• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

So I beat Lunar 1 and 2..

I would totally shit my pants if the Saturn versions of Lunar 1 and 2 (and maybe Magic School) were ported to the PSP.

I did rip SSSC and EBC to my PSP, but doesn't a bug prevent you from playing the second disc or something like that?
 
KittenMaster said:
It's supposively a prequel, and what I've played of it shown conflict between humans and beast men (people like Leo).
Click to expand...

Huh? Legends (GBA) is another remake of Silver Star... Dragon Song is the one with the human-beastman conflict plot.

Error said:
I dont see how Lunar battle system is better than Grandia.

Grandia progression system was awesome and add to that a great battle system and it's easy for it to top both Lunar games.

Grandia is GameArts crowning achievement, as they haven't come close to match it.
Click to expand...

Why do people see the Grandia battle system as so amazing anyway? It really didn't seem all that special... decent JRPG system with time-based turns, but not really original. Having your turns timed is kind of annoying, actually... it's not realtime but it's not turnbased either, so it's kind of stuck in the middle... mostly though I just found it average and unspectacular. Oh, and the game was really easy too, unlike Eternal Blue.

That aside, what I liked about the Lunar system... well, for one thing there are the great automatic options -- not just autofight, but also three customizable presets. That saves so much time... Grandia has some of that but it's not quite as well done. Above that though, as I said, range matters in Lunar, like it does in most PC RPGs -- you have to think about which enemy to attack, because if you move towards one you might go into range of several others who otherwise wouldn't be able to attack that character... and maybe you can't attack that enemy because they are too far away, so you'll have to use an item or special attack (spells and special attacks hit anyone) or just spend your turn moving towards the enemy. In contrast, while Grandia does show the characters moving around and hitting eachother (at least it's not just two lines of characters hitting eachother Final Fantasy/Lunar Legend/Lunar DS style), range is not a factor. Anyone can hit anyone. There is a bit of range element for area of effect spell ranges (like in Skies of Arcadia), but that's a lot less than what's in Lunar.
 
<3 the first two Lunar games (only two I've played).

Ghaleon's story arc is still my favorite in any series, ever. (The Arbiter in the Halo titles is a close second.) His closing comments to Dyne at the end of Eternal Blue is one of my most memorable moments in a game. Eternal Blue is such a great game; huge, challenging, great character writing, beautiful art and music. The soundtrack (Sega-CD version) is one of very few I've ever imported.
 
GhaleonEB said:
<3 the first two Lunar games (only two I've played).

Ghaleon's story arc is still my favorite in any series, ever. (The Arbiter in the Halo titles is a close second.) His closing comments to Dyne at the end of Eternal Blue is one of my most memorable moments in a game. Eternal Blue is such a great game; huge, challenging, great character writing, beautiful art and music. The soundtrack (Sega-CD version) is one of very few I've ever imported.
Click to expand...

Maybe you'd know the answer to an earlier question:
how did Ghaleon help the good guys by losing against them? I went to the fairies and they're saying he was a good guy now.
 
Red Scarlet said:
Maybe you'd know the answer to an earlier question:
how did Ghaleon help the good guys by losing against them? I went to the fairies and they're saying he was a good guy now.
Click to expand...
My Sega-CD has been dead for a few years, so my memory on the specifics of how he did it are hazy. But in general, Ghaleon
led them to Zophar's doorstep and then let them win the fight with himself. IIRC, there were many moments in the game when Ghaleon could have attacked/killed Hiro, but didn't. He slowly left a trail for them to get right to Zophar. That way, when Zophar pulled the plug on Ghaleon, it was too late to stop Hiro and the gang from getting to him.
I wish I could recall the specifics. I think with my next bonus I'll get a new Sega-CD system and play through it again.

Ghaleon's predicament of having to make Zophar think he's still evil, simultaniously trying to sow the seeds of Zophar's destruction, is really compelling to me.

Bear in mind I've only played the Sega-CD version of the game and it's been a few years, but that's how I'm recalling it.

Curses, wikepedia doesn't have a detailed story synopsis.

