Developer/publisher: Game Arts/GungHo ent.
Platform: PS4,PC,switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 18-4-2025
Since I always wanted to play Lunar 2 I decided to get the remaster which contains both games.
Things to note is that they're based on the original japanese PS1 version and not on the WD release.
You can either play the classic version or the remaster, I picked the latter.
Either way I am really grateful these games even got ported, especially its sequel which
unlike the first game which got a psp version, L2 hasn't seen a port since its ps1 release.
This post is however about the first game, I don't think reviewing two games at once is a good idea.
Pro's
- Mostly likeable cast of characters.
- An anime RPG that carries the spirit of the 90's.
- Not too short or too long so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Grey area
- Without a guide this can be a pain to 100% due easy to miss collectables.
- The general UI can seem a bit clunky till you get used to it.
Con's
- Story can be a bit cliche.
- Limited inventory space.
- Some characters are underutilized.
It pretty much feels like an FF game from the PS1 era but with anime cutscenes
instead of FMV's and really good character interactions so I got some ''tales of'' vibes as well.
The interactions and dialogue were also pretty fun, this is what pretty much sold the game for me.
The main heroine Luna was delightful and it was pretty obvious within two hours
of play time that romantic feelings were involved but of course there was no time to talk
about any of that because the hero Alex had a goal to reach of becoming a dragon master.
Sadly while I liked Luna she is absent for a majority of the game...
its then that the other main characters ended up catching my eyes.
as a protagonist but after certain events everyone else basically has more to say than him
but when Luna's involved then he starts speaking up more which is hilarious cuz for half
the game it felt like he was gritting his teeth and bearing it that he couldn't do more.
I suppose putting it like that then Alex is actually a pretty decent MC, he's not whiny
but perseverant. TBH he felt like a pretty standard shonen hero
that wasn't quite silent enough to be considered a silent protagonist.
More characters were slowly introduced as the story progressed some turned out
to be allies and others villains. Its done in such a way that the player
can get attached to the main characters, most other characters were also
more interesting than Alex who really was just a dragon boy.
Honestly after finishing it, it felt I had not seen all the world of Lunar had to offer
or the how or why's of how the world works. A lot of things were left up in the air
but atleast it ended on a good enough note. I do plan to play the sequel
so I hope that it actually makes more sense of things.
Overall this game was just a very 90ish anime RPG it carries the spirit of that era.
In terms of story Lunar SSS has a really long prologue/first half and it isn't
untill you meet Quark for the second time the story really starts to move.
Other than that it felt pretty standard but I liked the pace, it wasn't too slow or too fast.
It took me about 25 hours to beat the game.
It started out fairly light-hearted but it was the opposite at near the end.
I will admit that Lunar SSS can be a bit cliche and if you play a lot of RPG's
it may not do much new but I don't think it did it in the wrong way, still if you were
to expect this game to do things to revolutionize the genre you're in the wrong place.
Unfortunately idk if it was the localization but I found out the main villain had much more
depth to him but all that was erased just so he could call the hero dragon boy. 💀
The battle system wasn't too complicated its honestly really simply, boring even.
I liked how there were 5 party members at once on the field! usually it just 3 or 4.
While autobattle could remove tedium it isn't useful for boss fights or late game
once I found a strategy I could apply it to most other fights. As long as you're
prepared no boss should be too much of an issue. Its not that hard of a game.
There was no journal to tell you what happened or what you should go do next
so I either had to write it down on a notepad or consult a guide. Thankfully RPGsite
had made a guide for the remaster which also included collectables, if not for them I wouldn't
have been able to find all bromides or get 2 out of 3 secret accesories. Other than that
the story was fairly easy to follow and it was easy to remember the characters as they all
had distinct personalities. The pacing was good and you gradually got to understand what
was really going on even if some stuff is left up in the air, sadly the villains hided their
true goal for a long time so if you want to know what's going on you have to wait till the end.
The quick TL;DR Honestly it wasn't a bad game, it had all the right ingredients
and for the most part it was a fun ride but it fell a little flat to me.
I suppose I shouldn't fall into the trap of going like what if it was
a little bit more fleshed out cuz its better to appreciate things for what it is!
still that shouldn't be an excuse either... its okay to think that it felt like it missed something.
