PixlBit

Lesson 3

I have to admit that this is a game that I don’t normally play in one sitting during the summer. Being it’s a JRGP I usually don’t have enough time to commit a good portion of playing this game. And yet off and on during this summer I find myself making the time off and on to at least return to the magical land of Lunar. Originally I thought it was just an excuse to test out my Sega CD again, I really didn’t have a reason to play this game again. I’ve already played to death each of the remakes that have been made of this Sega CD Classic. I’ve played the Playstation release to the point where I now hide it away to preserve its awesome packaging. I’ve played the GBA version just to see how it translated to a cart. (not bad really). I even played the PSP version if only to experience the “definitive” version of this story. All of them tell basically the same story, despite some divergence. All of them still retain their JRGP roots, even if some aspects of the combat/spells are refined. Yet despite all their enhancements, their better quality of animated cut scenes, load times, remixed soundtracks, voice actor changes and story refinements, the original Lunar will still always remain my favorite for summer gaming.

And you can’t get any more retro than an RPG (that at the time had yet to be labeled as a “JRPG”) that was released on the Sega CD.

 

Why do I play this game during the summer? It didn’t see a release during the summer? Well for me this particular RetroSummer 2013 choice is a bit deeper and personal this time around.  I’m sure I’ve told this story before in past blogs about this game, so I won’t go into a broader detail on why this game is so special to me. For me Lunar on the Sega CD would always be associated with summer for me because of the time when I actually got this game.  Despite this I don’t recall the exact day, month or year exactly when I got this game. But I do remember that the only reason why I got this game was because I happened upon it being sold as a bundle with the Sega CD I had found. In case you were wondering, no Sega didn’t bundle this game with their Sega CD consoles. That was reserved for Sewer Shark and later on Tomcat Alley. Two games I oddly own multiple copies of.

It was during that moment in that summer my Grandpa and I found a new pawn shop that was selling a Sega CD model 2 with Lunar. Though the Sega CD came with no box, the Lunar game came complete with instruction manual and case. Normally I wouldn’t even think I could find something like that in a pawnshop locally. But somehow things came together for I ended up owning them later that day. I can remember being so thankful for my grandpa for buying it for me, a purchase I was to repay with my allowance/and personal chores of lawn mowing, snow removal, wood gathering during the following seasons. Grandpa was just happen I’d pay him back eventually with my allowance. Mom altered the deal by adding the personal chores for the rest of the year. I personally did them all for two years.

My grandpa and mom didn’t really understand why I wanted this game and system so badly. They saw it no differently than to the Marios and Soncis I played over the years. But for me I had known this game had been released when I kept seeing the adverts for Lunar in every gaming magazine I read. Even just by seeing the ad, I instantly fell in love with Lunar: The Silver Star. The anime-style of how the characters were made, the reviews I read about the game, even seeing the still pictures of the animated cut scenes won me over instantly to this game. Given my current state of infatuation with anime at the time I knew I had to play it, I knew I had to own it! I do my best not to overanalyze that summer and how the series of events during that summer lead to me owning this bundle. All I know is that that particular summer became very special to me as a result.

 

I can even remember to this day in how I’d play this game. What my local environment was like as I dived into the world of Lunar. I’m sure some gamers can relate on how certain games or systems can bring on a sense of nostalgia, taking you back to that exact time as you’re playing a certain game/system at a certain time in your life. Classic moments like how some old skool gamers talk about how they’d play Atari 2600 during the still of the night, the only sounds you hear being the chirping of crickets in the night, along with the electronic sounds we’ve come to associate with Atari 2600 games. Or how some gamers can remember how it was like trying out their newly purchased gaming console for the first time. What games were tried out then, who they played with and for how long into the day or into the night they gamed. We all have those little personal moments of gaming. A moment that’ll stick with us for the rest of our years and for me Lunar The Silver Star on Sega CD fits one of those personal moments.

During that summer I played Lunar during the hottest times of the day. During the hours of 10am to 2pm where the sun was at its hottest and we were told not to play outside, I would find myself in my air conditioned room playing Lunar in the warm glow of my 12” color TV. My windows would be closed off with heavy blankets to keep out the hot sun, leaving my room in the constant state of twilight. And in my cool, comforted room with the AC running and the windows closed off to the outside world, I felt like I was indeed entering my little gaming portal to a world I had not yet know in any RPG of my time.

 

If you’ve already played Lunar The Silver Star when it was released on the PS1/PSP then you might be rather underwhelmed with the original. By today’s standards it’s barebones in its offerings. There are no color coordination codes with enemy types, no simplified spell charts, and no hints on how to kill certain bosses.  Though there are “animated” cut scenes in the game I’m sure most people would scoff at them given their limited movement aside from mouth movement. When you look at Lunar you can’t help but consider this old skool gaming for its time. It’s still a grade higher than the 8 bit offerings back in the day so I find it hard to try to lump this game with other retro JRPG offerings before it. Lunar was one of those games where if you happened to play it when the game was released, you would’ve realized how much this game blew you away upon trying it out.  During my years the only RPG’s I’d come to know was Final Fantasy on the NES/SNES and Phantasy Star II so my young mind was not quite ready for what Lunar had in store for me.