Ghaleon is one of the few returning characters from Lunar: The Silver Star. Ghaleon himself claims that he was brought back from the dead by Zophar to take revenge against the world of Lunar and help hasten the dark god's revival in the process. However, Ghaleon's actions belie his words, because he is helpful to Hiro and the party as often as he is hindering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Eternal_Blue
 
A Black Falcon said:
Why do people see the Grandia battle system as so amazing anyway? It really didn't seem all that special... decent JRPG system with time-based turns, but not really original. Having your turns timed is kind of annoying, actually... it's not realtime but it's not turnbased either, so it's kind of stuck in the middle... mostly though I just found it average and unspectacular. Oh, and the game was really easy too, unlike Eternal Blue.
Click to expand...

I think what I like most about the Grandia battle systems is the cancels. You can cancel an enemy's attack completely if you time it right. This is actually something you can do in FFX-2, as well, and I think that heavily contributes to my adoration of that battle system too.

Canceling, and each action having its own unique charge time add another layer of strategy that's really fun to exploit.
 
Aeana said:
I actually think my least favorite aspect of the Lunar battle system is that range matters, but you can't tell your characters to move through any method other than trying to attack something. I'd much prefer to have that range system removed, unless they gave me a "move" option, perhaps kind of like BoF5. It's actually somewhat annoying in Grandia, too, just due to the area of effect stuff. You can't really control where your characters end up, so it's a pain.
Click to expand...

While it is annoying that they don't tell you ranges so you just have to figure out (or guess) how far your characters can go, I think that having range as a factor really helps make RPG battle systems a lot more strategic,so I'd far rather see the somewhat detail-lacking implementation of range as Lunar has than the nothing that most JRPGs have. I wish that other JRPGs had learned from Lunar's example... or, heck, that the Lunar series itself had. I mean, Legends has normal "five versus five in lines" battles, and DS has standard two-lines battles too, just with enemies in two groups so that air enemies are on the upper screen. Boring.

I actually found it more annoying in Grandia and Skies of Arcadia, where range didn't matter but AOE did... but I had absolutely no control over movement, because character movement and enemy movement were all pretty much random. In Lunar, at least, you know that when you tell someone to attack, they will move towards that enemy (or the next one, if that enemy dies before their turn), so you can plan movement to at least some degree. In Skies, you don't know if they will move or do it as a ranged attack... I really loved Skies, and thought that the movement aspect definitely added to the game, but it was frustrating sometimes.


Aeana said:
I think what I like most about the Grandia battle systems is the cancels. You can cancel an enemy's attack completely if you time it right. This is actually something you can do in FFX-2, as well, and I think that heavily contributes to my adoration of that battle system too.

Canceling, and each action having its own unique charge time add another layer of strategy that's really fun to exploit.
Click to expand...

I'm not a big JRPG fan really, but I've never really seen the attraction of timed turns... with games like this I'd rather be able to have the time to choose each option. I know that they do it to speed the game up, but I don't know if it speeds it up all that much, really... and in effect "choose commands first but then the people act in order of speed" isn't that different from the timed system anyway, I think. I liked how in Lunar you can very quickly choose your commands, and then watch the turn... it's annoying in games when you have to manually select every character's command every turn if you're doing the same things over and over... I want to set up the move and then see what happens. But then, I'm more a PC RPG fan than console, and Baldur's Gate is my ideal model, so whatever. What Grandia does works decently enough for what it's trying to do. I just don't see why people say it's so amazing. Other than that, though, my biggest problem with Grandia was probably the quite low difficulty level, though. It was just so easy... even Lunar Legend is harder, I think.
 
I never got in to the Lunar games. It was my opinion that the "bosses increase in strength as the hero levels up" mechanic was dumb. That defeats the whole purpose of having a level-up system in the first place.

I really wanted to like Lunar (I bought the PS1 re-release), but the moment I hit a boss that kicked my ass I stopped because it was obvious I couldn't just grind his difficulty away.
 
Red Scarlet said:
How do you get outtakes? Is there any way to view the fmv's?
Click to expand...

Yes! You have to go to Nota to get the Rememberizer, then visit the place where you viewed each cutscene. Then you can watch them any time you want.

