Despite all the recent success of the role-playing game genre, it’s hard to deny that it has its problems. Often, in the cases of games released in the 80s and 90s, the story can feel dated by modern standards, and the gameplay will usually rely too much on grinding and backtracking in order to progress. As such, these games end up being repetitive, frustrating, and, more importantly, difficult for a modern audience to digest.
Hence, why so many developers have spent the last few years remastering and remaking them for the 21st century: so that new players can be introduced to a forgotten franchise in its best possible light. One such example is the new Lunar Remastered Collection. The collection revitalizes the Sega Saturn and PlayStation remakes of Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue, released in 1992 and 1994, respectively, on the Sega CD.
The collection features widescreen support, enhanced art, new HD cutscenes, English voice acting, re-recorded music, and several gameplay improvements. In theory, this should be the ultimate way for people to experience this cult classic. While the Lunar Remastered Collection has some high points with the game’s story and visuals, it is unfortunately marred by a dated gameplay loop.
Two Beautiful and Charming Adventures
The stories of both Silver Star and Eternal Blue have a lot of similarities. Both feature a party of characters going on a journey across the world, with a main protagonist seeking to become a Dragonmaster, a young girl with a mysterious past, and a mythical goddess watching over them. The premises for both of these games, regardless of their similarities and differences, are very endearing from beginning to end.
Starting with Silver Star, its story begins with a young man by the name of Alex who yearns to become a Dragonmaster just like his idol, Dyne. He, alongside his close friend Luna, his animal partner Nall, and the fortune-seeking Ramus, soon embarks on a journey to find all the Dragons across the land.
There are, of course, several twists and turns that escalate from a simple adventure to a quest to save the world from evil. Additionally, players will encounter other unique characters that join the party, such as Jessica, a rebellious mage, Nash, a magician in training who happens to be very ambitious; and several others.
On the flipside, Eternal Blue has a very similar yet very different premise. The aptly named protagonist Hiro starts out as an adventurer alongside his very own animal companion named Ruby. After discovering a mysterious light on a nearby spire, he encounters a young girl by the name of Lucia, who seeks to talk to the Goddess Althena.
The only trouble is that Leo, the hot-headed general of an army made in Althena’s name, believes Lucia to be a “destroyer.” From there, the party must go on a journey to find the Goddess and learn the truth of Lucia’s past while also saving the world. The stories of both games are very simple, which surprisingly creates a more charming experience.
Both feel like proper adventures, similar to the likes of The Lord of the Rings franchise. What helps that charm is the addition of OVA cutscenes that depict the characters in an art style that looks similar to the anime you’d find on TV at the time. The remaster not only enhances the graphics and the cutscenes with HD visuals, but they, as well as select moments of dialogue in-game, are now fully voiced.
The OVA cutscenes, plus the new voice acting, help to add even more dimension to the characters. Some of the characters lack any real dimension at first, particularly in the case of Lucia in Eternal Blue. However, they all develop as the game continues and the story progresses. Luna in Silver Star especially has a beautiful arc and some great moments where she plays off the rest of the cast.
I will say that a lot of the game’s age shows in the depiction of both Lucia and Luna, as they both fit into the “damsel” stereotype. There are a few moments where Luna is kidnapped by the game’s big bad, and even more moments where Lucia is either unhelpful in battle or captured by various enemies that render her helpless.
While it is tiresome, especially with how frequently it happens in Eternal Blue, it’s unfortunately par for the course in games created in the 90s. I didn’t expect the developers to make any radical changes to the game’s story, and it’s not something that detracts from the overall experience.
Another issue that comes from the game’s age is the lackluster world-building. The world of Lunar isn’t particularly memorable, namely the Goddess, different dragons, and four heroes from throughout legend. They don’t stick with you compared to a lot of other games in the genre. Similarly, the songs will often repeat themselves constantly throughout dungeons and battles, which can become grating very quickly. These issues, while not too major, are noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
All in all, though, the story and presentation of the Lunar Remastered Collection are really good. The narratives for both games within the collection are enjoyable, the characters are well-written, and the visual style is very charming. That being said, the problems with Lunar‘s gameplay severely detract from any and all enjoyment that may be found within the collection.
Frustratingly Dated Design
When a game is remastered for modern audiences, there’s a certain expectation that people carry. With remakes, you’re more inclined to see more major changes to the game’s structure, gameplay, story, characters, and the entire overall experience from beginning to end. With remasters, those changes are on a smaller scale and primarily focus on visuals and gameplay adjustments. While the visuals have been appropriately updated for the modern era, the gameplay has not.
To start with, the gameplay is exceedingly simple. When you enter a battle, you have four options: physical attack, magic attack, defend, and use an item. You can also change the positioning of characters, run away from battle, or switch to AI control for your party members. Magic attacks use up magic, and players gain more HP, MP, attack power, and other statistics upon leveling up. If you’ve played any other RPG, you already know what to expect from Lunar, and that’s part of the problem.
