My Lunar: SSH review 6/10
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:00 am
Does the game make the company or does the company make the game?
Analysis of the game itself:
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Fun: 6/10
Story: 9/10
Presentation: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
The game itself is joyfully bright and colorful. New life is breathed into the character's sprites. The amount of detail and care put into the sprites shows. It was really enjoyable to see familiar faces flushed out. And for those of you who are new to the series I'm sure you can agree those are some of the best 2d sprites you've seen in a game.
The music is also redone and especially poignant to people who are returning to Lunar.
But perhaps the best part of the new release was the additional lore added to the story. Some of the previous Dragonmaster's adventure was fleshed out. Unfortunately all it really did was cater to people who had already played Lunar. The scene itself didn't last longer then 5-10 minutes. The result is something that the average player would probably find lack luster as the bonds that develop between player and character are not established. I found myself watching strangely familiar characters regurgitate something from a Japanese melodrama. The problem was multiplied by the horrible voice acting.
Since I had the benefit of knowing who and what the relationships between the character's in the new scene I was deeply disappointed that Althena's decision wasn't fleshed out. What you get is a scene that neither adds nor takes away from the existing storyline. It was really just empty filler and at worse a cheap ploy to boost sales of yet another remake in this series.
But perhaps the best part of this version of Lunar comes when someone takes the knowledge of the previous versions and fills in the things that are missing here and there. The relationships between the main character's have added depth. It was great to see Jessica's character express herself in new ways. The same goes for all the other character's except for Alex & Luna. Those two stayed remarkably stale. Although in the beginning this version's Alex was far more aggressive then the previous versions. But toward the middle of the game Alex's input into random NPC conversations and even plot developments diminishes to a point of non-existence. The joy came in finding every NPC and talking to them. Finding out what the citizens of Lunar have to say after almost every single plot development was a novel and enjoyable aspect of the game. Everyone had an opinion, it was great. Unfortunately, it's not without its flaws. Every single NPC dialogue had these strange vertical black bars that appeared. It was completely annoying.
The “tricks” used to transition the player into a major plot development scene were just bad choices. All of them use either a fade to black or fade to white technique. Toward the middle of the game it was predictable and bland. A lot of it was just simple appearing and disappearing sprites. Or layering special effects on top of sprites. Or worse, is when the characters board dragons they walk into them and disappear! Battle effects like an exploding roof or exploding engine are implied and not quite realized. The result is something like an NPC having to explain what just happened visually. You might as well play MUD. Nothing was fluid or smooth. Everything had to stop and go. NPC's popped in and out, it is completely unappealing. It just looks like an amateur team handled the development, it really shows.
Unfortunately in the English version although the WD script remains largely unchanged the feeling and awe doesn't translate into this version. Xseed's translation choices ranged from a simple copy & past to adding unnecessary changes. Example: the ending. It is literally verbatim, except they added a few extra erroneous words that end up diluting the emotional impact of the scene. But I doubt how much that would have mattered considering the voice actors threw off the emotions in the scenes.
The combat system was absolutely horrible. I avoided battles like the plague. I found every single battle extremely easy, and extremely slow. The combination of the two turned what used to be enjoyable battles into punishment. The worst part of the game came when the Fluffy Bug had to be captured. It added maybe an extra hour of unnecessary grinding. Additionally the list of spells available to the player is astonishingly short for an RPG these days. Not to mention the effects were lack luster, and unprofessional. Whenever the character's moved across the screen they slid, they had no run animations, I found that particularly annoying. Many of Nash's spells looked unnatural and unfinished when compared to the other character's spells. And the Art's gauges kept all boss battles under 5-10 minutes if you are lucky. Whats worse is that a lot of the difficulty problem could be fixed by not letting character's regain full health after leveling up. The stats seem to have no relevance in the fight. AGI & STR seem to do nothing. It really only depended on the weapon. If you had the right weapon for the right environment then you would do well. But sacrificing the ability for Nash to use a bow in favor of a staff that raises his Wisdom is worthless. The added stat bonus did nothing to change the spell damage that was cast upon monsters. So you might as well have the bow equipped. The same thing happened with Armor. I found Kyles ultimate weapon & armor and the armor only increased maybe a few stat points but when he donned his ultimate gear suddenly he took half damage. It was irritating.
The Dungeons were stupefyingly simple. All of them except for the Talon Mines and maybe the Grindery were linear. You merely followed a path with a branch that lead to a dead end once in a while. And with the few treasure chests you find you are either rewarded or punished for what you get. Mostly its a useless healing item, or a couple grand of Silver. But when you find an item to equip it is rather rewarding.
