Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
There's something to be said about a video game that makes you CARE about the characters
and become invested in not just the overall plot, but the little things that happen to
the main heroes friends and allies. In all honesty, few games really manage to pull that
off consistently. A character might feel important for a while, then just fade into the background
all of the sudden, and is hardly brought up again.
However some games sink their claws into you with a brilliant narrative and convincing
characters that players can really connect with. I can only name a few games that truely
accomplish this....One that may very well be the most important game I have ever played.
I'm speaking of course, of the first Lunar game from Game Arts and Studio Alex.
Lunar: The Silver Star was originally released in 1993 for the Sega CD, and was remade for
the Japanese Saturn in 1996 as Silver Star Story with that version ported to the Playstation
in 1998. That Playstation version eventually made its way to the States as Silver Star
Story Complete in 1999. The Silver Star was remade twice more, with Lunar Legend on the
GBA in 2002, and Silver Star Harmony in 2009. With a plethora of remakes and versions to
choose from, Silver Star is the most accessible game in the Lunar Catalog. In 1995, a direct
sequal to Silver Star was released on the Sega CD. Lunar Eternal Blue saw the same remakes
on the Saturn and Playstation. There's also a spin off game and a less than stellar DS
sequel that most fans would love to forget about.
So what's the appeal behind Lunar? Maybe you've heard about it but you're not sure why people
maybe ramble on about how good it is. For me, Lunar is the first RPG....no, the first
video game, that made me feel something for the characters. It was the first game that
made me get invested in the success, and sorrow, of each of the characters. With all the different
versions out there to pick from, I want to talk the most about the first remake we got
here in the States: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, localized by Working Designs in
1999.
Alex Noah is a young man from the remote village of Burg, one of two villages on Caldor Isle,
and the birthplace of DragonMaster Dyne. The DragonMaster is the sworn protector and hero
of the Goddess Althena, the loving deity of the people of Lunar. Burg holds a festival
in her honor, and the cities of the world are littered with statues of her for the people
pray for her blessings. Burg, being Dynes birthplace, also has a momenumt in his honor
that Alex stares at day. Alex has been enthralled with the stories
of the DragonMaster since he was a child, and dreams of one day following in his hero
Dyne's footsteps....But he knows that adventure doesn't just fall out of the sky.
Alex has several friends in the village of Burg. Nall, a flying white cat-like creature
who is obsessed with fish and is constantly hanging off Alex's shoulder. Ramus, the son
of the mayor of Burg who dreams of hitting it rich through various plans and schemes,
and Luna, who lives with Alex and his parents after being brought to them, along with Nall,
from a friend of Alex's father many years ago. Luna and Alex have a special bond, being
more than just friends or foster siblings. They play music in the festivals honorign
the Goddess Althena together, and have a connection the people of Burg can't help but admire.
Luna's singing voice has captured the hearts of the townsfolk, and it is only complimented
by Alex's instrument playing. The game begins when Ramus finds Alex's at
dynes moment and has a proposal that sets off their adventure.
Alex and Nall agree to help Ramus venture of the White Dragon Cave near Burg to collect
a priceless Diamond from the cave. Luna is not to happy when Nall spills the beans about
their adventure. She agrees to come along, if for no other reason than to keep the boys
out of trouble. Inside the cave, the group fights monsters
and make their way to white dragon. After passing the Dragon Trial, test an aspiring
DragonMaster must undergo in order to prove their worth Quark gives the group a hunk of....uh....smelly,
priceless rock. Quark is impressed with Alex's resolve and allows him to keep the Dragon
Ring he found in the cave, proving he passed the Trial and is on his way to becoming a
Dragon Master like his hero, Dyne.
The diamond the group collected is worth more than the shop in Burg can pay for it, so Ramus
and Alex attempt to sneak away from Luna and make their way to the port to catch a ride
to the biggest city in the world, Meribia. Meribia has shops that can probably pay for
the diamond, and would bring alex just another step closer to the other Dragons. Only problem
is the fog is too dense to get through the woods and the group turns back, and Nall spills
the beans to Luna yet again.....This cat just can't keep it in the bag! Luna eventually
calms down and agrees to journey to Meribia with the boys, and the stage is set for an
adventure than will change their lives forever.
