Anyone looking for an introduction point to the mechanics of RPGs would find this a good title to start with.

Much was made of the graphics for the game in the run-up to release, which were designed by an ex-Studio Ghibli artist. To be honest though, they are a little disappointing given the hype, being somewhat flat (though whether that is intentional is up for debate) and plain in appearance during cutscenes. They are, however, typically Ghibli; there is no mistaking that particular design style, and they do work very well.

Although LostMagic offers a multiplayer option, it is one which is perhaps best played amongst friends. Online play is exceptionally laggy which completely dampens the experience, and on top of that, there is no provision for choosing opponents based on skill and experience. So if you have only played a few hours then there's nothing stopping being matched against someone on level 50 for example. Obviously if you know the people being played against, it makes it a lot more balanced.

If all of this sounds overly harsh, then it is not. LostMagic is a competent, enjoyable game with lots of depth and strategy options, sadly spoiled by the aforementioned niggles. Ironically whilst targeted as an RPG, it probably would have worked better overall being a straight RTS game - with the low number of units available, it means things never get completely out of hand. Whether it gets a look-in amidst the growing number of quality DS titles available is another matter.