Beginning as a duology of turn-based Japanese RPGs for the somewhat ill-fated Sega CD, Game Arts’s Lunar series was one of the defining cult classics of the genre since the ’90s. It was able to carve out a niche for itself in the JRPG landscape thanks to its use of full-motion video for certain cutscenes, tight combat, and more focused storytelling than was common at the time. Although the first two installments have had several re-releases, most of them have become rare collector’s items, and they’ve lacked a modern release until now. Today we take a look at the Lunar Remastered Collection to see if this is a worthwhile release of genre darlings.
The Goods
Lunar Remastered Collection comes with a remastered version of both the Playstation 1 releases of the original duology, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. These versions were updated remakes of the Sega CD versions of Lunar 1 and 2 which expanded on the story and mechanics of the originals. These versions also featured anime cutscenes, a more layered soundtrack befitting of better hardware, and enemies that appear on the field triggered via contact rather than random encounters.
For the most part, the remastered versions of these games are quite faithful to the original PS1 releases, and many of their additional features are optional. You can choose to play the game in either the Remastered Mode (with upscaled visuals to fit a 16:9 resolution) or Classic Mode (which keeps visuals closer to the original 4:3 look, even including some CRT TV filters in the options if you choose). Your save files can be loaded from either mode, so you’re not locked into one or the other upon starting a new game.
There are a few other alterations and additions. This version of the game features dual audio with the choice between a newly done English dub or the original Japanese audio track. It comes with a fast-forward option for battles, which is nice to have given the at-times slow combat animations when at regular speed. You also have the choice between a less restrictive inventory or the more restrictive Classic style inventory.
A Tale of Two Stars
The games in the Lunar Remastered Collection are relatively straightforward in their narratives. Lunar 1 begins with a boy named Alex who wishes to become a Dragonmaster like his hero, Dyne. After a chance encounter with the White Dragon, he and his childhood friend Luna venture off into the world as Alex seeks to become a hero and eventually a Dragonmaster himself. They meet a collection of quirky characters each with their own little story connections, as they eventually become entangled in a villain’s sinister plan.
For its time, there’s a decent number of twists and turns surrounding the game’s events and characters, even if Lunar 1 might come off as conventional by today’s standards. The cast of characters is relatively fun (though Alex is noticeably a borderline silent-protagonist), and Game Arts did a solid job creating a relatively distinct fantasy world and setting for the game. It helps that there’s a decent amount of dialogue available (in both games even) to flesh things out, as even minor NPC interactions will often feature multiple lines in response to talking to them, with party members chiming in fairly regularly.
Lunar 2 takes place long after Lunar 1, albeit on the same world and with a good amount of continuity between games. A young archaeologist named Hiro is informed that a “Destroyer” threatens their world, before finding out that the Destroyer is actually a strange woman named Lucia. Contrary to her initial label, she has instead come from the planet opposite Hiro’s to prevent the resurrection of a great evil named Zophar that once destroyed the other planet and now seeks to destroy this one.
Once again, the party gathers a band of characters with their own foibles and quirks, each of whom end up with their own personal little stake in the overall quest. There is something of a developing love story with Hiro and Lucia, as Lucia gradually becomes more of an emotionally receptive person throughout the story.
Between the two I found Lunar 2’s story a touch more interesting. While both games have some of that old JRPG roughness common to that era where events just sort of happen without a ton of strong cohesion or emotional pull, I think it still had decently better character arcs with several of its cast members, as well as some pretty standout scenes and moments. The stories are simple, but they accomplish enough in what they were aiming for. Each game has a fun enough cast of characters to at least make for some enjoyable, if sometimes goofy, cutscenes.
I also like the way Lunar 2 handles continuity, both in its worldbuilding and its narrative connections. While the story doesn’t feel downright anchored to Lunar 1, there are enough connections to reward you for being invested all the way through. There are also just some neat little touches; for example, you heal by going up to a goddess statue rather than sleeping at an inn, and you have to pay to use certain statues in Lunar 2 because they’re being handled by a screwed-up cult. There’s a decent share of cool little details like this.
Have At You
Combat is more-or-less the same across both games in Lunar Remastered Collection. Each character can attack, defend, use items, or use skills they learn as they gain levels. Some enemies have weaknesses and resistances. If you’ve played a turn-based RPG in the last 40 years, you’ve likely seen something very similar before. You can also use the game’s AI auto-battle, though I recommend against this most of the time. It’s perhaps the most boring way to play this game (which is already pretty speedy with the fast-forward option), and depending on your configuration your AI party members will happily toss your valuable items the moment an opportunity presents itself. This is especially a problem in Lunar 2 which doesn’t give you as many options for what to make your characters do during auto-battle.
One aspect Lunar handles differently from most other RPGs is the way party and enemy positioning matters in battle. Basic melee attacks require combatants to get close to their targets. Some characters can swing their weapon multiple times per “attack” command, but if they have to walk too far to get to an enemy they can lose a swing (or even their entire attack). Some attacks also hit nearby enemies with splash damage, meaning that you want to pick the right target at the right time to maximize damage with these skills. This can also work to your advantage, as you can position your teammates in formations where enemies with area-of-effect attacks only hit a small number of allies. It’s not a particularly deep implementation of this sort of system, but it adds a nice pinch of spice to combat.
