Lunar 2 screen shots

[05.21.99] » With the release of Lunar: Silver Star Story still a week away, Working Designs has released a series of screens from the sequel. View the 2D splendor, plus a series of screens scavenged from E3.

   Even before the release of Lunar: Silver Star Story, Working Designs has released the first screen shots from the upcoming PlayStation port of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue. Much like the original Lunar port set for release in a week, Lunar 2 features vastly improved visuals in comparison to the Sega CD original. The sequel also takes graphical effects a little further than the first title. Transparency effects are used extensively, as well as scaling algorithms in battle sequences -- the camera zooms in for certain attacks, much like in Suikoden. We've also included some of our own screen shots obtained from the floor of E3 at Working Designs' booth.

   Many more details concerning Lunar 2: Eternal Blue are available in our E3 report. Is it realistic to assume the game will indeed be released in Winter 1999, however? Oddly enough, especially considering Working Designs' release date track record, Lunar 2 could very well meet its promised timeframe. First, the "Winter 1999" period stretches all the way to March 2000. Second, the company is re-using much more material from the Sega CD original than Lunar: SSS utilized -- 30-40% of the original text is being re-used in comparison to 15% in Lunar, while most, if not all of the voices from the Sega CD version will be re-used, eliminating the need to re-record voice samples. This could realistically add up to a, amazingly, Winter 1999 release date! We'll have a full preview of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue shortly.