Going through EBC now; my thoughts on it so far

For discussion of Lunar: Eternal Blue, the remake of Lunar 2 for Saturn/Playstation and all its translations
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Enclave
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Going through EBC now; my thoughts on it so far

Post by Enclave »

I'm currently at Serak Palace, and I think it's about time I get my thoughts on the game so far written somewhere. I'm starting off with the main characters, since they're basically the most interesting part of the game.

Hiro: I feel he's probably the weakest out of the characters. I like how he actually talks a bit compared to Alex, but it doesn't feel like he does enough compared to the other characters. He does get some lines, but it's not as much as Ronfar, Ruby, and Lemina get. I do like what's shown of his personality (good-meaning guy that never gives up), but it seems that he has few chances to shine while you're saving the dragons. All the stuff he does to protect Lucia may seem dumb at first, but the guy saw her get warped into purple cloud-land and saw her get cursed by an evil voice; you have be a giant jerk not to help her as much as you can after that.

Lucia: She's really a sweetie. At first, her dialogue wasn't that interesting, but after getting her new clothes, she started becoming adorable. Her moments in Zultan and Taben's Peak, along with her dialogue in Zabak after beating Borgan, are very dawww-worthy. She's quiet and reserved, but she's not afraid to get things done and won't let people get away with saying wrong things about Althena and the Blue Star. She's not a doormat, which is pretty refreshing in something so anime-inspired as the Lunar series.

I like how she's basically driven the plot; nothing would've happened if it wasn't for her sheer determination to do the right thing. No matter how bad things get, she never gives up. Kidnapped by Ghaleon and the fake Althena? Eh, no biggie, Hiro will fix it. Dragons are sealed? Let's save 'em! She's got a bit of the "never give up" personality Alex has. She's perfect with Hiro.

She's kinda like a goddess that's growing a heart mixed with the sheer determination of of a freight train.

Ronfar: Oh my god I love him. His dialogue is hilarious. He plays off with Ruby and, to a lesser extend, Jean, well. One thing I really like is how he's had a tragic backstory, but he doesn't really angst over it. He's serious when it comes time to deal with Mauri, but doesn't angst over her every moment. I'd say he's my favorite character so far.

Jean: I feel she's underutilized as a character. She plays off well with Ronfar, but she doesn't really talk enough with him after you finish the Taben's Peak portion of the game. It's cute how she loves giving kids pep-talks because of her bad experiences as a child. I do love how her solution to the Shadow Dragon Cult is "beat the hell out of them". No magic, no reasoning, no Lucia shenanigans; just fist to face over and over until they learn their lesson.

Also, I like fighter Jean more than dancer Jean from a gameplay and look perspective. Fighter Jean looks like someone you don't want to mess with.

Lemina: I love her dialogue as well. Her gimmick would've been annoying, but she has so much spunk and sass that she's really enjoyable. She tries to be an excellent salewoman, but she tries way too hard, which is understandable considering the situation she's in. Trying to cheer her up after Borgan kidnapped her mom was sweet, even though she totally called Hiro out on BSing.

I like how, even after stopping Neo-Vane and allowing Borgan to help rebuild Vane, she still makes fat jokes about him. Girl still does not like him at all, and can you blame her?

Ruby: She's funny, cute, and interacts with the team a bit more than Nall did. She doesn't zing the crazies of Lunar as much as Nall does, but she makes up for it with her banter with Ronfar and Lemina. Her toasting Ronfar never gets old.

Leo: Leo rules. I wasn't too keen on him at the start, but damn he's grown on me. He's basically living the dream of being a literal white knight; complete with hokey speeches and trying to save the world. He's goofy, but doesn't seem to be really aware of it, which makes him even better. Mystere is awesome and is pretty much peak Leo, which is awesome.

Since I haven't completed the game yet, I can't talk about every part of the game's plot. However, I did like Pentugilia and how the game is handling the meet the dragons portion of the game. Find out that Althena was fake wasn't as much as a "oh -Dragon Diamond-!" moment as Ghaleon's reveal in SSSC, but it I feel the reveal in EBC was overall better because it had Mystere's cheesy antics, Lucia taking crap from no one, Leo's crisis of faith, and how it involved all of the characters instead of just one character sitting around and doing nothing while every bad thing happened. Hiro actually fought Ghaleon instead of standing around and getting blown away in one hit, like with what happend to Alex.

I also feel that meeting the dragons is handled a bit better than it was in SSSC. There doesn't seem to be any filter, like everything you had to do to get to the Red Dragon in TSS and SSSC. I also like how the quests you need to do to reach each dragon involve a specific character instead of being just about Hiro and Lucia, so that they have personal reasons for saving the dragons instead of tagging along because the main bad guy is a jerk that wants to take over the world and kidnapped their friend's girlfriend.

