It’s Christmas 1993. My massive brother Phil is deep into Lunar The Silver Star on Sega CD. Because the tag alongside brother, I liked nothing greater than to look at any sport he was into as I wasn’t assured sufficient to play something greater than a easy platformer. He would even go so far as recording his play classes on VHS for me to look at later (that is how I skilled Last Fantasy VII initially.) Lunar all the time felt totally different, although: a magical mixture of basic sprite-based artwork with these eye-catching anime cutscenes (due to the CD-ROM know-how.) It wouldn’t be for just a few extra years that I make the leap into greater video games equivalent to these however the core reminiscences are the inspiration of my love of video games. Enter Lunar Remastered Assortment, a long-awaited celebration of the sequence.
The Lunar title has been across the block in numerous iterations since its preliminary releases on Sega CD, like within the subsequent ports and re-releases on Sega Saturn, PlayStation 1, PlayStation Moveable and cell. But, there hasn’t been a great way to play the sequence exterior of the PlayStation Classics model on PSN (this has since been eliminated as of the launch of the brand new retailer,) which spins up an emulated model. Now we lastly have an accessible up to date model with touched up pixel artwork and cleaned up animation sequences. The true query that drove me to this evaluation was, does Lunar: The Silver Star and its sequel Lunar 2: Everlasting Blue maintain as much as right this moment’s retro-styled RPG requirements? Within the means of answering this query, I discovered a nice, nostalgic shock that exhibits how far forward of its time Lunar actually was.
Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar 2: Everlasting Blue are fairly boiler plate turn-based RPGs. They contain a hero’s surprising journey to cease a world threatening evil, all whereas amassing a lovable rag tag group of allies.These sorts of video games reside and die by the extent of character they show, however fortunately that’s the place the sequence stands out most. Outlandish Kyle and boisterous Nash from the primary sport are as charismatic as Lemina and Jean of the second sport. These characters all play nicely with our protagonists Alex and Hiro, who’re the pure-of-heart, hopeful, heroes-of-lore archetype of their respective video games. Everybody in the principle and supporting solid make for engrossing personalities; fortuitously, the villains are equally as magnetic. All through the course of their pretty linear tales, you actually get to know a cavalcade of additional dastardly villains, led by one of the best at school Ghaleon. Including to the combo is a wild localization from a staff that initially selected to incorporate ‘90s American popular culture references equivalent to Austin Powers jokes right into a Japanese sport. It’s a neighborhood fan favourite.
I discussed the sport being pretty linear, however that’s to its profit. The linearity is used to essentially hammer down an enticing story that retains you transferring ahead at a reasonably regular tempo. Whereas different video games favor an open-world method, there’s a appeal to a curated straight ahead expertise. This has come extra in vogue with video games like Sea of Stars and Jack Transfer, however it’s simple to see how these newer video games had been influenced by classics like Lunar or Chrono Set off. The tales of the world dominated by the traditional goddess Althena instantly in peril from the traditional evil Zophar can get to some darkish locations however stay hopeful all through. Contemplating the video games observe a fabled hero dragonmaster trying to slay the 4 dragons and save the folks of Lunar, you may see how the tales construct onto one another regardless of happening a whole lot of years aside. What additionally helps is the fixed stream of animated cutscenes that happen throughout main story beats to essentially punctuate the proceedings and flex that CD-ROM energy.
The acquainted turn-based fight has some slight positioning mechanics in-built. There may be an invisible grid that has characters solely in a position to transfer a sure distance earlier than they’ll assault. As well as, some assaults will do space of impact injury, so spacing is necessary. Exterior of that, the remastered model permits for computerized instructions to be set to your social gathering so you may program how your social gathering acts mechanically. This takes a little bit of the repetitive nature out of fight, and there’s additionally a quick ahead button to hurry up the move for those who really feel it’s a slog. Enemies seem on display and could be averted but when touched will take you to the fight display. In contrast to different remastered collections just like the Last Fantasy Pixel Remasters, there isn’t some other option to keep away from the monotony of enemy engagement. The variety of fights isn’t tedious however it’s proper on the cusp of being so. A slider reducing or elevating the variety of enemy encounters would have been welcome, and maybe an elevated XP or cash slider, too. These are the standard of life enhancements I might’ve needed from this type of remaster, particularly since my replay jogged my memory of the grinding essential to progress previous a number of the story bosses. It isn’t egregious, however the extra I averted fight, the tougher the story turned.
Alongside these traces, whereas every thing appears crisp and fantastically introduced into excessive definition, it’s unlucky that the unique English voice performing isn’t an possibility; we’re caught with the brand new voice performing introduced right here. How about some behind the scenes content material, or a toggle to swap between the unique vs remastered variations? At the moment, the Remastered Assortment presents the selection of taking part in the unique video games or the brand new remastered variations, however they’re separate executables. Fortunately, the save carries over from one model to the following however you continue to must exit the sport completely to modify. This lack of content material might must do with a breakdown in communications between the unique localization staff Working Designs, however I might have even liked to see the Assortment expanded with the opposite variations of the video games and offshoots like Silver Star Concord, Silver Star Full, Lunar Legend, All The Lunar: Hyper Purposes, Lunar: Sanposuru Gakuen, and Lunar Dragon Music, simply to make this the definitive compilation. All that mentioned, right here we’re with the PS1/Sega Saturn variations of Lunar 1 and a couple of, and that should be sufficient for now. We’ve undoubtedly seen extra sturdy collections and compilations of revered video games from the previous, and it’s a bit unlucky that Lunar hasn’t been afforded the identical therapy.
As a very long time fan of the Lunar sequence, I’m greater than overjoyed to lastly have one in all my childhood JRPGs in a playable format on trendy consoles. In 2025, I nonetheless discover the sequence related and as charming because it was again after I was a starry-eyed youngster. I noticed myself in Alex and Hiro; they had been the heroes I needed to be. Nonetheless, that is removed from being a definitive assortment. There’s a lot extra that would accompany a bundle like this along with fight pace, a cleaner look, and widescreen presentation. Unique English VO, lacking video games, artwork work, orchestrated soundtrack and even high quality of life gameplay enhancements might have pushed this to the excessive requirements that corporations like Sq. Enix and Capcom have set. I’m joyful that Lunar can now attain extra folks, however I lengthy for extra to share from such a cult basic and one in all my all time favorites.