These games find a solid amount of their friction in the form of attrition. While encounters aren’t random in this version, many of them are difficult if not outright impossible to dodge on the overworld (particularly in Lunar 1 where there is no sprint button), meaning you will have to get into combat and take damage or cast spells. While combat strategies are fairly simple, enemies and bosses often hit hard enough that I still felt I had to be wise with how I planned out my turns often enough. Money is also relatively tight for much of the games.
Dungeons don’t exactly have heal points, and while you have the ability to save at any time in this version, there’s enough conscious decision-making and risk analysis in making sure you have enough to beat the boss at the end when there is one to keep things interesting. The two games in Lunar Remastered Collection aren’t particularly difficult and there are some fairly overpowered skills, but I didn’t feel like I could just auto-pilot my way through the games either.
Meat and Potatoes
The Lunar games are definitely on the simple side for RPGs on the whole, such that I would call this collection relatively beginner-friendly to people less attuned to JRPG gameplay. There are very few decisions you’ll have to make when it comes to party make-up, as you have static lineups throughout and very little in the way of customization of your characters. Lunar 2 at least has crest slots which can allow you to give each character some unique skills and attributes to your liking, though this is more a nice bonus than a main attraction.
The games are also quite linear. Even when you get to the more open portions of the later parts of each game, there’s not a lot to explore and the narrative tends to push you in a certain direction. This does mean that you’re less likely to get stuck or lost at least, as the most annoying roadblock I usually ran into was needing to talk to certain NPCs multiple times to advance the story. Still, the Lunar games are much more compact than even many of their JRPG contemporaries, which also limits replayability due to their relative lack of stuff to explore during your playthrough, or the limited complexity and depth in their systems. Simplicity is the name of the game here.
Presentation
This game’s visual presentation is generally pretty solid. The spritework, animations, and pixel art are very expressive and colorful, and the character designs and portraits have a solid amount of personality to them thanks to character designer and animation director Toshiyuki Kuboota. The upscaled versions of the backgrounds and art don’t always look the best, and certain visual effects can be a bit overdone, but for the most part, I think the game looks fine in its Remastered edition. There’s always the Classic option if you so choose. You can also turn off some of the additional blurring on the top and bottom of the screen, which I did. The anime cutscenes are also quite nice, especially if you’re like me and you enjoy 90’s anime style/aesthetic.
The music of both games is primarily composed and arranged by Noriyuki Iwadare, who would go on to work on Game Arts’s Grandia series before becoming perhaps most famous for his work on Ace Attorneys 3, 5 and 6, plus the Investigations spinoffs. It’s noticeable that these were some of the earlier works in his catalog, as compared to his peak works, they are a bit more inconsistent (e.g. the main cave dungeon theme stands out as rather repetitive). Still, there are a lot of great and catchy town and battle themes in these scores to say the music definitely enhances the game on the whole. It’s also nice that there are some overlapping compositions with slightly different arrangements between each game to connect them just a bit more.
As far as I could tell, much of the English script is kept the same from the original PS1 translations, for better or for worse, but there are a few touch-ups to at least remove some of the more bizarre translation choices found in the original dialogue. Some of the more out-of-place real-world pop culture references and odd jokes from the dialogue and script are removed, although you will occasionally find some more inoffensive references in the flavor text (see the screenshot above). The script still maintains both its sense of silliness and sharpness from the original English releases for what it is.
As mentioned before, the game comes with dual audio and a re-done English dub. A lot of the English voice actors in this game are common to find in JRPG credits nowadays, and I think they did fine with the at times silly and hammy script and scenes. Whichever track works for you, there’s enough charm here either way.
Verdict
Strictly as a collection, the Lunar Remastered Collection is an excellent package. You have both games of a classic yet hard-to-obtain duology in a single, highly accessible collection. There are enough touch-ups to account for the different sensibilities of all kinds of JRPG fans around today. The fact that there are Classic and Remastered options which can even share save files is an especially nice treat. Still, the core of each game is kept gracefully intact from their PS1 counterparts. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Lunar 1 and 2 don’t offer particularly deep games in their systems and their stories are a bit on the simple and straightforward side. While this lowers the upper ceiling of the games for me, they have a high enough floor that I still enjoyed my playthrough plenty. They also make up for their simplicity with a charming and engrossing world and interconnected narrative between the games, while having some fun characters and dialogue.
This collection serves as an excellent way to experience these fan-favorite RPGs, whether it be for the first time or just a trip down memory lane.
LUNAR REMASTERED COLLECTION IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another classic JRPG released for modern consoles, you might want to check out Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
Many thanks go to GungHo Online Entertainment for a PlayStation 4 review code for Lunar Remastered Collection.
Been playing games since my papa gave me an NES controller in the early 90’s. I play games of almost all genres, but especially focus role-playing, action, and puzzle-platform games. Also an enjoyer of many niche things ranging from speedrunning to obscure music from all over the world.
