There are some games that never lose that certain something which makes people want to play them, and get remade in one form or another several times. Presumably they are remade because there are people who want to play them. This is one of my major pieces of evidence for why RPGs don’t need excellent graphics, since people have as much fun playing the game now as when it was first released, despite obviously dated graphics. So, let’s take a look at a game so classic, it’s been re-made thrice (at least), and has one of the most endearing songs on the internet. I refer, of course, to Lunar: Silver Star Complete.
The story of Lunar should be immediately familiar. A boy sets out to defeat an insane villain, bent on ruling the world, aided by his many quirky companions. Well, no, it’s not original, but believe me, there are a few twists that you may not see coming. The characters, on the other hand, are really great. Each and every significant character has their very own anime intro when you first meet them, and whenever the group does something interesting, a cutscene is not far behind. Kyle, the bandit womanizer, comes out in drag, and ambushes some baddies. Going to the hot springs actually gets you an amusing still of the guys. And going through the hard as nails optional dungeon gets you to the girls’ spring… Even when a cutscene ends, you’ve still got reasonably complex character stereotypes. Yeah, they’re still pretty conventional, but they’re anything but generic. Nash, your whiny little show-off mage, actually pulls some pretty big shots. Plus, there’s a strong undercurrent of humor throughout the game, which means that your party members will frequently crack jokes, especially when you talk to npcs. It’s certainly more interesting to talk to the npcs than in many games, where you ignore everyone in town except shopkeepers and plot points.
As far as the battle system goes, it’s pretty basic. You give out commands, and party members act them out in order of their speed. However, Lunar mixes things up a little by making it necessary to move up to your enemy before launching a melee attack. At the beginning, this requires you to seriously consider your characters’ movement ranges. Probably the best part of the battle system is that power leveling will only get you so far. Minor enemies, which can occasionally be avoided on the dungeon map, don’t scale to your level, but bosses do. Power level too far, and the boss’ll cream you, since your gear won’t be up to snuff. The only reason to level up at all is that each character gains spells/abilities depending on their preset “class” at certain levels. Good for those of you who just want to play the story, but if you want character customization and grinding, you might want to look elsewhere else.
All your characters have a set of abilities, which overlap a little if not consistently. At some points in the game, you’ll have two healers, and for most of the game you’ll have two main fighters and two attack mages. This frequently happens because temporary characters join your team. In fact, it happens so much that you begin to wonder who is going to be in the final party. Some characters are pretty obviously only temporary (Lvl 99’s anyone?) but there’s a few you’ll be a bit surprised to see go. Just remember to take all their stuff!
Which brings me around to the next bit. Stuff. In Lunar, your inventory is limited. You can’t just keep lugging around your old gear, and sooner or later you’re going to have to drop things to make room for better. It’s kinda too bad, because some of the gear is mildly amusing. The Magic Robes, for example, are described as “Magically Delicious.” This ain’t no Disgaea, but it’s the thought that counts. Still, the limited inventory adds challenge, especially since characters can only use the items that they themselves are carrying. Plus, you’ll want to save room for the bromides, which are little bits of fan service for all of the female characters. Sexist? All I have to say to that is “men’s hot springs.”
Graphics? Excuse me, but I refuse. This game came out for the Sega CD, and got ported to the Playstation. Yeah, there was a Nintendo DS remake recently, but the game I’m reviewing is Silver Star Story: Complete, for the Playstation. That’s the one I own, and it’s the one I played. The other versions are supposed to be fun, but I’ve never played them and may never get the chance to do so. Whatever. In any case, graphics are about as relevant to rpgs as hypotension is to literary theory. Yeah, occasionally you get exceptions, but I’ll let you know when those games rear their ugly, or in some case gorgeous, heads.
Replay value? Well, hmm. This guy just ranks in at “once is enough, plus or minus nostalgia value.” There’s not a whole lot you can do on a second run. I did two runs because I messed up getting an optional item or two the first time, but really, there’s not a lot that you can do differently, so it would get old. You might replay it for the story or for nostalgia though.
Down to the overall rating. This game gets about 8.5 out of 10. Remember, I run most rpgs at 5, no matter how bad, so it might be something like 3.5 out of 5. Still good, but not fantastic. There’s definitely some great nostalgia surrounding this game though, so I’d definitely give it a go. Just remember to save often. When a party member leaves, they take all their stuff. You think you lost party members permanently in Final Fantasy VII?
Quick Tip: When you become dragonmaster, head back to Lann for Ghaleon’s Tear, a really good accessory. You just need to have a little chat with the elder to get it.
How I Broke Game: Ghaleon’s Tear? It makes it so you do one physical attack to all enemies instead of your normal attack options. I gave it to Nash, who has weapons that inflict status effects. Sometimes even death…
If you liked this game, you might look into these games. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is very similar to the first game, and has a lot of little references in it to characters and events from LSSSC. Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV have similar battle systems, and somewhat of a similar attitude toward characters, making complicated stereotypes of the playable characters. Grandia has a nice, light-hearted story to match Lunar, though the battle system is pretty different.
No comments:
Post a Comment