Lunar Knights

Lunar Knights, known in Japan as Bokura no Taiyō: Django & Sabata (ボクらの太陽 Django & Sabata; "Our Sun: Django & Sabata") and abbreviated Boktai DS, is an action role-playing video game and the fourth title in the Boktai series of video games developed by Kojima Productions.

The game was revamped to remove the necessity of using the real-life solar sensor due to player troubles, but it still retains the functionality if any of the Game Boy Advance Boktai cartridges are inserted.

As some gameplay features are exclusive to Japan, the original names of the characters are used in such instances.

Lunar Knights revolves around two characters: Lucian and Aaron. Lucian is a vampire hunter, wielding various dark melee weapons. He is also imbued with the power of darkness, and can change into a vampire after he builds up a Trance (shortened to TRC in-game) meter by fusing with his Terrennial, Nero, which allows him to absorb life out of his foes. Aaron is an apprentice sharpshooter, and uses a variety of Solar Guns to deal damage to his undead foes. Unlike Lucian, Aaron has light powers, and can temporarily become an avatar of the sun when needed by fusing with his Terrennial, Toasty. The player increases the two characters' levels by killing enemies, and their weapons may be upgraded with various parts, allowing more abilities to be used with that weapon.

The ultimate goal in Lunar Knights is to destroy a number of boss vampire enemies, in which the basic mission is to defeat each of them in their respective dungeons, either by exploiting their elemental weakness or using Trance. Once this is accomplished, the boss is launched into space using the Casket Rocket, Laplace; the player then enters a minigame consisting of three parts. The Casket Rocket is controlled from a third-person perspective with the stylus. By moving the stylus, Laplace moves, and tapping the screen causes it to fire lasers. After these three segments have ended, there is a short video segment in which the defeated boss is purified with the intense solar radiation in the stratosphere, made possible by the Interstellar Satellite Sunflower.

As more bosses are defeated, the player is able to gain access to different elements through terrennials. There are four different terrennials available besides Nero (Dark) and Toasty (Sol): Ursula (Flame), Tove (Earth), Alexander (Cloud), and Ezra (Frost). With each acquired terrennial comes a different climate for the player to manipulate. This can be done by going to Sheridan's Mansion and selecting 'Change Climate' to change the default weather. Certain parts of dungeons, which often hold new items and weapons, are inaccessible unless the player changes the weather. Special high-priced items are dropped by enemies or objects under certain climate conditions.

The game relies on an in-game weather control system, known as the paraSOL. It has a thermometer, and measures humidity and wind speed. The weather is generated from the game itself, not from the local outside environment. There are five types of weather: balmy subtropical, tropical rainforest, humid continental, arid desert and frigid arctic.

The Trance meter is built up as the player lands blows on their enemies. When it is full, the player can use the powers of one of their Terrennials to launch into an extra powerful attack that affects multiple enemies. The transformations mentioned above are two of these attacks, but some are more magical in orientation, and often revolve around interaction with the touch screen.