Lunar Legend

"To quote Yoda: "There is no try""

==Observation==

Lunar Legends is my second game for Gameboy Advance, and my first game in the Lunar series. Therefore, two things may be observed about my review:
1. I do not have much knowledge of other Gameboy Advance RPGs, so do not assume that I am guru of the system's RPG library.
2. I cannot compare this game to any other Lunar games, I can only off my fair review of what I feel the game is.

With that aside, on with the review!!!!

=======Story: 8/10=======

Lunar boasts a wonderful and lighthearted tale of a young man named Alex as he goes on a quest to become a Dragonmaster. Plot twists aside, that is pretty much the deal here. One might think this to be somewhat uninspired, and looking at other games in the genre, it really is. However, what makes this game receive and 8 rather than a 5 is the characters. From the moment I saw Alex, Nall and Luna, I knew I was dealing with some very lively characters that are instantly likable. If you want something to compare them to, think of Grandia and Grandia 2.

However, there are a few gripes that do prevent me from really getting into the heat of the story. The first being that the translation is sometimes, well, odd. Characters will often say something that makes no sense what so ever, even when looked at from all possible grammatical standpoints. Spelling errors also come up frequently. Most of the errors, however, are just missing articles and/or other supporting adjectives that provide clarity. This is mostly due to the game having a small speech box.

=====Graphics: 8/10======

I feel that the graphics, when compared to screen shots of Golden Sun, are comparable on the field, but in battle they take a life of their own. Rather than going for that tricked out pseudo 3D of Golden Sun (or what I've seen of it), these character sprites are animated similar to an old school Final Fantasy game. Each battle graphic is interesting, and some of the bosses look absolutely fantastic.

=====Playability: 8/10=====

I separate this into two categories: Battles and Everything Else.

Battles:
Battles have a fairly logical flow. You either tap the ''attack button'' slowly or set it up so that the game automatically taps the attack button. After doing so many attacks, you build up a limit break type attack that does a lot of damage to everyone on the battle field. All in all, this is a solid battle system, and standard RPG fare. There are no big surprises, and nothing really keeps you interested any longer than you need to be. Spells are learned on a set path as you gain levels and battles are completely random.

The thing I like about the battle system though is the ''Auto-Battle'' feature. I mentioned it already, but this is the first game I found it useful in. It's like the game developers knew that the battle system was uninspired an monotonous, so they actually just put in an option so that the game fights for you. You can still control your characters in another mode, but I still like auto battle for when there are enemy encounters every 3 seconds.

Also, this game is way too easy. The game offers so many ways of duplicating equipment, gaining HP and MP, and you never have money problems, nor will boss battles ever be too hard. This doesn't hurt the game in anyway, just realize that if you want a challenge, you should probably just go drag out your NES and play Contra.

Everything else:
One of the game's greatest strongpoints is level design. Towns are great to explore, and I had a ton of fun in the various dungeons in the game. Each dungeon is original and fun to complete. The character also moves around at a relatively fast speed, which is nice, too. The only problem I have here is that there is no world map. After playing FFX, Suikoden III, and Xenosaga all in a row and finding no world map, I guess I'm just a little on the grumpy side here, but still. The game feels very linear at times.

======Sound: 6=======
It's about so-so. Sometimes you really like it and other times you just shut it off and listen to the radio or TV for a while. One great thing though is that there are actually voices on rare occasion. While these voices are really just a sample of Luna singing, they do wonders for the sound department, saving it from below average scoring.

======Overall: 8=======
The difficulty is relatively easy, the game can feel linear at times, and the story (excluding characters) is uninspired on occasion. However, I can't stress enough how much fun I have had with this title. It offers some tremendous times for the handheld system, and if you have nothing else to play in the RPG department, I highly recommend this game. Besides, I got it for $20 new, that's about $60 less than Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete new.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/03, Updated 07/17/03