Impressions from the Demo

[Monde Luna]

I'm kind of suprised nobody has posted a link about this yet so here goes. If it's been posted and I missed it feel free to delete.

http://diehardgamefan.com/2010/01/15/lu ... eview-psp/

http://www.justpushstart.com/2010/01/15 ... mpression/

---I got this info from SSH fb page--- I didn't want you guys to take credit for research I did not do.

[whitedragon_nall]

Good find...I haven't seen either of these floating around here.

The end of February/ beginning of March can't come soon enough.

[Monde Luna]

The end of February/ beginning of March can't come soon enough.

Tell me about it! I am generally patient but this wait feels like forever. =o) But I would rather wait and have XSEED get it right.

XSEED if you are reading... I hope you fixed (if not please fix) the plot hole with Ghaleon so he doesn't know Luna is the Goddess before he starts kidnapping all the singers. Said plot hole totally kills the momentum in the game.

[Silver Phoenix]

XSEED is not going to highlight invisible text, so you may need to find another way to present it.

Now, as for a little snippet from the Diehard GameFan site.

I have to say so far there is a definite drop in quality of voice acting compared to the Working Designs versions, and that’s not just in terms of the actors not sound like the original. Delivery is flat and sometimes emotionless. Let’s hope it gets better, because voice acting is one of the hallmarks of the Lunar games.

Are you phucking kidding me? First of all, he played the freaking demo with very little in the way of cinematics and voice acting. Secondly, none of it was flat or emotionless. Did he even bother to play the originals and the remakes? Silver Star Story was better mostly VA wise, but Eternal Blue had some horribly dull voice-overs that were extremely flat and emotionless. Obviously this guy has never been to an acting class, and it seems more like the WD is teh Gawds attitude that most people are giving over the damn demo.

I've been here since the start of the series, and I am a very critical person regarding this series. Even I know the end product can not be defined by such a minimal piece. It's true that no matter how good this translation turns out that people will still be -Borgan- and complaining because they're not playing the same damn game we had on the PlayStation. Lunar needs to be brought back to life, not left in the same coma that it's been in for years.

[Shiva Indis]

lol, good old Gamefan. If Gamefan ever started being objective, I would cry.

[Silver Phoenix]

In an ironic twist of fate, do you recall the distaste that Working Designs had for Diehard GameFan the magazine because of their reviews for the original two games? I should say "grudge" more than distaste.

Or in Vic's case... Leggo my Ego.

[fates]

I swear, if Vic's butthurt causes places to downvote the game...

*sigh*

[Monde Luna]

Seriously fates! I really appreciated everything VI has done for Lunar in the U.S. But it seems like his time w/ the series may be over *hopefully I am wrong* so it would bode the series well if he was a little more positive.

[Old_School]

I played through the demo earlier tonight, so I'll give my input. The first thing I noticed was the new song lyrics during the intro movie. The song from SSSC sounded much better and had better lyrics, IMO. The new lyrics don't blend as naturally with the music and seem somewhat forced into sync.

As I walked through Burg for the first time in this game, I took in the graphics. I am pleased with how the visuals of the game turned out. Despite the new isometric view, the game still retains the look and charm of its predecessors. The full character portraits during dialogue look great and really convey the characters' personalities.

I was thrown off by the voice acting at first, but it's not really inferior -- just different. During my second play through of the demo, I was already getting used to it.

The game-play itself also had a few notable changes. One change I liked is that items are no longer required to be held by characters in order to be used. At the White Dragon's cave, the combat was absurdly easy and the inclusion limit breaks made it even easier. While it's the sort of thing that most people wouldn't even think about, I was a bit disappointed by the death animation of enemies. I found it far more satisfying how they made that strange roaring sound and teleported into the air in SSSC and EBC.

And that's what I think of it so far. The game is inferior to its predecessors in some ways, yet superior in others. When it's released, this game will definately be finding its way into my psp library.

