An Otaku World review of

Lunar The Silver Star and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue

Working Designs

Reviewed by Jennifer Diane Reitz, May 16 2000

Platform Reviewed	Playstation
Genre	Traditional RPG
Number of Players	One
Multiplayer Value	None
Length	50 hours or more
Difficulty	Moderate
Skills Required	Reading, Thinking, General Sentience
Interface Devices	Joypad
Interface Design	Excellent
Programming	Excellent
Game Design and Playability	Traditional RPG in every sense, simple controls, simple but nice graphics, superior story that outshadows everything else
Type Of Fun	Romantic Fantasy
Replay Value	Nil
Overall Value	Exceptional!
Quality	Exceptional!
The Best	The story is possible one of the best every created for an RPG, spanning two generations over both games. The music and anime sequences, voice acting and humor make everything else look like dog crap.
The Worst	Admittedly 16-bit graphics with little spark fill most of the game. Traditional RPG means TRADITIONAL!
How much I would pay for this	60 bucks each, 120 for both.

Description:

Lunar the Silver Star and it's sequel, Eternal Blue, are arguably the finest traditional style RPG games that have ever been made.

Story:

In both games, which parallel each other in certain very deliberate respects, the protagonist hero not only must save his world, but also must work out a very special relationship with the woman he loves. The Magic Emperor is set on conquest, and destruction, and against this backdrop a boy and his sentient dragon companion are faced with the job of setting things right.

Review:

Both Lunars are examples of the quintessential fantasy RPG saga...a boy and his dragon, loyal companions, a dire threat to the world, an eternal romance, and a standard cast of townspeople, shopkeepers, soldiers, Mages, drunks, and inbred villagers, all set in a landscape of 16-bit tile based graphics that would be at home on the second generation of console machines.

That this predictable stage diverges into brilliance is due to the efforts of creators Game Arts and the Gift-From-God company Working Designs. Filled with some devastating and sometimes wonderfully adolescent humor, the Lunar saga succeeds not only at portraying an ultimate example of the traditional console RPG, but goes further in lovingly poking fun at itself, even while maintaining a powerful story and mood.

The anime gamer will revel in the incredible full-on anime cut scenes, easily the best seen in a console RPG, the songs, the story, the whole of Lunar. Although the mindless 3D whores will turn their delicate noses up at the nostalgic splendor of both volumes of the Lunar series, for the true game otaku, Lunar is beyond being a must-have.

Not only the games are stunning....as expected, the amazing Working Designs has managed to make even the packaging a work of art, with so many extras, goodies, and bonus materials that one could easily imagine for a moment that one had suddenly been granted an alternate life in Japan itself, and had recently returned from the shop with the kind of package that Japanese releases are most famous for. Indeed, it is arguable that the Working Designs' efforts are superior to the original Japanese releases for even the most highly promoted of games.

In short, if you are an established Otaku, you probably already own these, or are working to obtain them, and if you are just a beginner, here is a place to start.

The Lunar games are such that it is almost unnecessary to write a review.

Of course they are great. Go get them.

Jennifer Diane Reitz is a Game Designer and Computer Artist, one of the co-founders of Otaku World, and, in an earlier time, a co-founder of Happy Puppy Games OnRamp (where she was also wrote many game reviews). She is the creator of numerous games and software products, including Boppin', Kokoro Wish, and many others. She has worked for such companies as Activision, Sculptured Software, Epyx, SRI, and Electronic Arts, and founded Accursed Toys. She has been active in the computer gaming industry since its earliest days. She considers games to be works of artistic merit and achievement, and views computer entertainment as the most important media of our era.