Lunar: The Silver Star

"My first RPG is also my first perfect 10 review"

Okay, I'm going to be blunt, this game changed my life. Literally. It made me the person I am today. Up until I rented this game back in the summer of 94, I had never played an RPG, wasn't into medieval fantasy, and didn't even know what anime was. That all changed with this game. This game not only introduced me to RPGs, it made them my genre of choice. (I rarely play anything but RPGs these days.) Also, it got me interested in fantasy literature, and introduced me to the wonderful world of Japanese anime. If it had not been for this game, I might have become a different person. (A person with a social life, perhaps...)

Anyway, the game I speak of is Lunar, an RPG released for Sega's ill-fated add on, the Sega CD. It was one of the few games for the system that was actually worth the CD it was printed on. Despite its age, this game is still one of the best RPG experiences you can have. Yes, this game is much better than the Playstation remake, in my opinion. There's a sense of fun and simplicity that was missing in the remake.

The game's hero is a young boy named Alex who lives in the sleepy village of Burg. He idolizes a hero named Dragonmaster Dyne, who was also born in the same village, and grew up to serve the great Goddess Althena, and supposedly gave his life protecting his people when a black dragon went insane. Alex hopes to one day go off on an adventure, and see the world. That chance comes sooner than he ever dreamed. What starts as a treasure hunt for a diamond in a nearby cave, eventually turns into something much bigger, which will ultimately force Alex to become the hero he's always dreamed of being, in order to save his world, and the soul of the woman he loves.

Okay, so the storyline's nothing earth-shattering. What makes this game so great are the characters and the well-written dialogue. At the time, these were some of the most well developed characters to ever appear in a US RPG. They seemed to have real personalities, and the translation did not seem dry or forced like some of Square's early translation attempts on the SNES. Part of the game's charm is its simplicity. This is a simple love story between a boy and the girl he's grown up with, set against a great adventure. Working Designs should be commended for letting the simple charms of the story shine through, along with the great characters. Sure, some of the modern day references and humor that WD always puts in their games can be distracting, but with this game, I didn't seem to mind.

The graphics seem pretty dated by today's standards. Hell, they weren't that great when the game was initially released. Short, SD (Super Deformed) character sprites that lack detail represent your party. The monsters you face are pretty small too, and don't seem all that threatening. The backgrounds are fairly simple, too. The game's main attraction back in its day were the few anime scenes they included at key dramatic points in the story. However, even these seem dated. There's little, if no movement at all, for the characters. They basically just stand there, moving their mouths, or repeating a simple animation. (Nall, the baby white dragon, flapping his wings, for example.) However, back when I first saw these cinemas, I was floored. I felt like I was playing a cartoon. (Ah, the innocence of youth...)

Even if the graphics weren't the greatest, this game excelled in the sound department. Lunar contains one of the best soundtracks ever in an RPG, rivaling most of the stuff you find in modern games. It's a crime that when Game Arts did the Playstation remake, they did not include any of the original music from this game. The music in this game is light years better than the tracks featured in the remake. Not only is the music well-composed, it's taken directly off the CD, so it sounds rich and symphonic. (The game also includes two of my all time favorite ''town themes'' ever in an RPG - the happy and cheerful melody of Burg, and the soothing, yet mysterious theme of Vane, the kingdom of magic.) In fact, if you put the game CD in your stereo, you can listen to all of the music from the game, and you can even listen to all of the dialogue scenes, so you can memorize them, and drive your friends crazy by reciting the scenes, word for word, by heart along with the characters.

Aside from the music, the other big attraction was the dialogue. There's probably only 10 minutes total, and really only four or five characters who got to speak, but they were done well. (Except for Alex's pre-pubescent squeaky voice, which made him sound like a little girl. Fortunately, he didn't open his mouth much.) From the white dragon Quark's booming and majestic voice, to the sly, unsettling voice of the evil wizard, Ghaleon, the acting was (and still is) leagues above most of the stuff we get in video games. As for the sound effects, they were basic and forgettable. The sound when characters got hit sounded a bit weak, and the enemies made a weird ''bloop'' sound when you'd kill them. But, it's easily overlooked, given the overall excellence of the music and dialogue.

So, what makes this game a more enjoyable experience than the Playstation remake? Yes, the Playstation version features a deeper story, more characters, better graphics, and much better anime sequences. However, the original Sega CD game has a feeling of simplicity and fun that was curiously missing from the PS version. In this game, you feel like you're going on this fun journey with Alex, which eventually turns into a great adventure. In the remake, it felt like they were trying to make it seem epic from the very beginning. The remake tried too hard to make the game seem like an ''event''. It tried to make it seem more cinematic, bigger, and more impressive.

The Sega CD version, however, just tries to deliver a fun little quest, and nothing more. It doesn't try to be epic, it doesn't try to be big...It just wants to take you on a fun journey with some great characters. It's hard to explain, really. This game is just extremely fun to play. It's never overly challenging, the enemies give plenty of experience and silver, so you don't have to spend countless hours building levels or money to buy items...The game just seems perfectly balanced. It's this balance that allows you to just sit back and enjoy the story that the game tries to tell you. And although the game may not be flashy or overly impressive, it's addictive as hell, thanks to the imagination of Game Arts' programmers, and the skill of Working Designs' translators.

For me, this was the perfect introduction to RPGs. It's not hard, without being too easy, either. It tells a simple, but very effective, story with great characters. It's a real shame that most people did not get to experience this game before the Playstation version. Even though I must have beaten this game over ten times, I still keep on coming back to it. It's just that much fun.

Lunar is not only my first RPG, but it is probably one of the best RPGs I've ever played, or ever will play. But it's not just a great game, it's also a great music CD, too. I often put the game in my stereo, and listen to all the tracks. If you're lucky enough to track down an old Sega CD, do whatever it takes to track down this game to go with it. You won't ever regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/01, Updated 06/09/03