Late to the Party: Lunar

[BuckTwenty]

So I got sick of playing through Final Fantasy IV yet again and finally started Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. I've had it since the first week it came out, but have never really gotten around to starting it. After playing through all three XSeed PSP Ys games (and playing through Retro Game Challenge a few years back) I figured I should give this game a shot, finally.

A few things: I have never played any version of Lunar before. I never had a Sega CD (until very recently) and by the time I was able to play PSX games the two Lunar releases for that platform were much too expensive for me to take a chance on them. So this version of Lunar is my first!

I don't know if anybody would be interested, but I figure since this board is probably full of people who have played this game to death, this is probably the best place to put my thoughts down about the game and see what you guys think (in other words, you can tell me I'm nuts or whatever haha). I also will have questions for you vets as well (I have one or two in this very post!). From here on, I guess I should say SPOILERS for those who haven't played it yet either.

So! I started the game up, and have played up to reaching the port town of Saith. First of all, I was really really bored with the intro - I mean it was neat to see some of the (I'm sure) more advanced powers you can get in this game, and I'm sure there is some heavy foreshadowing, but I just couldn't get into it. By the time I got to control Alex, I was thrilled to actually start the game proper.

I really like the graphics, both the lush backgrounds and the well-animated sprites. Looking at the Sega CD images on Google, I much prefer this version so far (and I even like them better than the few PSX images I've seen elsewhere, too). The music has been pretty decent, although it hasn't wowed me (that's to be expected, though - I recently plowed through all three PSP Ys games ). The plot hasn't really picked up yet other than "Alex is going to be the new Dragonmaster! Let's go!" Which is fine.

The script has been nice, though. I especially liked talking to the Dragon, when he said that basically the Dragon Diamond was his poop. Which leads to my first question! Was this a XSeed innovation, or was the Dragon Diamond always poop? From what I've heard of Working Designs, it was probably something they invented if it wasn't already in the Japanese script.

As for the battle system, it reminds me a bit of Chrono Trigger thus far - position of units is pretty important, and there are attacks that can hit multiple enemies, etc. One thing I kind of don't like is that if I'm too far away from an enemy (Ramus is particularly guilty of this) my guy will run towards them a little and then end his turn. I'm sure I'll get used to it though.

Okay I should probably end the first post there. Sorry for the wall of text if that's not your thing! Also, tell me now if this isn't the place for this sort of post, and feel free to close the thread and I'll take this elsewhere. Otherwise... LET'S LUNAR

[Sgt Phantomizer]

I say LET'S LUNAR!!! because i'm pretty much in the same boat as this being the first time i play a Lunar game (aside from the crappy Dragon Song....is that REALLY even a Lunar game? O.O ) and all. Before Harmony, i viewed the whole Lunar games as nothing more then a curiosity that i would most likely never play because 1) i don't own a Sega CD and 2) i would most likely never fork over the cash for a complete copy on eBay. However, i randomly saw the demo on PSN in early Feb last year and checked it out, fell for it immediately and started digging more info on it and almost died waiting for release day

Played it, loved it and now it's one of my favorite games

[Rockdemon696]

The opening will be easier to understand once you play through the game quite a bit further. Also, in the Working Designs PSX translation the Dragon Diamond was indeed freshly minted from Quark's mighty keister. I hope you enjoy the rest of the game as much as I did.

[BuckTwenty]

The opening will be easier to understand once you play through the game quite a bit further. Also, in the Working Designs PSX translation the Dragon Diamond was indeed freshly minted from Quark's mighty keister.

Ha! Figures. Was it in the original translation, do you know?

Just beat the first boss (the jellyfish on the ship) and I'm really starting to enjoy the battle system (also Nall is awesome - "This is what everyone was afraid of? It's just a big blue booger!" bahaha). The opening just kind of threw you in to the battle system, giving you all kinds of options and no way to die so... I kind of wasn't paying attention. But now I'm kind of getting how everything fits together, and I'm liking it.

