“Lunar Remastered Collection” Brings a Beloved ’90s JRPG to Modern Platforms

GungoHo

The highly anticipated Lunar Remastered Collection arrived on April 18, and it has so far enjoyed a positive reception from fans new and old. Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, this product is an enhancement of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, which were themselves PS1 and Windows iterations of a beloved JRPG duology originally released on Sega CD in 1992 and 1994.

Taking place on a world that’s possibly the Earth’s moon after being terraformed by the Goddess Althena, Lunar tells the story of Alex, a boy who dreams of becoming a hero like Dragonmaster Dyne, his childhood friends Luna and Ramus, and others who join them on their journey to find the four dragons and defeat the evil Magic Emperor. Lunar 2 takes place a thousand years later and is about how the adventurer Hiro came to meet Lucia, a being from the Blue Star—possibly Earth itself, but never confirmed. What has made these games so enduring is that their stories are straightforward, innocent fantasy adventures, and that innocence is a refreshing contrast to the often complex and sinister storylines of many other JRPGs.

They had previously made appearances on PlayStation Portable and iOS, among other platforms, but I was always fond of the quirky localization by the now-defunct Working Designs (who handled the Sega Saturn version and its ports), and these versions never resonated with me. There are legal reasons why that humorous take could not be remastered with one-to-one accuracy, but so far, I’ve found that much of what made me fall in love with Lunar when I first experienced it on PS1 has been recreated in the remastered editions, which I’ve been playing on Steam since release. Well-remembered lines have been adjusted, and a new cast provides the characters’ voiceovers, but for me, the half-remembered dream that is Lunar has been faithfully restored. I never got to play much of the sequel, because when Eternal Blue Complete came out in 2000, it cost $60, which at the time I thought was an absurd price for a video game—so I passed it up and was soon unable to purchase it at all. I’d been eternally blue over that mistake until I heard about this collection.

The gameplay is standard JRPG fare, with an optional auto-battle feature that can make the task of farming experience through encounters less taxing. The AI for this feature performs well, making reasonable decisions over the course of battle, but you can decide to step in and take direct command at the beginning of any turn if you so choose. (I strongly recommend not using the auto-battle feature during boss battles.) Graphically, the games use enhanced visuals that reflect my memory of the classics in widescreen HD, but one issue I’m noticing on the Steam version is that when moving around the top-down map, space near the borders of the screen is often blurred. This may be an intentional way of putting visual focus of your party near the center of the screen, but it can be bothersome, specifically when trying to focus on something closer to the screen’s edge. Apart from this minor quibble and the changes that, as I said, legally had to be made, the remaster is everything I’d hoped it would be.

If you enjoy JRPGs and the idea of a story that might not be as dark as you’re used to sounds appealing, the Lunar Remastered Collection is a solid choice. You can get it for PS4/5, Xbox One, Switch, or Steam, and although physical copies are presently limited due to high demand and scalping, distributor GungHo is aware of the issue and promises to release a second wave as soon as possible.