"Even Lunar Legends is better then this game"

When I first heard a brand new Lunar game was coming to the DS I got very excited. I loved Lunar SS, EB, SSC, and EBC. Lunar Legends on the GBA was overall looked badly on by fans because of how much content was edited to fit the game onto the GBA but I still liked it. Having played Lunar Dragon Song however I was very disappointed in the end.
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Graphics-7
The graphics in this game are among some of the best pixelated graphics ever made in any game ever. It is easy to see that the designers really worked hard to make this game look phenomenal. Sadly the same care wasn't given to the character dialogue shots which look like they belong on the NES. Main characters talking was a very important aspect of the original Lunar games, and most characters had 4-5 facial expressions for talking. This game you only have 2-3 for each main character. Secondary characters are even worse, most of them are just the same guy recolored to make them look different!!! This can often make the few memorable characters forgettable because they are just so low in quality it hurts your eyes to look at them.
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Music-10
Lunar games have been know for there great music and this one delivers. Every sound, song, and melody is memorable in its own right.
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Gameplay-1
This game has so many gameplay flaws I don't know where to begin. Like Lunar games of old you don't fight enemies until you hit them or they hit you. In the old games however you had a short sprint to move faster which while annoying when used right it could be used to dodge annoying battles. In an effort to improve upon this the designers decided to make it so that IF YOU RUN YOU LOSE HP!!!! This is very annoying because if you run you are weaker then you should be but if you walk your character moves toooooooo ssssllloooowwww. In Lunar DS you can run through most screens in 30 seconds, it takes you 2 minutes to walk them!!!!
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Another problem this game has is in its battle system. Lunar SS/C and EB/C had a very unique and fun battle system where you would move around the field to hit foes and cast spells. One of Lunar Legends flaws was that it got rid of that system and replaced it with a typical turn based battle system. This game continues down the road to ruin. First you don't have 1 battle system, you have 2. The first mode lets you get EXP so that you can level up and removes the enemy from the room for a set time, if you can beat all the enemies in the room you get a 30% Hp and Mp increase and you get access to a special blue chest which usually contains a very powerful item.
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The other system lets you get items like honey, rusted helmets, and bird beaks. These items are next to useless but are required to earn money in the game. Your characters are members of the Gad's Express, a delivery system that delivers items to people for lots of money. The problem is getting these items is very random and requires hours of extra fighting where you won't get any exp!!!! This also leads to the problem that you level up very quickly in this game, if you start at level 1 and can get to lvl 15 in the first area in the game with enemies in under a hour we have a big problem.
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So when you actually get into a battle you will find more flaws with its design. First off the battle view will remind you of Golden Sun games. The camera is behind the heroes who stand in the bottom left corner and the enemies stand in the upper right. You can't attack whoever you want, so if there is a healer who continues to heal the other enemies you can't target him because your heroes wants to target who they want to hit. This makes battles longer then they need to be. Also the character move VERY SLOWLY, the jump quickly at the enemy....then take 10 seconds to hit them! You can fix this by holding down the L and R buttons which speed up battles. You will find yourself holding down the buttons ALOT. Also the battles are very unbalanced, you can have a max of 3 character in the party and the enemies can have up to 8!
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You get 5 different characters in battle, however you don't get to choose who you want, your allies reflect on who is with Jian because the game follows him and some how you only ever have 3 people with you at any time. Jian, the games hero, is very over powered, being able to attack 3 times and do 2X more damage then anyone else in your party. The two human girl healers you get in the game are both weak but are your only source of healing. Too bad most spells in this game cost a ridiculous amount of magic. The two Beastmen/women you get in the game can be strong and have powerful multi targeting spells, but often the can't do as much damage as Jian can to one target.
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Plot-6
Past Lunar games have had amazing plots that were very well written and always kept you wanting to find out what happens next. This game has an okay plot but nothing amazing like past Lunar games. Where this game fails however is plot development, in the old Lunar games you really got attached to each character in your party and learned alot about them. Lunar DS has next to no character development at all and more often then not people join and leave your party for no reason at all other then they can.
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Replay-1
There is almost no reason to replay this game after you beat it. There are no unlockables and the plot isn't good enough to merit a second play.
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I would recommend this game for Lunar fans only, even then, you should only rent this game or borrow it from some sucker who accidentally bought it and is still keeping it (like me <.<)
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Final score-5 out of 10
Now excuse me while I go play Lunar Legends, which out classes this game in almost every way

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05