Also I think you automatically get some Ocarina or something that lets you listen to all the music.

There is also a segment on the "making of"-CD with audio outtakes and mistakes. It's great :)
 
Red Scarlet said:
After the epilogue (for the outtakes)?
Click to expand...

That's how it worked in the Sega CD version so I would assume so.

CcrooK said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDunXSSQu9o
Click to expand...

Whoa. I never found that :lol

Sega1991 said:
I never got in to the Lunar games. It was my opinion that the "bosses increase in strength as the hero levels up" mechanic was dumb. That defeats the whole purpose of having a level-up system in the first place.
Click to expand...

Not really. You still benefit from leveling in the regular battles, and this way you don't run the risk of steamrolling through the game. I would love to see that in more RPGs (and in a Metroidvania... you should not be able to defeat Dracula in under 30 seconds, ever).
 
Error said:
not Lunar, but there is this little rpg called GRANDIA made by the same people that did Lunar that you should maybe check out.
Click to expand...

Yep. I loved Lunar series and Grandia as well. Though I never played part 2 or extreme.
I tried getting into 3, but it was pretty cheesy.
 
I never played any Grandia except Xtreme, and Xtreme is more of a dungeon crawler, and I know it becomes more challenging over time. Xtreme is an appropriate subtitle, because it is more for hardcore RPG gamers. It also has pretty good music.

The trade off is a crappy story, a hub based town with no world map (meaning that exploring is limited to dungeons).

I never finished it, unfortunately.

EDIT: Oh, and I usually wouldn't complain about graphics, but Xtreme has such a nice box art, but the in-game graphics don't do it justice at all.
 
These are still my two favorite games of all time, and I can't help but get slightly excited whenever I see someone mention them. I thought Eternal Blue was the perfect way to handle the storyline in an rpg sequel. My only real complaint is that some of the bosses were ridiculously hard. I think that's probably why I prefer the Playstation remakes, as they were toned down quite a bit. Borgan in particular. In the Sega CD original, beating him felt like you were pulling off a miracle.

Jirotrom said:
intro.jpg



I have this as well... damn I need to hurry up and beat Grandia.
Click to expand...

I've got two of those bad boys. I also got one of these for being one of haiku contest winners:
4783_2.JPG
 
LunAr and LunAr II...two of my all time favorites and the perfect reasons to own a Sega CD...them, Popful Mail, Vay and anything else that Working Designs was kind enough to translate for us :D
 
Zophar was one of my favorite boss fights ever because it took me like over an hour when I played on Sega CD. It was a total fight of attrition and I think I won with 1 guy left.
 
Night_Trekker said:
Not really. You still benefit from leveling in the regular battles, and this way you don't run the risk of steamrolling through the game. I would love to see that in more RPGs (and in a Metroidvania... you should not be able to defeat Dracula in under 30 seconds, ever).
Click to expand...

I guess it's just a difference of taste, then. I'm all for challenging games (I own Ninja Gaiden, after all, and plan on picking up DMC3 one of these days), but I played RPGs because it always felt like you had a choice: Deliberately under level yourself for more challenge, or grind a bit and breeze through the game. That was part of the trade off, too. Do you waste your time with grinding to beat this boss or do you rush it and tackle things strategically?

Unfortunately, neither option really seemed to work for me. It was the Mushroom Monster boss in the Magic Trials Cave or whatever. No matter how I approached the boss, regardless of items, equips, strategy or level, he would nearly one-hit-kill Alex or Luna. By the time the other would get over there to heal the wounded, the boss would either kill the weakened one or nearly kill the healthy one.

I attempted it at least two dozen times - I even started a new save file and replayed the entire game up to that boss, making sure I stocked up on everything as much as possible, trying to prepare the best I could.

He still mopped the floor with me, every single time.

So, I threw in the towel and haven't touched the disc since. It's been at least... when did Lunar come out on the PS1? 1999? So nearly 10 years since I've played it.
 
Only played the first one when it had that special edition on the PSX. Rented it, beat it fairly quickly, but loved it.
 
While I loved Lunar, I tried playing it again a couple years ago and the battle system is very slow. It's the classic 3-5 steps > Random Encounter, add that to a generally slow battle system and it's painful to play.

