Lunar: The Silver Star (Game)

Lunar: The Silver Star

GAME » on June 26, 1992

The first game in the Lunar series, and the second highest selling Sega CD game of all time, Lunar tells a story of love, betrayal, and redemption.

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Overview

Lunar is a role-playing game developed by Game Artsand Studio Alexfor the Sega CD (Platform). The game centers around the main protagonist, Alex, a young boy from a small town who dreams to one day become a hero like his idol, Dragonmaster Dyne. The game begins with Alexand his friends going on a child hood adventure and stumbling upon an ancient dragon. They then begin a journey across the world to gather the necessary power to become the next Dragonmaster, and save the world. Game Arts set out to create a story that would break away from the, "hum-drum 'model" games that "had stories, but had no story-telling" when they created Lunar. They chose the Sega CDas their platform for its video playback capabilities and hired on animator and artist Toshiyuki Kubookato oversee the planning of the video sequences and voice overs. Novelist Kei Shigema was then hired on to pen the script and plot to the game. The team decided to focus on on a fantasy world heavy in mythos and history that would gradually reveal itself to players over time. Studio Alexhandled most of the developing of the title.

American Development

The American development and translation was handled by Working Designs (Company). They completed the text translation in an 8 week marathon programming session. During the translation they added in their own humor, mostly in the form of pop culture references from the early 90s such as allusions to American commercials, celebrities, colloquialisms, products, and role-playing game cliches. Working Designspresident Victor Irelandtook the project very seriously. He often collaborated with the original Japanese development team. He also added in a couple of new sequences he felt enhanced the game and story, including the scene where we see Alexplay the harp to awaken Luna. Ireland's biggest contribution which many fans would thank him for is Lunar's packaging. He made sure extra effort was put into the game's packaging, giving the instruction booklet embossed lettering, and having seven separate disc stamps, each with different artwork, produced for the front of the game discs -- all in the effort to increase collection value. Below are stamps 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 (missing are 3 and 5). Stamp 1 is the most common and they get more rare as they go with stamp 7 being the most difficult to obtain. Disc One and Two look nearly identical. Disc 1 was manufactured by SEGAand they were not familiar with the "groove fill" process. For this reason Working Designsmade Disc Two the same art, but filled it all the way. Working Designsalso manufactured, under their direct control, discs 2-7 for quality assurance reasons.

Reception

The game was released in Japan on June 26, 1992 to critical acclaim, and became the number 1 selling game on the Sega CDof all time in Japan selling an estimated 100,000 copies, or nearly as many Sega CDconsoles sold in Japan. The game launched on December 1, 1993 in America, also to much acclaim. It would go on to be the second best selling game world wide for the Sega CD (Platform), behind only Sonic the Hedgehog CD.

Remakes

The game was been re-made on three separate occasions.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete was released on the Sega Saturn in Japan on October 15, 1996 and included redrawn graphics, a polished script, and new music by Noriyuki Iwadare (Person). This version was then expanded upon in July 1997 with the addition of an MPEG expansion card for the Saturn (Platform). The updated MPEG version was then ported to the PlayStation (Platform) in 1998, and Working Designs then handled another English translation and brought the PlayStation (Platform) version stateside in May 1999. A Windows PC version was also released in 1999, exclusively in Korea and Japan -- the North American version was canceled for technical difficulties.
Lunar Legend (Game) is a retelling of the events of Lunar Silver Star on the . Developed by and published in America by , Lunar Legend deviates more than any of the other re-makes. The dialogue and situations that characters face are noticeably different. The FMV sequences were replace with still screens to tell the story. The game was released in March 2002 in Japan and the following year in America. The American release did not feature any of the pop culture and quirky humor that was known for, as they were not involved with this version.
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony was released on March 2nd 2010 in North America for the Playstation Portable both digitally on PSN and on UMD via retailers. This remake includes a new isometric view, new hand-drawn style graphics for the characters and backgrounds, complete voice over throughout for the lead character (Alex), new cut-scenes to help clear up gaps in the story, and a remixed soundtrack.

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