Lunar Threads

Hey Folks,

Lunar: The Eternal Sapphire is my vision of what Lunar 3 could be like. This started out as a simple trailer. Then I made the first episode. From there, things only got better and better.

Shortly after releasing Episde I, PrettyGirlJean volunteered to do portraits and other artwork that would be used in Episodes of Eternal Sapphire. And thanks to her artwork and suggestions, Eternal Sapphire has become larger and more popular than I ever anticipated. With a team of voice actors, PrettyGirlJean, and my growing skills in flash, my vision of Lunar 3 can finaly be fully, completely realized.

Currently this project is still in progress, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you can e-mail them to me at ganon121@comcast.net

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RECRUITING BOARD
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Postions Currently Open:

- Testing

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Updates
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11-8-05: Well I finally finished episode I and I have posted the link on this post. I also added a link to the trailer to the link section as well.

12-11-05: Here's episode II. Sorry it took so long.

12-18-05: I have added the links to my DeviantArt account and PGJ's as well.

2-9-06: Sorry, Episode III isn't out YET but it will be soon, I promise. Anyway we are in need of more VA's, As PrettyGirlJean mentioned. The current parts need are: Alek (A Beastmen, Governer of Meribia), Jack (Main character of Eternal Sapphire), and Amon (an enigmatic villain). I also need VA's for some NPCs as well. If you want to do VA for an NPC like a soldier or a towns person just let me know and I will give you the lines you can use in the audition.

2-23-06: I finally uploaded Episode III, you can find the link here but I would recommend the one on my DA account, it loads faster.

6-22-06: Yeah I know it's been nearly four months since I last updated this topic. Anyway I just wanted to let you all know the project is still active and that even as I type this Episode IV is currently in production. If I were to estimate I would say it is about 50% completed. Just thought I should let you know that this project hasn't died yet.

6-30-06: I have decided to remove the putfile links. A bunch of people are having trouble with them so I decided it would be much easier to just upload them to my DA Account instead. So from now on just go to my DA account to find the episodes.

7-14-06: I have uploaded Episode IV of Eternal Sapphire. After 4 months of development it is finally out. Enjoy!

1-19-07: I have uploaded Episode I ~Remixed~ of Eternal Sapphire. Enjoy!

4-14-07: I have uploaded Episod V of Eternal Sapphire. Enjoy! Read my journal as well, it has some info about Eternal Sapphire (like changes).

6-21-07: I have uploaded Episode VI of Eternal Sapphire. Enjoy! Oh and please let us now what you think of our hard work.

7-27-07" I have uploaded the Lunar: Eternal Sapphire Trailer shown at Otakon.

3-17-08: A demo of Lunar: The Eternal Sapphire is currently in production. I will release more details when they are available.

5-24-08: The demo for Eternal Sapphire has been completed. Here are the links:

http://tkool.jp/rtp/vx_rtp102e.zip This is the RTP you need to install

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZFQ9UO5O

http://rapidshare.com/files/117386306/Lunar-_The_Eternal_Sapphire__Demo_.exe.html These are the places where you can download the demo from. There will be more later.

Please, post your thoughts, comments, and anything else after playing the demo. Enjoy!

12/13/08: Guess what? Episode I of Lunar: The Eternal Sapphire (the Game) has been released! You can download it at one of these sites:

http://rapidshare.com/files/172841256/L ... _.exe.html

(or)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QX99Q2U1

Also you will need the RTP for RPG Maker VX to play this game. You can find that here:
http://tkool.jp/rtp/vx_rtp102e.zip

Enjoy!

Links V
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DeviantArt Accounts
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PGJ's Profile
My Profile[/img]

Hey, that's pretty spiffy. I'll definately check out whatever you come up with.

Pretty nice, but I think vertically scrolling or fading in/out text would be a neat effect too.

I'll be looking forward to what you come up with

Very interesting!

I guess the avalanche has started.

looks good, really interesting take on what lunar 3 could be about

Thanks ilovemyguitar, PrettyGirlJean, DevNall, and segaboy7. I will do my best to make Lunar 3 as good as the last two. Anyway here is the profile for the main character of Lunar 3:

Name: Alex
Age: 18
Blood Type: A
Weapon of Choice: Sword
Height: 5 feet, 8 inches
Weight: 168 Lbs.
Appearance: He has blue hair and green eyes
Body Structure: Thin and Muscular
Personality: Calm and serious a lot of the time. Though that doesn't stop him from joking around and having fun. He tends to think that he can take care of anything by himself.
Bio: An 18 year old teenager who lives in Kokoro Village. He is a skilled swordsman who knows how to use magic really well. Although Alex wants to live his life like any other normal person, fate has other plans for him.

