Lunar 2: Eternal Blue is perhaps the longest game I had to wait for in my entire life. I had loved the first Lunar so much — it is my all-time favorite, in fact — that I could hardly wait to get hold of Lunar 2. At last the wait was over. Now I’m seeing how it compares to its predecessor.

I have mixed feelings about the gameplay because, while I wished it were a bit different from the first Lunar, I can’t help but be relieved that they didn’t change much. It’s still as fun as ever, with all those free healings and non-existent save points.

It would have been a perfect sequel to Lunar, except for one minor flaw. For some strange reason, I find the controls a bit too slow. I remember the first Lunar’s main character walks really fast, so you don’t need to run. Here, the character walks too slow. When you try to make him run, he just runs for a while, and then he’s back to that ultra-slow pacing again. It kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy IX’s frustratingly slow battle pace.

The story is one of the most intriguing aspects of this game. Though the characters are not as endearing as Jessica and Kyle of Lunar 1, the main character Hiro somehow has an exciting personality. He isn’t as silent as most main characters are. Top that with the fact that Lunar 2 has gone beyond the stereotype of women being the weaker gender whose only sole purpose in the battle is to heal injured party members. Here, one of the most powerful characters in the game is a femme fatale / bruiser named Jean, and the healer is a handsome ex-priest called Ronfar. Ronfar, by the way, will remind you of Kyle with his mischievous antics and corny come-on lines.

The storyline itself can get a bit confusing at first. In fact, there are times you’d want to get the battles over with to get to the bottom of the whole mess. It’s the same old Silver Star, with Althena as its revered Goddess. But wait! Something is quite different, and not quite right. You’ll just have to find out for yourself what is wrong with the entire picture.

I found myself staying for quite a long time inside the Magic City Vane’s library just so I could get a grasp as to what happened to the Silver Star in a span of more or less a thousand years. This game is so rich in history, you can’t help but be amazed.

Sadly there aren’t much singing involved in this game, unlike before where everyone actively sings from the beginning of the game onwards (even Kyle who is ridiculously tone-deaf). As for the graphics, well, the developers could have improved what was in Lunar 1. It seems to me that they were a bit too lazy to develop new monster templates that they just slapped the old monsters from Lunar 1, transferred them to Lunar 2, and then gave them different shades from their original colors.

Their saving grace for the graphics aspect is the fact that they have more anime scenes, with longer time span. The faces of the characters have also improved in the anime and any Lunar fan can probably say that Hiro is much more good-looking than Alex of Lunar 1 ever was. The downside here, though, is that the Rememberizer of Lunar 1 is not what it used to be. Before, you will just have to activate the Rememberizer in order to view the anime scenes you’ve seen. Now, you have to go back to where you activated a cut scene before your Rememberizer can play them. Such a tedious task!

This game is looong! Unlike the first Lunar, which you can probably repeat and finish again within a week, this game will take quite some time to finish, let alone repeat. I recommend making the best of this game during your first run through it. The battles can be quite a drag, especially during those times when only a certain number of party members can be brought along with you.

To buy or to rent? I still think this game is worth buying, especially if you’re a collector. It comes with a lot of cool stuff that Lunar’s marketing people are very fond of adding into their packages.

Overall I think this game is great, not as great as the first Lunar, but still above average. Any RPGamer should try this out if they want to experience something different from the usual CG-ridden RPGs. Besides, it can still be summed up in three words: ”Fun! Fun! Fun!”

Player Status:
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
Completion Time: 60-70
Highest Level Achieved: 65+
Ratings: Gameplay 9; Battle 6; Story 9; Visuals 7; Characters 9; Sounds 7; Replay Value 5

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 28th, 2000 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, 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.