Lunar Legend

"How many times do we have to play the same game? Ah well."

Lunar Legend clearly serves a dual purpose - giving franchise veterans a Game Boy Advance fix, and presenting an interesting Role Playing Game for Lunar newbies. Myself being a member of the latter, I came into this game with a very open mind expecting nothing but to be rewarded for my spending of $30.00. Game Arts has provided the GBA with an RPG that picks you up from the beginning and doesn't let go until you're in the middle of your second time through. The main reason for this is character relatability.

Coordinating love into a video game has never been the easiest of feats. However, emotions run high in Lunar Legend in most of categories given. The love story never comes off as an, "Oh, I love thee so!" - "Will thou taketh thy to thine royal make-out spot?" kind of extravaganza. In most cases, video games tend to make a mockery of actual human feelings. Lunar faithfully portrays the reactions that people would make in the real world, although a bit cheesy from time to time. Sure, the situations are, for the most part, farfetched, but this an RPG after all. There are even fleeting periods of time that may send a little shiver up (or down) your spine, where the heat of the moment simply catches up with you. And that's when you realize that you're playing this game on a handheld, albeit the best currently in existence. Game Boy Advance RPG titans such as Golden Sun and Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis didn't develop any even moderately powerful emotions deriving from characters, and it's nice to see that one of Lunar Legend's strong points lies in its ability to construct personalities with reliable activities. For example, the Wizard known as Nash is very egotistical, so when certain things happen, you can practically predict what the guy is going to say. It's almost like making [imaginary] friends with over five sprites no bigger than your thumb.

The tale that is told is one of your basic RPG scenarios - homie wanna be a thuggin' G-Unit soooul'ja. But the variation on this is unforgettable. Fifteen years prior to the beginning of Lunar Legend, a great Dragonmaster by the name of Dyne (one of the Four Heroes, whom you'll come to familiarize your party with) passed away. He was from Burg, which also happens to be the hometown of this title's main character, Alex. The young man idolizes Dyne and wants to become a heroic Dragonmaster himself. [Plop]. Alex has extremely strong feelings for childhood sweetheart Luna, whom has a powerful, divine voice that relates to the plot throughout the adventure. The two perform in the Festival with Alex playing his Ocarina and Luna doing the vocals, which come across as "aaaaah, aaaa-aaa-aaah aaa-aaaaah"'s. The choir has come to town, jolly jumpin' jellybeans. The next character that is introduced is Nash (member of the legendary Magic Guild in Vane), whom was mentioned earlier in the review. With the promise of an adventure, he recruits Alex, Luna, and their greedy, businessman-friend Ramus as guides into the neighboring Weird Woods in search of the White Dragon. [Plop]. There are four Dragons, each with a different coat of paint - Red, Blue, and Black. A man named Laike will be met soon enough, and he'll turn up throughout the game as something of an enforcer. The names of the three other comrades are Mia (daughter of an important Magic Guild leader), Jess (daughter of Mel, one of the Four Heroes, but also in a relationship with...), Kyle (egotistical leader of a barbarian-like tribe with feelings for Jess). Though the story may seem quite basic and the characters run-of-the-mill, a couple major plot twists a mere few hours into the game will turn everything upside-down. Let's see if you can't smell them from four blocks away.

Traveling in what is referred to as the overworld is going to bust a whole lot of bubbles quicker than a toddler in a bathtub. There is no free-roaming at all; instead, you simply move Nall, a flying cat-like creature that follows Alex and his companions (whom also has a knack for delving deeper into the minds of magical creatures) wherever they go, to a certain location (a la computer cursor) and press A. What the hell is that? Golden Sun proved a year earlier that a decent overworld projection is possible on the Game Boy Advance, so why did Lunar Legend leave it out? Ah well, it can't be fixed now - but it's really noticeable and leaves a deep gash in the effect of scale. Who is going to care if the end of the world is near for a planet so unexplorable? Stupid island mapping.

At least the journey through the various locations is understandable. There's no map system, but there's no need for one - just about every area you end up in is easy to complete. The layout is simplistic and will give you very little challenge. That would be another bad link in the chain - Lunar Legend isn't a difficult game. I didn't die once. Not once! I want to die at least once! Grr... at least fighting to stay alive isn't a bore.

