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Too many broken ideas

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Having enjoyed the previous Lunar games, both on Sega CD and the later updates, I picked this one up hoping to see a return to the same level of enjoyment. Unfortunately, this game is frustrating to the point of near unplayability. I've been slogging my way through it in hopes that, at some point, the absurdly forced elements of the plot might get further elucidation so that they make more sense. I'm rapidly losing that hope, however.

Although the plot is thin, at times, you can normally expect that out of an RPG; they're not exactly known as being great literature (although you can be pleasantly surprised, sometimes). However, in this case, the game has gone into some experimental mechanics for the console RPG that simply fail to work on a number of levels.

First is the overall slowness of the game. The characters have a slow natural gait, which can be sped up by holding down a button to run. Even the running speed is a touch slow, but it also, even with that, comes at another price: as you run, you constantly bleed hit points. You often can't afford to move quickly from point A to point B because you need to be fully or mostly healed for the boss fights that are upcoming.

Second is the split battle system. You can either level up your characters _or_ you can get items to drop from monsters that are part of relentless fetch quests, but never both at the same time. This means that you'll find yourself fighting through every area several times, if you want characters that actually have both the stats and the equipment to handle the more difficult fights.

On top of this split battle system is loaded more difficulty with the battle mechanics. When you choose to fight, you cannot select which monster you attack. This means that the embarrassingly smarmy scene that you get partway through the game about how important teamwork is, is actively _thwarted_ by the game; there's almost no strategy that you can apply to most of the battles, making the best way to fight most things simply to hit "auto battle" and hold down the key that speeds up the battle. There are also times when you're stranded with no healer character, making you hope that you've got enough item-based healing to carry you through--your characters tend to be prone to leaving when you don't expect it, often carrying useful equipment with them. Even when you do have a healer, you're stuck with an embarrassingly low number of MP combined with relatively expensive spells. Poison is so common that I go out of my way to buy a full stack of poison-cure items, because you can't afford to use MP to help you out.

The only way to make money is a long series of fetch quests. These fetch quests rely on items that drop from the monsters (some can be purchased, but many cannot). Furthermore, many of the items that can't be bought are also rare drops, making trying to get enough money to buy equipment to be a grueling activity. And to make sure you don't get complacent with that equipment, there are monsters that will destroy your equipment or steal your fetch-quest supplies. And one piece of equipment can easily be over a half-dozen long, boring fetch quests.

That being said, the game is not _entirely_ unplayable. The ability to save anywhere at least mitigates the frustrating of having your vital items stolen or equipment broken--if you can suffer through the bother of saving after every or nearly-every battle in areas where that happens. The card system is an interesting and new (at least to me) one, where monsters drop cards that can be used multiple times for various battle effects (aids to you and hindrances to your enemies). I suspect that they were designed to counter some of the high level of frustration in the battle system, but both ends are too extreme to make things balance well. The graphics are pretty enough (although having single graphic elements split between the two screens detracts), and there are at least occasional cute/funny moments in the plot interactions.

It's unfortunate, however, that the cons so heavily outweigh the pros in this game.

Lunar Dragon Song, Oh it hurts so good!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: TRC

Lunar Dragon Song, Oh it hurts so good!

The Lunar games have been a favorite of my for a long time now. I was so happy to find out that Lunar Dragon Song, published by UbiSoft, was out that I ran out and picked one up.

The graphics were like that found on the SNES. Everything was well drawn in this game. The environments were bright with color. Also, the split screen Boss battles looked cool!

The best thing about this game was the background music.

Battle system in the game is truly a mistake! You cannot choose your target! All you can do is tell your party to fight, use an item (you get to pick the item) or use a spell (you pick the spell). The game will then choose the monster you fight. You can hold the top right shoulder button to speed up the battle.

Special mention ? Losing hit points while you run is torture. Also, having to choose experience points or items before a battle is not fun.

Having to do fetch and return jobs for money is a good idea. I would have liked to have more of a variety in my job quests. Like some hunt and destroy missions tossed in just for fun.

Overall, if you like torture and Lunar this is your game. I give this game a 4/10

If not please hold out for Final Fantasy III remake for the DS.

Any Lunar game is better than no Lunar game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was really psyched about this game, it is one of the reasons I bought a DS. Well, this game, like all other DS RPGs(the revolting Children of Mana, and the pathetic FF3), was a big let down. I am happy that someone remebered Lunar and decided to make a new game. Hopefully, another will be made within a reasonable time frame. The story itself sounded interesting, "when the world was newborn and the legend of dragons just began etc.." but the plot in this game was thin. The few characters in the game (and I mean few, you only fight with three characters) are totally forgetable, I can't even remember how the girl with green hair joins the party. Anyway, alot of people have said it is hard to earn money in this game. That statement is FALSE. First of all, fighting for items is a total waste and you should never use this option. When you defeat all enemies on the screen, the chest will become unlocked. All the good armor and weapons you will find in these chests, you will never have to buy anything (other than healing items) if you defeat all enemies on the screen. Look at a faq online for the exact items and where they are to avoid as many battles as possible. Second, there is a way to MANIPULATE gads express and make thousands upon thousands for doing pratically nothing, other than walking around a great deal. Look for the FAQ online, it involves buying ingredients at a port town on the cheap, and then getting paid mega dollars at a gads express for them. That said, money is not a factor in the game at all. Onto gameplay. The graphics are nice at points, though the hand drawings make it look cheap at other points. The battles are painfully slow, and as others have mentioned, you can't target certain enemies. As the game progresses, you will get dragon rings (about 3/4ths the way through) which will allow you to annihilate all the enemies on screen with one command, this helps considerably. The game (even with the knowledge I have just imparted) is still painful to get through, the music doesn't help any) and the story line is pretty much non existant. The main villain is identified (he gets almost no screen time) about half way through the game, can anyone say Ghaleon wannabe? Well, the plot is thin. The ending left much to be desired. Having really enjoyed the first two Lunars, I forced myself to play through the whole game (took about 30 hrs) just so I would know for myself all that it had to offer. Like I said in the title, any Lunar game is better than it never having been released, but this game does not bring much to the series. Non fans of Lunar are likely to play it for a few hours and never use it again. I hope they make another one without all these flaws.

