[Review] Lunar Legend

[Tsubaki]

I finished this game a couple weeks ago so may as well post my formal review.

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Lunar Legend
RPG - Game Boy Advance
1-2 Players
5800 Yen


This is the 3rd revision of the original Sega CD game, Lunar The Silver Star. Consequently, two 32 bit remakes, "Lunar: Silver Star Story" and "Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete" were released on the Sega Saturn and SS MPEG/PSX respectively. This time, the classic RPG turns portable. How does it make the transition?

Graphics:

The graphics are very crisp, bright, and full of sprite goodness. Lunar has never looked better. Instead of touching up the sprites like in the 32 bit versions, they overhauled the entire look of the game. Characters are now much bigger. Enemies are bigger. Cutscenes have also changed to fit the new look as well. If you're a 2d sprite fan, you will love the new look.

Obviously the FMV sequences had to be taken out, due to space limitations, but they replaced them with full-screen picture stills that convey the scene with some nice drawn art.

Sound:

Also due to space limitations, most of the voices are taken out of this version. There's no "Tsubasa" opening theme. There's no 'Luna Boat Song'. And I admit, that's part of the charm of the CD-based versions. There's no voice acting either, aside from some of the battle cries. But Luna does still have her 'La la la' song intact.

Unfortunately, lack of much voices is the least of concerns. The BGM, while not particularly different in composition from the original, has a very tinny sound to it. The music also tends to have some static at higher volumes as well. The audio as a whole just seems to have less quality than some other GBA games around, such as Tactics Ogre.

Gameplay:

Well, how does the game play? Basically, this game is a really big step backwards. The original Lunar had a pretty nifty battle system where you must consider positioning aside from just the standard Fight/Magic/Item menus. That made the battles have a bit of strategy in the way you play them. In the 32 bit remakes, they one-upped it by eliminating random battles altogether. The pacing was just right, as you never really had to go out of your way to level.

But on this cart, they eliminated both features. They reverted back to the random battles which frustrates me to no end. They also eliminated the fun battle system and replaced it with the generic standard one where your party is on the right hand of the screen, the enemies on the left... and whenever you attack, you warp in front of the enemy to hit, then warp back. Their only new addition is with a meter that builds whenever you hit the enemy. Once it's full, you can do a special attack.

Replay Value:

Another thing they add in this game is card-collecting. You obtain cards of the enemies by beating them, and they will randomly drop cards of themselves. You can also purchase cards in a store in Meridia, and can trade for some special ones in that same town as well.

That's where the 2p mode comes in - trading. Using a link cable, two people can trade cards. Nothing really fancy.

So if you really want, you may want to go through the game again to collect more cards.

Overall:

Overall, this is the best looking version of the first Lunar, but it's not without its shortcomings. It takes a dip on audio, but more importantly, it's simply not fun. By turning the battle aspects into Final Fantasy, they basically stripped out all the components which made it a joy to play. If you only care about story, then you can rest assured. This contains the Lunar story. Sure there are some differences in details of the plot, but overall it's the same Lunar you know and love, albeit easier. But if you're like me, and value how a game plays more than how it's read, you'll be disappointed.

[xS]

Nice review. Does it have more battles than the other lunar games? because that was my major gripe with them.

[Tsubaki]

Originally posted by xS
Nice review. Does it have more battles than the other lunar games? because that was my major gripe with them.

More normal battles, because that's what happens with random battles. They throw one at you every few seconds whether you like it or not. And especially since they jacked up the battle system, it was pretty much "not" for me.

I think there's the same amount of boss battles though.

[Jeremy]

Nice review.

[taloony]

Interesting. I am interested to see what Ubi Soft did with the translation of the domestic port.

[BEBOPlover]

Great reviw. I'm gonna check it out.

[Roufuss]

The review also dosen't mention entire scenes got cut, changed, and all new scenes were added.

At times, it almost feels almost like a remake rather than the same basic story.

I picked it up for cheap, the MSRP is 19.99, if you can stand regular generic final fantasy style battle system than I recommend you try this out.

I'm about 3 hours in, to Meribia, and I'm loving it so far.

[Damian79]

I never understood the complaints about "needing to level up" in rpg's these days. If you want RPG's that NEED levelling up, try FF1- FF3(FF3 being IMO the hardest, that garuda boss owns the living shit out of me).

Is it fair to say the stateside versions are easier than the Japanese versions?