[Alunissage]

FYI, the demo does start you at level 3 instead of level 1, so it's a little harder in the actual game. Monsters have easier stats than in SSSC, though, so it'll still seem a bit on the easy side even without taking the arts gauge moves into account. Still, the dungeons do get longer and tougher as the game progresses.

[Silver Phoenix]

God, this server is driving me crazy. Anyway....

Figure this is also the beginning of the game, so for the sake of the game audience they would want an easier intro over a harder one. Some people get overwhelmed way too easily and would just put the game away. It's possible for XSEED to also tweak the difficulty to give a bit more challenge if they wanted to, but it's probably going to remain as is.

I wish there was some added animation for critical hits, ala Eternal Blue's stars.

[Old_School]

I agree with what both of you are saying and did take those factors into account. Developers have been toning down the difficulty of many games in general this gen, so the easy starting difficulty is no surprise (though I did prefer having to put forth effort). The demo starts you out at level 3, but that's still no gurantee the actual game will not be that way (unless someone has played the Japanese version and can confirm it). I was playing through Grandia 2 on my Dreamcast last week, and it starts you out at level 10.

[Shiva Indis]

The full version starts you at lv.1.

I hope Xseed's going to increase the challenge level, I really do... Taking out HP/MP restore on level up would go a long way. If it were up to me, I'd nerf Mia's arts guage move too.

[cj iwakura]

Very brief impressions:

-Burg is even smaller. I bet by the next remake the spring will be a little pond in the corner of town.
-Luna's VA doesn't suit her at all. The singing voice is good, though.
-I love the music, fading out as awful.

The graphics are nice, but I can't help feeling I'd rather just play The Silver Star again. I miss the charm of the original.


And the opening song has no flow to it at all. The lyrics have little rhyme or reason. It reminds me of Wild Arms 3's OP, and that was better than this.

[WD RPG WD]

The full version starts you at lv.1.

I hope Xseed's going to increase the challenge level, I really do... Taking out HP/MP restore on level up would go a long way. If it were up to me, I'd nerf Mia's arts guage move too.

This is why I am having a harder time getting into the RPGs of today. There is no challenge. Anyone remember going to Lann the first time from Vane in TSS? It was a long way to travel and you had to make sure you had everyone healthy and plenty of herbs to get there. The Frontier was even harder. It felt like an adventure. It felt like a real world.

RPGs now make it so easy for you that it is feeling more and more like watching a movie then an interaction. You can be pretty careless and still finish with relative ease.

[cj iwakura]

Play the Shin Megami Tensei games. You can die in tutorial fights. It's just what you need.

[Monde Luna]

The game-play itself also had a few notable changes. One change I liked is that items are no longer required to be held by characters in order to be used. At the White Dragon's cave, the combat was absurdly easy and the inclusion limit breaks made it even easier. While it's the sort of thing that most people wouldn't even think about, I was a bit disappointed by the death animation of enemies. I found it far more satisfying how they made that strange roaring sound and teleported into the air in SSSC and EBC.

Nice review Old School. I wonder how many people actually miss having the characters hold their own items. Maybe I should start a poll for this. Having to organized my PC's items is an element of the game that I actually miss. I feel like it takes some of the difficulty and realism away from the game. That being said I'm not devestated that this has been changed. =o)

WD RPG I'm w/ you on missing the long treks in the frontier and Vane (esp the Frontier) although it made the game a tad frustrating if you didn't bring enough items it really added a lot to the depth of the game.

[cj iwakura]

The new dragon cave is two screens wide.

How is it that the SEGA CD version holds more content than a PSP remake more than a decade later?

It's almost sad. And I despise the 'world map'. This is pretty much as Lunar For Dummies as Lunar gets.


I have to admit, the battle sequences are gorgeous, and I like how they kept the old monster designs, but that's the only positive I can think of.

[Final Night]

I still contend that we can't judge this game simply by the demo, but I think something that we're forgetting is that this is a portable game and there need to be some concessions made to make it more accessible to be played while on the move.

[Silver Phoenix]

The Sega CD games will always be the best, simply for music and nostalgic essence alone. TSS for the win.