Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Review (Sony PlayStation, 1999)

The Lunar series had the potential to be as popular as Final Fantasy. The original games were some of the greatest RPGs ever released, but they had the unfair disadvantage of being released on the ill-fated Sega CD attachment system. Because of this there was a super limited audience making it impossible for these to reach the heights of popularity that these games deserved. When the next generation consoles were released developer Gamearts quickly announced that they were working on remakes of the two Lunar games for release on the Sega Saturn console. The publisher would once again be Working Designs, but after a falling out with the console manufacturer these titles were cancelled for release in North America. Thankfully they were ported to the PlayStation, and Working Designs did translate these versions. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete was actually my first exposure to the franchise, and was what made me into an instant fan. While this remake isn’t quite as good as the original it’s still an incredible game.

Lunar: Silver Star Story takes place in a fantasy world with magic, myths, and dragons. You play as a young man named Alex who lives in a small and cozy village called Burg. This happens to be the hometown of a hero Dyne who became a Dragonmaster and fought alongside three other heroes to save the good hearted goddess Althena many years ago. Alex dreams of going on an adventure someday on the same scale as his hero. This dream becomes a reality one day when his friend Ramus approaches him with a proposition. He wants to venture deep into the nearby white dragon cave in order to become rich by claiming a diamond from its depths. The two’s gal pal Luna refuses to let the two go alone and decides to travel with them. From here a larger plot unfurls around them as they’re swept up in a struggle to save the world from the very forces that once threatened it. Alex and friends must travel to each of the legendary dragons in hopes of gaining the powers that Dyne once wielded in order to save the world from disaster. The story is an absolute treat to follow with some of the most likable characters in all of video games. Working Designs did an absolutely fantastic job with the translation including hundreds of jokes and pop culture references that are really charming. There’s a significant number of anime sequences that are wonderfully drawn, and even more sections that are fully voiced with competent actors.

Unfortunately what seems to have really kept this one from flying off the shelves is that it’s a 2D RPG. Back in this time polygonal graphics were all the rage, and with other genre releases such as Final Fantasy VII the Silver Star Story was always doomed to low sales. The game displays the action from an overhead perspective as you guide Alex and friends across a world map (which for some reason has absolutely no battles), through towns, and into dungeons. Battles take place only within the latter of these, but the biggest change here is the fact that they don’t occur at random anymore. Monsters are visible outside of battle, and an encounter occurs only when you’re touched by them. Unfortunately they can move quite fast and are often tough to avoid. This is especially true when you’re traveling through narrow corridors. Battles take place on a separate side view screen which is pretty typical for this genre. You input commands from the menu for each of your characters. These include attack, skill, defend, item etc. In typical fashion upon selecting commands for everyone in your party the members take turn with the enemies. Battles end when either your team runs out of hit points or all of the enemies do. It’s very standard except for one thing…

Easily the best aspect of the battle system is that it’s very dynamic. Placement on the battlefield is not fixed by any means. You can not only arrange characters how you would like them, but they can move in the midst of any encounter. In many cases they have to because when they have short range weapons they must first travel to the enemy in order to strike them. Unfortunately each character can only move a certain distance per turn, and their turn automatically ends when they reach this threshold. This affects strategies in several ways; it changes which monster you’ll want to target based on their distance or where your character will end up at the end of their performed action. Many spells and enemy attacks target areas rather than individuals, and anyone caught in this target zone takes damage. It’s a really neat measure, and helps make the game distinct from the sea of other RPGs on the market. The battle system hasn’t been changed much from the original, but several areas have been upgraded in some ways. For starters, the special moves are much more powerful and therefore significant to the game. This makes Alex and Kyle a lot more useful than they were in the original title, and changes many dynamics of the other characters too.

In my opinion very few remakes are ever able to surpass the original. Gamearts took some liberties with the original story, but it still has the same air of adventure and charm that the original did. Unfortunately not all of these changes are for the better. The story begins in much of the same way, but things quickly diverge. Characters join and stay with you through different sections of the story, and some of the original scenarios are completely changed here. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete in some ways is different enough that it could be considered its own game, but in my opinion it just isn’t as good as the original. The graphics are one of the areas that have seen a major upgrade and now lack the crude colorization of the Sega CD release. Everything is significantly less pixelated now, and the character models in particular are rendered in significantly higher resolution. Everything is much more detailed and for a sprite based PlayStation game it looks absolutely marvelous. The biggest upgrade however is the animated sequences. These now look like something ripped straight out of a high budget anime film, and are among the best I’ve seen on the system. The soundtrack has been almost completely changed. Unfortunately this is a downgrade in my opinion. I liked the old soundtrack a lot better because this one just isn’t nearly as memorable. The battle theme in particular just feels thrown together in my opinion. The only new song I particularly like is the Boat song which even features lyrics. The soundtrack is not be as good as the original, but it’s still pretty decent.