Silver Star Harmony translation update!

[GhaleonOne]

When LUNAR: Silver Star Harmony was announced by XSEED Games as one of their upcoming titles for North America, one of the big questions Lunar fans had was whether the translation would retain the Working Designs script or go in a different direction. Because of the polarization of LUNAR fans that love the WD style of quirky humor and those that have always wanted a direct translation, many wondered what direction XSEED would go to please the entire fandom. So amid reports this week of a completely new translation, we hit up XSEED directly to get some clarification and I think both sides of the LUNAR fandom will be pleased with the answer.

The plan is to refresh the Working Designs translation, keeping the charm while updating the text and bringing the translation closer to the original Japanese. XSEED understands that the original Working Designs translation was a big reason why many people loved the title, so they're trying to make the translation both true to what people loved about it, while still giving old time fans a new experience. New scenarios and a lot more detail about the world of LUNAR can be expected from the game. Also, no decision has been made on voice acting. While there is no official drop date, LUNAR: Silver Star Harmony will likely be out sometime in early 2010.

[ilovemyguitar]

I'm definitely optimistic. All signs so far point them taking the time to make this a new game instead of simply a rehash, and this is a prime example of that.

The only thing I'm nervous about at this point is the voice acting. I'm not going to boycott if they use new actors or anything crazy like that, but it'll be tough to find people who can live up to what John Truitt and Jenny Stigile did for previous iterations of Lunar 1.

[Alunissage]

It shouldn't be hard to live up to Jenny Stigile's voice acting in Lunar 1. Royce had what, two scenes?

[Lunar Eclipse]

I don't think most of the voice acting will be hard to live up to. I mean, it was certainly great for the time and is still entirely tolerable, but it really only sits around the mediocre range at this point with a few standouts. Characters like Mia and Luna could be switched out with no real consequence at all as far as I'm concerned. I always liked Alex, Nash, and Jessica, but I never really understood the love for Ghaleon's voice, plus I don't think he'd be as irreplaceable as most people think. In my opinion, someone like Kirk Thornton could capture the previous actor's tone well enough and still bring a better overall performance to it.

[ilovemyguitar]

Alun, I'm not talking about Ms Stigile's work as Royce, but as Luna's singing voice. I'm afraid of what might happen with the boat song if they find a sub-par singer.

[Alunissage]

I know, I'm just being literal in referring to her speaking. As you know, though, I feel that a re-recording of the opening song would have an even chance of being an improvement. The other song is better, but still has a bit of pop-style drawl in it that needn't be there.

(To be fair, I thought that Ms. Stigile's rendition of the song in Arc The Lad III was quite good; this is not intended to be blanket disapproval of her singing.)

[Silver Phoenix]

There are always far better voice actors and singers who could make you change your mind, but finding them is a different story. To be honest, the singing quality was nice for it's time but very amateur in style. Find someone who can really emote through their music and it can truly give power to a song. The songs were nice, but the singing was not powerful on a professional singing level.