Lunar: Silver Star Story - Complete

The Good
The 32-Bit remake of the original Sega CD title, Lunar: Silver Star Story. As one of the best games available for the Sega CD, Game Arts has the task of remaking the game in such a way as not to piss off the fans of the original version while earning new fans. They succeed making this remake even better than the original, with better visuals, FMVS and more voice overs.

In Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, as in the original, you assume the role of Alex a young man with dreams of becoming a great Dragonmaster, like his hero Dyne. Dragonmaster’s are charged with the task of protecting the Goddess Althena. Along with his friends Luna, Ramus, and Nall, Alex’s quest will make him the greatest of all the Dragonmasters, including Dyne. He also will make new friends and become a man, and realize his true feelings for Luna. There are some plot changes to Lunar:SSC, such as Luna going with Alex to Meribia, instead of staying behind. The lighthouse dungeon has also been removed.

The story in Lunar, is still basically the same, as well as still one of the best to ever grace an RPG or video game for that matter. The characters are still all memorable, and there are no party members that feel useless, something that happens a little to often in RPGS. And due to Working Designs unique translation even simple and inevitable things like talking to NPCS is fun and often funny. Furthermore the plot never gets tedious,(Even on your umpteenth play through.) as some lesser RPGS are often guilty of.

The Graphics are much improved over the Sega CD version. The game is more colorful and vibrant, and the already impressive FMVS are even better. The sprites look great. The spells all have a cool animation as well as the special moves. The world map screens look particularly good, they really convey the beauty of the world of Lunar.

The Music is still awesome. Some tracks were lost, but for every one lost two seemed to have been gained. If anything the score is even better this time. And thanks to the soundtrack disk we can enjoy the new score and some of the old tracks that did not make this game. The sound effects and voice overs are all up to par as well. The voice overs like the music is even better this time around.

There are many gameplay changes as well. Instead of the random encounters of the Sega CD version, you can now see the enemies before you engage them, this helps make the dungeons less tedious, all RPGS nowadays should adopt this system, it is about time we end that random battle crap. The world map screens are now free of attacks so now you can take your time traveling, and not worry about getting killed on the way to the next town.

The Bad
All is not perfect in Lunar. The Game is too short, about 20-25 hours. And for some reason, many of the spells were removed from the game. This is probably most evident with Alex, he went from having 25 spells to 10 or so.

The Bottom Line
Many may have bought the Playstation for Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII, but I know those games are overrated and bought a PS for Lunar. Fans of RPGS need look no further than this.