Lunar: Silver Star Harmony

[Rocketshipper]

Anyone else here gonna get this game??? Personally, I can't wait!!! My favorite RPG of all time is back, with better graphics, remastered anime scenes, and new gasmeplay elements and sections. And the obligatory special edition with a soundtrack CD and Bromides ^^.

here's the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A2g9jlY51s)

I just finished playing the demo that came from the playstation network. And so far it looks like its going to be great. The graphics are a big improvement over the original PSX and Sega CD versions, and it looks like they;re sticking real close to Working Designs' script. I don't like the voice actors as much, so far, but that may just be blind nostalgia for the old version. I'm a bit dissapointed that it seems we can;t walk around on the world map anymore, but since you couldn;t run into monsters on the map anyway, back in the PSX version, it doesn't make that big a difference. It did seem like the White Dragon's dungeon was shorter than in the original. If you have the completion data from the demo on your PSP memory card, then you can unlock some extra stuff in the full version of the game.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Crud. I knew there was a reason I couldn't sell my PSP. Thanks for reminding me!!

[Mithrandir]

But... But... I don't HAVE a PSP!!! >.< I guess if I already have the original Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 for PS1, I don't really need this. But it's one of my all time favorite games!

[Etoh*the*Greato]

I'm always up for more Lunar (except Dragon Song. that was awful). I just wish they'd give us new cinematics.

[Nate]

I dunno whether to get this or not. I mean I really love Lunar don't get me wrong. But it's like, what's new in this to make it worth playing the same game I've already played three times?

I would be more for it if someone had played it and could give me the plot. I'd probably get this if it was more like the Sega CD version story-wise, with updated graphics and stuff, since the Sega CD version was in my opinion the best story for two reasons. One, there wasn't that major plothole like in the PS1 version where Quark confirmed Luna was the one, yet Ghaleon kidnaps other singers afterwards for no reason whatsoever. Two, the reasons for Ghaleon holding a grudge against Althena are a lot more reasonable and better explained. Three, the Frontier was an actual interesting place with real towns and actual people, and you had to go there before Alex could find the Black Dragon (since that's where it was, not in that native tribe village).

So yeah. I liked the Sega CD's story a lot better, and would hope this would be more like that. But I have a sneaking suspicion it's probably more like the PS1's story.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Unfortunately the only experience I've had with the Sega CD version was a (legal disc) copy of the game I've tried repeatedly to play over my computer. The issue has been the saving mechanism, so I keep losing my game. I've never been more than three hours in. Considering they're founding much of the game off of animated sequences from the PS1 title it seems unlikely that many of those changes will go into place.

[Rocketshipper]

Well, I do know that this new version begins with an all new prologue sequence showing an extended flashback to the time of the 4 heroes, when all the stuff with Althena really got started...and its voiced!! Apparently there is also at least one new boss (it may be in that new prologue segment) and some added refrences and connections to Lunar 2. I don't know if there are any other new scenes or segments, but I've been trying to avoid spoilers until I actually play the game. I hope there are!!

[Rocketshipper]

Well, I'm about 16 hours into my game now, right before entering Damon's tower.

So far, I'm really enjoying it a lot. The graphics are a huge improvement over the old versions, the character and monster sprites in battles, the spell effects, the background details of the towns...everything looks great. Its still not current gen level stuff, but its way better than what was scene in the original versions. And the remastered anime cutscenes have never looked better. Voice acting isn't bothering me as much as it did upon first hearing it. The script, for the most part, seems to be almost word for word the same as Working Designs' script for the PSX version; this actually creates a few small awkward moments when it comes to intergrating some of the new scenes (for example, before meeting Lemia in Vane there are two new scenes involving Ghaleon and Mia. Howwver, if you talk to them in the meeting hall, their dialogue is exactly as it was in the PSX version and contradicts the new scenes, since they didn;t exist in the PSX version)

The battle system is pretty much unchanged, except now the bosses don't scale up as Alex levels, and the characters now have "limit break" like special moves they can only do when a special meter gets filled. One thing that I could potentially see being a problem for fans of the original is that the towns and dungeons are smaller than they were before; most dungeons have only been a couple of screens, and the towns have fewer houses to enter and NPCs to chat with. The shorter dungeons isn;t a big change gameplay wise, because they seem to have compensated by putting in more monsters, and they're at least more interesting to look at this time around. And personally, I'm kind of relieved by having smaller towns too, because it means a lot less NPC dialogue to deal with.

Anyone who's familier with Game Arts RPGs in general knows that they all tend to have ridiculously STUPID amounts of NPCs and NPC dialogue. One of the Lunar player's guides said something like more than half of the dialogue in the entire game is NPC dialogue. And they tend to change what they say after EVERY SINGLE plot line event. Talking to the NPCs in this game is actually pretty enjoyable and hilarious (unlike a lot of other RPGs) but it still sometimes annoyes me that I spend 20 minutes talking to everyone in town, only to then spend a couple of minutes talking to the relevant "plot point person" and then have to go back and talk to everyone in town AGAIN. And sometimes its only a few people who change, and sometimes the dialogue doesn;t change, but rather the reactions of the party. Its crazy. I actually wish someone would make a Lunar NPC FAQ that explained exactly when the NPCs changed their dialogue and who and all that. It would make things a lot less time consuming ^^.

I guess my biggest complaint at the moment is that the voiced in-game dialogue sequences don;t have the text advance automaticly. Even though the actors are actually talking, you still have to press X to advance the dialogue like you would in a normal non-voiced dialogue. It just makes the dialogue sound kind of wierd when they have to pause after every sentince for you to press X.

So far the game has been following along with the PSX version exactly, with a few new scenes and altered dialogue thrown in every once in a while. The biggest alteration so far was a 15 minute+ playable prologue with the 4 heroes, which had two new boss fights in it. It was pretty cool, and serves as some nice foreshadowing, but the events occuring in the flashback mostly unrelated to the main plot or any of the previously revealed background info, so its a little strange. There have been a few other new scenes thrown in that mostly just give a little more character development to the heroes, but nothing thats been plot shattering yet.