#BringBackLunar

[Zethus Thorne]

I know that this is a bit dumb but am I the only one who wants a Lunar HD Collection for modern consoles?

[brit]

Nope. I think most of us here would like nothing more than to see the franchise make a come back, but only if it is done well.

[ShugoHanasaki]

It would certainly be nice to have the PSX games HD'd and remastered on a PS4/PS5 environment.

[MaroonChan]

I'd definitely like to see that as well. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

[VidKid369]

I would definitely love a LUNAR HD-Remaster type of collection with impossibly hard trophies to achieve!! I think that would definitely be awesome! I love when they put out an old RPG and add a, some sort of a new challenge like collecting modern-day trophies that would make me definitely shell out money for a game!

[Kizyr]

I for one am hoping for a DLC-microtransaction based one where all equipment you get will cost real money, and so will saving your game, and upgrading magic. Leveling up will still be free though (after the cost of the initial game).

...j/k that is horrific and I feel awful for even thinking it...

[PDM]

There is a campaign on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to get lunar 3 created.
The organizer is doing a great job and already interviewed several original voice actors.
I’d love to see it happen but I just don’t know if there is enough interest.
I’d also love to see the SSSC and EB remade or remastered for modern systems.

[VidKid369]

Haha, Kizyr, that made me laugh out loud.

I think a lot of older RPGs would really benefit from the addition of simple trophies for an extra challenge, though. I mean, I'd buy the game again even if it was the same exact game and it had trophies, like I'm sure they can add minor upgrades too I wouldn't mind.

[DevNall]

There is a campaign on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to get lunar 3 created.

His username on YouTube is "OfficialLunar" which seems extremely presumptuous to me.

The organizer is doing a great job and already interviewed several original voice actors.

What characters are most likely to re-appear in a sequel/prequel/etc? Not Alex, or Ronfar, or any of those guys... Maybe Ghaleon or Nall? Hence I'd be most curious to know if those VAs would return.

I’d also love to see the SSSC and EB remade or remastered for modern systems.

I don't think Harmony sold as well as people hoped.

I think a lot of older RPGs would really benefit from the addition of simple trophies for an extra challenge, though. I mean, I'd buy the game again even if it was the same exact game and it had trophies, like I'm sure they can add minor upgrades too I wouldn't mind.

What other kinds of "upgrades" would you want?

[Alunissage]

It really is a shame Harmony didn't do as well as hoped. The music and the background graphics are pretty nice, especially the dungeon maps. I do feel there's a little issue of scale (the sprites seem a little too big for the backgrounds) that makes some things feel kind of crowded, and I prefer the smaller character portraits of SSSC and Legend because they fit more situations, but visually it's pretty appealing overall.

I also find "OfficialLunar" to be extremely presumptuous.

[VidKid369]

As far as upgrades, I wouldn't mind seeing a few extra items. Sometimes I found the inventory could use more items, armor and such. They could just throw in a few more treasure boxes to open on the map. Maybe they could expand some of the spells too. Sometimes I would get tired of using Nash's Thunder Bomb over and over again in the beginning of the game. Or maybe Jessica could even get a few more healing spells instead of just Calm Litany over and over again. I'd love to see Nall be more active in battle maybe he could attack once in a while just like Ruby or cast a small healing spell.

Basically, if the game were exactly how it was and they put out a version on PS3 and up & it included trophies I'd still buy the game again. But I'd want the trophies to be extremely challenging to achieve.

[Alunissage]

The SSS magic system is pretty minimal compared to the other games, what with everyone having a maximum of eight spells, and fairly uninteresting ones at that. Legend and Harmony added Arts spells for a little extra interest, but some of them were game-breakingly powerful -- Mia's MistVeil was essentially three rounds of White Dragon Protect, IIRC. So tweaks to the magic system would probably involve some rebalancing.

I liked the special equipment sets in Legend: the Graceful set for Nash, the Barbarian set for Kyle, and the Magical set for Mia. A bit annoying that Jessica didn't get one of her own, though she could wear Mia's hat. Legend also had fun weapons that might be nice to see again.

[Temzin]

It looks like the so-called "OfficialLunar" account (which is anything but) is just getting false hopes up, even among the unsuspecting American voice actors they've contacted who have zero influence or connection with the original creators, who themselves are scattered or no longer alive. If anything, I feel embarrassed for the voice actors, who would not be in a position to understand what a silly project they are being associated with. I certainly appreciate the campaign's enthusiasm, of course, but what an embarrassing effort---it looks like it's actually someone from Germany, which would at least excuse the English on the associated webpage.

As we all know, Harmony's sales were abysmal in both Japan (approx. 17,000) and the US (double that, at most). These were less than 1/10th of the Japanese Saturn version (208,650, +19,000 more for the Complete version) and barely 1/8th of the US PS1 version (250,000). There will not be a new entry, at least not one that is recognizeable to any of us: Game Arts survives only as a legacy company with 26 staff--god knows what they do--and a measly 78 million yen ($700,000) in capital (that is half the cost of making Eternal Blue...in 1994's money!). On the other hand, their current parent company and current rights-holder GungHo frankly doesn't have much going on either and hasn't for a long time, so if they could make some easy money on periodic re-releases, I think they'd be happy to.

[VidKid369]

Oh, Alun, I have yet to get my feet wet nor sink my teeth into Legend or SSH--Silver Star Harmony I actually have and the graphics look really nice so I want to try that out soon!

Pretty much, I kinda wanna see maybe the character sprites changing a bit like how they get special, golden-colored weapons when you equip their best weapon. (I could never get Nash's weapon to change however either that or I can't tell if the color changes against the background.) It would be nice to see something like their armor changing if you equip the best set.

