It wasn’t much for first impressions. Sure, the opening sequence looked and sounded like too much of anime to ignore, but then again, I’ve seen better ones after playing Wild Arms and Tales of Destiny. But I wasn’t one who’d be quick to judge a game with ugly graphics. With the exception of the Squaresoft RPG wonders, most of what I’ve played was just as worse when it came to visuals. I have to admit that after playing Final Fantasy VII (then some time after that, Final Fantasy VIII), the standards in graphics just weren’t the same. But mellowing down with games of less superiority in visuals did the trick. I kept reminding myself that I sure as hell enjoyed Wild Arms, Tales of Destiny and especially Xenogears better than boring Parasite Eve and Legend of Legaia despite the huge differences in visuals. But enough of my hankering about that.

It looked quite well enough when I started. There wasn’t much excitement at first, but then again, all RPGs are like that. And well, I could not help but appreciate the many conveniences this game had to offer. The inventory was good enough for me, so was the battle system. But what I absolutely loved about this game, was that you could save anywhere, anytime (except between battles, of course)! How many times have I been sorely interrupted from my RPG playing? A phone call, a mother hollering for dinner, etcetera, etcetera. This certain feature of theirs has been the answer to my frustrated prayers.

Much to my satisfaction, the further I played, the more I got into it. Sure, the plot is just a simple one. It’s nowhere near the complexity my beloved Xenogears has, but it has a charm of its own. I love the hilarious dialogue and the lovable characters Jess and Kyle (that’s why I rated the characters a 9.5. Okay, so maybe the other main characters are too much of a goody-two-shoes to suit my taste, but the duo makes up for them in a lot of ways). I also love the anime scenes, and although the art wasn’t Evangelion material, it certainly had lots of ‘em (thank heavens). And what’s more, I could actually replay them as many times as I want to because of the rememberizer (now if Squaresoft could only work this out with the upcoming FFs). Most of the playing was smooth riding all the way, and I have to say that this has got to be the funniest and most entertaining RPG since FF7 (Final Fantasy VII). And by that you already know I’m saying much.

Two thumbs up. If you haven’t played this yet, do so now. It certainly beats lonely Friday nights, “cutting your toenails, and watching the aquarium channel”.

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NOTE: This description was written sometime in 1999 and was recorded in the classic Otaku Fridge as ??.??.1999. Unfortunately the database would not accept non-numerical values, so this review is now dated January 01, 1999 by default.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Easy
Completion Time: –
Highest Level Achieved: –
Ratings: Gameplay 9; Battle 8; Story 8; Visuals 6; Characters 10; Sounds 8; Replay Value 9

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 1999 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Lunar: The Silver Star Story (Complete), Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.