I know Lunar is overall very well received and I too like it but this was pretty standard rpg stuff.
The main charm of this game was the characters, not the combat or the plot.
So for what its worth Lunar Silver Star Story was still a solid RPG.
It may have come a little late for me and i've seen it done before but that doesn't make it bad.
I pretty much recommend this game to anyone that likes older FF games with a fun
cast of characters like tales of or just simply likes oldschool rpg's.
7/10
More rambles after the jump.
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Navigating the world was fairly easy and its pretty rail-roaded the world map reminded me of
old FF games without encounters so it was pretty chill. I feel I need to say that if you take
a break from this for more than a few weeks then you may better consult a guide, as you can
save anywhere it might be weird to find yourself in the middle of a forest, sewer or desert.
 |
| Okay i'll admit this one gave me a chuckle. |
but its still nice to drop by at times as the dialogue made the world come more alive.
However there were times where you had to talk to NPC's to advance the plot
but its hard to tell which and it easy to miss the one that was the missing link.
Sometimes I knew what I had to do but I hadn't talked to this one NPC
which was actually a bit frustrating and makes me appreciate
how modern games just mark who you have to talk to.
I think this is what brings the game down a little and it can hurt the pacing.
Someone may even throw in the towel and be like wtf do I have to do?
I did feel like that when I was in Saith for the first time.💀
Okay some of the dialogue is fun but now I wanna move on! which one of you is it?!😂
Thankfully this only really happened in the first half of the game and it didn't happen a lot.
I thought the UI was a bit clunky but once I recognized and got the hang of the layout
it was pretty simple to know what was where in the main camp menu.
The battle system was pretty standard, there's an auto mode and early on I pretty
much had Luna&Nash on that and just manually attacked with Alex&Ramus.
It helped to remove some repetition and tedium. The speed up was also good.
Unfortunately I realized too late that equipped accessories stay on the characters if they
end up leaving the party abruptly so I lost my Healing ring when Luna left at some point.😔
Thankfully it wasn't the only one in the game and there's atleast two more, so uh she can keep
the other one. If someone else left and came back they still had it so it was no big deal.
In terms of difficulty it was normal, as long as you equip the best gear available
and fight every enemy in a new dungeon atleast once. Boss fights could be hard
if you ran into them when you weren't at full strength but become really easy once
you are at full hp/mp. Just buff up Alex and sword dance will take care of your problem.
I got wiped once and then I did what I just said and I was like really that's it?
TBH I don't think this game was that well balanced if that's how it works... and the only
really hard fights are in the final dungeon, I felt everything else was easy in comparison.
Due to me buying the 3 bromides from Ramus shop I had to grind a bit of money
and thankfully the drop rate was good in meryod woods however it is here
I noticed the MP pools are just too tiny and I had to run back a lot to a town and touch
a statue to heal me back to full hp/mp. Other than that money wasn't a problem
but I just wanted the best gear at that point and Meryod had even better armor than Renza.
Some bosses throughout the game may require you to use a few items as well or else you
will lose the fight. Some dungeons were difficult cuz I would run out of MP long before
the end so I had to come up with weird strategies that didn't make them all run out at once.
Thankfully some dungeons like blue dragon shrine did not have bosses
cuz the place was annoying enough. Its always water themed dungeons isn't it?!
Inventory space was limited so you couldn't keep old gear, I started by selling
duplicate swords and armor then eventually the outdated stuff as well.
I kept the accessories cuz they're useful, in doing so I had enough space for consumables!
You're going to need the space for healing nuts and star/silver lights as well as some
revive and holy water. Because the final dungeon is quite demanding for those.
A good stock of mp items and some holy waters + revive items should be sufficient.
Oh yea I also kept bromides and an item that let me watch movies again, speaking of
Ramus will give you the latter for free if you check in before going to frontier.
and if you want the most out of your first play I will definitely recommend you use a guide.
Some of them are super fanservicey and for some I wondered how the hell did someone
take a picture of Mia like that?! in this medieval-ish fantasy rpg there are apparently things
called cameras! Honestly I loved the reaction Mia and especially Jess had upon finding out
someone took a picture of Mia being half naked after taking a shower.
