Lunar: Silver Star

[crashNUMBERS]

[TR][TD]
I was reading the Best RPG Non FF thread. I saw kishi say Lunar Silver star as his favorite. Is that really a good RPG?? I just wanna know because of the pricing. It's $56+ as a used copy. I might get it if no one else notices it at EBgames. But then again. I read review's giving it a 7.5 average. Is the game good in your oppinion??

[Raistlin]

The PS version, right? Yeah, Lunar: SSSC is one of the best RPGs ever made.

[crashNUMBERS]

[TR][TD]
Yeah Gamespot gave it a 7.6 and I just downloaded Lunar Legend for the GBA...

[Raistlin]

Lunar Legend sucks.

[XxSephirothxX]

I enjoyed Lunar Legend somewhat, but I'd never say it was great. I'm guessing the Playstation version was better. And I beat Lunar 2 over the summer. The story was amazingly cliched and the voice acting was extremely painful.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I said I like Lunar: Silver Star Story. I've never played Lunar: The Silver Star, although I mean to. Lunar Legend bored me rather quickly. I may eventually trudge through it out of sheer devotion as a Lunar fan, though.

[XxSephirothxX]

I've been curious exactly how Lunar Legend is different than The Silver Star or Silver Star Story, besides the obvious graphical changes, etc.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

As opposed to showing up later on, Nash is present in Burg at the very beginning of the game and now has intentions of becoming a Dragonmaster.
Instead of messing around with a lighthouse (TSS) or fighting a sea monster (SSS) to get out of Saith, you have to hide in barrels amongst a pirate crew's cargo (which is beer in the Japanese version and apples ^_^;; in the American version).
Those are the only significant ones I remember off the top of the head, but I'm sure there are more. I know that a lot of the changes were based on the SSS novels.

[Shoeberto]

I have Legends and thought it was a solid game, but I've never played the others.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

You're currently doing yourself a disservice.

[crashNUMBERS]

I said I like Lunar: Silver Star Story. I've never played Lunar: The Silver Star, although I mean to. Lunar Legend bored me rather quickly. I may eventually trudge through it out of sheer devotion as a Lunar fan, though.
Where's the difference?? One word. I think it said Lunar Silver star story was for some system but Lunar SSS Comeplete was the PS1 remake or something...

[XxSephirothxX]

If those were the only real changes made, or if the rest of the changes were in that same vein, what, exactly, made it so much worse? Was it just that you'd already played the original enough to be bored with the storyline, or that Legend was, for some other reason, less fun to play?
EDIT: I'm just curious, as I've heard several people say it sucked, but never really a precise reason why.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Where's the difference?? One word. I think it said Lunar Silver star story was for some system but Lunar SSS Comeplete was the PS1 remake or something...http://forums.eyesonff.com/showpost.php?p=1111571&postcount=3
If those were the only real changes made, or if the rest of the changes were in that same vein, what, exactly, made it so much worse? Was it just that you'd already played the original enough to be bored with the storyline, or that Legend was, for some other reason, less fun to play?
The movement element that made the battle system so unique was removed. A Limit Break kind of system was added, but it was hardly a sufficient consolation.
The voice acting that added so much to the game's personality was removed. I really doubt that LL used so much of the GBA's capacity that they had no room for some voice clips, as seen in the GBA Castlevania games.
I personally haven't played enough of the game to make an accurate judgment on this, but the consensus among fans is that the translation is terribly drab.
Instead of animated cut scenes, still images from SSS's cut scenes are used. (Lunar: Dragon Song also uses stills, but the difference is that those images were created specifically to be stills, as opposed to acting as Cliff Notes from another game's scenes. It changes a lot.)
The graphics were generally satisfactory, but given that they had to be compared against SSS's sprites, they were underwhelming.
It wasn't changed enough from SSS to really justify yet another remake of TSS's story. In fact, even if it had been changed a whole lot, it probably would still have been one remake too many.

[XxSephirothxX]

That basically sounds like Lunar 2: Eternal Blue but with a good story and decent voice acting, which would be a very good game indeed.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Lunar Legend, a rehash of a remake and a game with no voice acting, sounds to you like Lunar 2: Eternal Blue with a good story and decent voice acting?

