Lunar Legend

"Enter the world of Lunar once more(in a cute handheld way)!!"

Lets flash backwards, to the year of 1999, to when the Lunar: The Silver Star remake came out, aptly named Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I had it bought in full two months before it came out, and let me tell you, it was worth every penny. But I digress; I just wanted to tell all you nice people how good the first Lunar was, with it's awesome battle system, great characters and the BEST translation ever. So, after all that praise, how does the GBA re-make ante up? Well, why don't you read on and find out??

GRAPHICS9/10:
Despite how much I loved the first Lunar, the graphics were only sub-par 2d, especially since it was on the playstation. But now...oh, but now...the graphics are great! They're crisp, colorful and, damn, full of style. Its kind of sad, I think, that the GBA can out-power the Playstation...I mean, the character sprites are great and the special cinema sprites are VERY well animated and there's even a little anime scenes (well, they're still screens of the PSX Anime scenes, but they're still all good). Nothing more I can say about the graphics, really...but they're all good, all around.
vibrant graphics make this a thrill to look at

GAMEPLAY8/10:
Its all here from it's PSX brother (or sister, I dont know which). The battle system is the same, well, more or less. There's obviously not as much movement and/or animation as the PSX, but it still the same concept. They've taken out the movement aspect, so everyone stays in the same place, a la Final Fantasy. Its a little drawback, but after a bunch of battles, you'll overlook it. They added a 'limit break' kinda deal, and I have to say it works well.
Next gameplay item: the difficulty. I remember SSSC had a good amount of difficult bosses and dungeons, some borderline aggravating. But now...I don't know. It feels like the developers half-assed their way through. Hmm...I remember reading an article a while back about how the head honcho of the programmers said that he wanted the GBA version to be easier...I didnt think THIS easy! You could easily breeze through the game without dying once and running from more then half the fights. What makes it easy? two things. One, you get 20000 Silver right near the begining, which makes getting the best weapons and such a piece of proverbial cake and two, every time you save and quit, all your HP and MP is restored to full! So if you have low HP and MP and you save, turn off the GBA and then re-start from that save, you'll have full HP/MP!! What the hell is that all about? I think, and you may too, that this makes the game far to easy.
What's new here: There's a new side dungeon, complete with a tough boss (one of the two), plenty of new scenes and even card collection (but with no reward for snapping up those cards, it's kinda pointless.)
The gameplay is fun, like norm, but the low difficulty really makes it much less of a fun challenge (obviously)

SOUND7/10:
Noriyuki Iwadare is a fantastic man, blowing me away with whatever he composes (Lunar, obviously, Grandia and Grandia II). That being said, the entire Lunar:SSSC soundtrack is here, but...at a cost. It's all beepy, much below what I know the GBA's sound system is capable of (Listen to the Music in Golden Sun for a good example). The music is great, but not really in this format...still, it's quite listenable, but only if you loved the SSSC music. If your new to the series...it will probaly get on your nerves after awhile.
the beepy, cell-phoneness of this awsome soundtrack can turn off many people

PLAYTIME/REPLAY5/10:
Now, since the game is so simple, the playtime only comes in around 20 hours, maybe (I've seen a time of 9 hours once). As I said before, you can simply breeze through this game. However, there are plenty of things to do, like a side cave and opening red chests. Also, the villagers have plenty to say, and there's those cards to collect.
Again, I do believe that only the hardcore will want to re-play through this less then a couple months after beating it, really.
A short but sweet game, with a little replay value

So thats that...Lunar Legend isnt as 'production value' good as it's brother/sister, but it's still a grand time for all. The graphics are wonderfully pretty (ah, well, im a sucker for good 2D) and the gameplay is still #1 (even though the difficulty seems to be aimed at pre-schoolers).

FINAL RECOMENDATION:
If you're looking for a good RPG to fill you up, here it is. If you're a Lunar fan, then this will make you happy as well. However, it's not for everyone. If you wan to know if it's for you, then go and try out Ethier the Sega Saturn Lunar or the PSX version. Whatever you choose, it's good times for all!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/04