Lunar Remastered Collection
Developer: Game Arts, GungHo Online Entertainment
Publisher: GungHo Online Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Price: TBA – Available Here
Overview
If someone had said that the Lunar series would be getting a remastered release, many JRPG fans, even those that remember and played even one of them back when they originally released, likely wouldn’t believe it. Originally released on the Sega CD of all things, Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue were impressive RPGs at the time doomed to a struggling platform. It was only until they arrived on the PlayStation 1 as “Complete” versions and made a splash thanks to their animated cutscenes that had accompanying voice work and impressive production at the time, that many remember these classics. Then, outside of a DS prequel many years later and a handful of remakes of the first game, the series vanished. That is until now with the Lunar Remastered Collection bringing the “Complete” version of both titles with various improvements to modern day audiences. With more than a handful of improvements but some lingering elements that even I remember from their PlayStation release, is this a successful remaster of a pair of classic JRPGs?
Story
Lunar: The Silver Star follows the journey of Alex, a young adventurer who has always had a flying cat-like companion at his side by the name of Nall, who dreams of being just like the legendary Dragonmaster Dyne. When a chance to follow in Dyne’s footsteps arrives, Alex sets forth from the village of Burg with his childhood friends Luna, whose singing has the mysterious power to heal, and Ramus. Along the way they gather an eclectic group of allies ranging from ranging from a perverted bandit to one of the best cleric archetypes a player could ask for in the form of Jessica, uncover mysteries that were once thought lost and even reveal a plot to destroy the world that only they can put a stop to.
Onto Lunar: Eternal Blue, the story picks up a thousand years after the events from the original game and follows the story of Hiro, a risk-taking adventurer who also is always accompanied by a possessive and jealous flying cat capable of breathing fire named Ruby who finds himself rescuing Lucia, a blue-haired woman claiming to be from the Blue Star itself with a mission to stop the evil force Zophar wit the help of the goddess Althena. With a missguided army hunting Lucia as a “destroyer” and her supernatural powers drained by a powerful curse, it’ll be up to Hiro to help Lucia uncover the possible truth and save the world once more. They too are joined by a fallen cleric turned drunken gambler, a deadly dancer, and others.
Now one element that the Lunar franchise has always embraced is simplicity in its storytelling but this was hardly a bad thing back in the day nor is it necessarily bad now. There are still a handful of twists and evil turns throughout both games’ stories, moreso in Eternal Blue as it is the slightly more complex and varied story between the two games, but these games were written back before many of these “tropes” were even seen as a thing and being able to experience them again, or perhaps for a first time for those who never had the ability to enjoy the originals, is something of a breath of fresh air. It is also with noting that alongside the main storyline the romantic aspect laced throughout the Lunar games is one of their signature elements and this once again is held true in both, though similarly it can be said that Eternal Blue’s character developments, especially with Lucia coming to grips with what it means to be human, is incredibly endearing. Combine that with a wonderful collection of characters that make up the players’ ragtag party in both games and this is the type of stuff that defines a classic JRPG, even if they may seem a bit simple overall.
GungHo has worked with the Lunar series before, having handled the PSP port of Lunar: The Silver Star in 2009, so someone on the team must have known just how important, for better or worse, a certain companies’ original localization was to crafting these games’ identities in the West. Working Designs was the original localizer for both Lunar titles back in the ’90s and were notorious for working in their own jokes, pop culture references, and even completely off-the-wall remarks into games. Ironically, this was something that gave the Lunar games their identity in the West and GungHo has used these scripts as a basis, mostly going through both titles with only a few changes here and there. Obviously dated pop culture jokes or references to Presidents have been taken out and probably reverted back to their original meaning but thankfully other elements remain the same. This works wonders for fans of the longtime games and does help preserve the identity of the titles and the colorful character interactions, though newcomers won’t notice these changes.
