Lunar Thread

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I HATE that I have to put this thread on the "General Retrogaming" section, but we haven't had a true new entry into the series since the Nintendo DS era and it's starting to look painfully obvious that we never will.

But what we did get was gold, though... And that's what I want to focus on! I mean, really, I played all mainline games and even a couple of ports, a journey that saw me jumping consoles like Mario jumps platforms, going from the SEGA CD to the PlayStation 1, taking a "detour" on Gameboy Advance; returning to GameGear and finally landing on Saturn after making a brief incursion into the (at the time) uncharted territory of the DS. And, through it all, I never stopped loving this thing, which is one hell of an impressive achievement (seriously, franchises usually lose me after the second entry).

(Also: the epic --and unexplainably removed-- SEGA CD intro song and Eternal Blue's battle theme were my alarm music for a really long while lol).

Are there any fans of this rough diamond of a series around?

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

YES!

Specially the first Lunar and even more its PSP remake

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Count me in! I love Lunar and Grandia and I miss Game Arts so much…

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

This thing hit so hard back in 92 when anime music intros were not that common. Lunar was one of the few selling points for the SEGA CD, taking advantage of the platform's ability for CD sound and FMV.

And then Eternal Blue just stepped up the production value of the FMVs. Pretty amazed it didn't get a Mature rating either considering the suggested partial nudity.

I'm not a huge fan of the series outside of these two games, though.

 

[Danieru-Emanyueru]

Personally, I think it's the perfect game for handhelds because it's not graphics intensive and you can easily play it on the go.

 

[Juiceala]

YES!

Specially the first Lunar and even more its PSP remake

I only played Eternal Blue.

 

[Scotty]

The "Lunar" games are so underrated. Easily some of the most titles on the Sega CD. Haven't played any the remakes though.

 

[MajesticSiN]

Fantastic series.
I enjoyed all the games so far.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

I only played Eternal Blue.

Well, what are you waiting for!?
Get PSP's Lunar Silver Star Harmony NOW!!

 

[RustySK]

Which version would you guys recommend someone who never played any of them? Are they even all basically the same game, or were there content changes? That remaster collection any good?

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Which version would you guys recommend someone who never played any of them? Are they even all basically the same game, or were there content changes? That remaster collection any good?

To me, the Remastered Collection is excellent because it features nice QOL upgrades, 16/9 support… and a French translation too.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Which version would you guys recommend someone who never played any of them? Are they even all basically the same game, or were there content changes? That remaster collection any good?

I've only played Silver Star Story on PSX, its great remake Silver Star Harmony on PSP, and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue on PSX.

For the first game, I'd recommend going to the PSP remake, or I guess, any remaster based on that.

 

[Thinaxanel]

I've certainly have been planning on getting into this franchise. And once I have time, I most certainly will.

Wonderful to see quite a few people who are passionate about this gem of an RPG.

One can only hope that the remaster will draw more eyes to the series.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I hate to see how those haters ganged up on the last entry Dragon Song it not a terrible game.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Which version would you guys recommend someone who never played any of them? Are they even all basically the same game, or were there content changes? That remaster collection any good?

Start with Silver Star Story on PS1.

And bit of advice? Avoid Dragon Song until there's literally nothing else to play. It killed the franchise by sheer ineptitude and was rushed to hell.

 

[PhaseJump]

I hate to see how those haters ganged up on the last entry Dragon Song it not a terrible game.

It absolutely is a terrible game. Without question. I want my money back to this day.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I hate to see how those haters ganged up on the last entry Dragon Song it not a terrible game.

Here's a random fun fact that I'm not proud of: I was part of the community Ubisoft reached out to to NAME THE DAMN GAME (the English release, anyway) and even we didn't like it when it first came out. It's not gained any steam since, either.

It was just a rush job, and some copies even shipped out BROKEN (wouldn't save your game even if it told you it had). All of this because they wanted it to be the first RPG on the DS... Congratz, you did.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

BTW, somebody please make an undub of Lunar 2

 

[PhaseJump]

Which version would you guys recommend someone who never played any of them? Are they even all basically the same game, or were there content changes? That remaster collection any good?

Remastered collection is as good a place to start as any. It is the remake games from PS1 with a new dub, new settings and filters for the graphics. It's pretty basic for a remaster, but it's good. Eternal Blue occasionally bugs out and slows to a crawl, crashing itself if you lose connection to and reconnect controllers.

Original SCD games are good, but tedious. Not as good as the remakes. The OG SCD and PS1 remake releases have over the top voice work.

The PSP remake Silver Star Harmony is good, new professional anime dub, but maps are cut down, has longer transition times between screens. The gameplay is nerfed a bit to make it easy late in the game.

Sega Saturn releases of Silver Star Story & Eternal Blue are both fan patched. The new dub from Harmony was put on SSS cutscenes, it is totally playable with only a few bugs in the menu text once in a while. Eternal Blue is being worked on.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

I'd strongly recommend people use the undubbed versions where available, there's a world of difference.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Fun games, though I wish Working Designs didn't mess with them

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

BTW, somebody please make an undub of Lunar 2

Nah, the Working Designs scripts for Lunar games are pretty funny. Probably their best work.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Grandia really blew away the Lunar games I have to say. Hard to go back to them after playing that masterpiece and thankfully Grandia never got bastardized by Working Designs. The dub on the PS1 version was really bad though

 

[Clippy]

Lunar games are awesome. I'd go as far as say that they're some of the best JRPGs that the 16 bit era had to offer. My favorite versions to play are the PSX remakes with Working Designs' dub intact. I'm sure the original Japanese is great too (and certainly more professional) but what can I say - I'm a sucker for Vic Ireland and co's brand of humor. Plus, these two games are some of the very few they didn't make a chore to play by messing with the difficulty.

One thing I don't like about Lunar Eternal Blue on PSX is that they replaced some of the animated cutscenes with 3D CG and boy, that did not age well.

I hate to see how those haters ganged up on the last entry Dragon Song it not a terrible game.

Haven't played this one in ages so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the game where sprinting drains your health and after each battle you have to choose if you want to get experience or loot because for some inane reason keeping both just isn't an option? Maybe I'm thinking of some other game but if I'm right then I think you can see why everyone hates it.

 

[Tonberry]

I've never touched any of these, I always thought they looked kind of ugly and the dude in the red helmet looked goofy, but as I've grown older and more desperate for new classic JRPG experiences they're more and more tantalizing.

Remastered collection is as good a place to start as any. It is the remake games from PS1 with a new dub, new settings and filters for the graphics. It's pretty basic for a remaster, but it's good. Eternal Blue occasionally bugs out and slows to a crawl, crashing itself if you lose connection to and reconnect controllers.

Original SCD games are good, but tedious. Not as good as the remakes. The OG SCD and PS1 remake releases have over the top voice work.

The PSP remake Silver Star Harmony is good, new professional anime dub, but maps are cut down, has longer transition times between screens. The gameplay is nerfed a bit to make it easy late in the game.

Sega Saturn releases of Silver Star Story & Eternal Blue are both fan patched. The new dub from Harmony was put on SSS cutscenes, it is totally playable with only a few bugs in the menu text once in a while. Eternal Blue is being worked on.

Looks like all my questions were answered here already, thanks for the write-up.