Along their journey they meet the arrogant magician, Nash, a magacian from the city of
Vane's Magic Guild, who serves under one of the 4 Heroes who protected the Goddess Althena
and Dragonmaster Dyne's best friend, Ghaleon.
Jessica, the daughter of Mel de Alkirk, another of the 4 Heroes. Mia,daughter of Lemia, another
of the heroes who traveled with Dyne and served to protect the goddess. And Kyle, Jessica's
brutish on-again-off-again boyfriend.
Each character in Lunar is fleshed out an amazing amount. They have certain stereotypes
they may fall into, but they each have their passions and goals and things that drive them.
Nash may be a prick of a spell slinger, but he loves the magic city Vane more than anything,
citing its purpose for eternally protecting the Goddess Althena. He is proud of his work
at the Guild and the good that he believes Magic can do for people. Mia is softhearted
and unsure of herself as a leader, but cares for the people she works with more than anything,
and when pushed, can achieve great things. Jessica and Kyle, while fighting and acting
like they hate each other, prove time and time again that they care more about each
other than they let on, and to see a big brute like Kyle do what he does to protect Jessica
can be really moving, even if it brings a grin to your face listening to this barbarian
talk.
The battle system in Lunar is rather unique, and is one of the many things that separate
the game from the competition. Battles are held on a side view plane, and are turn based,
just like you've come to expect from traditional RPGs of the era. What is different about Lunar
is that battles are area and range based. That mean's characters have to walk up to
the enemy, attack, and stay there. Magic users can stay put and cast spells from afar, meaning
they are less likely to be attacked since they're further back. If a target is outside
a characters range, that person will have to use one of their attacks just to move closer
to it. Some attacks also hit in certain areas, and picking the right target is essential
to do the most damage. For example, Nash's Thumber Bomb can attack a large group of enemies,
just like Alex's Explosion Staff. While the battle system is nowhere near as complex as
a Final Fantasy Tactics system or similar, Lunar's unique take the traditional turn based
battle system adds a layer of depth and strategy not found in many other games. It becomes
crucial to adjust your party's formation at certain times to give your characters the
advantage in a heated battle. Do you spread them out or shove them all in the back, out
of range for a few turns? It's a fun, new take on a system we've been used to for years.
Enemies are such are typical. Larger groups can be harder to take down sometimes just
because they outnumber your party in the early portions of the game. Each enemy telegraphs
their moves with a different animation before attacking. This helps you plan your next actions
for the turn. Do you take out the one ready for a big attack, or play it safe and fall
back and heal.This allows for few surprises in the game for enemies you've encountered
a few times in a dungeon. Again, it's nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary, but it made
battles that much more fun.
Boss battles are were Lunar: Silver Star Story, takes another step away from the traditional
styles of other games. Each boss has a set of base stats. Those stats are then multiplied
by Alex's level. So if you have a boss with a base HP value of 100, and Alex's level was
15, the boss would have 1,500 HP. This prevents the boss fights from being too overly challenging
or too easy, and actually helps make each fight feel cinematic...at least later into
the game. The first boss on the ship to Meribia is actually fairly challenging if you don't
grind a little bit in the woods around the town. The reason is because it's one of the
few bosses that recover HP during the fight, and if you never do more damage than it recovers,
you'll never win. Luna learns a buff song that raises your character's strength, and
it is basically essential for defeating this giant blue drip.
The journey from Burg to Meribia is only a small first step in this life changing journey.
Ramus stays behind in Meribia to run a store he takes over from a guy who tried to steal
the parties diamond,Nash takes Alex and Luna to meet his master, Ghaleon, and Luna is questioning
her purpose in life and why she keeps having the same dreams every night. The characters
hear rumors about a magic emperor and how singers the world over are disappearing, and
everything seems to be getting rather serious all of the sudden. Ghaleon offers Alex a chance
to help him with a problem; there's someone claiming to be a dragon master harassing a
fishing village, and Ghaleon asks the group to investigate the claims, and maybe then
Alex may be able to learn the locations of the other Dragons he must meet.
