Lunar Remastered Collection

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Lunar: The Silver Star is a cornerstone of my gaming life, as it’s the first RPG that I fully committed to back in early 1994 on my Sega CD. Everything about it made me so glad I had Sega’s infamous add-on, from the cool looking anime artwork, to the amazing soundtrack and voice acting, it’ll always have a special place in my heart and mind.

When it was remade as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete in 1999 on the original PlayStation, picking it up back then was a no brainer as it made a great game even better, despite some quirks with the voice acting (thank goodness John Truitt reprised his role as the villain Ghaleon at least). Now we’ve come to GungHo’s release of not only the first Lunar, but Lunar 2: Eternal Blue with the Lunar Remastered Collection, which is an awesome remastering of these classics despite some divisive quirks.

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As soon as I booted up this collection and made my way past the title screen where you can select classic mode from the original PlayStation release on both titles, or the new remastered mode, I could already see the improvements once the remaster Lunar started playing its intro.

The anime cutscenes have been touched up and cleaned to the point they look brand new, despite still being in a 4:3 fullscreen ratio. The graphics have also been slightly touched up and is now presented in a 16:9 widescreen format that also features a blurry boarder around the edges of the screen, a feature made popular by modern RPGs such as Octopath Traveler and the like.

I also noticed the voice acting and songs have been redone with a new cast that sadly are hit or miss depending on what characters they’re voicing. This is where the divisiveness comes in as some people won’t mind these new voices while others will wish there was an option for the original Sega CD or PS One voices. Thankfully there is an option to use the original Japanese audio which is a nice treat.

I also came across some of the changes GungHo made to the original Working Designs English script, with some edits being better than others. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about outdated dialogue such as Austin Powers references from the 1999 remake getting in the way of the story, and there’s been some quality of life improvements made as well.

My favorite one is being able to speed up combat which is a blessing considering how many enemies you’ll be running into back to back. The biggest improvement besides this one has to be the new inventory management system that finally makes sorting and using items and equipment easier than before. Your dragon pal Nall can also carry items and can share items among your party members that’s a nice bonus as well. I just wish the items would stack instead of having to sort through 30 herbs to get to the next item in my bags.

Another change I was surprised to learn about was how Working Designs had increased the difficulty of the Lunar games by modifying the money you earn. Thankfully they’ve been reset to their original 1998 Japanese settings. So say you find 500 silver in a chest, it will now be 1,000 as intended which will make purchasing items and equipment for your characters easier. While both of these titles feature touch-ups and improvements, you can tell most of the love went into polishing up Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete as it needed the most work.

Most remasters feature a button to swap between the original and the remaster instantly, but sadly that’s not the case here as you’ll have to exit back to the title screen and swap between classic and remaster. Also there isn’t an auto save option, but there is a button to pull up the save menu instantly which really comes in handy since you can save anytime, anywhere.

Despite some minor quirks, GungHo and Game Arts did a great job with the Lunar Remastered Collection as it’s easily the best way you can experience these two classics. Yes, it would’ve been nice to have had some extra features like a button to swap between classic and remastered modes, and option for the old English dub, and more, but lovers of great RPGs will want to spend plenty of time on the silver star.