Pros: Just About Everything
Cons: Nearly Impossible To Find, Way Too Many Random Battles
The bottom line: If you haven't already played this game, dear lord - go get it...NOW!
What can really be said about Lunar that hasn’t been gushed a billion times before about it? Ever since its original release for the Sega CD that died a quick death, Lunar has lived in the hearts and imaginations of gamers everywhere as one of the best RPG’s ever, a reputation it most definitely deserves. The game has been re-released and re-worked, showing the love and affection that Working Designs feels for their baby. Indeed, the vast, leather-bound booklet that is included with the impressive game package contains interviews with some of the developers, and the package includes a CD that can be played on your Playstation which is a “making of” video.

You can’t really comment on Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (which I will call “Lunar” from here on to prevent hand cramps), without mentioning the cool packaging. The game comes complete with the two CD’s for the game, a “making of” CD, a music CD which contains tracks from the game, a cloth map of the world of Lunar, and a thick, leather-bound instruction manual. Though none of these extras really add much to the gaming experience (especially the map, since it serves no purpose to guide you in the game, but it sure does look pretty), it is very cool to see a company care about giving the buying public a little extra for their money, instead of trying to squeeze extra money out of something that they didn’t put much work into (::cough:: Final Fantasy Anthology! ::cough::). The game is enough in itself, but I must admit, I’m not going to throw out all the extra goodies just the same.

Well, what about the game? Lunar, for those who do not already know, all three of you, stands with the greatest RPG’s ever with a vast, intricate storyline, a huge, expansive world, an impressive cast of characters who are all charismatic, and a great musical score that you will not easily forget. In short, Lunar does nothing wrong, and what it does well, it does extremely well. What probably will draw most people into becoming life-long Lunar fans is probably the charm of the main characters and the central story, which is essentially a love story between Alex and Luna. For those who might be fearing that the story is all mush, and no action., have no fear - the central love story is not exactly at the forefront through most of the game, and instead serves as the backbone of the rest of the tale, which actually has a pretty fair amount of action and intrigue.

The main story centers around a boy named Alex, who spends his early years wishing to be like his hero, the legendary Dragonmaster Dyne. He and his pudgy little companion Ramus, as well as his girlfriend Luna and strange flying cat thing, Nall, set out to become adventurers, each with their own reasons for setting out on a journey. Ramus simply wants to get rich, and to show his father that he’s not a coward. Alex, of course, wants to follow in his hero’s footsteps, and Luna and Nall simply want to keep an eye on Alex and keep him out of trouble. They quickly stumble upon the White Dragon, who knew Dyne, and sees the same thing in Alex. He informs Alex that in order to become a Dragonmaster like Dyne, he must meet up with the other dragons like himself, and Alex is off to meet his destiny.

This may sound like a fairly thin premise for a 30 hours+ roleplaying game, but believe me, before you know it, the plot suddenly thickens with the introduction of the requisite bad guy, the kidnapping of Luna, the introduction of several more protagonists, and many huge issues dealing with the maker of the planet and the struggle for control of the world. Though Lunar does everything fairly by the numbers, with its rag-tag-group-set-out-to-save-the-world premise, it does it so well and with so much charm that you really don’t care, and you want to applaud it anyway. Each main character does have their own agenda and their own reasons for wanting to complete the mission, so it’s not as if they are all good guys just to be good guys. For example, one of the main protagonists, Kyle, is actually a bandit, and not exactly everyone’s vision of a good guy (he spends a lot of time in the game getting drunk and womanizing). However, Kyle sticks with the group because he harbors a secret love for another in the group, Jessica, and wishes to show her that he can mend his ways. A selfish reason to be a good guy, to be sure, but at least he isn’t trying to save the world just for the heck of it.

Another protagonist, a cocky magic user named Nash also joins the group, although reluctantly at first. Nash indeed has his own agenda for being with them, and it is not revealed until late in the game exactly what it is. I will not spoil anything here for the three people on earth who have not played the game, but just take it from me - Nash’s intentions are not purely in the name of good, and he ends up playing a big part in the game near the end of the adventure. Ahhh, but I have said too much...
On the other side of the coin, the main bad guy doesn’t even really surface until over half-way through the game, and when he does make an appearance, he isn’t simply bad just to be bad. Actually, his intentions can really be understood and sympathized with, which is fairly rare for an RPG villain. I don’t think I will be giving too much away by saying that the bad guy is named Ghaleon, a friend of Dyne’s who was seriously screwed up by his death. Ghaleon thinks that what he is doing is going to help the world, although he does want to become the supreme ruler of the earth in exchange for helping them out. Though I usually just snickered at Ghaleon because of his feminine lisp, he was actually one of the more sinister villains in RPG history, mainly because it was so understandable why he turned out the way he did.

