Lunar: Silver Star Harmony

Posted 3 years ago By - Nelson Hum

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It should be noted that Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is one of several incarnations of the original Lunar: Silver Star Story. It’s been released on several platforms, such as the Sega Saturn, Playstation and Game Boy Advance. The main gameplay takes bits and pieces from the various versions and crams them all in together. What you end up with is a solid experience, but one that shows its age as well.

Gameplay

Stop me if you’re heard this before, a brave young hero must take it upon himself to save the world from evil. While this is the basic premise of Silver Star Harmony, the storyline has enough variety to make it enjoyable. You play as Alex, a young adventurer who idolizes Dragonmaster Dyne, who you play as at the start of the game in an excellent flashback scene. Through an adventure in a nearby cave, you meet a Dragon who informs you that you could be the next Dragonmaster. So you set off to fulfill your destiny and get wrapped up in a tale of betrayal, revenge and deceit along the way. Talk about one hell of a Facebook status update.

Lunar is definitely an old school Japanese RPG. The turn-based battle system is familiar and easy to learn but after an hour or so it gets a little tedious. Battles can get repetitive but, thanks to an auto-battle function that enables you to let the CPU take control, you won’t be bogged down in micro-management every time. You team will act out via preset preferences but it will result in wasted magic or abilities occasionally.

If you’re looking for an “classic” RPG experience, Lunar will hit all the right notes - attack, magic, defend and item are your fundamental battle options. Each character also fits into a typical RPG archetype, fighter, healer, etc., and you gain new abilities with each level up. However, unlike modern RPG’s, where most characters can fill whatever role you want, it’s oddly refreshing to be locked down to certain party combinations.

Each character also has an ability they can unleash after a certain amount of fights. It comes off as more of a “modern” mechanic but the addition of more esoteric abilities or unique classes would have gone a long way. And accessing your loadout and skills is a breeze as the menus are easy understand and utilize, a crucial component in any RPG.

One throwback that doesn’t stand the test of time is the “random” battles. You transverse from location to location on an overhead map which instantly takes you to your next spot. However, once you’re inside an area or dungeon, you encounter enemies visible on the actual stage. While this gives the illusion that there are no random encounters, they respawn after you leave a room and fights are hard to avoid. This repetition can be grating, as the game requires a significant amount of backtracking, and slows down the pace of the game considerably.

Graphics and Audio

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great looking game. All of the character sprites are large and show movement and facial expressions well. The universe is bright, vibrant and definitively anime-inspired. As mentioned earlier, the full-motion anime videos add some nice polish to the game and are a nice change of pace from your typical CG cut-scenes. One unfortunate side effect of the beautiful graphics is that the game takes about 5 seconds to load every screen. While it doesn’t bring things to a screeching halt, there’s a noticeable delay that gets irksome after awhile.

The sound and music of the game will never be confused with the elaborate scores of Final Fantasy but it fits the game well. The voice acting is hit or miss, with some lines delivered over the top and others with just the right tone. I just wish the video to text ratio were a bit more generous as I’m tired of reading giant streams of text in my RPGs.

Value

Like most RPGs, the replay value you get is directly connected to how much you enjoy the story and characters. Multiple playthroughs are your only real opportunity for extra gaming time. There isn’t a new game plus mode or any major secret offerings or side quests. If you’ve played any of the other incarnations of the game, you pretty much know what you’re getting into.

Conclusion

Silver Star Harmony is a nifty little title for anyone who still holds classic Japanese RPGs close to their heart. Everything from the story to the game mechanics screams old school, which can be both a blessing and a curse. The fundamentals are solid but the game shows its age with repetitive battles and linear character progression. Despite these shortcomings, Silver Star Harmony is a quintessential RPG experience.

+ A classic RPG experience
+ Great graphics
+ Fantastic anime cut-scenes
+ Simple but solid gameplay

- Combat can be repetitive
- Annoying load times
- Linear character progression
- Overall mechanics seem a bit dated

7.9 / 10

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