The colors pallet in the game was something I hadn’t seen in an RPG before with some of the special effects, like the “pseudo mode 7” scaling only done once in the game, was enough to impress me. Alex, Luna, Ramus and company were more animated in battle scenes than I’d ever seen in a Final Fantasy title. Enemies actually approached AND attacked your players in graphical ways that were a stark difference to the basic “arm throw” animations. Magic attacks had their own animation forms though you didn’t know exactly what your character were casting unless you documented exactly what each spell did by name. Yet despite this the random encounters felt more simplified in their execution which did help the game out when it came to load times. You’d think there would be a brief pause in loading a random encounter given Lunar is a CD based game but the game loads just as fast as if it were cart. And speaking of the CD aspects of this game the music on here is wonderful redbook audio. When I first heard the game’s soundtrack (either in game or off the CD directly), it was a treat for the ears and helped me feel more connected to the world of Lunar. Despite the memorable songs of other RPG soundtracks I heard before, Lunar always stood out at me because of this. I know some look down on the original opening song sequence to the game (more so when you see how publisher Working Designs changed it from the original translation) but to me it fit the game perfectly. It got me hyped and ready to enter the realm of Lunar.

Even though this game does fit the usual JRPG clichés with anime boy out on a quest that morphs into saving the girl/the world, it still feels like there is some emotion and maturity behind the game. I know that’s a hard thing to believe given how Working Designs loved to insert pop culture humor in their translations, but you’re still able to emotionally invest in these characters much like you could with other RPG’s of their time that got this formula right. I was crushed when I learned Ramus would give up questing with Alex. I was actually worried that Alex wouldn’t make it past the Cave of Trials alone to enter into the Magic Guild of Vane. I didn’t care for arrogant Nash with this fancy magic spells or felt bad in how Mia would beg you to help her save her mom and upon you refusing to, leaving the poor girl in tears, Nall would commence belittling Alex with harsh criticism till you finally decide to help. It was character moments like these that cemented them into actual characters that grew and matured over the course of the game. The game even dealt with betrayal, love, trust, honor and love in ways that I didn’t think could be touched deeply in a game that in retrospect had very little time/space to convey them in character. And of course who could forget the touching moments in this game when Luna stayed behind with Alex’s family, despite her growing love for him. Or when Alex alone stood up to the reincarnated Goddess Althena, hoping that one small piece of the girl he used to know still resided in her.

 

Don’t even get me started on the enemies, the exotic locations, and the huge overhead map that had various temples, towns, goddess shrines and secrets to uncover. And the main threat in the game: The Magic Emperor! Though I should’ve expected the “plot twist” at the halfway point, I was still shocked to learn the truth about Dragonmaster Dyne’s (along with Dyne himself near the end of the game) old friend Ghaleon , and see all he did to solidify his power. It was at that point when I realized that the real game was about to begin. I was so scared to face off with him that I actually leveled up Alex and company up to level 100 to ensure I could beat down that backstabbing bastard! After all he did to Quark, Luna and the citizens of Burg then threating to crush the world with his mechanical abominations, oh the little kid gloves were off at that point. It’s moments like that where you realize that they main characters may have started out as kids, but by the time the credits rolled you realized they matured and changed while you were too caught up in the story telling to notice it.

 

Lunar the Silver Star was an excellent game (selling as many copies of the game in japan as the actual system itself) that it still brings back these fond memories and the nostalgic moments I feel during certain points in the summer when that mood feels just right to play. It’s so hot outside yet cool enough inside where I feel I want to get away from it all for a while. Oddly I don’t get that exact same feeling whenever I try to play the remakes on the PS1, GBA or the PSP.  Even though the PS1,GBA and the PSP version greatly enhance the original in every conceivable way possible, I still find myself pulled back to the Sega CD version when I feel the urge to play something for a retrosummer. If any of you have had the privilege in enjoying the remakes then I’m sure trying to track down and play the original may not have that much of a pull on you. Even with some major plot changes/enhancements offered in the original, it might not be enough to warrant a play through, because if you really want to enjoy Lunar at its best and finest you’re better off with Lunar Silver Start Harmony or Lunar Silver Star Story Complete. But if you’re curious to see what the original vision of Lunar started out to be, complete with a sewer dwelling blackjack player, character’s chat box speaking written in bold lettering and an odd placement of an Aztec boss, Lunar The Silver Star is a fine tale to try out for any retro interest. It’s why I’m glad I get to enjoy it for my retrosummer gaming activities. Hopefully others can learn to appreciate the original game like I have. That is if you can find and afford a copy.

Ta-ta

“N”

Bonus Video! Here's the original japanese version of the game's intro, in case there are those that are curious.