Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

"Absolute Old-School"

As I right this review, The original Sega CD version is getting very close to it's 11th birthday. The game still holds a place in its owners hearts as one of the reasons they started playing. Even today, Working Designs still thinks that as RPGs become more and more popular, new RPGers need to be able to play a game a decade old to truly understand the fundamentals behind this upcoming genre (hence, the most resent rerelease of the classic on GBA a year ago).

Recently, my local video rental store went out of business. They had to sell everything, including this hard to find gem, for $5 Canadian. Any RPGer knowing they could get this title for that cheap would be a moron to throw away the chance. All 4 discs, near mint, plus the leather hardbound manual, all mine.

After a full play through, it's easy to see why this is one of the most sought after games in the world, and why it costs so much to get the original on eBAY...

Game play overview:

Traditional RPG formula. You have a band of characters that changes over time with new faces. They come in all shapes and sizes, mage's, clerics, and warriors. You suit them up with the latest weapons and armor, and fight monsters to gain XP and silver. Use the XP to become stronger, and the silver to get more expensive and powerful weapons. While doing so, travel from town to town, facing bosses and unraveling a story of good vs evil.

The battle engine is truly unique. While most RPGs have your party line up on one side and enemies on the other, Lunar has you using formations. Before battle, you have the option of choosing where your heroes will go when the battle starts. Place Warriors on the front so they get closest to enemies, and casters in the back to avoid big hits. In order to attack with basic melee attacks, your warriors will actually walk up to the opponent, and attack. If it's too far to walk, they stop on the way when they run out of range (Range is an attribute that will increase as you level up). Higher level warriors can also get extra attacks, so after they swing their sword, they will attack again. In the earlier mentioned scenario, if a warrior has two attacks, and attacks an enemy far away, he will walk up as far as the first attack will take him, and if he runs out of range, he will start walking for his second attack, and attack when he gets close enough. Some characters (mainly Luna and Nash) can get missile weapons to use without walking forward. Spells can be cast anywhere, and some will affect enemies close to the targeted one.

Characters have the usual HP and MP, 6 equip slots (Weapon, Body, Shield/Gauntlet, Head, and two accessories), and 6 item slots. By items slots, instead of all characters just using items from the groups item stash, you must equip items on characters to use them. This can make long boss fights very difficult, and sometimes impossible to beat if you don't prepare correctly beforehand. In addition to these small caches, the group has an item mule in the form of a flying cat, named Nall (who also serves as the comic relief character) that can hold 96 items, including armaments, quest based items, and Bromides (I'll get to these later). In battle, he will occasionally revive a fainted character.

Story: 10/10

Between a smooth translation, and a long well thought out story full of twists (I'd love to spoil some of it for you... but no...), you will never grow tired of it. The jokes are well made, and the characters are all fleshed out to show true emotions. The game will even have you show sympathy for the big villain of it all (once again, I won't spoil it for you...).

Graphics: 3/10

Like I said, it's old-school, and I mean OLD. Actually, the graphics have been stepped up since the Sega CD version, but to a happy medium where they have oldschool charm, but not eye-sore inducing ugliness. The anime bits of the game (which are quite frequent), are well drawn and stay consistent to the game. Speaking of animated parts, you also have the option of picking up an item somewhere in the game that lets you view all the cinemas you've seen thus far.

Music: 9/10

How good is the music? So good they give you a CD of tracks from the game. 'Nuff said.

Controls: 7/10

Ok, here's my one problem with the controls. Square is menu, Triangle is back, O is save (you can go to the save menu with a hit of the O button), and X is attack. The choices of the triangle and square buttons threw me off for the first 40 min (Not to mention, when you back to playing other RPGs, will take some time to recover). Other then that, Alex moves around well with both the stick and D-pad, the vibration functions are well utilized, and the menus are easy to navigate (after you get used to the triangle button).

Gameplay: 8/10

As said above, the gameplay fallows a mix of innovation and tradition, blending into a easy to learn forever to master experience. My main problems are with the item management system (One time, I got wuped by the last boss, and came back with some rearranged items, and wuped him), the guessing game of how far my characters can attack in one move, and the mood swings of that cat (another time, Nash was dead for 15 turns before Nall got to reviving him...).

Extras: 7/10

If you get the full package, which is both hard to find and expensive, you get a cloth map, leather manual, 2 game CDs, music CD, 'The Making of Lunar' CD (30 min long), and a cool looking box. The making of disc is kind of cool, but that is 30 min you won't be spending playing the game. The cloth map can be useful, but for other purposes, it's worth dill. The music CD has lots of good songs from various areas in the game. The box is a box. The Manual is SUPER COOL, and includes art, mini walk through, and interviews with the Lunar staff...

Overall: 9/10

It's got a few, overlookable flaws, and it's very old by todays standards. If you can find it, and you've got the cash to get it, you should have. Having a bunch of Final Fantasies on your shelf makes you an RPGer, but having this right beside them puts you one step closer to being a true hardcore.

This is easily the best version of Lunar 1 available. The Sega CD and Saturn versions where slugs in the graphical department (not to mention, who owns a Saturn or Sega CD? Those two flopped so hard.), and the Gameboy Advance edition lacks the charming FMV that has become a staple of the Lunar Series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/03, Updated 04/18/03