Meridian Arc (Day 319)

Lunar 2 has been finished! This one only took me 9 days, but I feel I definitely could have finished it in a much shorter period of time if I'd really buckled down. Alpha Gaiden took a month and a half by comparison, but I feel that was actually completely warranted not only due to the sheer number of missions but because it was reasonably challenging as well. The final two missions alone took me several days to get through. But anyway, I'm sick of talking about that game. Let's wrap up on Lunar 2.

That must be so rough for you

Lunar 2 follows in the tradition of RPGs like Breath of Fire and Grandia in that it features simple but likable characters, traditional turn-based combat, and a light, adventurous tone. I could see how someone might consider these traits trite and uninteresting, but I really enjoy it when it's done well. In the case of Lunar 2, it's done quite well. I would consider it a worthy successor to the original game, although I must admit I probably liked it a little more. It's been many years since I last played it, but I have fond memories.

It is a game not without its share of flaws, of course. The artwork is good, although inconsistent. The quality of the animated sequences leaves much to be desired, although I think technological limitations play a large role there--and I'm sure the original Lunar had the same issue. Still, it's painful to be assaulted by glaring compression artifacts when playing on a large 46" HDTV. This is really part of the curse of playing much older games on newer televisions, especially when it comes to early polygonal graphics. Lunar 2 is almost entirely 2D and it looks pretty good for the most part, but the video sequences were definitely not optimized well. Despite their poor quality, the game sprawls over three discs despite taking less than 30 hours to finish.

Determined Lucia

I just can't deny the charm of Lunar 2 though. It is bright and cheerful and tells a very well-trod story, but it does so in an engaging way. Each character has their own story and personality and is meaningful to the plot in some way. I can't make the case that Lunar 2 is a game of stunning depth, but it definitely works for me. The very fact that I can remember details about each character and that they stick in my mind is testament enough to that.

Ronfar is a former priest turned gambler, whose lover Mauri was corrupted by Zophar thanks in no small part to a potion administered by Ronfar himself in an effort to cure a mortal illness. Jean is a dancer who was abducted as a child by a cult who taught her a deadly martial art that she vowed never to use once she grew up. Inevitably, she learns to hone her art into something more pure and use it to conquer evil. Lemina is a mage from the legendary city of Vane who has little else on her mind but the acquisition of money--for herself and for her city.

Jean in her dancin' clothes

If the characters in Lunar 2 are examined, it's pretty clear that the story's protagonist is its least interesting character. Hiro's primary trait is a desire for adventure and the only real plot point relevant to him is his interest in the enigmatic Lucia of the Blue Star, whose entire purpose in the story is to harness the power of Althena and destroy Zophar. She is interesting because she is unfamiliar with normal human customs and there are some funny segments of dialogue because of that. Hiro himself is unfortunately rather boring!

 Zophar himself ended up being pretty challenging, but he only took me a few tries. I can certainly thing of more difficult final bosses. In fact, the boss of the original Lunar was probably harder than this. I recall it taking me no fewer than six tries. Other bosses have been very difficult but also extremely time consuming. In this case, it was over relatively quickly, but I did have to rely on luck in a few instances to get through it.

His final form was a pushover, though

Overall, Lunar 2 is a great classic RPG, one of few that I'd never played all the way through before. I can't help but make comparisons to Grandia, which is very similar in theme, although it is much, much longer. Once I've polished off my backlog, I might consider looking into some other PS1-era RPGs that I haven't played. Wild Arms springs immediately to mind because it's a series I haven't tried at all. There's also Dragon Quest VII, but it's intimidating length scares me a bit and I'd also like to go back and finish the older titles in that series. If I follow through with my plans, though, it'll be a long time before I can start looking around. I do so have problems with sticking to my plans, however. 

Burial (Day 318)

Welp, the final boss of Lunar 2 is a huge pain in the ass, as I expected. I got to the final encounter last night and had some ambition that I'd just power through and finish it before I had to go bed. After failing in this task twice in a row, I decided to call it quits and get some rest. This was wise of me considering that I had to work today. I'm home now though, and after I finish watching the LCS, I'll get back to work on taking the final boss down. I probably won't do any postgame content unless I really feel like I'm in the mood for it. I think I'd much rather start up Vandal Hearts. It's a short enough game that I could conceivably finish it this weekend.

I really enjoy difficult boss battles in RPGs, but sometimes there are mechanics that are needlessly frustrating and random. The final boss of Lunar 2 has a nasty habit of draining MP from random targets and I only have so many MP recovery items. I think I have 5 Silver Lights to play with and those only work on a single target. This boss has three different forms and a ton of HP. Lemina is pretty much relegated to casting White Dragon Protect every turn for 50 MP or my entire party will probably die. (It allows each party member to absorb a single spell.) When the boss starts draining mana a lot, it makes it close to impossible to keep up the fight. Let's not forget that he often heals himself as well.

