Manual
Lunar the Silver Star (Sega CD)
This page will contain text of only portions of the manual. For the full glory of the Working Designs manual, please refer to the link above. Source is Sega CD Manuals on Archive.org.
Lunar is a spectacular world filled with magic. Once, long ago, it was threatened with extinction by an evil force. At that time, four heroes arose and saved the world. The legend of these four heroes inspires many boys and girls, even today.
Alex is no different than any other kid his age. He has friends, three to be exact: Ramus the rotund dreamer. Nall, his constant companion (and the rumored offspring of a white dragon). And Luna, the orphan that Alex’s parents took in.
Alex dreams of taking his friends on fantastic adventures like his hero, Dragonmaster Dyne. Dyne, one of the four hereos, died while trying to save the land from the Black Dragon, who had gone insane. A monument in his memory is erected just outside of Alex’s village of Burg.
Alex visits Dyne’s memorial nearly every day and dreams of the day he took will be able to go on an exciting journey. Just once, he longs to know how it feels to have that rush of adrenaline when facing off against life-threatening danger. Soon, much sooner than he knows, Alex will have the chance to find out…
Alex Alex dreams of one day becoming a Dragonmaster like his hero, Dyne. But, in order to fulfill his dream he must leave behind all that he holds dear, including his sweetheart Luna. Much more is in store for him than he realizes. Hopefully he’ll live long enough to tell about!
Nall When Alex was a small child a mysterious man gave his father this strange, winged, catlike creature that unfortunately grew up with a bad attitude. He tends to get Alex into a lot of trouble by smarting off at the wrong time. But, he’ll get what’s coming to him…sooner or later!
Luna Alex’s parents have taken care of Luna since he was a child. She is Alex’s childhood sweetheart, though she’ll never admit it. No one can match the power of her magical songs. Like most adolescents her age she has many unanswered questions about herself. Unfortunately, they’re about to be answered…
Ramus Ramus is the son of the Village Elder in Burg and Alex’s friend. He hopes that Alex will one day get over his fascination with Dragonmaster Dyne. His one ambition in life is to become filthy rich. He wants it all: fast horses, expensive food, and beautiful women. It’s Ramus’ craving for fame and fortune that starts Alex’s adventure.
Nash This extremely overconfident magician’s apprentice is an understudy to the powerful magician Ghaleon, of Vane. If he isn’t studying for his latest exam at the academy, he can be found trying to impress the woman of his dreams, Mia. Too bad Nash isn’t as successful at trying to win Mia’s heart as he is with magic.
Mia Mia is the daughter of Lemia, one of the four heroes, and leader of the city of Vane. Lemia has protected Mia from the outside world so much that she is oblivoius to the joys and hardships found in the world below. Despite her mild nature she is actually a very powerful magician. But, if she could learn one new magic trick it would be making Nash disappear.
Kyle After winning the approval of Master Mel of Meribia, Kyle was put in charge of protecting the Nanza Barrier. Despite his rather young age he is a master swordsman and well respected by his loyal followers. He can’t help but find himself attracted to Jessica even though she can’t stand his male chauvinistic ways. He only has one flow, his ego!
Jessica Jessica is the daughter of Master Mel who is one of the legendary four heroes, and current governor of Meribia. As an apprentice to a shaman, she has especially strong healing power. Do not let the sweetness that she displays around her father fool you, she is a very brave and independent woman. She is at constant odds with Kyle, hoping that one day he will treat all women as equals. (Yeah, right.)
Whenever a game is translated from a Japanese version, the inevitable question is: “What did you change?”
Gamers are very concerned, as we are, that the original game stay intact as much as possible. We really try hard to give the American gamer the same experience the Japanese gamer had when playing the original game. In reality, we meet, and sometimes exceed, the quality of the original Japanese game.
One place where you can easily see a change (for the better) that took place is on the adjacent page. On the left is the literal translation from Japanese of the opening song’s lyrics. On the right is the completely rewritten English lyrics. As you’ll notice, the Japanese version is much more “soft” and “lovey-dovie.” We wanted to convey the sense of urgency found in the game itself, and if you watch the animation sequence that accompanies the song, you’ll see how much better the English words fit the visuals. At least we hope you will. Address all hate mail to Don.
LUNAR was tremendously difficult to translate. Actually, I’d say it was the hardest we’ve undertaken simply due to the sheer volume of text in the game, which amounted to 4 megabytes (32 megabit!) just by itself. We had 4 translators, 3 writers, and a few proofreaders (in addition to the electronic ones in our computers!) working nearly around the clock to finish initial text translation and entry into the program code in a record 8 weeks!
Another area some of you are interested in is the recording process. Our recording study is equipped with a 32x16 mixing board, 8 track analog recorder, 16-track analog recorder, 2 DAT recorders, plus the usual host of F/X boxes, signal modifiers, keyboards, mikes, etc. Since the recorders are analog, the audio for the animation portions of this game are AAD. The music in the game, however, is DDD.
I could probably go on for another three or four pages with this, but I’ve only been given one. I hope you liked this little bit of “inside info” on LUNAR’s translation. If you want to know more, let us know what part of a conversion project interests you the most, an dwe’ll try to fit it into our next game’s manual.
Remember, Working Designs is your company, and we really are interested in what you think of the games we release. Stay in touch, okay?
Posted on: 30 December 2024