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A Fantastic Game But For Once, The Remake is the Better Buy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Before going on to the review I must confess that I played the Playstation Remake before playing through the original version. This makes the review seem a little odd at times, but I'm going to review this game as it is. I will only say this, however, if you have a choice between the original Sega CD version or the remake on Playstation, the Playstation version of the game is far superior. I'm not just talking graphics (we could care less about graphics). I'm talking everything. The story in the Playstation remake is more fleshed out and characters are given far more attention. In other words, the Playstation version is called "Complete" for a reason. However, if you're like me, you love playing the originals and comparing. For an RPG released in 1994, Lunar 2 Eternal Blue on Sega CD was easily the best RPG you could get at the time.

In Lunar 2 you play as Hiro. An adventurer who loves to explore ancient ruins. After barely escaping with his life he traverses through the desert only to run into the famed White Knight Leo, leader of Althena's guard. He informs Hiro that there is a destroyer coming to the world of Lunar through the Blue Spire and that it must be stopped. Hiro, being the adventurer that he is, decides to head off to the Blue Spire with his Grandpa. Upon getting inside he meets Lucia, who has come to Lunar to stop an evil God named Zophar from taking over the world of Lunar. Despite its basic structure, Lunar 2 manages to be a very deep story with some incredibly lovable characters. The story also has a few surprises up its sleeve. The story is also helped by some neat animated cutscenes and well done voice acting. For 1994, Lunar 2 transcended all expectations of what an RPG could do at the time. There is no RPG of the mid 90's that was as technologically advanced. Much of what Lunar 2 does to tell its story is stuff many had to wait until the Playstation to see.

In terms of gameplay, Lunar 2 is pretty basic. It uses turn based combat in which you can attack, use magic, use items, defend, run away or simply let the AI handle things. In battle you select all your characters actions and then watch a round of combat go by. It's completely simple, but somehow manages to be fun. Lunar 2 is also helped by the fact that it can be very strategic. The original Lunar 2: Eternal Blue is easily one of the hardest RPGs out there. Even normal battles can be a pain to get through. With the limitations on items and random encounters instead of contact based, Lunar 2 will put even the most experienced RPGer to the test.

Another small aspect of Lunar 2 that works wonders is the games Magic Experience system. Players don't just gain experience, they also gain magic experience that allows them to power up spells and learn new ones along the way. It's a good system, however, the Magic Experience has a huge downside that even for 1994 is unforgivable. It also cost Magic Experience to save your game (with the formula being Hiro's Level multiplied by fifteen equals the amount of Magic Experience it cost to save your game). In the first Lunar on Sega CD you could save anywhere you wanted. In Lunar 2 you'll be faced with spending much of your magic experience saving your game. This is painful especially because as your level increases so does the cost for saving a game. This wouldn't be such a big problem if Magic Experience obtained wasn't so mundane (save for boss battles). It was designed to make the game more of a challenge but in truth, it only succeeds in frustrating the player. Imagine a tough boss fight coming up but you don't have enough Magic Experience to save your game because you just happen to be at a high level and you don't have enough Magic Experience to save your game. This is easily the biggest problem Lunar 2 has. And that's sad considering the rest of the game is absolutely amazing.

Graphic wise, Lunar 2 looks very good for its time. The game has some good looking detailed sprites. However, in spite of that, the game doesn't look nearly as good as some of its competition of its time. It's colorful and decorative but when going up against such graphical games like Final Fantasy VI and Donkey Kong Country, Lunar 2 looks great, but not exquisite. However, it's animated cutscenes look great! Not to mention it has a great soundtrack and some good voice overs. Regardless of the competition, this was easily the best RPG of the mid 1990's.

There are a few reasons why the Playstation remake is the better buy. For one, there's a lot more emphasis on the storyline there and there's a lot more character development put into it. While the Sega CD version has more boss battles and is a greater challenge, much of those things detract from the overall flow of the story.

In short, Lunar 2 is a fantastic game. In spite of its save system and ungodly challenge, it still manages to be one of the absolute best RPGs you can find. While the Playstation version is better, it's nice to travel back in time and see not only how far the RPG genre has come, but just how fantastic an older game easily as back in the day.

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