So you need to be in a patient mood to play this game again imo.
 
A Black Falcon said:
Why do people see the Grandia battle system as so amazing anyway? It really didn't seem all that special... decent JRPG system with time-based turns, but not really original.
Click to expand...

It was pretty original, actually. It did a lot of things that other RPGs haven't and don't do.

The reasons the Grandia battle system were awesome: dividing the generic "attack" command into Critical and Combo, each with their own benefits; the ability to cancel enemy moves completely; having different moves take different amounts of time depending upon how far you were from the target or how skilled you were at the technique/spell; the fact that the game went out of its way to reward the player more if the player was skilled enough to take advantage of these systems to achieve perfect battles.

A Black Falcon said:
Having your turns timed is kind of annoying, actually... it's not realtime but it's not turnbased either, so it's kind of stuck in the middle...
Click to expand...

It's a variant of the ATB. It allows you to tie skill into how quickly various moves are done -- since every move takes time and as you increase your proficiency levels, you cut that time down. And it gives you a time period where after the enemy has selected a move, you can cancel it outright, which is very strategic; any attacks before that will simply delay their turn. And it also factors in movement across the battlefield.

A Black Falcon said:
I actually found it more annoying in Grandia and Skies of Arcadia, where range didn't matter but AOE did... but I had absolutely no control over movement, because character movement and enemy movement were all pretty much random. In Lunar, at least, you know that when you tell someone to attack, they will move towards that enemy (or the next one, if that enemy dies before their turn), so you can plan movement to at least some degree.
Click to expand...

Gosh, I hate to break it to you, but range does matter in Grandia. When attack an enemy, you move toward it, and if you try to attack an enemy that's too far away, your character will eventually stop moving and lose their attack. All that plus the AOE element of spells and all the stuff listed above makes it clearly the better battle system.

What's more, unlike in Lunar, in Grandia you can actually control your movement by picking a specific point in the battlefield and moving there.
 
Needz listz...

Title: Lunar: The Silver Star
Format: Sega CD
Developer: Game Arts
Publisher: Game Arts (JP), Working Designs (NA)
Release: 1992 (JP), 1993 (NA)

Title: Lunar: Eternal Blue
Format: Sega CD
Developer: Game Arts
Publisher: Game Arts (JP), Working Designs (NA)
Release: 1994 (JP), 1995 (NA)

Title: Lunar: Samposuru Gakuen
Format: Game Gear
Planning: Game Arts
Developer: Erghiez
Publisher: Game Arts (JP)
Release: 1996 (JP)

Title: Lunar: Silver Star Story/Complete
Format: Saturn, PlayStation, PC/Windows
Planning: Game Arts
Developer: Japan Art Media
Assist: Vanguard Works
PS/PC port: Alfa System
Publisher: Kadowkawa Shoten (JP), Working Designs (NA)
Release: 1996 (JP-SS), 1998 (JP-PS), 1999 (NA)

Title: Mahou Gakuen Lunar!
Format: Saturn
Planning: Game Arts
Developer: Ehrgiez
Assist: Bits Lab, Ancient
Publisher: ESP (JP)
Release: 1997 (JP)

Title: Lunar 2: Eternal Blue/Complete
Format: Saturn, PlayStation
Planning: Game Arts
Developer: Japan Art Media
Assist: Vanguard Works
PS port: Alfa System
Publisher: Kadowkawa Shoten (JP), Working Designs (NA)
Release: 1998 (JP-SS), 1999 (JP-PS), 2000 (NA)

Title: Lunar Legend
Format: Game Boy Advance
License: Game Arts
Developer: Japan Art Media
Publisher: Media Rings (JP), Ubisoft (NA)
Release: 2002 (JP), 2002 (NA)

Title: Lunar Genesis/Dragon Song
Format: Nintendo DS
Planning: Game Arts
Developer: Japan Art Media
Publisher: MMV (JP), Ubisoft (NA)
Release: 2005 (JP), 2005 (NA)
 
I still remember getting the Sega CD and Lunar for Christmas many, many moons ago. Such a wonderful universe and I really wish the opportunity would arise for a true sequel.

