Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered Review

All You Need Is Love and Dragons

Lunar: Silver Star Story is one half of the Lunar Remastered Collection, and has the distinction of already being remade numerous times. With the series as a whole being dormant since the last remake, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, this collection, and Silver Star Story in particular have the lofty task of reintroducing these classics to a much wider audience than was previously possible. Thankfully, despite some early game foibles and missed remaster opportunities, the heart and soul of the game shines through, showing that this classic RPG is very much worthy of the praise it has received over the years. Lunar: Silver Star Story tells a compelling and fun tale, with plenty of classic dungeons and battles to keep things moving along the way. Beautiful anime cut-scenes and great sprite work make it visually compelling throughout. With fresh new voice acting and tweaks to match the original Japanese version, even longtime fans will find a reason to replay it.

Lunar: Silver Star Story tells the story of youthful hero Alex who lives in a quiet village and worships the  hero that saved the world years ago, Dragonmaster Dyne, wishing to follow in his footsteps. When he ventures to see the nearby white dragon with friends Luna and Ramus, he begins a journey to become the next dragonmaster and save the world from a mysterious magic emperor. If this all sounds cliche for an RPG, it very much is, though it does have its own twists and surprises. What makes Lunar different from a run-of-the-mill RPG is the quality of the execution. The story is told with extremely well-written characters whose relationships change and deepen as things progress. Characters fall in love, make mistakes, and eventually grow into better heroes than even Dragonmaster Dyne’s group. Occasional anime cut-scenes to highlight major moments and character introductions further enhance the story.

A full on animated musical sequence is unexpected and amazing.

The cast of characters really carries the whole experience. From the hard drinking barbarian Kyle to the overconfident wizard Nash, the whole cast is endlessly entertaining, and they all learn and grow as the story progresses. When it becomes clearly various members of the party love each other, it feels natural and not something shoe-horned in to the plot. Story sequences, rather than being something that slow the experience, instead feel like a reward for beating challenging bosses, and help give the story a strong tempo that continues throughout the game. Once players get through the initial few towns and dungeons, Lunar: Silver Star Story takes them on a wile ride all the way to the end.

Of special note in this version of the game is a cleaned up localization. Though it very clearly is based on the Working Designs version from the PlayStation release, many of the dated references and jokes that were a part of the original release have been cleaned up. In addition, the voice-overs are completely new with an all new cast. Though not heavy on voice work, it is always enjoyable when present. The few musical numbers present in the game appear to be the same as the original game, or at least sound similar enough to be indistinguishable. Of particular note is a full on musical sequence early on in the game that remains as compelling as it was in the original release.  

The actual gameplay loop is very traditional as far as JRPGs go. Players can explore towns and dungeons, move around a world map, and partake in engaging turn-based combat. Dungeons are straight forward with some occasional puzzles thrown in for good measure. Though enemies appear on screen and can be avoided, actually evading them proves to be quite difficult given their highly aggressive movement once spotting the player. Thankfully enemies in a screen will typically stay dead once killed, so players will eventually receive a reprieve if they keep running into enemies. Dungeons are well designed with bonus treasure to be found, and usually don’t overstay their welcome. Some late game dungeons are quite lengthy, but they feel appropriate given the gravity of the story situation and not intentionally grueling experiences. Exploration on the world map is done completely free of battles. Though this can make the act of moving from location to location feel pointless at times, it does feel nice to have that freedom, and there are a few hidden locations to be found. Fast travel is also made available midway through the game, so moving around the map is thankfully limited at the point it would begin to become repetitive. 

Lunar’s sprite work is nice, but feels dated.

The combat system offers a few surprises to spice things up to make Lunar stand out from other games. Characters can use the typical mix of attacks and MP-based skills to battle enemies, but Lunar includes a system of moving around the battlefield so that characters may need to spend a turn moving before their regular attacks can hit enemies. Area of effect skills heavily depend on location of enemies to determine how many can be hit at once, so location of enemy and ally characters in the party is a constant consideration. Lunar: Silver Star Story also seems to love to throw battles at the player with special limitations. These often include making Alex fight a boss alone or the sudden removal of party members, or even a whole dungeon with no item use. Rather than being annoying, these are a nice opportunity to switch things up and make players think quickly about how to approach unexpected challenges.

Graphically, Lunar Silver Star largely maintains the look and feel of the original PlayStation version. Those expecting a graphical update on the likes of Final Fantasy’s Pixel Remasters or Square Enix’s HD-2D games will be left wanting. There’s nothing wrong with the sprite work in Silver Star, on the contrary, the world is colorful, the different characters look great, and there’s even a good amount of monster variety. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the look of the game, but outside of the anime cut-scenes it feels like a long lost 16-bit game instead of a shining star of the 32-bit era. With an existing graphically updated remake out there with Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PlayStation Portable it feels a bit odd that more wasn’t done here. What’s present in the game certainly gets the jobs done, and the anime cut-scenes are still wonderful to look at. The music and sounds similarly don’t appear to be have been upgraded to a great deal. However, in this case, the audio was already quite good coming from a CD-based system. The music outside of the occasional bland track remains as enchanting and entertaining as it was on the PlayStation. Overall, while it may not be the best it can be, Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered looks and sounds quite good.

Once it gets going, Lunar’s story is entertaining to the very end.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered is a bit of a missed opportunity as far as giving players the best possible version of the oft-remade title. However, it present a wonderfully retouched edition of the classic PlayStation version that first brought many players to this venerable series. A compelling narrative with fun characters, great pacing, and beautiful anime cut-scenes will keep players going through its modest run time. A battle system that does just enough to differentiate itself keeps the action going. While a slow beginning and graphics that leave a bit to be desired may prevent it from being the best possible version of Lunar, it remains a good-looking game with wonderful music. It may be cliche to say, but Lunar: Silver Star Story is more the sum of its parts. No individual element truly stands out on its own, but the experience as whole is one that no RPG fan should miss.

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Engaging story with memorable characters

Wonderful anime cut-scenes

Numerous playability updates from the original

Slow to start

Encounter rate a bit too high

Graphics still feel dated