A look back at: Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete

Now this is the kind of game that actually feels like a sequel! Well not so much, but it's thankfully not something that's a prequel like Lufia II or someplace completely different like Wild Arms 2. And like its predecessor, its story is the strong point.

So yes, this one qualifies as a sequel, and that's nice, although not everything is set in the same settings. Where oh where is Caldor Isle? Why are Meribia and the now grounded Vane so close to one another. What's this orphanage in between the two? Where are the characters I'm familiar with...oh. Yeah, this is a distant sequel. Unless it's a special case like with Nall or Ghaleon, everyone you know from the first game is likely dead, although they are namedropped at times. And yes, more dragons are present, the flying cat companion with Hiro counts as one, to no one's surprise if they had already known that Nall was one too back then. Ghaleon being resurrected is quite a surprise, although I often think of it as mere fanservice. Zophar is apparently quite famous for a villain that he gets an entire website named after him.

So Hiro isn't Alex, and Ruby naturally isn't Nall. That's quite obvious. Hiro certainly has the kind of "hero" drive once we meet Lucia, who is quite possibly more mysterious than Luna ever was. She's thankfully not Althena in disguise. The other characters sure manage to be interesting enough. Jean being a dancer with a horrific past as a martial artist, Lemina trying to do what she can so that some really fat guy doesn't end up marrying her mother, Leo a completely misunderstood general. Lucia's whole gameplay is quite unique, as she's completely AI controlled no matter what. At first, you watch as Lucia blows through encounters, always going first, and always uses an all-target powerful spell. Then Zophar smacks her with magic, leaving her with no attacks at all and with 1 HP. You know, it's a good thing she doesn't really gain levels, but still grows in strength as the story goes on.

I find the best thing about this game is its playable epilogue, at least if you played the PSX remake. Sure, there's less character interaction then, since you already defeated Zophar and there's just picking up friends to tie up all loose ends, but it's quite heartwarming to see the fruits of what Hiro wants come to fruition. As for the story itself, the whole thing is around Lucia vs. Zophar, and Ghaleon shows up obviously as an enemy although he had been technically helping these new heroes. The fake Althena honestly made no sense to me, and neither did Leo masquerading as Mystere (though it was a nice little attempt at comedy). Lucia in truth remains the best character here, being a lot like Valkyrie Profile's Lenneth in that she's emotionless and one-note, but becomes more humble to humans as the story goes on and of course, is friendliest with hero.

Didn't talk much about gameplay, but there's not much different than the previous game apart from Lucia's AI control. It's pretty good as far as I care.