Sony Playstation
Entertainment System video game review
LUNAR 2:
Eternal Blue
Complete
(Role-Playing Game, 1 Player)
LUNAR 2:
Eternal Blue
Complete
(Role-Playing Game, 1 Player)
|
Sony Playstation
Entertainment System video game review
LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete (Role-Playing Game, 1 Player) |
This is the case with LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete.
I first heard about the LUNAR series when I was a freshman in high school. The wave of Japanese animation was swelling and crashing on an unsure generation of viewers who briefly remember Voltron and Astro Boy. A glut of foreign-made media products had come steadily through the commerce channels and got out through the video game magazines. With a previous knowledge that "any good toy comes from Japan--they make G. I. Joe!" as little boys, the target audience of said magazines--adolescent males with disposeable income--was reached. That's how I came to encounter a bunch of ads from the company that produced the LUNAR series: Working Designs.
Working Designs is a great company dedicated to bringing Japanese games to the United states. Not only Have they brought over the LUNAR series, but they have produced games ranging from the Arc the Lad Collection and a video game based on the CLAMP manga/anime Magic Knight Rayearth. These guys and girls put in work to make the translation and reprogramming of the games they produce as smooth as possible for an American audience. This is especially evident in their release of the LUNAR series in cooperation with the guys who released Grandia, GAME ARTS.
…and if the guys who worked with Grandia worked on this, then it's gotta be great!
In the journeys across the planet to defeat Zophar, you'll meet people who'll become allies and friends to you along the way. Each of them have an agenda of their own & you'll help them achieve their goals. Why? Otherwise they don't join. Trust me, you'll need all the help you can get from the heroes. The gambling priest Ronfar wants to redeem his failure in being unable to save Mauri, the girl he loved so much. Jean wants to dance away her dark past and will not rest until she can be rid of it any way she can. Lemina is a girl whose people were the foremost magicians in the land. Now her town of Vane lies in disarray and she aims to rebuild it with the TREASURE she finds during her travels. Finally, another hero named Leon joins up after he finds out all he knows is a lie. With friends like these, the forces of evil don't stand a chance.
Gameplay is straight to the point. There are no fancy roulette wheels like Unlimited SaGa; no crazy leveling systems like the entries of Final Fantasy VIII, IX or X and no obscuring menus or displays like .hack or Xenogears/Xenosaga. Just the up & down of a base RPG. Everything else is a straight port from Sega CD/Saturn with better music…I guess. I have never heard the originals nor am I an audiophile who's that discerning about sound. As an RPG purist, I dig the SD characters at all points. The animation of magic and specials were particularly sufficient.
Unfortunately, I believe that I played LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue much too late. While I should have been with Hiro and his crew saving the world, I was doing the same thing on another world with Sir Astral in Shining Force II or at the helm of the Highwind in Final Fantasy VII. I missed out on a phenomenon that was hinted at in the ads I saw. Now that I have played the game, its presentation in comparison to other RPGs since 1994(?!), I can't give it the great score it so richly deserves because it's so new(but not alien) to me, yet so dated. LUNAR 2's old-fashioned play and 2D presentation is a welcome boon, yet I am left wanting more. Waitaminute…
Hell yeah I CAN give LUNAR 2 a great score. It gets this rating for the bonuses alone!
Deservedly, LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete gets a 9.
The world is awash in role playing games.
There are so few RPGs that are original. There are many others that try to copy what the best man has and pass it off as the newest thing. In all scenarios, someone is always trying to top someone else. In many cases, the person is out to surpass an earlier work.
Our story is about our young hero named (ahem)Hiro. There's no renaming this guy; you'll just have to live with it. He and his friend Ruby are ruin explorers(just like that anime) who hunt for artifacts for Hiro's grandfather Gwynn. I neglect to mention: Ruby is a flying pink cat that breathes fire. That's just our first set of characters. The plot goes into full gear when our protagonists break into the Blue Dragon Spire and witness the arrival of the sole resident of the local moon, Lunar. Her name's Lucia and she's all kinds of sweet anime girl, albeit on the unfeeling side due to her lack of human contact up to the point when you meet her.
With her awakening and arrival comes the balance of the story: our main villain Zophar, the God of Darkness and Chaos or somesuch. Zophar and his right-hand man Ghaleon are out there to turn the world into a wasteland just like they left Lunar in an battle ages ago between the forces of good and evil. That's where our Hiro--heroes come in.
This game had my full attention whe it came to relationships between characters. There was the obvious love between the Hiro and Lucia MacGuffin(I call her that due to the plot of the game.) Hell, she's as much a main character as Hiro. As friends, the only people whom make a visible connection with Hiro are Ronfar and Jean. Lemina is lost in her own world of money and magic, making her seem slightly annoying in the long run. Leo wants to be a mentor to the young lad, but there's no connection between them, even if they fought each other on occasion AND Leo was the first to break the ice with his silly alter-ego, Mystere. Even with such dear friends that'll help you take on the god of Darkness, the relationship newtork between party and player isn't like Suikoden.
Above: Hiro and his flying cat Ruby look to the West--and to the adventures ahead.
Sidequests to get bromides(the hell is a bromide you say? A nice picture) can be challenging on their own and the outtakes from the voice actors are priceless. Way to save the world(and your ass), LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete!
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