disappointment to Lunar

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm an old game junky, and the Lunar games were defiantly one of the best. So when I saw that a new Lunar game was released, after years of fricking waiting and hoping, I flipped. The saying not to judge a book by it cover has never held as much truth as with this game. It looked like so much fun, but what I brought was a portal to hell. I'm sure many others have said this but I need to say the battle system was beyond frustrating and caused so many headaches. What were they thinking? Add to it that you have to choose between items or experience, this is not fun! The story was weak and random throughout the game, characters disappearing at times to never return with equiped items, and a horrible ending.
The only good parts of this game was character designs and sound. Not enough to go through this horribly made game. Seriously, not even FF:Crystals was this bad.

Thank you A+

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Its a well made RPG for the DS I give it an A+ but it is hard to get money, items, and EXP just because you have to keep switching between different modes and jobs.

Now the best Lunar but it will do.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game had my attention for a while. Well until i beat it. It was kind of a pain walking EVEYWHERE you had to go. It wasn't like you want through an area once and you could pass through it the next times you went through it on the map but no you want to go in an fight monsters every time. Well I found that collection items was good for the jobs that needed to be done. Jobs were the only real way to get money, other then finding it in a chest. And once you get later in the game armor and weapons cost a pretty penny so save up.

All in all I recommend this game to anyone that likes RPG's in general. And if you can get it for under 15 bux then is worth it.

I can't believe some people out there!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For one, I have never played any of the other Lunar games, and I didn't do any research on this one before buying, it so maybe my opinion is invalid. I was in a store with some extra money bouncing around in my pocket, my mom saw this game lying on a random shelf, saw the "dragon" part, and suggested it to me. At first I wasn't really too interested. I mean, it looked okay, but not really "great". About five hours later, I was sitting in my bed with the light way after midnight on playing the game. I was totally addicted. The characters and story line are beautiful, and the backround graphics and music are stunning. I LOVE Jian's (the character who you play) personality and his design. Speaking as a fan girl...HE IS JUST SO CUTE! Anyway, I think that you really have to be mature to understand the importance of this game. The ending was beautiful, even though I have to admit that it wasn't the best of finishes. I was kind of hoping that it would go on. No, it is true that you never get to fight the final boss, Dragonmaster Ignatius, but, if you really payed attention to the plot instead of just impatiently cliking the A button through all of the text, then you would realize that you don't need to. Besides, when you fight him for the first time when trying to rescue Lucia, he wipes you out instantly! I mean, you would nedd over a million hit points to be able to even match him!

It was fun watching the characters mature and the plot progress. There were so many plot twists that I just kept wanting to continue. I also enjoyed the way that the battles were set up. You had to choose between Zen Mode and Regular Mode, and you also had to choose what attacks you would do and when. I mean, you never new who the enemies would attack next and how powerful the attacks would be. You really had to use your brain to figure out your next move. I didn't like the fact that every time you ran you started to loose hit points, but after you level up a lot, it stops mattering. I mean, you can heal yourself practically anytime you want to with healing gum and healing drops and Althena magic!

I am not really a HUGE fan of vidoegames, but I just couldn't put this one down. I wouldn't suggest this for people who do not like fantasy or who just want to play for the fights. I mean, you can spend time leveling up your character and battling monsters, but it is far more fun to play out the plot.

This is a summarization of my final opinion on the game:
Pros:
Interesting and classic characters
Advanced and spunky music
Intricate backrounds
Great plot with a lot of interesting twists
An endless supply of enemies
Cards to aid you in battle and that are fun to collect

Cons:
Not a lot of boss fights
Hard to obtain items for the jobs
Enemies were very annoying when they follow you around and try to fight
Hit point loss when running
Character graphics
(Also, I do not like the design for the cover. Jian looks like a girl!)

I really wish that there was another Lunar game with Jian, Lucia, Gabbi, and Flora in it. I can only hope that in the future I can be granted such a wish. I also hope that if you are pondering wether or not to purchase this videogame, that you listen to my minute opinion. I mean, there are a GARGANTUAN amount of Lunar fans who despised this game and would see it burned and spit upon. But as for me, I would say, without a doubt that this is my favorite videogame. Point blank. No objections. It outshadows everything, and I really wanted to see a sequal, but then I read that this game itself happened 1000 years before all of the other Lunar games, so I don't expect one. Even though the ending DID suggfest a sequal...I think they were just talking about Lunar Silver Story. Oh well, as I previopusly said, we will just have to wait to see what the creators of Lunar will come up with next. But, if you want a GREAT, FANTASTIC, MEMORABLE GAME, try Lunar Dragon song. YOu may just end up liking it.

Just to correct the previous reviewer.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 14
Date: October 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a remake it came out on the ill fated Sega Saturn in 1996.

once again you're wrong

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: October 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

S Button, the game that came out on the saturn in 96' was lunar silver star saga. It was then later released on psx. Lunar Dragon Song IS a new game not a remake wanker

Start reading more, please.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: November 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is not a remake, Its the sequel to a 10 year old game. lunar silver story for those of you who just got into gaming.

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