The item system was horrible too. There was no sort button so everything was sorted by use and by category automatically. But the problem was that the items seemed to keep jumping around in the list as new things were acquired. Finding the Dragon Wings was a pain, I think that the ease of this system would be extremely complimented by creating an individual sprite for each item. Visual identification is usually much easier then having to read through a list of non alphabetical items to find what you are looking for. And because the battles were so easy, I used maybe 5-10 healing items the whole game. Toward the end I had no need for Ramus's free items. I had acquired over 60x healing items in each category. Also the L & R buttons were not used in the menu system. Which I found odd considering how easy it would be to press it to switch categories, especially during the view Status screen! The choice of font was hard on the eyes and I had difficulty finding things like Titles and sub categories in the Status Menu.
Another thing I did not like about this game was the long, & frequent load times. I used the a UMD version but I have heard that the PSN version isn't as bad. But regardless, most people will be using the UMD version and the load times are bad. You enter a house, it loads. Not only does it load, but it fades the music! So you're left in the dark for a second or two and its dead silent. I hated having to travel on the over-world map because it seemed pointless. Why couldn't I just choose a town name to go to? Why even give the player the option of choosing where to go since your bound by the plot. Once you get the Dragon Wings the loading problem is significantly reduced but traveling within towns that have more then one screen was painful.
So in short, my positive bias for this game really blinded me to what would have been a really bad purchase in my eyes. It really really feels like they half assed this one. Maybe they're just testing the waters, or maybe (more likely) Game Arts has been depleted of a lot of its original team. Unfortunately, for us they seem to be building their skills with Lunar.
But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe now a new generation can get the Lunar that we have always wanted. And with a majority of reviews being positive, I'm sure Lunar's fanbase is going to grow. I guess that means I have to look forward to an Eternal Blue remake & a new Lunar!
Analysis in comparison with older versions:
I waited months in anticipation for the newest reincarnation of Lunar. While the storyline, hasn't changed much from the Lunar Complete remake there were a few things I took issue with.
I would have liked to see Damon get an full avatar/portrait.
More spells
More on Althena, Dyne, & Ghaleon's relationship
A more complete game - No glitches
More new content
More interactive intangible objects (Books, fireplaces, dressers, statues)
Ability to turn off voice acting and add subtitles
Sprites for items
Faster load times
MUCH better animations (Battle animations, special event animations)
New Bromides
Optional Special Dungeons (Similar to Lunar EBC but not in epilogue)
Some tasteful ending with Nall seeing his friends die off...or something to do with Nall being all alone and older.
I really didn't like how the world of Lunar really got condensed in this version. Towns are smaller, and have fewer NPCs. The over-world map completely demolished any sense of travel in Lunar. You really miss out on the feeling that you're traveling far away from home when all you have to do is watch a sprite move on a map after selecting a city. Even the dungeons were smaller. There were at most 3-5 maps in each dungeon. And since a lot of the monsters could be dodged you could breeze through a dungeon in maybe 15 minutes.
I was slightly shocked to find that there were no new dungeons. How can you do a remake without adding an optional dungeon? At least the Complete series added new dungeons. And since we're remaking things why not reorganize the world of Lunar to sync together? Add in the Blue Spire or the Star Tower. I want to see links to the past and future. All we got was a cheap remake that didn't add anything except a few things here and there.
I'd like to see Nall comment on his friends passing. I think that would be a nice addition. Or maybe the very end of Luna recording the message for Lucia. Also, WD's excellent choice to require players to serenade Luna at the end has been removed. I didn't feel like it took anything away from the scene. But I think that the WD version is far superior. I remember the fear of dying was lot more realistic when I saw my HP drop dramatically. Xseed's version didn't have that.
I think that Xseed's choices in translating this have really effected the quality of this rendition. I expect that when Xseed does Eternal Blue (My personal favorite) nothing will have changed.
I think it has largely to do with an audience who doesn't know how much more they could have. How much more they should expect and how much more they deserve. Much of these JRPG games are just gobbled up for no reason other then the fact that they have anime in it. That mentality shows. I just wish Xseed and all localizing companies had someone who could balance their desire to leave a mark on the game and what sounds good in a game. A lot of my feelings of this are fleshed out in another thread and I don't want to revisit it here. But I just couldn't get over how bad the changes were. Unfortunately there is a Catch-22 I have almost no power over who gets to localize this or future Lunar games. And if I want to see Lunar grow I have to support them by buying a copy of their games. So I in the end I do this for Lunar.
