Lunar Legend

"Why'd they have to kill a legend?"

Your typical RPG story back in the late ‘80s and ‘90s revolved around either a world bent on destruction or a damsel in distress. Some young hero would then arise and right the wrong, saving the day and bringing back peace to their pixilated worlds. Later on in RPG history came the brooding hero story vice, or in lames terms, the melancholy jerk who'd sit there and make everyone's life miserable just because he felt like it. Still yet, we find the antihero (queue The Price is Right music here). This classic plot makes the hero the villain and vice versa. Sound fun?

After just about 100,000 games starring one of these plot points, the answer is a resounding no.

It's not like they're bad stories at all. Quite the opposite. Each and every last one of these plots orginally were smash hits back in the day, what we would consider groundbreaking by today's standards. The problem was as time went on, people started to use these legends more and more in an attempt to make a quick buck, thus killing the enjoyment that could be obtained from them.

Before these stories were what we would consider clichéd, though, a game came out that set its niche in the gaming world with a story of heroes and villains that would forever change the way people thought of RPGs. That game was Lunar. Years later, we now find a port of the original itself, aptly taking on the title Lunar Legend.

Lunar Legend finds a young man by the name of Alex quietly sitting by a tombstone. What you'd expect to be a long lost relative or some other close friend turns out to be his one and only idol – Dragon Master Din. Many years ago when the world was on the brink of destruction, Dragon Master Din saved the world by giving his life for the safety of the Goddess Althena. He was courageous, and as some would say, the perfect role model for a boy of Alex's age. Big problem, though. Unlike some other boys who give up on their role models as they grow older and get a brain, Alex is stuck on this guy. He actually believes he can become a Dragon Master and save the day on some fantasy adventure. Little did he know that his opportunity would come when one day a stuck-up guy named Nash came bumbling by looking for a White Dragon. Alex tagged along, and so began their quest…

Let's face it, though. Alex is a kid. Nash is a stuck-up brat. And their companions, Luna and Ramus, don't have the ability to hold their own in any serious battle. Just how can they expect to save anything? Through leveling their hides off, of course. Like most traditional RPGs, Lunar Legend revolves around turn based battling tangled with a semi-simple leveling system. Players take turns with their opponents until one side wins, at which point exp, money, and on some occasions, an item, are awarded if you win. Battling is of the utmost importance, because if you fail to fight, you'll die on the vine. Money is needed to buy the game's absurdly priced weapons, which happen to be in some cases a must have if you wish to keep going on. Items, such as the healing gums, are also a necessity because until your healers gain the ability to start casting full party recovery spells, you'll need an extra boost to keep going. EXP is a must if you don't want to die. Getting skills is only an added bonus.

There's a small problem, however. Unlike most older RPGs – like FF, for instance – Lunar Legend's battle system never really changes. The game's physical fighters learn their most powerful moves extremely early, while magical characters gain the ability to hit more targets with spells that are actually less powerful. Why would I ever want to do that? It's not only that, but more often than not battles will all come down to one, very simple, formula. Physical fighters will use their power-up moves, while the magical characters cast protect. The physical fighters then lash out with super powered mega attacks, which proceed to do obscene amounts of damage. Boss sits there and does literally nothing for damage. Rinse and repeat.

Fortunately for the game (and my incredibly short attention span), the actual world in which you'll be journeying is incredibly well done, with enough puzzles and dungeons to make any legacy RPG fan sit down and start drooling. Here's the thing, though. What really makes things exciting is what some would consider Lunar's greatest point, the actual landscaping of your typical dungeons and environments, and for the most part, the feeling that you're in a world in need of help. Villages, dungeons, and heck, even the castles, all look worn and down thanks to the constant harassment from the local monsters. Heck, even the villagers look a bit downtrodden.

So you're probably wondering what you'll be traveling through, then. Well, from abandoned towers to treacherous caverns with an oversized bully sitting up top, Lunar Legend runs the gamut. Throughout the game you'll be visiting some of the wildest places available, such RPG staples as villages and whatnot all make appearances, but what really sets Lunar Legend apart from them is its meticulous ability at tying things together. Unlike some RPGs that just throw you from one town to the next without any real reason at all, this game clearly states why you're going to certain places, what happens when you do, and how you'll go about advancing. All of this is done through convenient story sequences that can be thankfully tied into the world map.

Although some people view it as a cheap cop-out, Lunar Legend takes the well-worn road of introducing its players to a world map. You'll be using the map for a variety of things, such as expectantly going to landmarks or possibly triggering a conversation or two. Unfortunately, though, it looks horrendous. Its pixils are all over the place, most of the colors are horribly blended, and even the main character admittingly looks like garbage. This carries right on through the actual towns and dungeon locations, which receive the same exact beauty treatment. Pixils are blurred, colors look bland, and the characters don't even really look like themselves.

Which is the exact opposite of the battle screens.

If you're going to do something, you'd better do it right all the way through. Lunar Legend skimped horrendously on the world map, actual area footage, and more. Then they decided to make the battles gorgeous. Clothed in complete anime, battles are extraordinarily colorful, fully animated, and even feature full fledged anime portraits of each character during their mega attacks. Pixels are virtually non-existent, and the colors are beautifully blended throughout. It's times like these that make me literally want to bang my head against the wall, because the change between battles and the actual areas is dumfounding at best. Even if they decided to evenly split the graphics between the two, the game would have came out so much better. It's almost as if they started excellently, ran short on money, and then decided to find the easiest thing to skimp on. Great job.

Luckily, the music is finely crafted to give the game a much needed boost, and it's clearly evident throughout. Tracks are decently varied, lively, and manage to do their job even in areas that you wouldn't think they would. They also have that great classic feel to them, which is something that most games are lacking in these days.

Aside from that, my only other complaints about the game come in the form of the difficulty. It's easy. Very easy. A common trait back in the day was to make games horrifically hard this way you'd get a true kick out of them. This game basically turns the opposite direction and puts a metal stick through it. Boss battles are a joke thanks to the rate at which you learn your best skills, and more likely then not the only time you'll be dieing is on the final battle, which is conveniently just about 10x harder then any other fight in the game. The funny part even that was numbed down. What a joke.

You know, it really is a shame. I loved the un-ported Lunar title. Everything fit in so wondrously, so amazingly that you knew the game would be a classic. And it was. Few other games in that era were able to match its ability to keep people enthralled from the beginning to the very end. Unfortunately, whereas other ports (such as the conveniently 5x over ported FF games) get graphical upgrades, Lunar Legend got shot to the wall and back. The difficulty was numbed down tremendously, to the point where you really couldn't tell that this was the original any more. It's a shame, too, because with such a classic to work with, you'd really think they'd be able to accomplish something special.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/07