[XxSephirothxX]

I was actually referring to Silver Star Story, because your list clearly showed what Legend was missing compared to the PS1 version. Sorry, that wasn't clear at all. :p

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

You played Eternal Blue before playing the first game? Man, you screwed up. So much of the emotional impact of EB's story depends on the player's knowledge of the events of TSS/SSS. In fact, if you don't think EB had a good story, that's probably why.

[XxSephirothxX]

I played Lunar Legend about a year or two before playing Eternal Blue, and probably forgot nearly all of the details. Some parts of it (Eternal Blue) were okay, but others just felt so amazingly cliche. The pure evil creature out for world domination? The young adventurer out to become a hero? The power of the human heart? It was just amazingly predicatable. Funny thing is, I found the battles somewhat boring, had to level up more than I would've liked, and didn't like the story too much...but I still had quite a good several days playing the game. The characters were very fun, and the dialogue had a lot of flair. I suppose that was the game's strong point. I'd like to play the new one if I ever get a DS.

[Raistlin]

Lunar SSSC (PS1): one of the best RPGs ever made.

Lunar 2 EB: a solid game, worse voice-acting (though any voice-acting game compared to SSSC is crap, because Lunar SSSC had awesome voice-acting), somewhat cliched.

Lunar Legends: rehashed version of Lunar SSSC. Cuts corners a lot in the story, no voice-acting, somewhat boring. A solid GBA RPG, but nothing special in and of itself.

[Madonna]

Oh sure, go forget the incarnation on the Sega CD. But, the most likely and best one to get your hands on is SSSC indeed. Who has Sega CDs around these days? :|

[crashNUMBERS]

I got a question. What's so kick ass about it?? And if it's that cool Im gonna get the used copy (50+ damn buck's!!) and well. Have the time of my life...

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

It has superlative characters, art design, voice acting, writing, music, and gameplay.

[bipper]

I thought it was like a childrens book adopted to a video game. I loved it none the less. I would definatley say it is worth that price, espesially if you get the Ghaleon (god i suck at spelling) boxing hand puppet.

Bipper

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The Ghaleon punching puppet went out with pre-orders of L2:EB, not SSS. But if someone were selling SSS with the puppet, hey, no harm done. It's without a doubt the most justified result of Working Designs's tendency to pack their releases full of impractical baubles.

[crashNUMBERS]

So kishi. You claim it's your favorite RPG made?? If so I believe and trust you and I shall buy it!!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

No, my favorite RPG is Square's Tom Sawyer.

[crashNUMBERS]

XD Oh yeah non square RPG. Fine!! Second fav?? Nevermind that just to get back on topic. So it's good right??

[Shoeberto]

Yes, Kishi, please firmly re-establish what you've been saying this entire thread.

[bipper]

The Ghaleon punching puppet went out with pre-orders of L2:EB, not SSS. But if someone were selling SSS with the puppet, hey, no harm done. It's without a doubt the most justified result of Working Designs's tendency to pack their releases full of impractical baubles.

Doh, :) It's been so long since I got mine, I though it came with sss. But yeah, I kinda love all the stuff you get with thier releases. The necklace was like the ultimate ghettosized RPG nerds dream.

Also,wasn't Squares Tom Sawyer a side scrolling game?

Bipper

[Vyk]

I played the "complete" version. I agree that it's pretty much a story-book, so don't expect deep gameplay. The charm in a Lunar game is all about the music and characterization. I'm not sure there's a game out there that lets you get to know your characters better than Lunar. I can't judge a game strictly on that, but as far as that goes, I'd put it up there with Xenogears. I mean you spend ~40 hours with these people, and you're basically right there with them, having fun the whole time. Its hard to describe.

[Lord Chainsaw]

I don't know about excellent gameplay in Lunar SSSC or EB, but everything else is fantastic. I try to ignore the painful battles. It's not that hard to do.

I prefer Lunar 2 to Lunar SSSC, although I think both are incredible. And I have to give proper credit to Working Designs for their incredible localization of the game. You just don't see care like that going in to many games coming in from Japan.