Gameplay
With Lunar Remastered Collection both games are fairly traditional JRPGs when it comes to gameplay, though since both versions are based off of the “Complete” versions released on the PlayStation and not the Sega CD players don’t have to worry about random encounters. Instead, players will roam around the 2D pixel world, towns, and dungeons with enemies only appearing in dungeons. These enemies can be seen and players can either attempt to avoid them if they wish or simply run right into them to trigger a fight. Combat is a turn-based affair with players selecting all of their parties actions beforehand, be it a basic attack, skill/magic, using an item, or defending and then having the moves play out depending on speed stats.
There are a few interesting elements to both games’ combat that make it a bit unique for an RPG developed at the time. Both games feature combat where characters will move towards each other to attack with a physical blow, meaning a character or enemy might waste a turn entirely if they have to move too far out of reach targeting a foe. This also means that various skills that have “Aoe” effects like hitting enemies in a line or circle can mean targeting proper foes to hit as many as possible. Another aspect is the fact that every boss and even many smaller foes have different battle stance animations that vary depending on what they are about to do. An enemy standing normally will likely just dish out a normal attack but if it changes into a new pose, it is likely about to unleash a powerful skill, giving players a chance to respond by either defending or debuffing the enemy.
One of the added features in the Lunar Remastered Collection is the ability to have the characters automatically fight and, depending on the game, there will be certain parameters players can set, such as only attack, only use certain skills, etc. This can speed up normal fights but perhaps the best way to speed things up is quite literally. As is common now with remasters, Lunar Remastered Collection also allows players to double or triple the battle speed, making all of the action play out much faster and makes grinding through simple fights a breeze. It is worth noting that if a character says something while using a spell or an ability, this won’t be sped up, meaning some skills will still take a bit of time to unleash.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes, and one that wasn’t made in my last review of a pair of remastered games, is the reworked inventory system. Characters no longer have a limited inventory space nor do they need to be holding the item to use it in combat, instead players will have the ability to use any item and hold as much as they want as well, making equipping gear and using items a far easier time compared to the original release. Speaking of which, a number of changes that Working Designs made to the original game’s treasure chest contents, skill values, and other elements that surprisingly made the game harder have been reverted to their original state, making many harder elements easier as well, though it is worth noting that outside of some specific boss fights and secrets in Lunar: Eternal Blue, most of these titles aren’t very difficult.
It is interesting to note that players can, if they so choose, either play the remastered versions of these games or the classic version at the start menu, though it appears the only notable differences are the graphical improvements made and the other quality of life features. Those who want to experience the original version as much as possible can do so simply by going back to the main menu since the save file, of which players can save at any time, is compatible for both the original and remastered versions for each game.
Audio & Visuals
The visual upgrade for Lunar Remastered Collection is a lighter touch than some might expect but it works well in this regard as both games have seen some notable cleaning up of their sprites and artwork, especially in the case of the anime cutscenes that play from time to time as these look as crisp as possible. Enemy sprites and backgrounds have been handled well all while making sure to keep the game nice and colorful looking without making anything too blurry. It also is worth noting that the Remastered version of the game allows players to play in wide-screen compared to the Classic mode, and as mentioned before there really isn’t a need to select this mode other than having it as an option.
One thing that has been completely reworked is the English voice acting as none of the original voice work has been retained. This is unfortunately something of a mixed bag as some of the new English voice actors aren’t the best fit for some of the characters and sound quite stilted during the limited voice time they do have. Thankfully, most of the important characters including Luna handle their roles well enough, including Luna’s singing. Those who want to avoid this English dub issue can choose to have the Japanese voice work instead. The soundtrack remains the same as it was in the original release, only slightly cleaned up sounding which is excellent as the background music and songs from the original versions still sound great today.
Overall
The Lunar Remastered Collection may not be quite as expansive of a remaster as one would hope for games originating from the early ’90s but by respecting the original translation work that longtime fans are nostalgic for all while making sure to add just enough quality of life improvements and speed things up does wonders for these classics. Silver Star Story and Eternal Blue embody the fun and colorful fantasy JRPGs from the 90s and there is a reason that even now they are remembered fondly and that is thanks to just how charming the cast of characters are and how endearing the storyline is despite its simplicity.
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