Even more annoying is the final boss's unfortunate tendency to occasionally one shot one of my party members. I've invested heavily in defense on one of my party members but even she goes down when hit by one of his attacks. It deals over 2000 damage even to her and the maximum possible HP is 999. The only possible way to avoid being taken out by this spell is to make sure White Dragon Protect is up, but since Lemina is so slow, she'll frequently not cast it in time for it to matter. Giving it to Jean is an option (she's the fastest party member by far) but her mana pool is much smaller than Lemina's. She could only cast the spell three or four times before she would be completely out of mana, meaning I'd have to concentrate all of my Silver Lights on her. She would also miss out on casting her powerful offensive spells, meaning I'd most likely take a lot longer to kill the boss.

I dunno though; I'll figure something out. I think in some ways I'll just have to get lucky with RNG and not get one shotted that often. It'll definitely get done tonight, that's for sure.

I Was on the Back of a Nightingale (Day 315)

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is, like its immediate predecessor, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, a remake of a Sega CD game which I have not played. According to what I've read, the improvements on the game are numerous. Full Motion Video scenes have been extended and graphical quality has improved. The graphics in this remake look dated by today's standards, of course, but I still find them quite pleasing--and considering the number of old RPGs I play, I'm more than accustomed to 2D graphics.

Right away, Lunar 2 forces you to engage in an epic battle with insects

 For the most part, the mechanics in Lunar 2 adhere closely to standard old school Japanese RPG tradition. Like only a few others, the first two Lunar games allow you to field a party of five characters, a trend that I wish was more common in RPGs of the time. I always really enjoyed having five characters in my party in Final Fantasy IV and I always wondered why Squaresoft didn't continue the trend. In the case of Lunar 2, having five party members is interesting because of the way formation works. The player's side of the field is essentially an invisible grid--much like some of the earlier Tales games. In this case, combat is still very turn-based, but your characters' positions in relation to your enemies affects how vulnerable you are to enemy attack and how far you have to travel if you must attack in melee.

Some characters have poor range, meaning they may not be able to move and attack in the same turn. Ronfar, the disgraced former priest turned gambler, is particularly short range, meaning that it can be a good idea to place him closer to the front row. However, he also serves as the party's primary healer, so it's important to keep him safe for boss battles. Following in the tradition of more Western RPGs, Ronfar assumes the role of a sort of battle cleric, wielding maces for decent physical damage. It is up to the player whether Ronfar is used more physically or defensively.

Jean is one of my favorites

Each character has access to a variety of unique spells and/or attacks. The protagonist, Hiro, learns sword skills and wind-elemental magic, whereas Jean learns dances that inflict status ailments. The success rate of these ailments depend entirely upon the enemy in question. The developers were kind enough to include an indicator that lets you know just how likely a certain ailment is to land. Some enemies might be susceptible to Sleep whereas others could more easily be poisoned. Jean is a dancer who was kidnapped as a child and taught a deadly martial art--which she of course later swore not to use to hurt others. It's a pretty common mishmash of tropes, but I feel it's done fairly well in this game.

Brains? Brains, right?

There's nothing particularly original about the characters in Lunar 2, but I feel they're reasonably well-written

and likable. The dialogue is often pretty entertaining to read, too, which is saying something. In most JRPGs like this, reading dialogue is a very tedious process. The Tales series is pretty bad about this; I often have to resist the urge to skip the dialogue completely and get on to the entertaining combat system. In Lunar 2, I may not always be enraptured by conversations the characters are having, but I seldom feel the urge to skip.

Lunar 2 is also a reasonably challenging game. I'm only about halfway through (as far as I can tell), and I've already had to reset on a couple of different bosses. If I search my memories, I can just barely recall that Silver Star Story Complete was similarly challenging, particularly in the case of the final boss. I'm not sure if it's true here, but in that game, bosses scaled with the level of your party, making it impossible to power level to defeat them. I really enjoy this mechanic because it requires you to think about strategy when it comes to bosses, regardless of how much time you spend cheesing out levels.

Ruby can see your true intentions

Overall, Lunar 2 is a really cool game and a great way to kick off a marathon of uncompleted games, if that is indeed what I'm doing here. I still haven't decided if that's really what I'm going to do. It's going to depend highly on how I feel after I complete this one. If I jump right into another game and feel like I'm making progress, I think we'll have a genuine marathon on our hands. We'll just have to see how it goes.