After defeating the false dragon master, Alex and Luna are separated and everything goes
downhill. Luna is made to sing for Ghaleon, Mia's mother and a group of witches from the
Vile Tribe, who Althena banished to the Frontier ages ago, and Mia's mother is revealed to
have been under a spell that trapped her memory and impersonated by one of the witches. They
taunt the group about the coming of the Magic Emperor's rule over the world. Ghaleon
asks Alex to take him to Quark under the pretense that Ghaleon would become a Dragonmaster himself
in order to combat the Vile tribe....However, once they arrive, Ghaleon asks Quark a question
about Luna's past, and things go a little crazy once more.
This betrayal, from Alex's idol's best friend, and a man Alex had just seen fight by his
side, shocked me as a kid playing this game. Ghaleon reveals himself to be the magic emporer,
kidnaps Quark and Luna, and sends fiends from the Vile Tribe to Meribia and Vane, and proceeds
to have his witches, Xenobia, Royce, and Phacia, kidnap other singers like Luna. Jessica's
father is turned to stone, and Vane's leadership is in shambles. Knowing just how powerful
Ghaleon is, the party needs to try and stay one step ahead of him by finding the other
dragons passing their trials, therefore allowing Alex to become a dragonmaster himself. Becoming
a dragonmaster stops being Alex's lifelong dream, and instead a hurdle he has to overcome
to save the woman he loves. The way Alex fights for Luna is heartwarming, because at its core,
Lunar is a love story.
Lunar's presentation, as you can no doubt tell, is interesting. With animated cutscenes
inserted into a 16-bit style game, Lunar is a title that still looks good to this day.
The original Sega Cd version, though considered by many to be the real definitive version
of the game, does suffer from a, in my mind, not so good color palette and..i don't know,
there's something about all the text being in uppercase the whole time that I don't care
for. It's hard to think Luna is this sweet charming character when reading her text is
like reading an email from my grandmother. And yeah, even the playstation version gets
a little bit of criticism for its cutesy, 16 bit graphics. But it's aged much better
than some other games of the era, and it's an art style I've always enjoyed...but it
isn't for everyone, I'm sure. And even though Sega Cd games like Snatcher have TONS of voice
acted scenes, The original Silver Star only has about 10 minutes of voice acted scene.
The same actors came back to reprise their roles for the english Playstation version
and the voice cast was expanded to allow for even more cutscenes and voice acting. That's
amazing, because it's pretty decent voice acting. I mean, who doesn't love Ghaleon savoring
every letter that comes out of his mouth?
The Saturn version of the Lunar Silver Star Story was released twice, one adding support
for the saturns video card addon, which allowed mpeg versions of full motion video to play
in certain games. Saturn games could play video files before this addon, but they were
typically in more compressed formats like Cinapak instead. The Saturn version was then
ported to the Playstation, and that version was localized by the same team who localized
the Sega Cd original.
To talk about Lunar's english release and not mention the localization job by Working
Designs would be a criminal act. Working Designs handled the Sega Cd originals of both Silver
Star and Eternal Blue, as well as the Playstation "Complete" versions that were released in
the west. Working Designs was well known for their elaborate packing for games like the
Lunar remakes. Sadly, though I've owned Silver Star Story Complete since I was 11 in 2001,
and got Eternal Blue for my birthday the following year....I only still have the game, the special
"making of discs" and the hardback manual. I don't have the cool map or the soundtrack,
or even the cool box it all came in anymore. But as a kid this was all neat stuff to get.
I used to listen to the soundtrack on the bus to band trips back in 6th and 7th grade.
Getting all this extra stuff was never something that made me want the game, in fact I had
no idea the games came with all this extra stuff when I decided I wanted to buy them,
but for a collector, these things are great extras...and honestly, I'm not really a collector.....
Working Designs is also known for their translations and localizations of the games they brought
over. Since CD games were cheaper to produce, plus having more room than their cartridge
contemporaries, Working Designs was able include things like voice acting, almost unheard of
at the time in the west, into games. They also enjoyed changing things around with the
script, adding pop culture references, hamming up the jokes a little bit more than the source
material, etc. While the localization is pretty funny for the most part, some of the references
are lost even to me,but it's not like the games script is required reading for a pop
culture class. There's enough there to help make players laugh without taking them out
of the world.
