Talk:Luka/@comment-24146794-20140205172814/@comment-98.250.139.84-20140213121054

If you think Luka is the dumbest hero ever, you've never played any Square-Enix game or cookie-cutter JRPG. All of the Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and entire Tales series casts are EASILY dumber than Luka.

Luka, compared to most RPG and even visual novel protagonists, is actually a breath of fresh air. He's not some high school student who suddenly gains some great power and was childhood friends with the female lead. He's a young boy who starts off the game weak and naive, who throughout the story grows both in strength and intelligence, learning more about the world and learning that his dream is not as simple as he thought while also not giving up on it. At the same time, we learn that he's not as stupid as he appeared, when he has bursts of insight on some things or shows understanding of how the world works, like with Ilias Kreuz. Luka does not need a rival or similar character to 'draw out what could make him greater.'  That would undermine the very purpose of the story, of his and Alice's journey, and would ultimately make the game's story worse, as then it would just be like every other cookie-cutter story.

Luka shares traits of a shounen protagonist, but he is not truly one. While he does adhere to some cliches of the shounen archetype, he breaks the mold in many more ways as well.

Also keep in mind, the game is designed more with the Japanese audience in mind, not us Westerners, and as such Luka is more likely to appeal to them than us.