I wish the game actually had more fun events like that but I guess there was no time for it
but there's time to go to a hotspring if you have some soap on you I suppose!
There's 4 scenes each, for 2 of the guys and 2 girls as well but those require soap
which can be bought on the boat when you first leave saith. I had enough to buy 3
but you do get more elsewhere apparently. Other than that there were no annoying
minigames or intricate crafting system's its nice to just be able to buy items
or weapons and armor from a store for once. In the middle of the game
you also get an item that finally let's you open red chests... which are only
in areas up untill that point and not after it. Some had a useful item
or accessory so it was worth the small backtracking trip...
Sadly there were no sidequests, now I don't mind if it doesn't have those
annoying useless filler ones of kill this monster of fetch me this
but I realize that I do miss the fun kind of quests that give more depth to things
be it the world or the characters. Lunar didn't have that so it was a straight-forward
with a few things that could make you replay it if you missed things.
The only annoying thing was in Quark's cavern where you had to use enemies
to charge into blocks of ice, if you touch the enemies you would trigger a battle
so you had to position yourself just right. Very annoying and I wouldn't be surprised
if people dropped this game because of it because hooboy does that require patience.
None of the other dungeon's were that annoying except Myght's tower maybe.
Blue dragon shrine was just long... with way too many potential trap encounters.
The first two bosses in the final dungeon were surprisingly annoying as well but the final boss
was easy in comparison for me so it felt the real final boss was Xenobia.
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Here's more random screenshots of funny dialogue I took during my playthrough.
 |
| 😂😂😂 |
 |
| Amen... |
 |
| NGL this was the most embarrassing scene in RPG history next to the hahahah scene in FF10. |
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Characters
I liked the characters and for the most part they were pretty well written
but I ended up liking the other main characters more than Alex.
He's a shonen archetype but that's mostly it. Also the game kind of makes it a point
that Alex is not alone, they all have to work together to get anything done and with
all of them being able to join the battle at the same time this played out really well.
By the end of the game all of them had grown or realized their flaws which
I suppose was the games strong point cuz atleast they had distinct personalities.
 |
| It do be like that sometimes... |
Alex aka DRAGON BOY, he has his goals but other than that I think
the other characters left a bigger impression on me. While he's not the silent type
he didn't really speak as often as them especially after the first half and it was mostly
everyone else that livened things up. Nal the mascot companion tends to speak for Alex
so more often than not Nal reminded me of Paimon.😅 Its also hilarious how Alex
might look at some female NPC and Luna just gets jealous and tries to set him straight.
Like don't you dare... honestly he didn't even have any thoughts and I didn't get
why Luna just assumed things. Though I suppose it played in to the fact she had feelings
for him and wanted him to notice her. For the most part after certain events it felt like Alex
was just bearing and gritting his teeth for over half of the game but wait I already said that.
Luna had quite a personality but she also felt like a mom of the group
still she's a girl too and has her doubts and insecurities cuz she's human afterall.
There's more to her character but she kind of fell off the radar for a good amount of time.
Other than that she was good but had she stayed in the party any longer I would've
gone insane because everytime she heals its like lalala~~.
There's the obvious romance going on with Luna liking Alex but at first it felt kind of
one sided, I got the feeling he realized it on the boat but his goal took priority
and a heart to heart just... never happened before shit happens. It also really plays
on to the fact that they're childhood friends... but without giving it much depth
so this was kind of a miss for me as there just wasn't enough time to show that.
However by the end it was convincing enough and not just for Alex and Luna.
Sadly before I played this I knew Luna was for some reason labeled as crazy
but this is like less than 10% of the game? its not present that much
now if after the first half of the game she actually showed this... i'd be convinced
but when it happened I realized this wasn't her fault nor did she appear crazy.
Ramus He's Alex's buddy but since he had his own goal or thing he wanted to do
he wasn't around for long. He was the least combat capable and didn't even have any skills
so it was obvious he wouldn't stay but I wouldn't say he was useless or died a lot when he was there.
Thanks for the bromides I guess? where did he even get them?!
but I suppose some things are better left unanswered.
