So what was the last game that you finished and give us a review of it and tell us what score you give (up to you on score range and length of reviews)? And I'll start.
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS) Review (4/5)
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is one of those games that doesn't have a lot of revolutionary things in it, in fact it doesn't change much from the prequel. But as many know, a game still can be good even without reinventing the wheel. Lunar does that to a tee.
So there's no way of beating around the bush on the story of the game: it's cliched. It's the usual, hero from a small town, though he doesn't exactly live in a town, with hardly any battle experience raises to kill off an evil deity who has plans to take over the world.
Well, actually here's a sum up of the plot without the dumbing it down. You are Hiro (cleave name for the hero), a young man who explores dungeons to find treasures and the secrets of the past. After seeing a light coming from the Blue Spire nearby, Hiro and his grandfather go off to the Spire. At the top they find Lucia who claims she comes from the Blue Star (planet that Lunar circles) and she wields powerful magic that is said to be like the Goddess herself. Her mission, to find the Goddess Althena to destroy the evil god Zophar from destroying Lunar; however, when everything is going find with Lucia having super powerful magic, Zophar zaps it away. That's when the adventure to find the Goddess Althena to save the world begins. As we know, more bad things will go on causing the party to face Zophar.
However, I must compliment how they show the growth and development of characters, mainly that of Lucia,through the story. In most games, the characters have very little growth development and usually involves them coming to terms with either the fate of the world or them having to grow a pair to kill the evil bad guy. Granted, that does happen in this game as well, but that isn't the main growth and development for the characters.
While we are on the subject of characters, Lunar has a wide assortment of characters with each having their own little personality, faults, and their own reason for doing what they do. While the actual archetypes for several, not all, are cliche, the presentation and the few original archetypes for characters makes the characters seem real and make you cheer for them: good or bad. Plus, it help to have voice actors to bring most of the characters to life.
The first actual quality of the game to talk about is the gameplay obviously. The gameplay is the usual assortment of RPGs: go to a town, something happens, maybe kill some things, go through a forest/valley filled with monsters, kill them all, maybe a boss, go to another town, rinse and repeat. Though there are some things that Lunar does that most other games don't.
The first being that it doesn't have a random battle system. The monsters are laid about throughout the dungeons and don't respawn (unlike some other games). Along with that, their presence acts as a way to solve puzzles in certain situations: like needing them to break apart an ice block blocking your path.
Second, is that it has an original battle system. Though it still is turn based there are a few things different about them. First is that each character can have multiple attacks: up to five attacks for the hero. Second is that all characters move around the battlefield towards their opponent instead of just attacking and then going back to the start position. Third is that you have a certain set range that determines how far you can go during that turn.
Lastly, is that several of the monsters throughout the world have some type of weakness. Though this is in most games, it's usually relating to an elemental weakness: such as fire beats an ice opponent. In Lunar, it's taken higher as certain enemies are resistant to physical attacks but are weak to all types of magic and vice-versa. This gives it at times a more strategic feel to the game and means that you can't always horde your magic till the boss fight.
Another quality to talk about is the music in the game. Music is a key element to any type of production and this defiantly applies to games as it might be the only thing you hear for a long time. However, the problem always arises in every RPG when you enter a dungeon and you hear the same song loop for 30 minutes to an hour. This applies to this game as well, but few can make this repetition of music work: yes, that includes Final Fantasy. Nonetheless, the music used both is appropriate and is well arranged; even if it does get repetitive after a few loops.
The last quality of the game is to talk about the graphics. I will divide the graphics into two sections: normal sprites and the cutscenes. The reason is that both of those aren't in the same league.
The graphics you'll see throughout the course of the game are usually sprites. Now, the sprites you see would be impressive for back on the SNES or even the Genesis, but this is for Playstation and it originally came out in 1999. For the time and era, these are considered below average to average.
Now for the cutscenes. The cutscenes are told by using anime drawings and gives you the feel that you are possibly playing an anime turned game. These anime drawings are above average for the time even in anime standards.
So let's sup up several paragraphs into a paragraph. The game is fun to play, especially for fans of RPGs and has great music, cutscenes, and offers a battle system that isn't like most RPGS of the time. Also the presentation and development of the characters is well executed. However, it falls short when it comes to story, graphics, and breaking from RPG cliches.
I give Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete four Blue Stars out of five.
