Lunar + Legend of Legaia

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Any opinion on these two games? I genuinely dislike Japanese RPGs, except SMT and Persona, along with a few Atlus titles, but I'm willing to give it a shot, as its been mentioned several times by my a friend, IRL, who say these are some of his favorite games, something I've heard more than once.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I've played both, though I didn't finish Legend of Legaia (it wasn't especially bad, I played it for a long time but couldn't beat it before the rental was up and didn't feel inclined to finish I think.)

I wouldn't really put either of them on a pedestal as being anything super special. They're both very long games. They each have their own sort of twist on combat mechanics but nothing I'd gush over. Their plots are pretty meh.

They're by no means bottom of the barrel, but they're not anything I'd recommend either, I can think of at least a dozen jrpgs I enjoyed much more.

 

[Malpercio]

The Lunar are pretty good.

 

[yes plz]

If you don't like JRPGs I'm not sure you'll enjoy Lunar at all. It's an extremely typical JRPG; I think the only reason why it's remained loved is due to Working Designs' localization of it.

 

[Murk]

Lunar is garbage and I'd advise strongly against it. If you want a similarly cutesy experience with a semi novel combat system try Grandia instead.

Better yet, play Lufia 2 (SNES) or Suikoden 1 or 2 (PS1).

 

[Luka-boy]

I really like Legend of Legaia and replay it every couple of years. I wrote a post about its gameplay here:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...interesting-systems.82296/page-4#post-3525071

Other than what I wrote there, the story isn't anything special but it has a couple of cool moments. There was a decent amount of optional content too in the form of mini-games and some side-quests. And multiple endings, though I'm pretty sure there wasn't any C&C and you choose which one you wanted only at the end of the game.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

I really like Legend of Legaia and replay it every couple of years. I wrote a post about its gameplay here:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...interesting-systems.82296/page-4#post-3525071

Other than what I wrote there, the story isn't anything special but it has a couple of cool moments. There was a decent amount of optional content too in the form of mini-games and some side-quests. And multiple endings, though I'm pretty sure there wasn't any C&C and you choose which one you wanted only at the end of the game.

Thank you guys. I'm still figuring out what made Lunar so special. Legaia I can see the combat system being innovative, but I figuring Lunar had something to dig in the way of story telling. The recommendations are duly noted. All of them I'd heard about, but I'd not bookmarked any before posting this thread. Keep the recommendations flowing!

 

[Damned Registrations]

Lunar was a big budget affair at the time with a shitton of voice acting and special edition copies that came with cool extras like a medallion and music disc and stuff. It also had some anime style cutscenes throughout the game. The gameplay itself was nothing to write home about, though it wasn't as outright offensive as say, FF8 or Chrono Cross.

Will second the recommendations for Lufia 2 and Suikoden. Some of the best jrpgs I've ever played, up there with Chrono Trigger.

 

[yes plz]

The gameplay itself was nothing to write home about, though it wasn't as outright offensive as say, FF8 or Chrono Cross.

i'll fuk u up m8

 

[Ninjerk]

Legaia is really only noteworthy on account of its slightly unique setting (which ultimately doesn't have a lot going on for it under the surface, but there are some decent set pieces) and combat system (which by endgame is mainly spamming the super move IIRC). If you're REALLY into jrpgs and want to see a slightly different take, give it a spin.

 

[ghostdog]

Legaia had an interesting and fun combat system, up to a point, but it was nothing special overall.

If you're looking for great/unique jRPGs I would suggest looking at Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

I am putting pen to paper, as we speak.

 

[Whisky]

Legaia was innovative...for a very early PS1 game.

The combat system is cool at first, but as soon as you learn the "Special Combos" you'll just spam those over and over.

One of the things that blew me away at the time was that character's armor changed depending on what you had equipped. That was rare for the time.

 

[Keldryn]

Lunar was the game that people bought a Sega-CD/Mega-CD for.

