This weekend I didn’t quite get a lot of time to play some games, but I wanted to save one of the best for last. The game I chose was Lunar: The Silver Star. I think many people passed or do not know about this game from the original release because it was only available on the Sega CD. Lunar is an RPG game very similar in play like the Final Fantasy series. I was one of those lucky enough to have saved up for a Sega CD and borrowed a copy of the game from a friend back in the day. Those that have played RPGs know that you can not just sit down and beat the game in a few hours. These games take some serious time. As such my plan is to go through the game every time I get a spare moment. I’ll post once I finish. After the Sega CD release the game has been reissued on other consoles. It was ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan, ported again to Playstation in japan and U.S. and the most recent is a port to the Gameboy Advance.
This game was probably one of the first RPGs to be released on the CD format. The Sega CD version has anime style cut scenes with voice dialog, but in game you still have to read text like other RPGs at the time. It also has an amazing CD quality soundtrack which was also another advantage of being released on CD over cartridge.
Here is an excerpt from the wikipedia page about the rave reviews this game received.
The English version released the following year met with a similar response, with Skid of GameFan magazine calling it “far and away the best RPG I have ever played in English”, praising the game’s graphics, sound, and story as “well conceived and executed”.[29] The magazine’s editors would later name it as the greatest role-playing game of 1993.[2] GamePro similarly reviewed it as “not just the best Sega CD RPG ever, but one of the best on any Sega system”, giving particular merit to the game’s translation.[31] Game Players described it as a “solid RPG, and well worth your time” but found fault in the game’s small character graphics that “look like every other RPG” and the virtually non-existent replay value.[32] Electronic Gaming Monthly granted the game an average 7.6 or “worthy” rating, commending the game’s background music but dismissing its battle sequences as “dull”.[28] In 2006, Lunar ranked 113th in EGM and 1UP.com’s “The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time”, celebrating the two-hundred games that were considered the best during their original release.[35]
Here are a couple screenshots from the game.