There is not a lot that these games do differently compared to other RPGs on the market when it comes to their mechanics. As a result, most battles quickly become repetitive after the first few hours. When both titles were initially released in the ’90s, this wasn’t an issue. However, with so many fantastic RPGs available right now, it’s hard to find enjoyment in Lunar‘s gameplay if you’ve played other entries in the genre.
I will say that there is some enjoyment to be found in exploration. While the world-building is lackluster, the world itself has some great visual elements that will quickly catch your eye and cause you to stop and stare. Plus, the fact that there’s a world map that you can freely walk around as you move from one region to the next helps to further add to the fun of exploring the many locations in Lunar.
That being said, any enjoyment you may find in Lunar‘s exploration is quickly undone by the excruciating random encounters. Every RPG has random encounters; that’s par for the course. The rate at which you’ll be caught in those encounters, though, became frustrating very quickly.
For instance, early on in Silver Star, there’s a dungeon you have to navigate with a boss at the end. While most dungeons will have places where you can replenish your MP and HP before the boss, this one doesn’t have any such respite. Due to this, unless you stock up on items at the beginning of the dungeon, you will have to constantly run back and forth in order to maintain the right amount of MP for the boss fight. What makes this even worse is that if you choose to constantly run from battles to preserve your magic, the enemy will block your way, and you cannot move past them at all, even with the invincibility frames.
Another issue with the exploration is some of the game’s “dialogue puzzles.” What this means is that in order to progress, you’ll often have to talk to a specific character and trigger the right dialogue that will allow you to move forward. Where this becomes a problem is that if you go straight to the character you need to talk to, that dialogue will not be available.
Instead, you will usually be asked to talk to every single person in the area twice so that a character will say the right thing that will permit the story to advance. In some cases, you may even have to talk to characters in a specific order. For example, early on in Eternal Blue, there’s a character you have to find and speak to that will help free Lucia from a curse placed on her.
I spent thirty minutes walking around, reloading saves, and talking to every single character multiple times, only to find that I was talking to the NPCs in the wrong order. At times, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was meant to pad out the game’s length, as I’m fairly certain that these puzzles took up 40% of the runtime for both Silver Star and Eternal Blue.
By far and away, the biggest issue with Lunar‘s gameplay is the overreliance on grinding. You will be frequently forced to fight constant battles with enemies so that you can make even an ounce of progress. Otherwise, they will frequently knock out your party after just a few moments. These aren’t games where the battles are balanced in such a way that you will always be ready for the next boss fight.
Instead, you will usually have to go out of your way to backtrack and grind to get the right amount of XP for a battle. The problem is that this further adds to the repetitive nature of the experience. While the new ability to speed up battles helps to mitigate the repetition, it still doesn’t fix the issue in the long term.
What also doesn’t help is how the difficulty settings that were in the original releases of Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue have been inexplicably removed. There is no way for any player to adjust their experience if they’re having trouble with the constant grinding, difficulty spikes, repetitive gameplay, and dialogue puzzles. To make matters worse, my game crashed quite a few times, and Eternal Blue, in particular, had a few cases of frame drops that would cause it to slow to a crawl.
Both Lunar: The Silver Star and Eternal Blue are old games, so these issues are to be expected. However, a question has to be raised: if Lunar Remastered Collection has all these problems that aren’t fixed in the new version, then why wouldn’t you instead buy a different RPG that doesn’t suffer from the aforementioned drawbacks?
Is it Worth It?
Lunar Remastered Collection isn’t a bad game by any means. Both Lunar: The Silver Star and Eternal Blue have several high points that will likely keep you engaged throughout the runtime. The characters are fun and well-developed, the story is charming, and both the in-game and OVA cutscene visuals are beautiful. Plus, the new additions from the collection, such as the improved graphics, ability to speed up combat, and new voice acting, help to make the experience even better.
On the other hand, there are a lot of issues that make Lunar very frustrating to play. The battles are very repetitive, and you’ll constantly have to grind for XP so that you aren’t knocked out in two hits by an enemy. The dialogue puzzles are painful, and it is just not fun having to run around a town for thirty minutes so that you can talk to the right person at the right time so that you can progress the story. Not only that, but the constant random encounters will crush any momentum and strategy you may be trying to employ so that you can beat a dungeon.
A lot of these problems can be brushed off due to the age of both The Silver Star and Eternal Blue. Since the game is $50, though, you can’t help but wonder why you shouldn’t get another RPG that doesn’t have these problems and may be available for the same price, if not less. The genre is extremely oversaturated, and players have more options than ever before if they want to get into it. Why would anyone pick Lunar in particular, especially with all these issues?
If you’re a fan of retro RPGs, you may find some enjoyment in Lunar Remastered Collection, thanks to the great story, characters, and visuals. However, if these issues seem too daunting, especially if you’re a newcomer to the genre, you may be better off trying another game instead.
Disclaimer: GungHo Entertainment provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Lunar Remastered Collection for review purposes.