Analysis of the game itself:
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Fun: 6/10
Story: 9/10
Presentation: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
The game itself is joyfully bright and colorful. New life is breathed into the character's sprites. The amount of detail and care put into the sprites shows. It was really enjoyable to see familiar faces flushed out. And for those of you who are new to the series I'm sure you can agree those are some of the best 2d sprites you've seen in a game.
The music is also redone and especially poignant to people who are returning to Lunar.
But perhaps the best part of the new release was the additional lore added to the story. Some of the previous Dragonmaster's adventure was fleshed out. Unfortunately all it really did was cater to people who had already played Lunar. The scene itself didn't last longer then 5-10 minutes. The result is something that the average player would probably find lack luster as the bonds that develop between player and character are not established. I found myself watching strangely familiar characters regurgitate something from a Japanese melodrama. The problem was multiplied by the horrible voice acting.
Since I had the benefit of knowing who and what the relationships between the character's in the new scene I was deeply disappointed that Althena's decision wasn't fleshed out. What you get is a scene that neither adds nor takes away from the existing storyline. It was really just empty filler and at worse a cheap ploy to boost sales of yet another remake in this series.
But perhaps the best part of this version of Lunar comes when someone takes the knowledge of the previous versions and fills in the things that are missing here and there. The relationships between the main character's have added depth. It was great to see Jessica's character express herself in new ways. The same goes for all the other character's except for Alex & Luna. Those two stayed remarkably stale. Although in the beginning this version's Alex was far more aggressive then the previous versions. But toward the middle of the game Alex's input into random NPC conversations and even plot developments diminishes to a point of non-existence. The joy came in finding every NPC and talking to them. Finding out what the citizens of Lunar have to say after almost every single plot development was a novel and enjoyable aspect of the game. Everyone had an opinion, it was great. Unfortunately, it's not without its flaws. Every single NPC dialogue had these strange vertical black bars that appeared. It was completely annoying.
The “tricks” used to transition the player into a major plot development scene were just bad choices. All of them use either a fade to black or fade to white technique. Toward the middle of the game it was predictable and bland. A lot of it was just simple appearing and disappearing sprites. Or layering special effects on top of sprites. Or worse, is when the characters board dragons they walk into them and disappear! Battle effects like an exploding roof or exploding engine are implied and not quite realized. The result is something like an NPC having to explain what just happened visually. You might as well play MUD. Nothing was fluid or smooth. Everything had to stop and go. NPC's popped in and out, it is completely unappealing. It just looks like an amateur team handled the development, it really shows.
Unfortunately in the English version although the WD script remains largely unchanged the feeling and awe doesn't translate into this version. Xseed's translation choices ranged from a simple copy & past to adding unnecessary changes. Example: the ending. It is literally verbatim, except they added a few extra erroneous words that end up diluting the emotional impact of the scene. But I doubt how much that would have mattered considering the voice actors threw off the emotions in the scenes.
The combat system was absolutely horrible. I avoided battles like the plague. I found every single battle extremely easy, and extremely slow. The combination of the two turned what used to be enjoyable battles into punishment. The worst part of the game came when the Fluffy Bug had to be captured. It added maybe an extra hour of unnecessary grinding. Additionally the list of spells available to the player is astonishingly short for an RPG these days. Not to mention the effects were lack luster, and unprofessional. Whenever the character's moved across the screen they slid, they had no run animations, I found that particularly annoying. Many of Nash's spells looked unnatural and unfinished when compared to the other character's spells. And the Art's gauges kept all boss battles under 5-10 minutes if you are lucky. Whats worse is that a lot of the difficulty problem could be fixed by not letting character's regain full health after leveling up. The stats seem to have no relevance in the fight. AGI & STR seem to do nothing. It really only depended on the weapon. If you had the right weapon for the right environment then you would do well. But sacrificing the ability for Nash to use a bow in favor of a staff that raises his Wisdom is worthless. The added stat bonus did nothing to change the spell damage that was cast upon monsters. So you might as well have the bow equipped. The same thing happened with Armor. I found Kyles ultimate weapon & armor and the armor only increased maybe a few stat points but when he donned his ultimate gear suddenly he took half damage. It was irritating.
The Dungeons were stupefyingly simple. All of them except for the Talon Mines and maybe the Grindery were linear. You merely followed a path with a branch that lead to a dead end once in a while. And with the few treasure chests you find you are either rewarded or punished for what you get. Mostly its a useless healing item, or a couple grand of Silver. But when you find an item to equip it is rather rewarding.