JRPGs had begun to focus on story and characters by this point (1992). Final Fantasy IV and V had in-game non-interactive scenes (NIS) which were used to tell the story. The Phantasy Star games used an approach more like comic book panels. Lunar took advantage of the then-new CD-ROM media and included full-screen voice-acted cinematics (not fully animated, but impressive at the time on the Genesis/Mega Drive) and CD-quality music.

It also featured a fantastic translation by Working Designs; no "you spoony bard!" or "someone set us up the bomb" here.

Lunar has a fairly upbeat, charming story and characters. Nothing super original. The voice acting was decent too, especially considering what passed for acting on most CD-ROM games of that era (7th Guest, I'm looking at you).

Contemporary JRPGs were Final Fantasy V, Dragon Questions V, and Phantasy Star III. Lunar blew these out if the water in terms of presentation values. The remake for the Saturn and PlayStation expanded the story and added hand-drawn, fully animated cinematics, while the in-game graphics look like a SNES game (but better than the Mega Drive original).

So I would say that a major reason for it being special is simply due to historical significance. If you don't like 90s era JRPGs, you probably won't like Lunar either.

It's a good game, but it's no Chrono Trigger.

EDIT: I had totally forgotten this wonderfully cheesy opening song from the original Sega-CD game:

 

[A user named cat]

Lunar is garbage and I'd advise strongly against it. If you want a similarly cutesy experience with a semi novel combat system try Grandia instead.

Unfortunately Grandia is one of those games that just does not hold up anymore. I tried replaying it a couple months back after having not touched it for years and quit around 4-5 hours in. The dungeons are absymal. Just huge corridors that are a pain to navigate and they're dragged out far too long. While there are no random battles, there are way too many enemies around to avoid and you get next to no experience from them. Combat itself also takes too long to jump in and out of, even using Mednafen and binding 'fast forward' to a key. Game is pretty much tedious shit now and offers nothing of value except for the great soundtrack.

 

[Shadenuat]

Things like Lunar and Grandia are a medicine against grimdork, that you take to remind yourself that there are other plots than murdering some fuck, parties where characters trust and care for each other instead of fake drama, when you just want to be a kid and believe in nice things, even if your testosterone drops a few levels
If you like old and fun fantasy anime like Slayers then Lunar is good
If you are ready for some basic jrpg gameplay for the sake of listening your favorite waifu singing or nice animated scene, too

And for the duty of checking Jessica's bath scene, one must endure.

I played Lunar maybe three years ago. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Zero CHAR]

They look fun.

 

[AdamReith]

I often play the first fifteen minutes of lunar and then lose interest.

 

[His Dudeness]

Loved Legend of Legaia as a kid. Combo system is fun and the game is pretty unique.

Beat it when it came out.

No opinion on Lunar, other than which I saw on magazines.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Lunar 2 is a better game with better writing than Lunar 1.

 

[goregasm]

I still have the sega cd versions of lunar 1 and 2, PS1 versions too.

Really enjoyed them as a kid. 2 is definitely a better game than 1, but I enjoyed the tone of the first more iirc, has to be at least 20 years since I have played either one though so ymmv.

 

[kaisergeddon]

The localizations of Lunar are fantastic. I'll always swear by that. But if anyone plans on playing them, I advise getting the unworking designs patches to revert them to their original balance. I'll always advocate for Victor Ireland since the games he brought over gave me hope as a maladjusted kid struggling to endure public school, but... even I can't vouch for the things he did to adjust the difficulty in the earlier WD titles. Exile II in particular is practically flat out broken, almost incapable of being beaten, and the level scaling he applied to Lunar is tedious to say the least.

If you want something with a mature narrative from Working Designs, I recommend the Arc the Lad Trilogy. By the time Vic released those games, he was fully aware of the response fans had to his rebalancing shenanigans, and he left those games intact while providing the Working Designs translation treatment. They're practically forgotten, but stand as perhaps the best SRPG/JRPG hybrid games around.

 

[Zero CHAR]

Working Designs was a fucking mess, he basically wrote fan fiction instead of translating the games, dude is such an entitled prick that he thought it's okay to change gameplay mechanics.

I'm a translator myself and while it's impossible to be 100% accurate in a translation because of the cultural differences, he went too far.

I'm playing JP version.