I'm looking forward to seeing your stuff.

Nice story so far.

...you're naming your protagonist Alex? After all the fuss about having a second Lucia in DS, that just seems ridiculous. Though in general you seem to be cloning him anyway; please don't say you mean him to be the secret descendant of Alex and Luna. >_< Kokoro also sounds far too Zeldaish.

I haven't seen the video, so that comment is based solely on the stats you listed.

Alunissage wrote:...you're naming your protagonist Alex? After all the fuss about having a second Lucia in DS, that just seems ridiculous. Though in general you seem to be cloning him anyway; please don't say you mean him to be the secret descendant of Alex and Luna. >_< Kokoro also sounds far too Zeldaish.

I haven't seen the video, so that comment is based solely on the stats you listed.

Alex is just the main character's temporary name until I come up with a better one. Of course he isn't a descendant of Alex and Luna. As for the village Kokoro, the word Kokoro is japanese for "Heart" or "Spirit". It's not uncommon to find things in video games that have names that are from other things, like in Xenosaga and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

True, allusions can often be found. Meanings, puns... Chrono Trigger is a good example of that being done pretty well. Heck, many of the jokes in Lunar use the same thing.

The name does seem like it comes from Zelda, and if you're unconcerned about that, then that's that.

I do have a suggestion though... using single words from Japanese alone can get a little... gimmicky. While it's one way to develop names, you could try to use other languages as well. Or, you could even develop your own roots and meanings, and put them in-game. For example, what if there were a city called Cape Crown, because shortly after its founding, a cloak and a crown were both found there, dirtied but still somehow impressive, somehow more. Not a good example, but if it's done skillfully, it's mindblowing.

Sonic# wrote:True, allusions can often be found. Meanings, puns... Chrono Trigger is a good example of that being done pretty well. Heck, many of the jokes in Lunar use the same thing.

The name does seem like it comes from Zelda, and if you're unconcerned about that, then that's that.

I do have a suggestion though... using single words from Japanese alone can get a little... gimmicky. While it's one way to develop names, you could try to use other languages as well. Or, you could even develop your own roots and meanings, and put them in-game. For example, what if there were a city called Cape Crown, because shortly after its founding, a cloak and a crown were both found there, dirtied but still somehow impressive, somehow more. Not a good example, but if it's done skillfully, it's mindblowing.

Yeah, I am planning on using other languages for names. As well as some original names without ties to any language.

Sonic# wrote:I do have a suggestion though... using single words from Japanese alone can get a little... gimmicky.

It's not just gimmicky, it sounds fanboyish and lousy. It's like picking up a dictionary and looking up a particular word you like, even if it sounds absolutely silly as a name. 'Kokoro' for instance sounds like the name of a pet, not of a person.

If you're going to use real languages for names, then use real names. Those tend to work much, much better, and you don't end up with silly-sounding character names instead. Just run searches for baby names in other languages; that's what I typically do. Personally, I prefer Swahili names, and use then occasionally in DnD (e.g., my character's familiar's name is Mngoje, meaning 'one who watches over others'). KF

It's not a bad trailer, but I think it would be a good idea to get the names more or less finalized before putting them out for people to see. You may want to change them after people give their input, but it feels sloppy to start out with placeholders.

By the way, I'd ditto what Kizyr said about chosing names in other languages. Aside from the fanboy/fangirl overtones (which often happens when someone randomly picks a Japanese word just because it sounds "nice" or "cool"), sometimes it sounds clumsy or awkward because the word doesn't have the same set of meanings in Japanese as it does in English.

And you could have easily done something like this on accident: looked in a Japanese dictionary and picked out the first entry for "heart" and wound up with this 心臓 (shinzou), which is the literal organ in your body called a "heart" (and would probably make for a very ugly town name).

Rune Lai wrote:It's not a bad trailer, but I think it would be a good idea to get the names more or less finalized before putting them out for people to see. You may want to change them after people give their input, but it feels sloppy to start out with placeholders.

