Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

Posted in psx by rboyd on Jul 26th, 1999
Title  : Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Platforms  : Sony PlayStation
Publisher  : Working Designs
ESRB Rating  : Teen
Game Rating  : 9.6
Review by  : Robert Boyd

Imagine a world where magic is real and your best friend is a flying cat. Imagine a world where brave dragonmasters protect the Goddess Althena from the forces of evil. Imagine a world that basks in the light of the Blue Star, the original home of humanity. Experience the world of Lunar. 

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is an update to an RPG classic that originally appeared on the Sega CD. Every aspect of the game has been drastically changed and upgraded for the better. Graphics, while technologically unsophisticated, look good nevertheless and the music, while missing some good songs from the original, is excellent. High quality anime movie sequences highlight and intensify critical story points and generally good dubbing helps to bring the characters alive. 

Gameplay is traditional and well done. Encounters can be avoided or sought out based on your preference and dexterity, which makes exploration more enjoyable than usual. In battles, a unique positioning system makes combat more strategic than in most games. Spells, though limited in number, are effective throughout the game. The game fully supports the dual analog shock controller — odd for an RPG, yet nice. And bosses provide a fun challenge — hard enough to be enjoyable, but not so hard that they become a chore. 

But the real heart of Lunar Complete is in its characters and dialogue. Working Designs' translation of Lunar is probably the best translation ever created for a video game — the dialogue is naturally spoken, well written, and often quite funny. The amount of text in the game boggles the mind; simple townsfolk may have as many as a dozen different things to say to you based on when you talk to them and who is in your party. Because of the high quality and quantity of the text, the characters in Lunar feel like real and complex people, and at the end of the game, most players will feel like they're saying goodbye to good friends, not merely finishing a fun video game. It's this emotional bond that the game creates that truly elevates Lunar to classic status. 

In addition to the game, Lunar Complete comes with the biggest set of extras ever seen in a video game package. The game comes with a cloth map, an exceptional instruction book (over 100 pages, full color, and made with high quality materials), a fun "Making of Lunar" movie CD, and a music CD. The cloth map isn't especially useful or pretty, but the other extras are highly enjoyable and really make one wish that other companies would include similar extras with their games. 

Lunar is somewhat short for an RPG (most players will finish it in about 30 hours) and is more expensive than most CD games (because of the extras), but despite these two facts, Lunar Complete is probably the best RPG currently available on the Sony PlayStation. Everyone who loves a good story deserves to spend some quality time in the world of Lunar. 

This article is copyright (c) 1999, 2007 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.

Original publication: Sentinel & Enterprise, 26-Jul-99

Alundra

Posted in psx by kgagne on Jan 19th, 1998
Title  : Alundra
Platforms  : Sony PlayStation
Publisher  : Working Designs
Game Rating  : 7.7
Review by  : Ken Gagne

Final Fantasy VII may have been a dream come true for gaming fans, but others still hunger for more role-playing games (RPGs). Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get blessed — or cursed — with Alundra, for the Sony PlayStation. 

Alundra was translated by Working Designs, a company long-known for its excellent RPGs. This particular title is from the same group responsible for Landstalker (Sega Genesis) and Dark Savior (Sega Saturn), and as such, is similar to those games' perspective and gameplay, but not their characters or setting. 

The world of Inoa has had its gods ripped from them by an evil king; its people have lost their creativity and are plagued by horrible nightmares. Alundra is of a race imbued with the ability to enter people's dreams and affect their outcomes. The fates have chosen him to prevent an ancient evil from claiming Inoa as its own. 

This action/RPG hybrid is similar to Nintendo's Zelda series: Alundra moves about from an overhead view, battling enemies in real time. He does not gain strength from experience but does find items to increase his health, money to purchase items, and occasionally, new armor and weapons. 

The young adventurer is a character easy to control. Two main items are assigned to two buttons while the other two are for jumping and running; the latter is rarely useful. A subscreen of utilities is quickly accessible from many buttons. 

Adventuring in Inoa is a colorful journey. From the mangy mutts to the eclipsing clouds to the graveyard ghosts, everything has a wonderful, pastel appearance. But there are no incredible bursts of jaw-dropping special effects, or a creature so monstrous that you can only feel a tinge of awe. Alundra's graphics are consistently above average. 

Music is especially important in an RPG, and Alundra passes the standard. Its overtones and instruments produce perfect atmosphere. Sound effects are often average, but sometimes a scream or blast will some across as especially powerful. 

The plot starts off slow, and rarely picks up pace. Many goals seem to be attacking the symptoms of a greater evil without focusing on the source. Almost all minor characters have unique names and faces, and it takes while to get to know the townspeople. 

The game's challenge comes not from powerful foes (Alundra's enemies are actually quite easy to defeat), but intricate puzzles. You'll spend more time pushing switches and making jumps than anything else. I came across one puzzle which had twenty-four possible solutions, and no helpful clues about which was correct. These tiresome motions greatly hindered the overall fun factor. 

An item easily overlooked in other products, Alundra has a beautiful instruction manual. From the glossy cover to the stylish illustrations to the original Japanese lyrics to the game's songs to the editor's candor, it's a pleasure to have. Kudos to Working Designs on a fine complement to the game. 

Alundra is an action/RPG without enough elements of either genre. It gives a worthy presentation but is frustrating, and sometimes even boring, enough to hamper its potential. Alundra may be a dream come true for some, but a nightmare for others.

This article is copyright (c) 1998, 2007 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.

Original publication: Sentinel & Enterprise, 19-Jan-98