I'm not sure which game I prefer, but I'm positive that no RPG has ever stuck with me the way Lunar has.
 
Tabris said:
While I loved Lunar, I tried playing it again a couple years ago and the battle system is very slow. It's the classic 3-5 steps > Random Encounter, add that to a generally slow battle system and it's painful to play.

So you need to be in a patient mood to play this game again imo.
Click to expand...

There are no random encounters in the PSX versions.
 
ShinAmano said:
LunAr and LunAr II...two of my all time favorites and the perfect reasons to own a Sega CD...them, Popful Mail, Vay and anything else that Working Designs was kind enough to translate for us :D
Click to expand...


The boss in Vay was impossible. I literally fought him for two hours and then died...and he still was alive! I had ran out of all health items, which usually never happens in rpgs for me, since I stock tons of them.

Another thing is, I had used up my lifestone, on a previous boss, just because I hadn't saved in a while, and didn't want to go through the whole dungeon again. I guess that was a mistake.

I sold the game the next day. :lol
 
Tabris said:
While I loved Lunar, I tried playing it again a couple years ago and the battle system is very slow. It's the classic 3-5 steps > Random Encounter, add that to a generally slow battle system and it's painful to play.

So you need to be in a patient mood to play this game again imo.
Click to expand...


Same I couldn't get back into. I tried playing the Sega CD version, since that's the one I played the first time.
 
bigmit3737 said:
The boss in Vay was impossible. I literally fought him for two hours and then died...and he still was alive! I had ran out of all health items, which usually never happens in rpgs for me, since I stock tons of them.

Another thing is, I had used up my lifestone, on a previous boss, just because I hadn't saved in a while, and didn't want to go through the whole dungeon again. I guess that was a mistake.

I sold the game the next day. :lol
Click to expand...
Yeah I remember it being a beast...much harder then all the other RPGs i had been playing.
 
God, they don't make em' like they used to. Congrats OP for playing and beating some of the best RPGs to have ever been crafted.
 
Aeana said:
I actually think my least favorite aspect of the Lunar battle system is that range matters, but you can't tell your characters to move through any method other than trying to attack something. I'd much prefer to have that range system removed, unless they gave me a "move" option
Click to expand...

Well, you could move with the 'defend' option. That seemed to work okay.

Sega1991 said:
I never got in to the Lunar games. It was my opinion that the "bosses increase in strength as the hero levels up" mechanic was dumb. That defeats the whole purpose of having a level-up system in the first place.

I really wanted to like Lunar (I bought the PS1 re-release), but the moment I hit a boss that kicked my ass I stopped because it was obvious I couldn't just grind his difficulty away.
Click to expand...

That bugged me when I read about it in the first game and pissed me off when I died on a big blue booger-looking boss, but after losing once I tried again and won..using buffs helped out and after that it left my memory that they do that. I wasn't sure if the bosses worked that way in the second game or not until after making this thread.

Ledsen said:
Yes! You have to go to Nota to get the Rememberizer, then visit the place where you viewed each cutscene. Then you can watch them any time you want.

Also I think you automatically get some Ocarina or something that lets you listen to all the music.

There is also a segment on the "making of"-CD with audio outtakes and mistakes. It's great :)
Click to expand...

Okay, I got the rememberizer last night. Maybe I can make a couple more avs from that. I want to make a Jean one from the ending but not sure to make the animation cell version or the 'faded out' type one instead.

Night_Trekker: I've been told and told by someone that the Sega CD version of 1 is better, but the PS1 version of 2 is better. I of course have no way of knowing since I've only played through the PS1 versions, but what do you like better about the Sega CD ones? I've played just a bit of the Sega CD version of the first one, and only saw bits and pieces of 2 on it (wasn't when Lucia changes her clothes at the carnival an fmv in that one?) and all I know about it was that saving was kind of a pain in the ass in the original? Something to do with 'spell points' Ruby had or something?
 
Red Scarlet said:
Well, you could move with the 'defend' option. That seemed to work okay.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I realized that after I posted that... which is why I edited it out. But that guy had already replied, I guess. Oh well. I still don't see anything special about Lunar's combat, though.
 