By the way, I'd ditto what Kizyr said about chosing names in other languages. Aside from the fanboy/fangirl overtones (which often happens when someone randomly picks a Japanese word just because it sounds "nice" or "cool"), sometimes it sounds clumsy or awkward because the word doesn't have the same set of meanings in Japanese as it does in English.

And you could have easily done something like this on accident: looked in a Japanese dictionary and picked out the first entry for "heart" and wound up with this 心臓 (shinzou), which is the literal organ in your body called a "heart" (and would probably make for a very ugly town name).

I didn't pick Kokoro because it sounded nice or cool and I am not a fan boy. When I was thinking of a name for the village I had created a list of various names. None of the names really seemed to fit well for the village but for some reason Kokoro did. Mainly, I am going for the other translation of Kokoro, "Spirit".

Nobody's saying you're some 'fanboy'. The point is you don't want it to come off as such, and having a Japanese name for a village (or person, or anything) without some reason makes it sound quite silly. I mean, why not just call the village "Spirit" if that's what you're going for? I mean, "Kokoro" would also be a nonsensical name for a village or town in Japan as well.

You'll notice that very few RPGs employ Japanese names for things, and those that do usually have some kind of reason--like Suzu Tatebayashi from Tales of Phantasia--and use realistic names. It's part of going with the world that's already set up. KF

I have decided to rename Kokoro village. After doing a little more thinking I came up with this: Winddale

Zophar wrote:I have decided to rename Kokoro village. After doing a little more thinking I came up with this: Winddale

That renaming got me to thinking something... There's quite a bit of similarity with town / village names in English and Japanese. I mean, Winddale (or Windale, however you want to spell it) I think is a real good name. But you wouldn't go with simply "Dale" (or "Field" instead of "Whitefield", or "Burg" instead of "Hamburg", or... wait a minute...).

Ok, Burg aside, usually town names based on regular words will have two parts. You know, like Red Mountain, Cosmo Canyon, or whatnot, if the names are directly in English. I mean to say, village names sound kind of pleasant when they have that two-part description. In Japanese it's a lot like that. I mean, there aren't any one-character locations that I know of--most are 2-3 (e.g., 犬山 - Inuyama, 春日井 - Kasugai, 石川 - Ishikawa). Similarly, town names are rarely mundane, and they'll either be named after something, or have a compound word / name to describe them.

At least, that's just what I've noticed. Rune would definitely be the authority on what tends to work and what tends not to work. KF

Kizyr wrote:

Zophar wrote:I have decided to rename Kokoro village. After doing a little more thinking I came up with this: Winddale

That renaming got me to thinking something... There's quite a bit of similarity with town / village names in English and Japanese. I mean, Winddale (or Windale, however you want to spell it) I think is a real good name. But you wouldn't go with simply "Dale" (or "Field" instead of "Whitefield", or "Burg" instead of "Hamburg", or... wait a minute...).

Ok, Burg aside, usually town names based on regular words will have two parts. You know, like Red Mountain, Cosmo Canyon, or whatnot, if the names are directly in English. I mean to say, village names sound kind of pleasant when they have that two-part description. In Japanese it's a lot like that. I mean, there aren't any one-character locations that I know of--most are 2-3 (e.g., 犬山 - Inuyama, 春日井 - Kasugai, 石川 - Ishikawa). Similarly, town names are rarely mundane, and they'll either be named after something, or have a compound word / name to describe them.

At least, that's just what I've noticed. Rune would definitely be the authority on what tends to work and what tends not to work. KF

Yeah, I have noticed that as well. Anyway I have decided to release a screenshot of Lunar 3:

Click here
This is part of the opening scene where the main character is walking into Winddale Village.

Please, call your game something other than Lunar 3. All we need is that post turning up in some websearch...

Humans being the unimaginative creatures that we are... tend to name things after how they look or after people (when it comes to real world place names). I think Winddale works. It's a dale, it's windy. After a while people might start calling the place Winddale. Or if you like the language to evolve, it might become Windale because humans are inherently lazy and tend to slur things together when given half the chance. (The double "d" sound would get reduced to a single "d.")

The problem with Kokoro is that it could have pulled the player out of the game. Someone could be enjoying a nice European-based fantasy setting and then wonder what a Japanese name is doing there. Lunar pulls its heritage from medieval European fantasy, so the majority of names should fit the setting. They don't have to be real-world European, but they should feel like they could be.