| Creator | Game Arts | Released | 1994 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium | Video game [Sega CD] | Misc. | Read a Let's Play of the Sega CD version. |
via the lunar fanwiki:
Set one thousand years after the events of The Silver Star, the game follows the adventure of Hiro, a young explorer and adventurer who meets Lucia, visitor from the far-away Blue Star, becoming entangled in her mission to stop Zophar, an evil, all-powerful being, from destroying the world. During his journey across the world of Lunar, Hiro and Lucia are joined by an ever-expanding cast of supporting characters, including some from its predecessor.
[☆ Posted: Dec. 4, 2023.]
i have a funny history with lunar as a series. in the early 2000s, i was a young weeb, eager to pick up anything that looked remotely anime-esque. it served me well in gaming, getting me in early on favorites like xenosaga. it also led me astray once or twice, but rarely in notable ways to me because i was like twelve and would put up with poor game design with a smile if i was intrigued enough (and not hitting a brick wall on progress). it was only as an adult did i look back on games like ephemeral fantasia or lunar: dragon song, both games which lured me in with the promise of an anime-ish aesthetic, and go "oh. those are travesties of game design."
i am, admittedly, rather intrigued by aspects of ephemeral fantasia. not at all an intuitively designed game, but some rather interesting concepts. lunar: dragon song, on the other hand, is the worst introduction to lunar someone can have. godawful mechanics, abysmal storytelling, baffling retcons--it's a sad day when your favorite jrpg series is announced to get a new game and that game turns out to be a lunar: dragon song.
dragon song is a game that drains your party's health if you want to move faster than a slow walk. you have to swap between two modes to either earn experience or items from battle. the story is a redo of lunar: silver star's, only rendered even more barebones. it even has the gall to name it's luna ripoff (because the goddess of the world of lunar, althena, has incarnated herself as a mortal again because the devs aren't very creative) lucia, aka the name given to the heroine of lunar: eternal blue, and ohhh, i am so salty about this in hindsight. my sweet child self was oblivious to this slight.
because eternal blue is so good. it's really, really, really good. forgive me, dragon song fans if you even exist out there in the wide world, because it is unbelievably funny that the dragon song devs couldn't think of another name to call a mortal althena incarnation than lucia. lucia wasn't even an incarnation of althena! she was off doing her own thing on the blue star until, at the beginning of eternal blue, she sensed shit was off on lunar and teleported herself over to deal with zophar. it is bonkers to look back on dragon song now that i'm familiar with both silver star and eternal blue because it's an unfulfilling retread that carries over none of the charm of the original two games and introduces only frustrating and bad design into the series. eternal blue certainly isn't free of flaws (particularly the additions and tweaks made by working designs when producing the american localization), but it's a staggering leap forward from silver star while dragon song is a dozen or so steps back.
lunar: silver star released on the sega cd in 1992. it's opening cinematic is tremendously charming with its limited sprite-based animation and the banger of an intro song the localizers clearly put effort into. it stirs a fond nostalgia in me, though i never played silver star as a kid, and that feeling pervades silver star as a whole. the story heaves from one direction into the next, but it's hard to not like silver star at least a little.
then eternal blue drops two years later in 1994, and my mind is fucking blown in the 2020s at the jump in quality. silver star's opening primed you for a fun adventure; eternal blue's opening permits a build in atmosphere, taking advantage of the quality of its smooth animation to give a filmic quality to its direction. the voice acting is charmingly amateur in that 90s english dub way. it's such a complete package in terms of 90s jrpg charm.
eternal blue is not a story that shocks as a genre deconstruction or attempts to weave in psychological analyses or references to obscure religious cults. it's very straightforward and aligned with 90s' jrpg conventions. the main character, hiro, saves the world and falls in love with the heroine, lucia. they're joined by a few others who get their own respective subplots that tie into the greater narrative. it's neatly structured and presented with lovely pixel art, distinct but simple character designs, and wonderful music. the power of friendship saves the day, and i cried the whole time.
eternal blue bursts with sincerity that is so, so warm if you let the cheese embrace you. it just makes me so happy. i love eternal blue!
Do I like it? oh so very much, yes! it's really something special even almost thirty years later.
Do I rec it? do you like jrpgs? do you like some sincere and charming cheese? i sure do have the game for you then. the lp by camelpimp is excellent if you don't want to play it yourself. for actual playing, i'd rec using a rom that reverts some of the un-player-friendly alterations working designs made.