The main thing I don't like about their combat systems (in 1 mainly and not until way late into 2) is how much damage badguys do..then they hit you some more and leave you with chunks of body parts missing!

I didn't know you liked FF9.

Oh, IIRC, the Sega CD Lunar had..5? or 6? different disc labels..did part 2 too? And did the PS1 versions have different ones?
 
Red Scarlet said:
The main thing I don't like about their combat systems (in 1 mainly and not until way late into 2) is how much damage badguys do..then they hit you some more and leave you with chunks of body parts missing!

I didn't know you liked FF9.
Click to expand...

FF9's okay. I changed my avatar since I'm playing it right now.

And yeah, I think Lunar 1 is really hard to start out with because enemies just do too much damage.
 
Red Scarlet said:
Night_Trekker: I've been told and told by someone that the Sega CD version of 1 is better, but the PS1 version of 2 is better. I of course have no way of knowing since I've only played through the PS1 versions, but what do you like better about the Sega CD ones? I've played just a bit of the Sega CD version of the first one, and only saw bits and pieces of 2 on it (wasn't when Lucia changes her clothes at the carnival an fmv in that one?) and all I know about it was that saving was kind of a pain in the ass in the original? Something to do with 'spell points' Ruby had or something?
Click to expand...

Lunar 1 on Sega CD is substantially different. The story changed, the character designs changed, lots of FMVs and voice acting were added, they added the Bromide images (neither Sega CD game has those), etc...

Lunar 2 changed less, but the differences are worth mentioning. In 2 on the Sega CD, to save you use these points. You get points by winning battles, and use them for two purposes: saving (and every time you save it increases the cost a bit) and levelling up spells (each character has one spell line which auto-levels up, but the rest need to be levelled up with the points). You have save anywhere of course like all of the Lunar games. It's an interesting system, I thought... I actually thought that it added something to the game.

(Spoilers!)

Also, yes, the 'Lucia changing her clothes in the carnival' scene is a (Sega CD-level) 'FMV' scene on the Sega CD. Kind of funny... There were a few other noticeable changes in the other FMVs, too. The FMVs were all changed some... the scene where Lucia meets Hiro is a bit different, the one where Hiro walks in on Lucia in the bath later in the game is quite different (instead of an FMV with Lucia getting out of the water, seeing Hiro walk in, and then screaming and jumping into the water like she does on the PSX, on Sega CD it's mostly in-engine with voice acting with only a short animated bit, and Lucia doesn't get out of the water before Hiro comes in. She was already in the water facing the other way and just acts surprised and tells him to leave, pretty much, before (dressing off camera and) coming out and talking to him (in a fairly amusing conversation)...), the "Lucia walking in on Hiro in the bath" FMV scene early in the game isn't in the Sega CD version (that was added for the PSX), etc. I prefer the original versions of the scenes, really. Either way there, though, the biggest change is the removal of the magic system/save system points thing. It was more interesting when you had to level up the spells yourself...
 
I'm trying to play this through the PSX version on PS3 now, wish me luck! Would rather rip it to the psp but i hear there are issues with that. Still looking for Lunar 2. Ugh wish I never sold it.
 
God I loved these games! They just prove that great writing and an interesting story go a looooooong way. The epilogue was so good and so unexpected!
 
I was a MASSIVE Lunar fan, and all this talk has me waxing nostalgia... all the Grandia talk finally made me go buy it on Ebay.

I missed it the first time around so here's my chance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Proton Experimental Update Fixes Resident Evil 1 and 2, Dino Crisis 1 and 2, and More for Steam Deck
Hardware Platform 
2
209
CuteFaceJay replied
Possible One: Lunar Industries – Official Release Date Trailer
Trailer Indie 
0
45
IbizaPocholo replied
2026 Steam Lunar New Year Sale Feb 12 - Feb 26
Deals 
5
460
Rocinante618 replied
Pragmata has sold 1 million copies in 2 days
News  2 3
128
584
Nintendo's Witch replied
Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 on your browser
4
182
TintoConCasera replied
Top Bottom