Video games, when used a medium to tell a story, sometimes have a bit of a mountain
to climb to do it in a convincing fashion.
How often do you play a game and feel cheated on the story or feel that the characters are
flatter than pancakes?
If you’re like me, it sometimes might irk you when a character in a game is nothing
more than a boring corrugated sterotype that isn’t interesting at all.
If that bothers you, then you’re in for a treat.
It’s the game were even the NPCs are interesting and funny characters, it’s the remake of
the Sega CD classic: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on the Sony Playstation.
You play as the mostly-silent-but-strong-willed Alex, a young boy from the small villa of
Burg who dreams of becoming a Dragon Master, who serves to protect the Goddess Althena,
just like his hero, the former Dragon Master Dyne, who died 15 years ago.
Nall, who is most certainly not a flying cat, often hangs out with Alex at Dyne’s Monument
on a typical day, but one day Ramus, the big boned son of the village elder, comes up with
a crackpot scheme to get rich quick, and not exactly a safe one.
Alex’s love interest, Luna, disapproves of their plan but joins in anyway to ensure
Alex’s well being.
And that begins the quest that changes their lives forever.
From meeting the dragon and getting a diamond made out of his…uh, never mind, to travel
to the flying city of Vane, Alex’s quest to become a dragon master escalates quickly,
and Luna finds herself is haunted by dreams and is confused about what her future holds.
What started as a quest to make money and meet a dragon turns into an adventure to stop
a plot of a man hellbent on providing guidance for a godless world.
On your adventure, You’ll meet the overconfident prick of a magician, Nash, and the drunk womanizing
swordsman Kyle, and many more crazy, zany characters, including some not so savory types.
Lunar will spin a tale love that will pull at the heartstrings and make you laugh occasionally,
thanks in part of the fantastic localization job by the game's publisher, Working Designs,
who made almost every NPC, character, and scene, remarkable in some way.
Lunar’s is a successfully well done and well developed game that engrosses you quickly
and keeps ahold for the whole ride.
But it can be a bit difficult to talk about without spoiling the whole adventure.
The battle system in the Lunar series is different from standard RPGs . This side-view battle
system isn’t standard, as it combines a tactical style with a traditional turn based
system.
Attackers must walk to their enemy before striking, which gives Lunar a solid sense
of strategy.
If your foe is on the other side of the field, you may have to waste a turn moving toward
them, or take advantage of your distance by casting a spell and not fearing an attack
on yourself.
Planning distances and movement is needed in many battles, since you can attack groups
of foes with certain attacks, or scatter yourselves to avoid group strikes on your own party.
While it doesn’t seem strategic at first, you’ll be planning which foes to attack
and how to make use of your zone-based magic spells rather quickly.
It’s a fun battle system that makes every engagement different, and after 10 years of
playing this game, it’s still my favorite battle system.
Boss battles are also handled slightly different than some other games; each boss’s stats
are based on alex’s level, which help to make the game a little more fair for people
who didn’t grind through the dungeons.
That doesn’t mean you can beat a boss that you should fight at level 10 at level 5, mind
you, but it does even out the playing field a little.
It’s an element that you don’t see often in the attempt to keep players from getting
too frustrated, and enhances the replay value if you try to play through at different levels.
And since you’ll be eager to move the story along, the battles should feel cinematic and
not overly difficult or annoying.
Everything else in Lunar is kind of to be expected, such as walking around town, exploring
dungeons, etc, but does feature an extremely well detailed cast of main and supporting
characters, each of which you will get connected to and see develop by the end of the game
in a realistic fashion.
From Nash’s ego to Alex’s resolve, Lunar’s characters are by far the most entertaining
and engaging aspect of the game, and a fun and non-monotonous battle system make for
hours of solid RPG action.