Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals is a role-playing game developed by Neverland and published by Taito in Japan on February 24, 1995, as Estpolis Denki II. Masahide Miyata directed and wrote it, and Yasunori Shiono composed the music.
Natsume brought the game to North America in September 1996, later than the planned May date. Nintendo released it in Europe and Australia under the plain title Lufia, since the first game had not been sold there, and translated it into German, Spanish and Dutch. The European release also fixed a few graphical and text glitches from the American version.
The game's random bonus dungeon, the Ancient Cave, later got its own release on Japanese mobile phones starting in 2003. In 2010 Neverland and Square Enix released Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals for Nintendo DS, an action-RPG remake with a substantially different story.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistralsoriginally planned for May 1996 | SNES | September 1996 | Natsume | 1 |
| JP | エストポリス伝記II | SNES | Feb 24, 1995 | Taito | 2 |
| EU | LufiaEnglish, German, Spanish and Dutch versions; Wikipedia's lead says 1996, the infobox 1997 | SNES | 1997 | Nintendo | 1 |
| AU | Lufia | SNES | 1997 | Nintendo | 1 |
| JP | エストポリス伝記II 古の洞窟mobile phones; the Ancient Cave dungeon only, in Light and DX editions | Other | Sep 1, 2003 | Taito | 2 |
Also known as: エストポリス伝記II JP2Esutoporisu Denki II JP1エストII JP2Biography of Estpolis II JP1Lufia EU1
Box art by region

NA Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals 
EU Lufia
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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Bug fixSNES (EU)
The European release corrected a few graphical and text glitches found in the North American version.1
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TitleSNES (EU)SNES (AU)
In Europe and Australia the game was just called Lufia, because the first game had never been released there.1
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TextSNES (EU)
The PAL release came in English, German, Spanish and Dutch versions for Australia, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.1
Translations
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English Official
Natsume1996SNES · Japanese versionReleased · complete
English version published by Natsume in North America in 1996; Nintendo released it in Europe and Australia.1
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German Official
NintendoSNESReleased · complete
German version for Germany.1
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Spanish Official
NintendoSNESReleased · complete
Spanish version for Spain.1
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nl Official
NintendoSNESReleased · complete
Dutch version for the Netherlands.1
Reception
60,254 cartridges were sold in Japan. Famitsu gave it 30/40 (Silver Hall of Fame) and it holds an 80% GameRankings average. Japanese reader polls placed it among the five favorite Super Famicom games of 1995 and 1996; GamePro disliked the easy battles, graphics and music but praised the puzzles.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.