The combat system is just about as easy to understand as it gets. When you first enter a fight scene, you're shown four options: Auto (every character will physically attack), Tact (Tactical - pre-determined attack modes occur when you select this choice), Manu (opens another menu with Atak, Skil, Item, Def, and the following, which is also in the base menu...) and Run. In most cases you'll be using Manu(al), where you do almost all of your killin'. Each character has his or her own unique abilities, such as Alex's WindDirk and Nash's ThorRain, which can only be used when you've hit the enemy enough times with a normal physical attack to fill up a tiny bar below the HP/MP statistics. The bar stays at the same level as you go from one battle to the next (except when you use it of course), and you'll find yourself saving it for the boss battle that might not ever come. Gets on the ol' nerves from time to time, but it's all in good fun. Another factor to be added in to the equation is the NOA statistic, which stands for Number of Attack(s). This apparently is the number of times you can physically hit an enemy. Note that this doesn't have the same effect as, say, Final Fantasy's "Double" spell, where you can attack with Magic and then something else. The only thing that hits repeatedly is the normal physical move, which makes it feel more like an assault than a regular attack. That's a good thing, too.

Some people are better at one thing than another. As such, you'd think that the customization of the characters would be deep when in fact it's nowhere near where it should be. The biggest changes that you can make on a party member lie in the accessories, where you can boost the power of certain abilities. Overall, it makes the whole thing feel lackluster in the character monopolizing department. I guess Michael Jackson didn't make his "things change" point very clear when he jumped in a tub of bleach for a week. At least, Game Arts didn't care. Whapish!

Lunar Legend breaks out of the norm when it comes to pleasing the eye. The graphics are vivid and the characters detailed, friend or enemy. The special attacks are much more visually wonderful than in Golden Sun, and that's saying something. What makes them better is the animation, which flows very well. Outside of the times when you're beating up baddies in randomly generated battles, you've got sub-par visuals compared to Golden Sun's. Alex turns four ways yet moves in eight, and he doesn't even look that great doing it. Buildings are more like molds of multicolored clay with a bit of attention to detail, though the insides usually have little things that make entering them worth it.

So far, this game seems to be pretty cool, doesn't it? That trend continues when it comes to sound, where the music is plentiful and seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. It's nothing that deserves its own soundtrack but it's some of the best the Game Boy Advance has to offer, thankfully lacking some of that static that sometimes occurs when too many things are happening at once. The same can be said for the sound effects, like the swoosh of a physical attack and the burning crackle (or explosion) of flame. A Sound Effect Volume option shouldn't have been out of the question, though.

Controlling your character isn't even worth mention as it's so frickin' simple... like a traditionally styled RPG should be. A confirms a choice as B cancels and Start brings up your menu. You can Save at anytime except during battle, which is something that blasted Shining Soul game could have taken a lesson from. I'm still reeling from the last-level, final-floor death, Atlus!

I mentioned the difficulty factor earlier, and I feel that it needs to be known and stressed to a respectable degree that Lunar Legend is an easy game. After you get hang of the battle system, you're going to feel invincible which, practically, you are. It's sometimes funner (is that a word?) to let your health get down just to fight as if a challenge existed. Then again, you might use one of those quickly learned heal-all spells... Blah. The puzzles, thankfully, don't require the mind of a neurosurgeon and you'll move past them quicker than me in a basketball game - and that's damn fast, people! Any problem you do run into will be solved, even in battles. It's almost like Game Arts made this title for the mentally handicapped in those weird little white rooms with the padded walls...

One side-quest dealio-feature of Lunar Legend would be the Cards. These are attained very Final Fantasy-like (through battles), but they can also be bought at certain places. However, there is no real use for them and if there is one I ain't found it yet. Sure, you can hook up and trade them with a friend via link cable, but what's the point? You get nothing for it. I guess it's here to make you feel bad about not getting the whole set, 'cause even if you do you won't feel good because you've wasted your time going out of your way to get all of'em. Another Game Arts employee in need of immediate mugging...

Lunar Legend is a 30+ hour game. It's a short, sweet, and semi-sophisticated RPG that anyone owning a Game Boy Advance should have. The fantasy realism aspect is unparalleled thus so far on the GBA and it makes you actually care about what happens to those things moving around on your screen. You'll inadvertently just stay in one place to fight, as combat is fun though simplistic. A little work could have went into that part of the game, but it's still fine due to its traditionalism. A fault Game Arts could have easily fixed are the seemingly set-in-stone characters - without customization, there is very little replay value. Lunar Legend is definitely worth the purchase even though playing it all the way through twice is a different story. For RPG fans with the handheld, this is the almost-must-buy tale of a country-boys' quest to become a Dragonmaster and lead the world out from the impending shadow. Lunar Legend will have you hooked, but you'll eventually escape with the bait and continue on to better things. I see no reason why fans of the Lunar series shouldn't be pleased, even if they were "expecting" better. Deal with it, you perfectionist quacks.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/06