Almost every NPC has something to say, and Working Design's unique presentation of the
script helps make the villages and events feel just that more fleshed out and original.
It's charm I've really yet to see replicated in another series. From silly little quips
to hidden jokes, references and some crazy *** comments for the time, Lunar gives
the player a reason to WANT to talk to everyone they come across.
In 2005, Working Designs closed their doors, and a discussion about that would be a video
on it's own. But prior to that, in 2002, the company turned down the rights to localize
the Game Boy Advance retelling of The Silver Star in the game Lunar Legend, instead letting
Ubisoft have at it. This version is one of the better, light hearted
games on the GBA, but it is pretty different than it's Sega Cd or Playstation older brothers.
For example, in the Playstation version, you find nash trapped in a silly doohicky outside
the Old Hag's house. In Lunar Legend, Nash visits Burg to pass the trial of the White
Dragon himself and Alex provides his escort. Since full motion video is a little ***
the GBA, stills from Silver Star Story are used, and bigger scenes are presented with
large, well detailed and animated sprites. I actually really like how they went with
this and some of these changes. It's the same story, but told just different enough to be
interesting. The battle system is much more traditional, as it ditches the range based
style of the Sega CD and playstation version, and frankly, this version is amazingly easy.
The latest release of the game comes in the form of Silver Star Harmony on the PSP. A
really modern upgrade with a different camera perspective, a new scenario that tells part
of Dyne's story with the other characters, including Ghaleon, and a other new scenario
elements. This version was handled by Xseed Games, who did a good job of keeping "the
funny" parts of the script around with their own little twist on it while remaining true
to the source material and without encroaching on working design's jokes. The battle system
returns to the range based system from the original and Playstion versions, which is
awesome, and the sprite work and backgrounds are just gorgeous. This is an excellent version
of the game and worth looking into. My main gripe with it is that the game uses the exact
same cutscenes from the Saturn and Playstation versions, with new voice actors. These scenes
are 4x3, and while gorgeous, it does feel like a bit of a copout. Granted, animation
is expensive to produce, and the extra content makes up for this, such as extra voice acted
scenes not present in the other versions, but I would love to see some new, modern animation.
I think the voice acting is pretty good, too, but John Truitt not being there as Ghaleon
makes me a sad Duke. His replacement doesn't feel right.
There's not too many secrets to find in the game, other than a collection of saucy pictures
and a few hidden events, but you'll easily discover everything because Lunar does such
a good job of inviting you into its world and making you want to explore every nook
and cranny.
Like I said before, this game makes you care about the characters. When you realize what
Ghaleon's plans are and what he intends to do with Luna, how he, Luna, and Dragon Master
Dyne were all connected, and see Alex's resolve for saving the woman he loves, it's hard not
to care.... You can't help but cheer Alex on as he gets closer to Luna, only to have
her snatched away by the bad guy once again..... Ghaleon is a vile man, sure, but when you
see his reasons for his actions, it's hard not to feel sorry for the man who's best friend
took a different path than he wanted, and stripped the world of something Ghaleon held
dear. With a main and supporting cast as strong as this, Lunar is more than a video game;
it's a story telling experience that simply needs to be beheld by more people.
Lunar is an amazing title for it's time, and I honestly believe it holds up well today.
The Sega CD original game can be a little hard to look at in places, but the charm and
joy is still there, and many, many players claim it to be the best version. The Playstation
remake was my first visit to the enchanting world of Lunar, and will probably always remain
my favorite. But there's a lot of ways to get into this game, though they can be very,
very pricey. But I would honestly tell you that if you have the means, you need to experience
this game. While I think I enjoy the sequals gameplay and story a little bit more, Lunar:
Silver Star Story, will always have a place in my heart as the game that made me experience
true emotional ups and downs with a fantastic plot and the perfect characters to help flesh
it all out. This is simply the most important game I have ever played, and if nothing else,
I hope more people get to experience it soon.