Published by Working Designs and developed by Game Arts for the Playstation, released in May of 1999 in North America. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a remake of the Sega CD game released just 7 years prior. This remake enhances every bit of the original version with redrawn graphics, enhanced CD audio, more characters, anime cut-scenes, dungeons, and generally just more adventure! Welcome to Lunar! The RPG for anime lovers.
Alex Noa is a young boy in the small village of Burg with ambitions of following in the footsteps of Dragonmaster Dyne, the hero of legend from the same town. With his business savvy best friend Ramus and Luna, a girl who came to be adopted by Alex’s family under mysterious circumstances, Alex will soon find that call to ambition will be answered. Let’s also not forget Nall, a feline-like flying creature who sticks to our wannabe dragonmaster like glue. What starts as an innocent trip to an ancient dragon’s cave to make a quick dollar, will soon become a globe-trotting adventure to become the new Dragonmaster. Along the way, our young heroes will meet and accept the help from some unlikely friends by the likes of the mages Nash and Mia, priestess warrior Jessica, and the brashly drunk bandit leader Kyle. Our hero's plot thickens when they cross paths with Dragonmaster Dyne’s best friend Ghaleon, a powerful mage, and the ladies of the banished Vile Tribe. Engage in traditional turn-based battles and overworld travel in this adventure spanning 2 discs. A great RPG for beginners and veterans alike.
Amazing sprite design, hand-drawn backgrounds, fully voiced anime cutscenes galore, all make for a well-rounded complete experience. You can’t go wrong whether you’re playing this game in its original form on the Sega CD, or the remake on Sega Saturn/PS, even the newer versions on GBA (Lunar Legend) and PSP (Lunar Silver Star Harmony) are a fun addition. The jokes in this game are sometimes turned up to 11, some stuff you probably wouldn't even get away with these days! If that’s your thing or not, it’s nice to break up the battles and grind with some humorous anime once in a while. Noriyuki Iwadare is the only returning member from the team of original composers to lend his talents to the remake. The epic emotion-inducing soundtrack for this release includes what you would expect with music for an RPG of this caliber and also anime-style music as well.
No random battles here, but they might as well be. Enemies can be seen clear as day in the dungeons you crawl but this doesn’t mean you can always avoid them if that’s your wish. With the speed at which most of these monsters catch up to you, they might as well have just made the battles random encounters. There is a major benefit to seeing your enemies in that, if you defeat all or most enemies in any given map, you should be well on your way to gaining the necessary levels to carry on to the next area by the time you are done with the current. Battles are traditional turn-based and you can set your formations to protect your weaker characters in the back. Options for auto-battle are present to make grinding not so much a chore. Every character has their own unique magic to blast enemies to smithereens. All in all the battle system isn’t fancy but it can be fun, making this game perfect for any level of player, newbie or not.
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete is a beautiful game. From its wonderful characters, simple yet powerful story, and emotion-inducing soundtrack. Not too tough and not too easy, this RPG falls right in the middle to be enjoyed by everyone who is looking for a great role-playing experience. This is the first game I ever bought that had somewhat of a “collector’s edition”. It included a making-of CD, soundtrack CD, hardcover manual/art book, and a cloth map. Working Designs always puts a lot of effort into their published games and this is no exception.
Play this game any way you can, as there are plenty of options. My preferred method is Playstation but the game can also be found on Sega CD, Sega Saturn, GBA, PSP, and Windows. It’s amazing, gorgeous to look at, sometimes goofy, but all around enjoyable.