Luma Island review: Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory

Luma Island is a much anticipated RPG adventure that has been on my wishlist from the moment I saw it. Feel Free Games from the Netherlands has crafted beautiful picturesque environments surrounding a quaint seaside town for me to set up residence in. I took pride in building up the farm of my dreams, as I climbed the ranks in seven professions. I couldn’t wait to uncover the secrets on Luma Island while solving puzzles and finding just so much treasure. While the titular creatures, Lumas, didn’t bring as much of a benefit to the gameplay as I was hoping, I still had such a great time with this title.

Farm living is the life for me

While Luma Island has a character creation process, I didn’t spend too much time tinkering, as I was keen to get into the action. My pink-haired farmer emerged from my cute caravan to discover a wild and overgrown farmland. Taking stock of what I had in my pockets, I found there’s the usual line up of tools: axe, pickaxe, hoe and a few others. But the weapon is a little more unique. It’s a whip with a very satisfying audible crack.

The first task was to head into town to choose my starting profession. I ended up choosing to become a Treasure Hunter, as my plan was to unearth enough treasure and make pirate themed items to sell, with the goal to purchase the other professions later. Each of the seven professions has a difficulty rating, with the Archaeologist being the only outright tough one. As a Treasure Hunter, I was off to a good start, as Luma Island is bursting at the seams with treasure and secrets.

As progress is made through the ranks of the professions, there’s a bigger variety of resources that can only be found by unlocking the next environment. Talking to the townsfolk as the game progressed tasked me with helping out around the town which in turn led to accessing new areas. This created a natural gameplay loop where I’d solve new puzzles and find treasure in a new area and then go and speak to the residents and help them some more.

Dotted throughout these environments are temples that are sort of like big puzzle gauntlets. These temples are laden with threats like pylons that spit out fire, rolling pipes that squish you, and a whole lot of timed spike challenges. I felt like Indiana Jones, outrunning floor spikes and cracking open priceless antiques with my whip. But the real mysteries sometimes lie at the end, where more than once I found a mysterious colorful egg. Wondering what adorableness grew inside, I would rush back to my farm to pop it in the egg incubator.

It’s not easy to catch a unicorn

Turns out, these eggs contain the magical Lumas. A big lore element to Luma Island is the existence of these creatures. According to some smiley stone statues that regaled me with some fantastic tales, these Lumas once roamed freely on the island, bestowing their enchanted gifts upon the humans. These gifts were used to craft magical items or cook amazing recipes.

On today's Luma Island though, they’re little creatures to be caught or hatched that will be companions or farm residents. They’ll alert you to buried treasure and drop Luma energy orbs for crafting.

My favourite so far is a tiny unicorn. There is a big variety of Luma’s to find and I want to find every single one! While they are helpful in finding buried treasure, there’s not much use to them right now. Considering their name is in the title of the game, I feel there’s more room for Luma character development.

That’s going straight in my basket

Finding the Luma’s to be not much more than cute companions, there were two elements that had me overjoyed upon discovery. Firstly, there is no stamina or energy. The only purpose of sleep is to move to the following day. There are certain puzzles and resources that can only be found at night, so I would mostly just stay up ‘round the clock.

And secondly, your inventory is infinite. This let me spend more time playing and exploring, rather than managing an inventory. There are just so many resources for crafting in this game that makes this feature such a good quality of life addition. The collector goblin in me was so very satisfied.

We’re not here to *ahem* spiders

Being a bit of a collector goblin means acquiring every single resource I possibly can. Early on, I was finding the trees were taking far too long to clear, so I leaned into upgrading my tools as soon as possible, which allowed me to start felling forests. The nature lover in me wasn’t concerned, as I had caught a glimpse of the loading screen as it quickly raced by - natural resources grow back! The tip screens are lightning fast though, so a glossary of tips would have been helpful.

After following more tutorial suggestions to craft and equip some torches, I headed down into a cave by my caravan for some more tool upgrade resources. This one turned out to be a vast cavern absolutely brimming with stone, gems, and ore. But it was very dark and there were dangerous creepy crawlies hiding in the shadows. I charted a path through the cave with my torches lighting the way, otherwise the darkness literally swallows me alive.

Occasionally a spider will drop from the ceiling nearby, but I’d whip out my trusty… well… whip, and take care of business. I’m Aussie afterall and dealing with spiders is a part of everyday life downunder. I must say, I appreciate the clear audio queues from the spiders to give me time to swap from my pickaxe to my whip.

Give me a home among the gumtrees

If anyone finds themselves struggling too much, Luma Island gives you the option to play with friends. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something I was able to tinker with during the review period, but it’s something I hope to try out after release. I just need to keep an eye out for some cozy gaming mates.

When it comes to expanding and evolving the farms and houses, you won’t be sequestered to pokey caravans. You’re building your dream farm here, and that means bigger and bigger houses. While the interiors are cozy and welcoming, they’re mostly just ornamental. There isn’t any customisation to them, which is honestly a bit disappointing. I’d love to also have character customisation gear added to the treasure pool.

A feature that I will look forward to trying out, however, is dating and marriage with the townsfolk. Feel Free Games knows this is a much desired game feature, and has plans to prioritise these additions soon after release. There’s a townie I met, a silver fox called Bill, who wants to teach me how to brew. Let’s just say I’d love to explore Bill’s tavern, if you know what I mean.

I want to live on Luma Island

Feel Free Games has done a really good job at marrying up many of our beloved cozy RPG elements. While there are a few things I’d love to see expanded upon, Luma Island is a treasure to behold, packed with content. And yet it seems there’s much to look forward to as well. I’ve had so much fun on Luma Island and will continue to do so for many hours yet. This is one of my top games for the year.

This review is based on a Steam copy provided by the publisher. Luma Island is scheduled to release on November 20, 2024 on PC.

Loren Chandler

Contributing Editor

Loren Chandler comes from a land down under. She’s a lover of all things video games, tea, cats, reading, and craft related. If you checked in on what she’s playing at any given time, it’ll either be a survival-crafting game or one of the cute and cozy varieties.