Will I ever play Lunar: Dragon Song?

If you've noticed, my blog activity has dwindled quite a bit. I haven't actually started my next RPG, and I have been working on a number of other things in the meantime. Most of it real life stuff, which always gets in the way of more creative ventures. Anyways, today I will talk about Lunar: Dragon Song, and whether or not I will play it.

If it isn't obvious, this is a game I haven't even played yet, yet it stands as one of the absolute worst RPGs according to just about everyone who's played it, not to mention a boil on the face of a once-proud RPG franchise that has practically died after it. So what went wrong.

First off, the one thing I have a pet peeve for, sequels that are actually prequels. Now, Lunar: Walking School was one of these, in which the protagonists are from Burg, well before Alex ever started his adventure. Dragon Song is one thousand years before Silver Star. Good lord.

The main protagonist, from what I read, is just a normal adventurer and some sort of errand boy who ends up being a cliche hero eventually. This would slide if the adventure wasn't released in 2005.

The female lead just so happens to be an Althena incarnate. Shocker, right? She, like Luna, is already friends with the male lead. Oh, the kicker is her name is Lucia. The series already had a strong female named Lucia in Lunar 2, one with striking blue hair and a personality that goes from stern to rather collected, one that of course you grew to enjoy but not think was outright horrible. This Lucia isn't like that, apparently.

From what I read, the character archetypes for Dragon Song's playable characters are a lot like Grandia's playable characters in a way. Jian is obviously like Justin, given his lust for adventure. Lucia a lot like Feena for obvious reasons. Rufus, being a rival, is a lot like Gadwin. Flora and Gabi are a lot like Rapp and Milda, respectively for their archetypes.

So let's see, gameplay-wise...

So it's one of those games that pulls the Nintendo Hard aspect, in which the game gets super hard super quickly. Nice. And then there's the fact that enemies actually level with the player, sort of like Final Fantasy 8 did, but other things will prove to mean this game was a lot worse at handling things. One being that rewards are divided, not in a good way of course. What do I mean? Well, you can beat enemies for experience or items, but not both. I'm usually not a fan of item drops from enemies in the first place, as I get useless stuff in my inventory when I'm not grinding for them and when I am grinding for them, it takes me hours to get what I want. Another kicker? The money you get ingame isn't traditional, so items are really what you need to even gain money in the first place. This basically amounts to grinding for experience OR money. This puts early Nintendo Hard RPG grinding like Dragon Warrior to shame.

You'll notice that these pertain to battles. Apparently so. There's also the mechanic that used to be in games like Lufia 1, where you actually cannot target specific enemies. It was 2005 for crying out loud, the ability to target who you need to should be prevalent in every RPG at that point. This just makes things more tedious. I bet people savescummed when fighting battles, because there was also the probability of enemies stealing or breaking equipment. And given the earlier frustrations, this certainly made this unenjoyable.

One of the kickers here in this game, running apparently saps HP. Who thought that was a fantastic idea? You can run out of original ideas, but making a sacrifice between very slow walking and running that takes HP away is one of those original ideas that shouldn't be an original idea, because it SUCKS. Lunar 2's Playstation remake had slow walking speed too, but it also had a run button that can be used in dungeons for about two seconds, and then you have to wait to run again. Bring that back. It's not original, but it's better than losing HP.

So will I play this game in the future? It depends. I admit I want to see this trainwreck for myself with my very own eyes. But these gameplay aspects make me think otherwise. I guess it's too soon to tell at this point.

A look back at: Lunar: Walking School

This will likely be short. An apparent side-story for the Lunar series, which was short-lived and which the last actual game was a true detriment to the franchise. This side-story happens to be some kind of prequel, but not necessarily in the real vein of the series as a whole. For the Game Gear, this delightfully short game doesn't offer much incentive, but at least had some things that made it worth churning through.

For one, yes, even the characters are well done. Most of it is just Ellie and Lena going around their new school, with a whole bunch of other people with portraits that have marginal importance for the most part. Oh yes, and this school is a magic school, not unlike Vane from the previous games in that it becomes a floating island. But the villains are pretty one-note mostly being Vile Tribe members and all. One thing to note is that the characters need to talk to professors in the chapter to actually get some spells, which can easily be forgotten. Other characters end up being semi-important, Winn appears as a brainwashed dude at first but ends up in the party at the end. The short parts with Senia are alright. I'm certainly not a fan of seeing Elenora getting kidnapped all the time.

The chapters in this game all do all sorts of things, from going to an art expo to confronting enemies, and one thing I've noticed is that people in the dorms here all seem to say different things, pertaining to whatever chapter occurs. Sometimes the little tidbits are the good things in the games. Otherwise, yeah, it's really just a short game without too much to go for it.

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.

A look back at: Lunar Silver Star Story Complete

Heh, looking back at this one, I used to say this was the greatest RPG at the time, when it was my only Playstation RPG I've played then and I didn't play nearly enough to justify it as great. Well, it isn't a bad RPG at least. The keyword for this RPG is "Story" which is in the title and obviously the strongest part of this. Combine that with characters, an integral part of any story, and yes, this is one of the RPGs with a truly strong storyline. Not nearly enough to put it on a best list, but hey, it's got a strong storyline.

What are the odds that Alex here has two living parents? Who is Luna? Anyone expect Ghaleon to be evil? Man, there sure is a lot to this RPG storyline-wise. Looking at it in gameplay, it sort of crosses the strategy genre given character placement on the battlefield, but it's standard overall. Sometimes, you get tired of the voice acting for special attacks, especially Nash. You also may realize that boss's scale with Alex's current level, so grinding may not be all that viable. Except, well, it always helps in a case like this, so yeah. Also you can tell when enemies actually use which attacks by different animations, so that's a fun thing to note. Maybe it makes the game easier by that, but then again, an easy RPG isn't necessarily a bad one.

One thing that makes this a really good RPG is that Alex had repeatedly said he was going to be a Dragonmaster, and eventually does in fact become one, although it does cost the lives of just about every dragon there is, Alex manages to stay a powerful character, even getting to use the magic that they offer to him. His companions always look out for him on his goal, although it is easy to see that whatever goals they had in mind beforehand have been pretty much abandoned, which is kind of problematic, but not atypical for companions in RPGs in general. The opposing female villain trio are somewhat one-note though, two of which are practically in love with Ghaleon, who probably doesn't care that much for either of them. Another predictably rebels against her sisters for reasons pertaining to her tribe rather than some love ball that the others go for. What else? Oh, the whole "before final boss" speech, or the one involving characters in some sort of limbo. At a glance, they seem corny, but are well done enough to make sense just to show just how wrong Ghaleon is in what he does

Would I recommend this? Well, it's not entirely the greatest thing ever as I thought at the time, but far from the worst. I probably will say that many times, but unless a game has nothing I like, then there's at least some factor in it that I truly enjoy. At the worst, Silver Star Story Complete is nothing but average, but at the best, it's certainly up there as a good one. Plays nicely, well done story, good enough for me even though there are better fish to catch.