IGN called Lux-Pain “a game with little-to-no interactivity and a convoluted, incomprehensible story…” so we decided to give it a try. While I expected very little from this game, I actually came away from it with a lot. If you enjoy reading and anime, you might enjoy this game. If you aren’t into either, perhaps reviews like the IGN one will fit for you.


The Good

• Artwork and visuals were impressive for a portable game!
• The voice acting was terrific.
• The game included a cool art book.
• This was one of the most “unique” games I have ever played on a portable system.
• Multiple Endings (something we don’t see enough in games).

The Bad

• The story was confusing at times…
• The game had less interactivity than I have come to expect from games.
• The English translation was off at times.

Lux-Pain takes place in the fictional Kisaraga City, a town plagued by strange events.  “Silent”, a worm who was born of anger and grief has infected the human population forcing them to commit crimes.  The hero of the game, Atsuki, vows revenge for his parents who were one of the victims of Silent.

The gameplay is one giant metaphor for reading a person’s mind, as you erase (also referred to as “scraping”) to get to the “worms” holding shinen you want to access. You have a time limit and a health bar of the individual whose mind you’re reading, but if you erase too much you can destroy their mind. In other words; braindead!  In the game, you basically enter “Erase Mode”, where you can read minds and use special powers to erase minds.  You can also use an item known as Lux-Pain to make your way through the story.  If I confused you with my description, I totally understand.  The story in this game is very weird and tough to really describe.  Without giving away the story, I can’t give you much more than what I have already stated.  If you like text-heavy games with heavy plots, you might enjoy this one.  The game involves things such as detective work, some problem solving and quite a bit of returning to the menu to go over clues.

The game starts out extremely slow, but picks up the pace after a while.  I assume some of the very negative reviews it received was from writers who didn’t actually play deep into the plot.  I played all the way to the end and enjoyed the experience due to the originality of the game.  If you have a mind that multitasks, you will do pretty good with this title.  There’s a lot going on at one time and it’s tough to keep track of the entire story if you aren’t paying attention.  In other words, this game is not for dumb people!  If you are looking for something unique with a compelling story, give it a try!

7/10 - Good

I’d like to thank RocketXL for providing us with the game and assets.  While I was playing it, the thought came to mind that this game would have been even better on a console.  Hopefully, we’ll see stuff like this in the future.  I was also definitely pleased with Lux-Pain in general.  I hate playing cookie cutter games all the time and this was certainly a unique game.

More Screenshots and Assest Located HERE

What Others Are Saying:

Test Freaks - No Scores Yet

IGN 4.2/10

Thunderbolt 3/10

Why are the scores so low?  I assume its because this game is certainly NOT for everyone.  As I said before, you need to love anime, reading and complex stories to truly enjoy this one.