Since I mentioned Ghaleon’s lisp, I guess I should explain that the characters in Lunar are supplied voices though the magic of voice acting. Through most of the game, their dialogue is just supplied with little dialogue boxes like in most other games, but there are select sequences that feature the voice acting. For the most part, the voice acting is pretty decent and does not in any way distract from the gaming experience. The voices usually do a pretty good job of representing the characters, and over-acting is kept to a minimum, except for the notable exception of Ghaleon, who occasionally tries to be a little TOO sinister, and with his wimpy, lisping voice, it comes out more comical than scary.

The other aspect of the audio of this game - the music- is some of the best you will find in an RPG. The composers went to great lengths to not only produce music that fit the mood of the game and to inspire the gamer, but they also wanted to keep the sound quality as high as humanly possible, while staying within the memory constrictions of the format. What they produced is a score that is warm, jumpy, and inspiring. There are several scenes in the game that are down right touching, and they are enhanced by the flowing score than accompanies them. Usually games lean on a syrupy, overly emotional score to highlight key scenes, but everything seems to be perfectly balanced in Lunar.

In Lunar’s battle system, there is really nothing shocking. The battles are turn based, with the protagonists entering all of their commands, and then they perform them in order of who has the highest agility. This can be a little clumsy at times, because what the enemy does during the turn might take you off guard, and you wished you had chosen a different command for one of the characters. However, this really just adds a new layer of planning and careful consideration before choosing what your characters should do. Again, the characters use pretty standard attacks and can learn magic, so there is nothing here that will really blow your skirt up, but again, they don’t really do anything wrong, either.

There will probably be a few gaming snobs out there who will not give this game its proper due because of the graphics, and that will always be their loss. This game was originally developed for Sega CD, so the graphics will look noticeably dated, but they are still very nice looking. There had been some improvements made to the look of the movie sequences (as detailed in the “making of” CD), but the sequences are really very beautiful and well done. The sequences are done in a cartoon, anime style, and many of them are fairly long, and they are all great looking. I almost feel that I shouldn’t even be talking about the graphics here, since if graphics are a major decision in purchasing an RPG, you should probably quit reading this and go buy Final Fantasy VIII. After you realize that graphics aren’t all that make a great RPG (which the horror that is FFVIII is great at pointing out), you will quickly come to your senses and give older games like Lunar a chance.

Are there any real cons to Lunar? Hmmm, perhaps a couple, but they are very minor in the grand scheme of things. The tone of the game is not especially “adult” in nature, meaning that everything has sort of a “gee whiz,” innocence to it. Given that the main character is still a teenager, this is probably right on the mark, but if you are used to playing other RPG’s such as Xenogears, that deal with dark themes and adult situations, Lunar might seem a little bit sugary. Again, Lunar makes this work for them, and the innocence of the love between Alex and Luna comes across as charming, not corny. Also, there are times when I found myself being extremely frustrated in certain areas of the game and wanting to throw it out the window. I do tend to try to rush through games a little too much, and I’m usually not leveled up enough when I reach bosses, so that might account for some of it. If you take your time and equip yourself accordingly, you should be fine. But if you think you can just waltz through this game, you will get as frustrated as I was. Challenge factor should hardly be a “con,” so that one should probably just be thrown out.

Time has been especially kind to Lunar; it has actually only gained popularity among RPG fans, who tend to think of it now in legendary terms. There is no doubt in my mind that this game deserves every bit of praise lavished on it, and I hope that it will continue to be re-released for future systems, so that gamers will always get a chance to experience for themselves what all the fuss it about. Unless it is re-released again any time soon, people might have trouble actually getting a copy of this game, since production ceased on it over a year ago. I personally had to get my current copy off of Ebay, and I had to pay nearly the same price as a new game. Judging by the other bidders out there who were clamoring to get themselves a copy as well, it seems that there is still some demand for this great game. Perhaps Working Designs should follow Squaresoft’s lead and trot out this warhorse for yet another return to glory.