Joe Molotov

I have Lunar: Silver Star Story for the SegaCD and Playstation, but neither version of Lunar 2. It's been a while since I played Lunar: SSS, but I really liked it and I was itching for some more real Lunar after torturing myself for a few hours with Dragon Song, a game I'm convinced is designed as a psychological tool to break RPG fans from wanting to play RPGs. It's like they're putting a cookie out there for you to eat, but then they're attaching live electrical wires to it. Luckily, I escaped from it in time.

Anyway, I had a chance yesterday to pick up Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete for a decent price at GameStop, so I took it. I'm only about two hours into the game so far (yeah, I know, not really that far), but I've got to say that my early impressions are somewhat mixed. It's still lightyears better than the unholy abomination of Dragon Song, but I'm not instantly falling in love with it like I did Silver Star Story. Maybe it's just nostalgia playing tricks with me, I'm not sure.

The first thing I noticed is that the cutscenes are just nasty. The animation doesn't look like it has very many frames, the CGI is pretty poor, and the artfacts are visible all over the place even on my 30" TV. (I've been replaying some Playstation RPGs lately, so it's not just that I've forgotten what Playstation cutscenes were like.) Also, the voice acting is terrible, although that was pretty much the norm at the time (and still hasn't been fully remedied even to this day) and at least you have the option to turn it off.

So far the story is "meh", although I realize I probably need to give it a little more time. Beyond that, you have a game that looks and plays like a pretty good SNES RPG, but not really what my possibly rose-tinted memories of Lunar 1 had led me to expect.

So what's the deal? Do people like this game? Am I just being too harsh and judging it too early? Should I keep playing it, or should I just go back to replaying Valkyrie Profile? Questions, questions.

darkside

This is an amazing game. I found the story and music to be as good or better than the original and its still one of my all time favorite RPGs.

Chris_D

Hmm I actually played Lunar 1 for the first time on the PS1 when it came out and wasn't particularly impessed compared to the other PS1 rpgs around at the time. So it could be rose coloured glasses? I still have Lunar 2 PS1 sitting unplayed on my backlog .

PixyJunket

Lunar hasn't aged well for me. It was the bomb-diggity when it came out for the Sega CD.. put now that I'm over the voice acting and animated cut-scenes.. the actual game just didn't really stand up that well over time.

nodoubt

what pixy said.

Gideon68

I didn't think Lunar 2 was as good as 1 but I enjoyed it.

Outlaw

Lunar's not a bad game, but its one of the few series to me thats overrated. People will rave about it because when they played it it was a miracle it was ever localized at the time and was somewhat unique for its time, but I was playing Final Fantasy 3 at the time and Lufia which I'd put above Lunar, now there are tons of other RPG's that are much better. The voice acting is absolutely horrendousas well compared to todays localization standards because Working Designs used low budget staff for it. You might still have fun with it if you hang with it, but what you're seeing is pretty much what you get.

RocShemp

I liked both games for what they were. I haven't played either in years so I may have a different opinion now but I do recall thinking that both were time well spent. Neither game is very deep but they're good for some old school fun.

Now who here remembers Alundra?

Lethal Nemesis

I love the first Lunar. The second one is ok, but I didn't get into it nearly as much as the first one. To me, it didn't have as much wit or charm as the first Lunar. I replayed SSS a couple times after I beat it, and I would enjoy playing it again today, but I have no desire to play Eternal Blue again.

Ginwen

Well Alundra's cool and all, but Landstalker (I think Alundra was kind of a follow-up), now there's a great game.

As far as Lunar--I haven't played them since Sega CD. I was glad to have them given the shortage of good games for the Sega CD, but I didn't think they were all that great--I seem to remember an excess of random encounters. The Lunar games were definitely better than Popful Mail though, that's for sure, cutesy voice acting for the lose.

PixyJunket

Hmm.. Popful Mail is the only game I think it worth owning a Sega CD for. I just played it recently. I love it.

What's wrong with random encounters.. what else would you play an RPG for?

warswift

one of my favorite games

RocShemp

Never heard of Landstalker and I never got to play Popful Mail.

I actually like a healthy amount of random encounters. It's good for leveling up quickly.

Joe Molotov

Thanks for the responses, guys. I think I'm going to stick with it for the time being, at least until my ADD kicks in and I decide to play something else.

Ginwen

Wow, you liked Popful Mail, more proof that everyone has different tastes. Just too cutesie for me by far (the voice acting for the main character is the thing that got to me).

As far as random encounters, I can live with them (although games like Chrono Trigger where you can avoid some of them are cool too), but I like 15 or so steps between encounters, rather than 8 or 9--no patience I guess . I actually don't remember how good or bad Lunar was about this, just that I found them a little too abundant. Beyond the Beyond was the worst game ever for this, IMO, due to the sheer number of encounters (like 2-3 steps between encounters), and the fact that the cutaway scene (due to being kind of 3D) took a very long time to load.

If you can find it (maybe an emulator) you should check it out. I have it, but you can't have mine It's asimilar style to Alundra. It's pretty hard--I gave up on one part for months--but pretty cool too.

Breakfast with Girls

Atmosphere or story. By "atmosphere," I mean exploring a world and being able to affect it. It's why I usually play RPGs and like them to be as immersive as possible. My favorite RPGs have a ton of huge locations and long dialogue trees with choices that make a difference, like Knights of the Old Republic or Ultima VII.

RPGs with high encounter rates usually are designed that way to disguise the fact that the world is small and the story is short. Think about how fast you could get through some games if you didn't have to fight every 10 steps.

Anyway, didn't the number of random encounters increase from the Sega CD version to the PlayStation version? I think it did with the first one, anyway. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Joe Molotov

On the Playstation, Lunar doesn't have random encounters. I'm not sure if it really makes alot of difference though, because most of the monsters are fast and hard to get by, and you'll still got to fight alot of them anyway to keep from being underpowered. It's still nice to know when you're about to get into a battle, though.

GreenMonkey

I loved Lunar 2 (although I never did finish the prologue when I lost my memory card during a move).

I haven't played Lunar 1 but it's on the shelf to be played.

One of the things I like about Lunar 2 is that fights require thought to win. Most of the time if you just pump the attack button FF-style you'll get your ass handed to you.

And boss fights take some figuring out, too. Personally I consider it one of my favorite PS1 RPGs.

Breakfast with Girls

Hmm. Thanks, I must have been thinking of something else.