I also recommend you buy the official strategy guides for the games with the games. These are the best strategy guides ever made. Really, they are. Not because of the level of helpful content, but because of how fun they are to read.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The gameplay may not be anything spectacular, but there are some aspects I really like.
Combat involves moving around the battlefield, adding a new dimension to offense and defense. Physical attacks require you to first actually run up to the enemy, and the enemy has to do the same to strike you, and everyone can only move so far in a single turn.
You can tell what attack an enemy is about to make based on how it's moving or acting and prepare accordingly. So, if it's bobbing up and down, you'll know it's going to fire that horizontal beam across the screen, so you'll move everyone out of the way. Or, if its eyes are flashing, you'll know it's going to use an area attack, so you'll move all your characters away from each other so they won't be caught up in the same blast. If it's standing on its head, you'll know it's going to use a screen-wide fire attack, so you'll cast a spell to protect everyone against fire. Etc.
As characters level up and apply certain equipment, the amount of physical attacks they'll be able to do in a single turn will increase, usually reaching five or so hits by the end of the game for the warrior-type characters. In addition to the offensive advantage, if a character is trying to strike the enemy but has moved as far as he can and still isn't close enough, he'll automatically sacrifice one of his hits for more movement. So, if Alex can hit four times but isn't close enough to reach the enemy in one turn, instead of wasting a turn, he'll reach the enemy at the expense of one of his hits and still be able to attack three times.
In L2:EB, there are special equipment called crests that allow whomever equips them to cast special spells, increase certain stats, or utilize other special properties. Each character can equip two crests at a time, and their effects can be combined to unlock even more potent ones. Customization abounds.
Yeah.

[Vyk]

Y'know... I watched that stuff happen, but I never really paid much attention to what was actually going on. I just jumped in and tore stuff up. But on the subject, I have to say the AI in Lunar was really good. Some days I was more interested in plot and exploration and spent my whole play time letting the computer fight for me, and it did a damn good job of keeping me alive on its own. Really nice for those lazy days.

[crashNUMBERS]

The gameplay may not be anything spectacular, but there are some aspects I really like.
Combat involves moving around the battlefield, adding a new dimension to offense and defense. Physical attacks require you to first actually run up to the enemy, and the enemy has to do the same to strike you, and everyone can only move so far in a single turn.
You can tell what attack an enemy is about to make based on how it's moving or acting and prepare accordingly. So, if it's bobbing up and down, you'll know it's going to fire that horizontal beam across the screen, so you'll move everyone out of the way. Or, if its eyes are flashing, you'll know it's going to use an area attack, so you'll move all your characters away from each other so they won't be caught up in the same blast. If it's standing on its head, you'll know it's going to use a screen-wide fire attack, so you'll cast a spell to protect everyone against fire. Etc.
As characters level up and apply certain equipment, the amount of physical attacks they'll be able to do in a single turn will increase, usually reaching five or so hits by the end of the game for the warrior-type characters. In addition to the offensive advantage, if a character is trying to strike the enemy but has moved as far as he can and still isn't close enough, he'll automatically sacrifice one of his hits for more movement. So, if Alex can hit four times but isn't close enough to reach the enemy in one turn, instead of wasting a turn, he'll reach the enemy at the expense of one of his hits and still be able to attack three times.
In L2:EB, there are special equipment called crests that allow whomever equips them to cast special spells, increase certain stats, or utilize other special properties. Each character can equip two crests at a time, and their effects can be combined to unlock even more potent ones. Customization abounds.
Yeah.
One of those game's that one aspect doesn't step up to the other's but the rest bring's the game back up...

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Sigh (http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif).

[Sephex]

Sigh (http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif).

LOL. And your points you made in your earlier post is why I like the Lunar games.

[crashNUMBERS]

Sigh (http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif).
:(

[xox LiNdZ]

I haven't played Lunar: The Silver Star for years, but it was and still is one of my favorite games. I had the game on sega cd, so it was a long time ago. I want to buy it for playstation sometime. I recently played and beat Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, on playstation. I liked eternal blue, but I think silver star was better.

[localflick]

Okay. It breaks down like this:

Lunar Legend is a stripped down version of Lunar Silver Star Story. It has no cutscenes, reduced graphics, and other cut corners already mentioned in this thread. To answer ALL your questions go here (http://lunar-net.com).

Most Lunar Fans think that Legend is OK, but NO WHERE near as good as the PSX or Sega CD versions. Also Lunar Eternal Blue is my favorita RPG of all time. If you like Silver Star that's the next one to try.

Remember, they don't sell them used for over $50 because they suck. If you get a copy on E-bay, try to get one with the bonus stuff that came with it. (Cloth map, hardbound manual, nifty box etc...)