Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

"Rivals only the Final Fantasy saga, with funny characters and great game play, along with..."

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Anyway,

My favorite type of game is an RPG. Many define RPG’s differently, there are some disputes. Some say it’s a game in which you don’t have lives or a score. Some say it must have levels. Some say there must be several characters to play as. Others will argue it has to have a “battle screen”. While the debate seems to go no forever, there is no doubt, this game is an RPG, and a great one to boot.

I never played the original, but I’m guessing it was similar to one of the original Final Fantasies. This game however, is a working masterpiece. It goes down as one of the RPG legends, such as Final Fantasy (My personal fave was VIII), and Chrono Cross. Though the use of CGI (Computer Generated Image) is nearly non-existant, and is replaced by seemingly hand-drawn cartoons, they still give this game justice. Anyway, here’s the lo-down:

Graphics: 8

The software can do better than that. The in-game graphics are not polygonal, but, well, cartoonie. Reminds me of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, or one of those SNES games along those lines. The movie factor, while created on the computer, leaves a mostly cartoon feel. The movies, unlike in FF7 and 8, do contain speech, which builds a sense of character quite nicely. Overall, for the time of production, it seems that it is slightly lacking because of their “mature” theme, and deserves more or less an 8.

Sound: 9

During the game, there aren’t many sounds to fit the scenery, but during speech, sound occasionally comes into play, which is not found in most RPG’s short of Castlevania. Even in battle speech is existant. Also, the movies were created incredibly in sync’ with the sounds that represent them. Synthisizer at it’s best I suppose.

Gameplay: 10

A great battle system, though falls short of the strategic enviorment in FF Tactics. The special techniques are widely varied with the different Crests, and the leveling system is standard. I like the sudden bursts of speed you can occasionally get if you wish to avoid your enemy’s, which are oddly enough in plain view. All the better I guess. Great game, great gameplay

Story: 10

A few people find the jokes lacking in “maturity”, but many of the jokes, and Ronfar’s antics, are in fact quite funny. Some jokes are occasionally bawdy, while some innocent. The character development is amazing, and just about everybody has their own subplot. Even after the game is done the Storyline continues (You’ll see) which seems to lessen the availibility of a Lunar 3. But the first “shower scene” is quite amusing. The story progresses on, and even though I didn’t play Lunar 1, it seemed to link to it perfectly.

Longivity of play: 9

There are several factors that play into this. You would expect to play an Rpg over and over again, while a flight simulator would fall short. This Rpg is a long game with many secrets to uncover. There is the fact that you may wish to see the Movies again, though you might not need to play the game again to do that. There are many “bromides”, and some of them are quite amusing. Simply watching the speech again is well worth another round trip, or at least several save files.

Overall: 10 (Yeah, that’s right)

As you can tell, I didn’t average out the different categories, just remembered the fun I had while playing this game. A GREAT Rpg, for anyone that’s interested. Rent or buy? That’s kind of a stupid question for an Rpg. BUY, of course! It’s a great game, 3 discs long, and it even comes with two other discs: Soundtrack and The Making of Lunar 3: Eternal Blue. It comes with standees and even Lucia’s Pendant. Cool, huh?? It comes second only to FF8 ( haven’t played FF9 yet) in my book. So get it, ok!!!???

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/25/01, Updated 02/25/01