To mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing, I will take this time to lament the Lunar game franchise. Lunar is possibly the saddest franchise in gaming. It came and went and then came again huge... and then went again. It tried and failed for a three-peat. You probably missed Lunar. But for those of us lucky enough to have experienced The Silver Star Story, it was amazing and here are some pics of my copy of it.
The games were originally Sega CD releases. One of the early attempts at using CD for console gaming, this was a Genesis add-on drive. The games were packed epics and featured lengthy cut-scenes to drive the plot. Many years later, the games were remade and featured full-frame anime cinematics to bring everything to life.
Silver Star Story Complete came on 2 game discs, an audio CD soundtrack with songs and all the rerecorded music, and a PS1-proprietary format disc that played a half-hour behind-the-scenes video. The box also contained a hardback manual featuring a partial walkthrough and a cloth map of the fictional world.
The sequel, Eternal Blue Complete, also made a return engagement with even more ridiculousness. It included a box of stuff like a soundtrack CD and a replica medallion worn by the heroine.Sadly, that was the final hurrah for Lunar. When "Dragon Song" appeared on DS, it was so far removed from that time-line, it was hardly recognizable anymore. In fact, I think the saddest thing about this is that the remakes video renders were so good (beyond 16-bit, but before DVD existed). As it was, the game was English-only including dubbed songs (while the singer has a sweet voice, she had some very awkward lyrics to work with). It would be another few years before I managed to find MP3s of the Japanese songs. The Lunar franchise is a relic of the 90's and we can only wonder if it will ever rise again.
The games were originally Sega CD releases. One of the early attempts at using CD for console gaming, this was a Genesis add-on drive. The games were packed epics and featured lengthy cut-scenes to drive the plot. Many years later, the games were remade and featured full-frame anime cinematics to bring everything to life.
Silver Star Story Complete came on 2 game discs, an audio CD soundtrack with songs and all the rerecorded music, and a PS1-proprietary format disc that played a half-hour behind-the-scenes video. The box also contained a hardback manual featuring a partial walkthrough and a cloth map of the fictional world.
The sequel, Eternal Blue Complete, also made a return engagement with even more ridiculousness. It included a box of stuff like a soundtrack CD and a replica medallion worn by the heroine.Sadly, that was the final hurrah for Lunar. When "Dragon Song" appeared on DS, it was so far removed from that time-line, it was hardly recognizable anymore. In fact, I think the saddest thing about this is that the remakes video renders were so good (beyond 16-bit, but before DVD existed). As it was, the game was English-only including dubbed songs (while the singer has a sweet voice, she had some very awkward lyrics to work with). It would be another few years before I managed to find MP3s of the Japanese songs. The Lunar franchise is a relic of the 90's and we can only wonder if it will ever rise again.
2 comments:
Awesome packages, mate! Looks to me like these would be worth a small fortune on e-Bay... Did you check by any chance?
It hovers anywhere from $75CAD on eBay all the way up to some idiot's Buy-It-Now for $225CAD (it'll never sell).
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