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AkagisWhiteComet
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Re: Going through EBC now; my thoughts on it so far

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

I know you're playing EBC complete, and I don't know if you've played the original Silver Star or original Eternal Blue on the Sega CD, but one of my more enjoyable character development sets was with how the heroine (Lucia) in EB was handled much better - at least in my opinion - than TSS' heroine (Luna).

In TSSC, Luna's character development was enhanced greatly in terms of her endearment towards being a party member you really cared about as it was over the Sega CD TSS. I think Game Arts realized this, as in both versions of Eternal Blue Lucia's character is one that pretty much affects the entirety of the story. In TSSC for sure Luna's role was expanded, but in TSS she was just kind of in the party for a while up until Saith, then gone, then you saw her briefly at points, then you didn't see her again until the very end of the game in evil form.

I believe that's why I've always enjoyed heroine Lucia over heroine Luna, but I did grow up on the Sega CD games.

For the other characters, if you kind of notice each of the respective characters that one should replace from their "counterpart" in TSS carries a glaring quality that is the exact OPPOSITE of the same type character in TSS. Ronfar, who we can assume would be Nash, has the same uppity charisma about ability (Nash; Magic, Ronfar; early on Gambling Ability), but both eventually come around to redeem themselves in the end (Nash with Mia, and Ronfar with... well... you'll find out). Lemina being descendant of Mia is a near exact opposite of Mia in every way, except both eventually come to a full understanding of their duty in keeping the legacy of Vane alive (Mia reluctant at first, but eventually comes to. Lemina about money in the beginning, but in the end... well... you'll find out there too). Jean is the Jessica character. She carries the same rough and tough ability about herself and both Jean and Jessica are portrayed as overly independent women. Jessica is outspoken and loud, but speaks the truth. Jean is more reserved and to the point, but also speaks the truth. Leo is obviously Kyle. Both carry the same sense of justice about themselves. Kyle in TSS a bit of a loner with justice like a Robin Hood type attitude. Leo a loner with a sense of justice towards service.''

Hiro/Alex and Ruby/Nall have much more intricacies that could be compared to one another.

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Re: Going through EBC now; my thoughts on it so far

Post by Enclave »

I played SSSC first (although I plan to get through TSS one day), but even then, Lucia is simply a much more interesting and stronger character than Luna is. Luna feels like a 2D romantic interest, while Lucia actually has a major conflict and her choices have a significant effect on the world as a whole.

Althena wanted humans to make their own choices and live like they wanted without her nudging things along. If Lucia had used Althena's power, she would've undone the opening Alex and Dyne sacrificed for and trapped Lunar in an endless cycle where Zophar would reappear and the local goddess would reset everything when he popped up over and over instead of allowing humans to truly progress and make a future for themselves. Instead of living as they should, they'd be little playthings to give Lunar some signs of life inbetween Zophar appearing to mess things up. What would be the point of having the Blue Star again when they'd never truly be able to take advantage of the opportunities the Blue Star has? Heck, if the Blue Star revived and Zophar came back, wouldn't Lucia basically be forced to do the exact same thing that Althena did the first time? It'd be one endless loop.

By refusing to reset the world and letting Hiro show that mortals can triumph over evil deities, Lucia prevented a deadly cycle from starting and showed that Althena was right. With her actions, she gave hope and a true future to the world instead of reducing it to a stagnated mess caused by a lazy man's way to get rid of an evil tree man. And, since Hiro is with her, she'll be able to learn more about humans and how to work with them instead of accidentally controlling them, like Althena did, and hopefully preventing things like the situation with the Vile Tribe from ever happening again. Lucia goes from being an overglorified spare goddess to a warm-hearted light of hope working with Hiro to create the bright future that Althena, Dyne, and Alex sacrificed for.

Luna...doesn't have anything like that. What she did as Althena is very important and basically sets up the entire series, but Luna herself doesn't have any major conflicts or an interesting arc. Her story about finding who she really is isn't really as compelling as Lucia's journey. In SSSC's epilogue, she doesn't seem all that upset or shocked about being Althena; in fact, she's pretty chipper.

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burn321
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Re: Going through EBC now; my thoughts on it so far

Post by burn321 »

"She's kinda like a goddess that's growing a heart mixed with the sheer determination of of a freight train."
Oh my god. I died. I laughed so damn hard that was literally the most accurate description of her. I haven't even read the rest of it I laughed too hard to not let that statement get it's own comment.
"Lucia, I know you're not feeling very well......but I need to make sure that we're straight about something. Hiro is helping you out 'cause he's a nice guy, but he's ALL mine. Got that?"- Ruby

"What...what do you mean by that? I don't understand." - Lucia

"I mean you shouldn't get too close to Hiro, because you'd be setting yourself up for a fall." - Ruby

"Now I understand. You mean that Hiro tends to trip people who get too close. I will remember to walk several paces behind him in the future." - Lucia

"No, no, no! That's not what I meant! You're too dense to be a threat to me...let's just go!" - Ruby

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