Lunar Legend
A handheld retelling of a classic RPG adventure.
Lunar Legend is a Game Boy Advance role-playing game from 2002. Japan Art Media developed it, and Ubi Soft handled international publishing and translation. It retells Lunar: The Silver Star with altered story and content, and includes every character from the original.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Japan Art Media
- Publisher
- Media Rings (JP); Ubi Soft (NA)
- Composer
- Noriyuki Iwadare
- Series
- Lunar
- Platforms
- Game Boy Advance
- Released
- April 12, 2002 (JP); December 10, 2002 (NA)
- Genre
- Role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Lunar Legend plays like a traditional role-playing game with 2D character sprites and environments. Unlike Lunar: The Silver Star, battles do not involve characters moving across the battlefield; instead, they retreat to their original positions after attacking. Random encounters occur every few steps within dungeons or in scripted circumstances. Characters level up by gaining experience, learning new abilities and becoming stronger. A new feature is the Arts gauge beneath each character's HP and MP, which fills as the character attacks enemies. When full, the character can unleash a powerful special attack that deals extra damage or provides effects like temporary invincibility. Ramus, Ghaleon, and Laike cannot use these attacks. Some special attacks can be changed by equipping items; for instance, equipping the Light Emblem on Nash or Mia changes their attacks to Charge, storing magic power for increased damage on the next spell. The player travels via a world map, selecting towns, cities, and dungeons directly; there are no random battles on the world map.
Story
Thousands of years ago, the goddess Althena transformed the barren Silver Star into the habitable world of Lunar, creating three races: Beastmen, Humans, and the Vile Tribe. The Vile Tribe was forced into the Frontier, while Humans and Beastmen eventually made peace. Althena created four dragons and a Dragonmaster who wielded their combined power; anyone seeking the mantle must pass the dragons' four trials. One Dragonmaster, Dyne, with heroes Ghaleon, Mel, and Lemia, pacified the insane black dragon. As Althena lost control of her power, Dyne transformed her into a mortal baby, angering Ghaleon, who severed ties and retired. Dyne disappeared. Years later, Alex of Burg, inspired by tales of Dyne, longs to become a Dragonmaster. With his friend Nall, a winged cat-like creature, and his love interest Luna, Alex leaves to pass the dragons' trials and becomes entangled in a struggle for the world's existence.
Development and release
Lunar Legend is a remake of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Media Rings Corporation after acquiring rights for a handheld adaptation from Game Arts. Announced in a November 2001 issue of Japanese Weekly Famitsu as a powered-up version of the Sega-CD and 32-bit versions, it included changes for on-the-go play and new story material for veteran fans. Due to the 8-megabyte cart size, voice acting and video sequences were omitted; Media Rings used real-time cutscenes with larger character sprites and still images from Silver Star Story Complete's animated videos. Game Arts provided music, art, and script. Lunar series producer Yoichi Miyaji consulted, and other Game Arts staff assisted project director Hisashi Sugawara. Originally scheduled for March 2002, it was pushed to April for last-minute changes. The North American version was the first English Lunar title not produced by Working Designs; company president Victor Ireland passed on the project. Ubisoft acquired publishing rights at the 2002 IEMA Executive Summit, with a November 2002 release date. Ubisoft's script stayed closer to the Japanese version but retained Working Designs' character names and light-hearted tone. Ubisoft approached LunarNET webmaster Mickey Shannon to create and host the official English website.
Reception
Lunar Legend earned a 30 out of 40 from four Famitsu reviewers, a solid score. In North America, Electronic Gaming Monthly praised its redrawn animated sprites, calling it one of the prettiest and most engaging RPGs on the GBA. GameSpot agreed it was fun and engaging but criticized its low difficulty and poor audio quality, with forgettable music and generic battle sounds. The game was a runner-up for GameSpot's Best Role-Playing Game on Game Boy Advance award, losing to Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis. Critics compared it to the PlayStation original. GamePro found it inferior, recommending it only to newcomers, while Game Informer called it a solid port with good enhancements but noted the missing voice-overs and animated cutscenes hurt the story.
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