Kiiiiinda hate the load times, though. They were probably present in the PSX and Sega CD versions, though, I'd imagine.

I also was kind of mad that Luna wasn't going to come with everybody on the ship... Until she did. I was like "Who's gonna heal me?!" And "Leave behind stupid Ramus instead! He hasn't gained any stat points besides HP since he joined me!" What is up with that anyway? I assume he'll probably leave the party or something... He also doesn't have any special moves, either.

EDIT: Soap: 1000G. "Rope not included." Nice.

EDIT EDIT: Wahhh this game is a Disney movie all of a sudden!

[Rockdemon696]

I had a Sega CD back in the day but could only afford 2 games for it before moving on to other systems. My first experience with Lunar was renting then purchasing Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for the PlayStation. Tip: Buy at least 2 soaps or you will miss out on a few extra cutscenes but remember to save enough money to buy equipment in Meribia.

[Sinrevi]

If I remember correctly, the dragon poop was also in the gba version.

Since people are talking about their first Lunar experience, here is mine:

My favourite game series is Lufia, which I've liked since I was a little.
Anyway, my father had a lot of old gaming magazines from the US. When looking through them, I saw articles and ads of Lunar 1 &2 and got interested since the screenshots and artwork reminded me of Lufia (mostly Lufia I).
But I never played them because I don't have a Sega CD and the Playstation versions weren't released where I live.

*some years later*
I got internet, remembered Lunar and spoiled both stories of Lunar 1 & 2, since I thought it would be very unlikely I was ever going to play them.

Uh.... but then Lunar Legend was released for the gba, so I played that a while after I knew of it. Still liked although I sort of knew what was going to happen, as in I knew what was going to happen but not how or when exactly.

*even more years later*
Lunar was announced for the PSP, however I didn't own a PSP. The PSP had some games I was interested in, but there weren't really games that were like: I MUST have a PSP for this! But then Xseed released it in English and Ys Seven and announced some other Ys games. In the end, it was mainly Lunar and Ys that convinced me to finally buy a PSP =P (Ys was another series I was interested but where most of the games were for platforms I didn't own and/or weren't in English. So most of my experience of Ys back then was from playing Ys 6, and listening to the music of Ys games. And I played the beginning of Ys I & II on a NES emulator but gave up because I couldn't figure out how to save data with the emulator. Still liked it enough to later buy Ys I&II Chronicles when that was released )

Anyway back to Lunar, I forgot most of the things I read about Lunar 2's story except some details but now I'm staying away from Lunar 2 stuff, just in case it does get released for a system I do own =P I once played Lunar DS but the gameplay was too terrible so I didn't buy it.

This post is longer than I thought it would be... =P

[Sgt Phantomizer]

I once played Lunar DS but the gameplay was too terrible so I didn't buy it.

Lucky you then, worst $15 (or was it $20?) i spent on a DS game.

[Chelli]

I also started playing this recently (never played a Lunar game before) and I'm really enjoying it. I think I'm near the end of the game. The plot is cliche but still very enjoyable.

I didn't like the introduction, either. Pre-final boss cut scenes are always cheesy speeches about "the power of [insert theme of the game here]!" They're usually not too bad because they make sense in context, but seing a scene like that out of context at the beginning of Lunar shows just how corny these scenes can be.

[BuckTwenty]

So I haven't posted in a few days, because I've barely played this game the past week or so. I've been fairly busy with some work, but also when I've had a bit of free time I just get annoyed with the loading times in this game. I know, I should ignore them and stop acting like a spoiled brat! I WANT TO LIKE YOU LUNAR!

And I think I do, but it's going to be a game I make slow, slow progress in, probably. I'll post here when I do :/

[Chelli]

Yeah, the loading times are pretty bad. They become less noticeable the longer you play, but they never stop being annoying. I also haven't played the game in at least two weeks. I don't know why, but I just haven't felt like playing it recently. I really need to pick it up again, though, because I know I'm near the end of the game and I want to beat it.