Nash was obnoxious but he was hilarious at the same time, it was also really obvious
he cared about Mia but it felt unrequited for the majority of the game.
Nash was generally a trashbag in more ways than one but he somehow still redeemed himself.
He also died a lot in battle maybe it checks out that he's just Mia's meatshield.
Jessica was a fun character and if you pay attention to the Nanza fort dialogue it gets hilarious.
Early on I found Jess as well as Mia to be leaving a stronger impression on me than Luna.
She was the proper healer of the group with a mace no less! It pains me to say it
but I was more invested of her interactions with Kyle than the main couple.
 |
| Mia best girl? hmm.... Mia and Jess are the best girls! |
Mia is that one type of character who you think is frail but actually is the one who wears the pants
and she spoke her mind and did what she wanted to do. She may need help but she's no baby.
Honestly while Nash doesn't deserve Mia, she is the only one that can put a leash
on him and if I think of it like that then their relationship is delightful. Heheheh.
Kyle... he's like a worse version of Randy and Crow from trails
but still somehow has a single braincell, though I do think Kyle and Jess
should just get married already cuz they act like a bickering couple.
 |
| Dude so bad when he's drunk he's gotta be locked up.💀💀💀 |
---
Either way they were all fun and the villains were somewhat decent as well
I found their sailor moon-ish villainous intro really funny.
At first they seemed so cartoon-like evil but they had their reasons even if they're not clear
but this is one of those games where everything is made clear at the end so hang in there I guess.
Xenobia had a crush on ghaleon but I doubt he had eyes for her which was kind of sad? but she
was generally awful so I could care less. Royce was just annoying, nothing more nothing less.
Phacia was the only one I liked because it seemed like she was the only one with a brain.
The magic emperor was ... uhm he acts very high and mighty like some a brat
so in the end while he had the odd funny line I just found him annoying.Which was a shame because he actually has a lot of depth and potential
but ultimately I think they just mismanaged the main bad guy in this game.
Also there was Tempest and Fresca who were very interesting, I started thinking
that tempest guy could have been a dragon master too if things were different
and Fresca looks a lot like Althena so you go and put it together but sadly
the plot did almost nothing with it, they just kinda exist. They supported the party
but they didn't really have much depth to them which was disappointing.
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Final Thoughts
While I like this game, it really had almost everything I wanted in an RPG, I will admit
that a lot of the enjoyment relies on how much you like 90's anime and oldschool RPG's.
It had a decent plot and the flow of most rpg game, there's a cast of fun
characters & interactions that one would find in a tales of game but ultimately
its delivery just falls kind of flat. Or more like it had all the right ingredients yet also
just fumbles a few of them. Hint: Ghaleon lack of depth, he could have been really
good as an anti hero but instead is portrayed as a true villain, there's things here and there
that really show he's more complex than it seems but nothing is done with it. Tempest and Fresca
were not fleshed out and just end up being something like oh they kind of look like
Alex and Luna but just end up as true side characters that support the main party.
Speaking of; Alex and Luna's relationship relies a lot on their bond as childhood friends
yet we see almost very little of it, I guess by the end of the game I was convinced but it was
just like oh they like each other and shit happens. Its so bad that characters like Kyle&Jess
make a more convincing couple as well as Nash&Mia but Nash doesn't deserve her
still I suppose its a good thing Mia has him on a leash, that's just my opinion though.
***TBH I feel weird that I ended up liking the other couples more than the main one.
I already said it before the jump break but I think I haven't yet seen all the world
of Lunar had to offer which may be why I am slightly mixed on it.
I hope eternal blue fixes that and expands more of what lunar already had.
Also I realized I prefer rpg's with a bit more depth to them but I also got a feeling
this game was likely designed to be someones first RPG so its OK.
7/10
I'm glad I got the Lunar Remastered collection and I could finally properly finish this game!
despite my gripes I do think its solid but its also a bit standard.
I once had tried Lunar on PSP but I never finished it, it felt like life gave me another chance
so I took it and here we are! I'm not sure what my thoughts on it were back then but
other games just simply grabbed my attention more so I moved on to greener pastures.
Of course I will try to play Lunar 2 as well but maybe not right away.
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