I guess I'm in the minority here. When I saw new interviews of the original voice actors I was really super giddy with excitement because I've always wanted to see what they were up to nowadays. I've tried to add them on FaceBook before but I've only managed to find Ashley Angel and Jenny Stigile, lol. ☺

[Temzin]

Oh, there's nothing wrong with being delighted to see the voice actors or connect with them! While the so-called campaign is a joke and a waste of the voice actors' time, it has accidentally performed the public service of interviewing some of the actors and giving them a chance to reminisce about their involvement on the US side, which is lots of fun for the fans. I still feel bad for the actors, though.

[VidKid369]

Yup! I was super excited to see the voice actors pop up since I've been searching for them on FaceBook and only managed to find Ashley and Jenny, haha. I couldn't find Lemina's voice actress at all or Lucia's but I was surprised to find out that Kelly did an interview so I was super stoked.

Although what you guys might be saying is true that this cause might be all for nothing... I'm still guardedly optimistic that this might evolve into something, you never know!

For example, Jenny's voice acting page is littered with stuff about LUNAR 3 so... that has my hopes up.

[Temzin]

It's great to be optimistic, but I think the campaign will misfocus efforts and attention that will not go anywhere, which instead undermines any future more serious attempts. The (good!) US voice actors were local actors, not famous members of the US voice acting industry---which itself is not nationally relevant or influential. Even the much more prominent Japanese voice acting industry is less than irrelevant to what's left of Lunar's creative team. These are not the people calling the shots and they do not have any special access or knowledge to a new project.

Put another way: if the campaign were serious about a new game, it would A) be in Japanese, or at least with fluent English and a professional website, and B) somehow connected to decisionmakers and funding in Japan. On the other hand, a low-fi campaign like this is capable of demonstrating fan interest in something that takes minimal time and budget like a port. This would dovetail better with the nostalgia angle of having fun interviews with the classic voice actors and remind Gungho that they can get some money out of people who have such fond memories.

But of course, the impossiblity of Lunar 3 is all-too-familiar to the members of this board and has been for (oh god) 20 years; if there was ever a time a Lunar 3 was going to happen, it was after the successful Saturn and PS ports, not after the crushing failures that followed. Maybe that's one reason the campaign irks me---it's not only ineffective and embarrassing, it's also way late on the scene and seemingly unaware of all that's transpired (and not transpired) since 2000 or so.

[VidKid369]

Mm. I hear ya. When I first heard of this, I was a little bit hesistant myself and I thought it was actually a Japanese website at first cause the English was so bad lol. It got me a little excited cause I thought it was a Japanese fan's attempt at ressurecting the series. For some reason I think if an American fan attempted something like this it would fall on deaf ears so I'm a little glad it's someone from outside of the US.

Mhm. Yeah. I definitely think they should try to do something with the people who were involved with Studio Alex if they're even around anymore. Last I heard they were pretty much dissolved.

Lol, call me out for aiming low but I wouldn't mind another port of the game hahaha. That's what I was kind of saying about being interested in something like another remake with upgrades and trophies. I still haven't played anything that came out after L2: EBC but I'm so in love with the PS games that I wouldn't mind something similar. Heck, I'd love if they somehow made the Sega CD versions available for download cause I'm having trouble right now with my console at the moment.

You have me wondering what the voice actors (really) have to do with anything. I guess it's nice to see that not only the fans are still interested but some of the people that were actually involved with the game so. It's just nice.

[PDM]

While my hopes are up, I’m still being a realist. This “official campaign” has been running for about 2 months now and hasn’t gotten as much traction as I would have hoped to see.
I’ve signed the petition where they are trying to get 10,000 signatures but last I checked there was only 3900.

Having the original voice actors petition for the remake is great and all but again, they likely don’t have much, if any say in the matter.
And as someone mentioned earlier, the original characters aren’t going to come back other than the possibility of Ghaleon and Nall returning. Still, it is nice to see those original actors petitioning for this project.

Again this whole campaign just seems like wishful thinking so all we can do as fans is vote and tell others to vote and hope enough people are interested to actually get some traction.

[Temzin]

There may be some useful points of differentiation: on one hand, the unknown US voice actors from 20+ year-old translations mean less than nothing to Japanese companies and no new Lunar game would ever be made in response to international interest. Even in the highly unlikely event they were actually interviewing long-since departed people who matter to a new production like Shigema or Miyaji, the Japanese market comes first, and there is no demand there, while Game Arts has neither the original creators nor the budget to do it.

On the other hand, Gungho USA has periodically shown interest in making money off of re-releases and in fact led the recent port of Grandia I&II, which was later released back into Japan. Interviews with nostalgic US voice actors could play into a fan campaign for a re-release of the originals. It's the 25th anniversary of SSS' Japanese release, after all! There's a lot to celebrate even in a long-finished series.

But meanwhile, YIKES, I looked at the campaigner's crowdfunding site...where he is taking other people's money in order to buy ads on social media (!?!) to gain attention for a petition that will somehow convince Gungho to make a new game. It's either embarrassingly misguided enthusiasm or out-and-out profiteering to gather $1000+ from 25 very confused people which will be spent on an unaccountable ad campaign that is illegally using official artwork on its crowdsourcing page. If I thought it had even the remotest possibility of garnering real attention, I'd report it.

The strangest thing is the idea that paid social media advertisements and legacy voice actor interviews would somehow convince enough new people to want a sequel to a game they've never played. If it's only targeted at existing fans, an organic campaign to demonstrate existing interest in the series would be enough, with no money needed. Why, they could simply come visit Lunar-Net to see evidence of it!