The item system was horrible too. There was no sort button so everything was sorted by use and by category automatically. But the problem was that the items seemed to keep jumping around in the list as new things were acquired. Finding the Dragon Wings was a pain, I think that the ease of this system would be extremely complimented by creating an individual sprite for each item. Visual identification is usually much easier then having to read through a list of non alphabetical items to find what you are looking for. And because the battles were so easy, I used maybe 5-10 healing items the whole game. Toward the end I had no need for Ramus's free items. I had acquired over 60x healing items in each category. Also the L & R buttons were not used in the menu system. Which I found odd considering how easy it would be to press it to switch categories, especially during the view Status screen! The choice of font was hard on the eyes and I had difficulty finding things like Titles and sub categories in the Status Menu.
Another thing I did not like about this game was the long, & frequent load times. I used the a UMD version but I have heard that the PSN version isn't as bad. But regardless, most people will be using the UMD version and the load times are bad. You enter a house, it loads. Not only does it load, but it fades the music! So you're left in the dark for a second or two and its dead silent. I hated having to travel on the over-world map because it seemed pointless. Why couldn't I just choose a town name to go to? Why even give the player the option of choosing where to go since your bound by the plot. Once you get the Dragon Wings the loading problem is significantly reduced but traveling within towns that have more then one screen was painful.
So in short, my positive bias for this game really blinded me to what would have been a really bad purchase in my eyes. It really really feels like they half assed this one. Maybe they're just testing the waters, or maybe (more likely) Game Arts has been depleted of a lot of its original team. Unfortunately, for us they seem to be building their skills with Lunar.
But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe now a new generation can get the Lunar that we have always wanted. And with a majority of reviews being positive, I'm sure Lunar's fanbase is going to grow. I guess that means I have to look forward to an Eternal Blue remake & a new Lunar!
Analysis in comparison with older versions:
I waited months in anticipation for the newest reincarnation of Lunar. While the storyline, hasn't changed much from the Lunar Complete remake there were a few things I took issue with.
I would have liked to see Damon get an full avatar/portrait.
More spells
More on Althena, Dyne, & Ghaleon's relationship
A more complete game - No glitches
More new content
More interactive intangible objects (Books, fireplaces, dressers, statues)
Ability to turn off voice acting and add subtitles
Sprites for items
Faster load times
MUCH better animations (Battle animations, special event animations)
New Bromides
Optional Special Dungeons (Similar to Lunar EBC but not in epilogue)
Some tasteful ending with Nall seeing his friends die off...or something to do with Nall being all alone and older.
I really didn't like how the world of Lunar really got condensed in this version. Towns are smaller, and have fewer NPCs. The over-world map completely demolished any sense of travel in Lunar. You really miss out on the feeling that you're traveling far away from home when all you have to do is watch a sprite move on a map after selecting a city. Even the dungeons were smaller. There were at most 3-5 maps in each dungeon. And since a lot of the monsters could be dodged you could breeze through a dungeon in maybe 15 minutes.
I was slightly shocked to find that there were no new dungeons. How can you do a remake without adding an optional dungeon? At least the Complete series added new dungeons. And since we're remaking things why not reorganize the world of Lunar to sync together? Add in the Blue Spire or the Star Tower. I want to see links to the past and future. All we got was a cheap remake that didn't add anything except a few things here and there.
I'd like to see Nall comment on his friends passing. I think that would be a nice addition. Or maybe the very end of Luna recording the message for Lucia. Also, WD's excellent choice to require players to serenade Luna at the end has been removed. I didn't feel like it took anything away from the scene. But I think that the WD version is far superior. I remember the fear of dying was lot more realistic when I saw my HP drop dramatically. Xseed's version didn't have that.
I think that Xseed's choices in translating this have really effected the quality of this rendition. I expect that when Xseed does Eternal Blue (My personal favorite) nothing will have changed.
I think it has largely to do with an audience who doesn't know how much more they could have. How much more they should expect and how much more they deserve. Much of these JRPG games are just gobbled up for no reason other then the fact that they have anime in it. That mentality shows. I just wish Xseed and all localizing companies had someone who could balance their desire to leave a mark on the game and what sounds good in a game. A lot of my feelings of this are fleshed out in another thread and I don't want to revisit it here. But I just couldn't get over how bad the changes were. Unfortunately there is a Catch-22 I have almost no power over who gets to localize this or future Lunar games. And if I want to see Lunar grow I have to support them by buying a copy of their games. So I in the end I do this for Lunar.