Lunar: Silver Star Story demo impressions

[04.26.99] » The GIA staff takes a look at Working Designs's highly anticipated demo.

   The long-awaited demo of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is finally in gamers' hands, and excitement over the game has reached fever pitch. For those of you have yet to experience it, 3 movies and 36 screenshots present the visual side, while GIA staff member Ed McGlothlin brings you his impressions on the demo:

   "After twice playing through the demo for the long-awaited Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, one thing can be said for sure - Lunar is not for the cynical gamer. If you insist on deeply analyzing your games or expect great technological leaps from everything you play, then it'd be best to keep a safe distance this game. If you can just sit back and enjoy, however, then I whole-heartedly recommend you invest some play time in Lunar.

   "Taking a little more than 3 hours to complete, the demo gives an opportunity to take on your first real boss and amass a party of 4 people. These characters are refreshingly earnest in personality; there isn't a single brooding person in sight. The central hero is Alex, a young boy from Burg who wishes to follow in the legendary footsteps of Dragonmaster Dyne. His companion is Luna, a beautiful singer of mysterious origin who is Alex's adopted 'sister'. Romantic overtones are obvious from the beginning (no West Virginia jokes, please), and their relationship looks to be the central subplot running throughout the game. Rounding out the demo party is a spoiled brat by the name of Ramus, son of Burg's mayor, and the narcissistic Nash, a young mage who shows an interest in Luna that she politely ignores.

   "The characters are represented by classic super-deformed sprites, with portraits appearing in the text boxes a la Xenogears. The demo also contains a handful of the many promised animated cut scenes. The voice acting is fairly well done, although it seems sorely out of place when used with the SD sprites rather than full cut scenes. Text boxes would have probably done the job just as well in those situations, considering how much text is already in the game.

   "Working Designs is known for their translations, and this one is absolutely sparkling so far. Cleverly written text abounds; text that changes quite often for each character or townsperson. Nall, a flying cat-thing that accompanies Alex, fills the classic straight man role with sarcastic observations about whatever is going on. More than anything else, it is this dialogue that draws you into the story.

   "The graphics and music are mostly upbeat, and despite their Sega CD origins, neither shows such age as to truly take away from the play experience. It must be noted that the player not dwell too much on the fact that this is a remake. Kudos to Working Designs for adding extensive Dual Analog support, making the update control intuitively and helping minimize any other signs of age.

   "Overall, the Lunar demo has all the hallmarks of a quality RPG experience. Aside from the opening song and strange use of voice acting over normal SD sprites, I found most every element of the game to be very immersive, and my appetite is only whetted further for the final product. As the demo states, it is due 'Spring '99. No, really.' I was only lukewarm towards Lunar before playing this demo, but now find myself decidedly eager to play the rest of the game."