Back Catalog - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Pt. 1

Since "game club" podcasts seem to be all the rage these days, I thought I'd try to institute a similar feature here. In other words, I play a game in shortish installments and provide a running (spoiler-filled) commentary. The catch is that the games will be old ones from our library, thus the "Back Catalog" title. Since Game Arts just announced a PSP remake of Lunar, I decided to start with the PS1 port of the game, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Since people are kvetching that the game has not aged gracefully, I wanted to see for myself if that was the case, or if this is another instance of the internet being impossible to please.

First, a bit of background. Lunar: The Silver Star was originally released for the Sega CD back in 1992 (1993 in North America). That game was remade as Lunar: Silver Star Story for the Sega Saturn in 1996, and a year later, that game was "enhanced" (with added anime cut-scenes and a new soundtrack) and released again on the Saturn. At last (as far as we're concerned) the enhanced version of L:SSSC was ported to the PS1 in 1998 and renamed Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. In 1999, Working Designs translated the game in its usual non-literal style, and brought it to the U.S. in a big, goodie-filled box. It was a game I always wanted back then, but its price tag was a bit prohibitive, and eventually I sort of just forgot about it and moved on. Fortunately, Maleficent recently picked up a copy of the L:SSSC collector's edition box (sadly lacking the cloth map), finally allowing me to play and write about it.

L:SSSC opens with a series of anime cut scenes that nicely introduce the three party members with which you'll start the game: Alex, Ramus and Luna. Alex is a somewhat archetypal JRPG hero, in that he is barely out of puberty and chomping at the bit to save the world. Ramus is a bit of an otaku type, who talks a big game about becoming an adventurer, but seems unlikely to ever make it. Luna is a bit of a mystery, as all we're really told about her up front is that she's a great singer and has been taken in by Alex's parents. She seems to be something of a big sister figure for Alex, which is going to make the inevitable romantic subplot really awkward; but then this is a JRPG, so stranger things could happen. We're also introduced to an NPC companion, Nall, who is a cute talking furry thing that follows Alex around, and basically plays Kero-chan to his Sakura (albeit with the genders reversed).

These cut scenes get a lot of grief, mostly because of Nall's voice, but given the standards of the time, the dub actors are really pretty good. Given all the big name and professional voice talent that ends up in video games these days, it's easy to forget that, as recently as ten years ago, most video game voice work was truly atrocious. Largely performed by Z-grade actors and the friends and family of the developers/publishers, it was even worse than anime dubs from the same time frame. The voice work in Lunar wouldn't be out of place in any Saturday morning cartoon, which puts it well above most of its contemporaries in that department.

I'm lingering on the cut scenes because they really worked as far as getting Lunar's hooks into me right off the bat. I don't have any interest in anime these days, but back in the early '90s, I was a big fan, and these scenes took me back to what I liked about Japanese animation back then. The characters are all pretty likable (even the bombastic and slightly greedy Ramus), not brooding and morally ambiguous, as is all the rage these days. The scene in which Luna is introduced is particularly charming--gentle and pretty, without any uncomfortable sexual overtones, despite the fact that the game obviously wants us to fall in love with her.


Alex and Luna are supposed to be working on a song for a festival in honor of the goddess Althena, but Ramus has the bright idea to go on an adventure to the White Dragon's cave, and since that makes for a much better RPG than hanging around singing all day, the trio (plus Nall) heads off right away. And we get our first chance to dig into L:SSSC's battle system, which has taken most of the flack from internet haters lately.

Once you get into a dungeon, L:SSSC looks a lot like Earthbound. There are no random encounters; enemies are represented by sprites wandering around the map, and for the most part you can elect to run past without fighting them if you want. The best part is that after you defeat them, they're gone until you leave and re-enter the floor, so grinding is pretty painless. Just walk from one end of the floor to the other, kill everything in sight, then leave, heal and repeat. You'll probably have a couple of characters die before you hit level 8 or so, since your party consists of kids initially equipped with ordinary clothes and puny weapons, but this introduces another cool feature, namely Nall's ability to revive fallen characters at the end of a battle. Add in the fact that you can save anywhere at any time (at least as far as I've played), and this actually feels incredibly forward-thinking for an RPG that originated in 1992. Even some of SquareEnix's most recent offerings (e.g. Crisis Core) are still clinging to save points that don't even have the courtesy to refill your HP and MP, and very few other games from the time frame of Lunar and its remakes cut out so many of the genre's annoyances.

Of course all this says nothing about the battles themselves. I won't go into great detail here, but basically you have the choice of manually controlling your party, or letting the AI run amock. I started by trying the AI option, and was dismayed to see my characters burning through MP against minor enemies and downing healing items any time they took a point of damage, so I quickly realized that was not the way to go. Still, though it's not well realized, it's a nice idea that didn't start popping up regularly in RPGs until just a few years ago. Manual control gives you the usual options of regular attack, magic/special attack, items, and running away. What gives the system a bit of character is that it sort of resembles a combination of a tactical RPGs and Chrono Trigger. Characters start off lined up on opposite sides of the screen, but actually move around the field as the fight ensues. It's fairly primitive (there are none of Chrono Trigger's combo attacks and you don't get any numerical bonuses for flanking), but still fun, as you have to think about getting in position for the best attacks while still being able to protect your weaker characters (i.e. Luna).

So far, I've actually had a lot of fun with the battles. There's just enough strategy to keep them interesting, but not so much that you get bogged down in plotting out every move. If there's any problem, it's that things can feel a little random. For example, stronger attacks have a tendency to knock enemies back a few steps, and since you have to physically be in range in order to attack, one character might knock an enemy out of range for the next queued attack, wasting a turn. So far, I've only had this happen one or two times, but it still feels a little archaic. On the whole, though, the battles feel pretty streamlined and enjoyable--enough so that all the talk about them being dull and outdated seems a little unfair.

At the end of the first dungeon, the party meets up with Quark, the white dragon, who turns out to be friendlier than one might expect. He sees potential in Alex, and sends him off on a short trial to prove his worth. The dialog here broke down a bit, and I wondered if it was an instance of Working Designs playing fast and loose with the translation. Nall, who's generally portrayed as sharp-tongued-but-kind, suddenly turns into an insufferable jerk, cutting off the dragon's attempts to praise Alex and demanding a reward for making it through the cave. It's a jarring moment from a cast that has otherwise been refreshingly pleasant. Once we completed the trial and got back to town, there was another of these weird moments. Ramus, as noted, is portrayed as not being adventuring material, but in battle, his attacks consistently do more damage than Alex's. Again, I'm not sure if this is sloppy translation, or sloppy programming, but it doesn't make Nall any more likable when she's disparaging the strongest fighter in the party for not pulling his weight.

After completing the first mission and heading back to town, Ramus wants to sell the treasure you've collected, but he learns that there's not enough money in the village to pay for it. So in the next edition of Back Catalog, I'll pick up with the party traveling to the city of Meribia to hawk a diamond, unless the game decides to throw me a curveball.