Magazine Coverage
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Playstation)
Magazine Text
The Sega CD Epic Gets A Facelift
Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD was one of the best 16-Bit RPGs ever released. Unfortunately, because so few people owned Sega CDs, it didn’t quite get the publicity it deserved. now the 32-Bit update which was originally planned for Saturn is coming to the PS courtesy of Working Designs, and it’s looking hot.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Comoplete features much improved graphics and sounds over the original game, not to mention over 45 minutes of near-full-screen animation (it’s two CDs now!). The video quality is much higher than that of the Saturn version (only released in Japan), which had a larger border and poor compression. There are quite a few actual gameplay changes as well. Most noticeable is the fact that there are no longer monsters in the overworld, and in dungeons and other areas, you actually see the monsters on the screen before running into them. Battle sequences are more in tune to Lunar: Eternal Blue (the awesome Sega CD sequel), with smarter enemies and a better movement system that makes for more strategic battles.
The most intriguing part about Lunar SSS is in the story changes. Besides many areas being altered a bit (like ol’ Black Rose St. in Meribia), some areas are now completely gone (the Lighthouse comes to mind), while new ones have surfaced as well. In the original Luna stayed in behind when Alex and co. got on the boat to Meribia-but this time, she actually comes with them, and from there things begin to branch out a bit differently, for an almost entirely new experience.
Working Designs is already hard at work on Lunar SSS, and expects to have the game on store shelves in August, just three months after the Japanese release. Check back next month when we go more in-depth on this potential blockbuster in our huge RPG blowout.
IMAGE CAPTIONS
As you can see, there is a border on the anime sequences, but it’s much smaller than on the Saturn version.
The upgraded graphics are beautiful, with lots of parallax and an extremely detailed, colorful design.
The battle system has been refined so that it plays out more like it did in Lunar: EB (which is a good thing).
Despite looking much better, the overworld has been shrunk a bit and no longer has random battles.
Commentary
I remember being excited for the remake of Lunar for the Saturn and then being disappointed that it would only ever come to the United States on the Playstation. I’ll have to compare the different versions at some point on an emulator to check the video, but it wouldn’t surprise me since they could allocate more space to the video size with multiple discs.
Posted on: 26 October 2024
