Backlog Game Reviews 7: Lunar Silver Star Story (Sega Saturn)

   Hey there and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews. The next game getting knocked off of the backlog is Lunar Silver Star Story for the Sega Saturn. This game released in 1996. It's a remake of Lunar: The Silver Star released for the Sega CD in 1992. Both versions got good reviews when they were released. Let's take a look at the Sega Saturn version and see how good it is.

    In this game you play as Alex. A 15-year-old boy living in a small village with his childhood friends Luna, and Ramus. Alex also lives together with a small talking flying animal that resembles a baby cat named Nall. Alex dreams of one day becoming the Dragon Master. The Dragon Master serves the Goddess Althena as her champion of Justice. One day when exploring a cave with Ramus and Luna they find the white dragon Quark. One of Goddess Althena's four dragons. The white dragon senses potential in Alex and tells him to find the other dragons, pass their test and become the next Dragon Master.

Alex speaking with Luna

   During his quest to become the Dragon Master Alex learns of the existence of a man called the Magic Emperor. Rumors say that he is an extremely powerful being with the goal of taking over the world. Alex eventually meets the Magic Emperor. Alex tries to fight him but is easily defeated, and Luna is kidnapped. After escaping Alex is told that only a fully realized Dragon Master can defeat the Magic Emperor. Alex vows to become the next Dragon Master, defeat the magic emperor and most importantly save Luna.

Alex speaking with his friend Ramus.

   This is only a quick summary of the story. This game has a pretty long story so there's no way I would be able to explain the story from start to finish. At its core its a classic good vs evil story. It can come off as cliché, but when the game was new this type of story wasn't seen as cliché yet.  I would say that the story is engaging and one of the main reasons for playing the game. It'll keep you wanting to know what will happen next. 

Walking around the overworld map.

   As for how this game plays its a pretty standard turn-based RPG. You move around on an overworld to go to town from town, caves or dungeons. In towns, you'll spend a lot of time just talking to people. All of the NPCs have something interesting to say so it's always fun talking to them. After major story events, the NPCs dialogue will change. The changing dialogue helps the world and it's people feel alive. They're not just flat characters that say the same thing over and over again the whole game.

Walking around a town.

   When not exploring a town you'll be exploring caves, dungeons, and forests. Here you'll be attacked by monsters. The battles in this game aren't random. You can see the monsters walking around. If you walk into the monster's line of sight it'll charge at you. You can try to avoid it but it's almost impossible to do because of how fast they charge at you.

Face to face with a slime monster.

   Making contact with a monster will start a battle. The battle system is turn-based. It's pretty simple, but fun. As long as your at a high enough level you won't need that much strategy to win. For normal fights, I always just used normal attacks and healed when necessary. For bosses, I always used the same strategy. At the start of a boss fight cast any spells that increase your offense or defense. Then spam your strongest attacks and heal when you need to. As long as you're not under-leveled you'll win the fight.

Battling a group of monsters.

   You can also let the AI fight for you. The AI by default will use your strongest attacks and then basic attacks when low on MP.  You can tell the AI not to use special attacks or to use them conservatively, but I always let it go all out. Letting the AI fight is a great time saver as it helps normal fights go by a lot faster. The AI won't use items or cast stat increasing spells so it shouldn't be used during boss fights. You can cancel auto-battle at any time. Just be careful because canceling auto-battle can cause glitches. If the game does start glitching just about anything can happen. One time it started glitching one of my party members kept attacking Alex until he died. Glitches aside I enjoyed the battle system. But because of how simple it is if your not a fan of old JRPGs it might not be that appealing to you.

The symbol at the top-right indicates that the AI is currently fighting.

   I would say that this is a good game but it has two major flaws that persist through the whole game. One of them being the item management system. Each character is only able to carry six items. Equipped weapons and armor don't take up space in your inventory. Nall, on the other hand, can hold up to 100 items. He's pretty much a pack mule. It sounds good on paper, but when you play the game you'll spend a lot of time trading items with Nall. It's a bit annoying but you'll get used to it in time. The main problem I have with the item management system is that you can't trade items with Nall during a battle. I don't understand why you can't use a turn to take an item from him. Being able to trade items with Nall during a fight would significantly reduce the amount of time you spend prepping your items between fights.

Nall's inventory filled up with healing items.

   Another annoying thing is how you have to go back to your last save after losing a boss fight. I normally wouldn't complain about something like this because most games have the same penalty for dying. Lunar's save system is also very forgiving. It let's save anywhere and anytime you want. The problem I have is that before a boss fight there is usually a long cutscene. The cutscenes are fun to watch the first time, but it's annoying to have to sit through it again because you lost to the boss. You can fast forward through text but it doesn't help that much. And if there was an animated cutscene before the fight then there's nothing you can do because animated cutscenes are unskippable. Having the option to restart at the beginning of the boss fight or restart from your last save would have been nice.

An animated cutscene.

   In terms of gameplay that's all I can really complain about. It's a simple yet solid and fun JRPG.

    As for the presentation, just like the gameplay, it's really solid. In and out of battle all of the sprites look good. It looks like a SNES game but it looks good. The battle sprites are much more detailed and expressive than the sprites that you see when walking around. If one of your teammates gets poisoned then that character will turn green. When you win a fight everyone in your group will do a victory dance.

Dancing after a battle.

   When out on the overworld the character sprites are small and much less detailed. To make up for the lack of detail a portrait of the character is shown next to the text box when they're speaking. Depending on the mood of the character speaking at the time the picture will change. If they're angry or happy that will be reflected in their portrait. It's a small touch, but a nice one.

Luna scolding Alex.

   As stated before Lunar features hand-drawn animated cutscenes. Most of the animated cutscenes  are well-drawn. These cutscenes draw you into the world of Lunar and are just fun to watch. I do have two complaints about these cutscenes though. One is that they're too quiet. You'll have a hard time hearing anything without turning up the volume on your TV. It got a little annoying to have to turn the volume up every time an animated cutscene started. Another thing that I didn't like is that the cutscenes aren't in full screen. It's a small nitpick but I don't understand why the game can be played in full screen but the animated cutscenes cant.

Another animated cutscene

   The music in this game is great. I can't think of a single bad song in this game. The battle theme is kinda weak, but it's still really good. The music also does a good job of setting the mood. The overworld theme, for example, is a fun and upbeat song at the start of the game. It's a very fitting song because at this part of the game the main antagonist hasn't shown up yet and your just on an adventure with your friends. But when Luna gets kidnapped it changes to a more heroic theme. Because now your not on a fun adventure with your friends anymore. Your out to save your childhood friend and the world. Lunar has an awesome soundtrack, it's one of the best aspects of this game.

 All in all, Lunar is a great classic JRPG. It's a bit on the simple side. Battles don't require a great deal of strategy. But if you're a fan of classic JRPGs I highly recommend giving this game a try.

 And that's all I have to say about this game. Next time I'll be knocking a Sega Genesis game off of the backlog. I hope to see you again at Backlog Game Reviews.