Lunar Review

A lot of people know about the Lunar games, but have not played one. Being one of the few properly good Sega CD exclusives, it didn't sell well because it was released on a low volume system. Sadly the PS1 and PSP remake didn't sell that well either, which is a shame. This is a pretty good game, but I have to admit it's more mysterious then good.

First of all, while the base concept of an RPG that takes place on what appears to be Earths Moon sounds interesting, the actual plot of Lunar is very simple and straight forward. Acquire 4 pieces of Armour from 4 Dragons, become a Dragon Master, and defeat a bad guy who is trying to undo the decisions of a God and gain her power. There are very few twists in the game, and the plot is very simple.

I can see why this was a good game in the early 90's, it plays much like a Final Fantasy game, with cut scenes, but Final Fantasy always has a big twist in the plot, usually it's not something you can predict until a little before it happens. In Lunar, there are minor twists, but you can see them right from the start of the game.

Where Lunar shines is the quality of the voice acting, and believably of the characters. You actually get to know your characters quite well, and their personalities are believable. They make decisions real people would make if the events in this game did take place.

Lunar is also rather comical in presentation. It's one thing to play an old RPG where "the power of the human heart" is often referenced, but see cut scenes where this is the key to defeating various enemies in the game is just straight up hilarious. The game really struggles to make sense at the end of the game, sure your character does acquire 4 peices of legendary armour to beat the boss of the game, but if you look at their stats, they aren't particularly strong, so really 2 boys, 1 young adult, and 2 girls take down a guy who is threatening the entire population of Lunar.......what? Isn't there an army, or a group of adults who can do this?

As for gameplay, well it's interesting at first, but just boring and easy by the end of the game. I beat the boss with each of my characters repeating the same attack, and no one fainted or came close to being knocked out. Once you learn a good attack in this game, you basically stick with it, and this back combat boring and repetitive. While it's nice to see this game on the PSP, the cut scenes are pulled straight from the Sega CD, and on the Sega CD/PS1, the game is suppose to be much harder, so if you're interested in this game, I suggest playing it on one of those systems.

So in conclusion, I give the game a 7.8/10.

+ Interesting concept and back story
+ Great voice acting and good use of cut scenes
+ Well developed characters
- Easy
- Gameplay gets boring after 10/22 hours
- Weak plot

If you loved the original style Final Fantasy games ( I mean FF 1-3), then you'll love Lunar, but I strongly recommend playing it on an older platform where there is some actual challenge to the game. Being one of the few good Sega CD games, it's nice to see this game on my shelf, but in reality it's nothing special. It's average for modern times, and good with respect to the time it released.