Lunar: The Silver Star

Written by Tom Clare in Mega-CD Game Reviews, Sunday 23 November, 2008

Released: 1993
Developer: Game Arts
Publisher: SEGA
Genre: RPG
Platform: Mega-CD
Region: US

Having been largely ignored upon its 1993 Mega-CD release and also the subsequent reimaginings that appeared on the Saturn and PlayStation, Lunar: The Silver Star has gradually amassed something of a cult-status. Developed by GameArts, it acts not only as a precursor to the brilliant Grandia, but in its own right, Lunar's simple but effective playing style coupled with amusing dialogue and a general all-round charm make it noteworthy.

For a Mega-CD game, it could be argued that Lunar has not been blessed with the prettiest of visuals. Whilst the occasional animated sequence is welcome, the sprites look very ordinary. The towns are nothing special for the most part, appearing quite drab, which is odd as it seems the systems palette is often stretched beyond its limits, with odd shades of green appearing in the hair and outfits of certain characters when it clearly shouldn't be there. The menus are easy to navigate but very minimalist in their appearance and few special effects have been brought in to liven up the battles either.

Not that any of this really matters in the end though. Lunar is (and always was) a game that will be most revered by the more serious of gamers, who will appreciate the pure, uncluttered simplicity of both the gameplay and story, whilst also noting that it gets most of the RPG essentials spot on. Alex, the games central character moves easily and with speed, whilst you are given quick hints by your colleagues upon entering certain towns so that you never lose track of short-term objectives. Elsewhere, part members level-up at a rapid pace, maintaining a constant feeling of progress as you are frequently rewarded with new moves and spells.

Whilst Alex doesn't say a great deal, many of the people he travels with do a sturdy enough job of conveying the story, as he travels to save his semi-titular girlfriend Luna who, along with all of the worlds Songstresses, has been captured. Many of the narrative blueprints that would later bless Grandia are present here; the idea of a young lad liberating himself from family life to go on an epic adventure whereby he is ultimately driven by love to fight for the future of the world may now seem a familiar template but it was nevertheless impressively in place back in 1993 - even the flying cat-type creature Nall is a dead-ringer for Grandia's Puffy. Where it trumps the aforementioned classic however (at least in the US-translated version) is in its fantastically madcap, scattergun humour; you have a slave worker placing bets on whether the main villain in fact wears a wig, whilst one villager mocks his apparent love of the pop band ABBA.

Some wince-inducing sound effects and shamelessly awful voice-acting aren't enough to stop the audio being arguably Lunar's most accomplished aspect. The benefit reaped from the Mega-CD hardware may not have been realised visually but in terms of music its light-years ahead of the competition. The tunes are simply beautiful; compositions that fit each of the emotional moods evoked throughout the course of the story, multi-layered with a level of intricacy and craft that adds incalculably to the atmosphere, and as befits a high-end role-playing game, it comes with the token infectious battle theme too.

The battle-system takes a little getting used to - commands such as Attack, Magic, and Item are easy enough to grasp, but your characters can only walk a certain number of steps each turn, which initially requires some sussing out as you can't designate them. In some cases your lead character becomes a sitting duck at the front as most enemies tend just to attack the nearest party member to their position. This can make for some slightly odd boss battles but on the whole it is decent enough, with a similarly good range of enemies populating the game, and there are many that cannot simply be brushed aside with repetitive use of the 'Attack' command.

Lunar deserves praise for its mostly-restrained dungeon layouts. As developers have over the years gradually lost sight of the 'less is more' mantra, it is heartening to see a game that never strays towards the realms of the ridiculous with twenty-floor marathons that leave you cursing endless battles and a lack of save points (as incidentally, you can save almost anywhere). Of course, in time some of the caverns start to seem a little derivative, though the brisk pace and ample treasure chests mean it's rarely dull. Sadly with a general absence of side-quests and a gentle difficulty level, it won't take you long to reach the end credits; it's shorter than the modestly-sized Final Fantasy IV and probably less than half as long as Dragon Quest V, but then, you'll undoubtedly want to play it through to completion as it holds the attention as effectively as either of these classics.

Extortionate prices not withstanding, Lunar: The Silver Star is a great RPG which adopts an old-skool simplicity-first approach to its genre and as a result proves a real breath of fresh air. An uncomplicated story is lit up by some witty dialogue and the unspectacular visuals are overshadowed by beautiful music and smart environment architecture. The best role-playing game to grace a SEGA system since Wonderboy.

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