Happy 20th/19th B-Day Lunar: The Silver Star and Snatcher (US)!

[LiquidPolicenaut]

20 years ago this month, Lunar: The Silver Star was released for the Sega CD. I still remember buying it in Toys R' Us, grabbing that ticket and bringing it up to the register, then hearing the infamous "Customer Service at the pick up booth please"..*sigh* memories lol.

Lunar: TSS still stands as one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Even though we've had 3 remakes of it (PSX/Sat/PC, GBA, and PSP), I still prefer the awesome soundtrack and the overworld map exploration in the original to all of the remakes.

Then, 19 years ago, Snatcher was released for the Sega CD. Still one of my top 5 games of all time and a great showpiece for the Sega CD. IMO, I still think this is the best version of the game (although some small things were censored from the PC-E version, they weren't major and the added intro and expanded ending make it better overall to me) although the PC88 and MSX versions have their charms

[Guy767]

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Lunar was originally released. The awesome soundtrack was the reason why I hooked my Sega CD to an AV receiver way back then. I rented the game for about 2 weeks so I could finish it; sweet memories indeed.

Never seriously played Snatcher though. My impression was it’s a shameless Blade Runner wannabe which is highly overrated and that always turned me off to get involved in the game.

Snatcher is ridiculously expensive now though so obviously it has a huge fan base and I'm committing blasphemy with my comments. Needless to say, I'm not going to be paying $300+ in my lifetime to own a CIB Sega CD copy

[gamebaka]

Two real classics.

I've grabbed Lunar on release date as well, and it was THE reason to own a Mega CD back then.

As for Snatcher, never played it on Sega hard, only on PC and PC Engine. Despite the somewhat annoying shooting scenes, Snatcher aged pretty well in my opinion. It's time to play through this one again soon I guess.

Hardcore Gaming 101 has a nice feature for Snatcher: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/snatcher/snatcher.htm

Are there any good Lunar fansites out there with lots of info and comparison shots between all the different ports?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Lunar is still one of my favorite childhood games. I still have a love/hate relationship with the opening theme song.

Something that a lot of people don't know is that the English opening is merely a redub of the original, Japanese version that screams early 90's jpop almost to the point of self parody.

Do check it out if you're a fan of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOCnbTjcN_k

As for Snatcher, well, I've still never played it. I no longer have a working Sega CD, so I'll have to emulate it on my Ouya or something.

[FoxNtd]

Lunar was very fun and enjoyable, though I played both of them on Saturn and I heard they changed the enemy encounters to visible on the field instead of purely random? I've never actually seen how the Mega CD originals played.

Snatcher is one of the best games ever to put it simply. (Played on PC Engine!) I still like to go back and listen to that song in the beginning with the nice sax and all that.

[Tron 2.0]

Both are classic "having a sega-cd to play lunar tsss and snatcher" was the reason to own one.Though i was foolish once the PS1 came out i sold the genesis+sega-cd to be able to buy one.Few years ago i bought the genesis again and a sega-cd.I was able to buy lunar tsss again but snatcher,sigh snatcher has gotten to expensive over the years.

Now i do have snatcher for the saturn and pce,but since there in japanese i do miss out on the story.I will say lunar tsss got me interested in playing turned based rpgs to begin with.Before that there was dragonquest on the nes,but i never finished the game.

[Daria]

Heh, apparently I share a birthday with Lunar and Snatcher. The day Lunar was released my parents swore that I would never have another slumber party again, and the day Snatcher came out I was opening up a new GameGear.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Lunar was very fun and enjoyable, though I played both of them on Saturn and I heard they changed the enemy encounters to visible on the field instead of purely random? I've never actually seen how the Mega CD originals played.

Actually, all of the remakes of Lunar throughout the years change things pretty drastically. In the original Mega/Sega CD version, there are random encounters like in a Final Fantasy game, and the battle system, while still range based, is a lot more primitive than in the Saturn/PS1 remake. Also, Luna leaves your party and stays in Saith before Alex leaves for Maridia. No boat song, and nothing that happened on the mainland with her in the original.

Then there's the Saturn/PS1 classic that most people know. Then there's the GBA's Lunar Legend, which is like Lunar Abridged. Sort of the PS1 version, but again has sweeping changes and is generally considered the worst version of Lunar.

The most recent version on PSP, Silver Star Harmony, is mostly based on the PS1 classic, but again makes some changes to make it better, including a cool prologue of the Dyne, Galleon, Mel and Lemia fighitng with Eifael before Alex was even born. There's also new voice acting that gives the Working Designs translation a run for its money.

[FoxNtd]

Actually, all of the remakes of Lunar throughout the years change things pretty drastically. In the original Mega/Sega CD version, there are random encounters like in a Final Fantasy game, and the battle system, while still range based, is a lot more primitive than in the Saturn/PS1 remake. Also, Luna leaves your party and stays in Saith before Alex leaves for Maridia. No boat song, and nothing that happened on the mainland with her in the original.

Then there's the Saturn/PS1 classic that most people know. Then there's the GBA's Lunar Legend, which is like Lunar Abridged. Sort of the PS1 version, but again has sweeping changes and is generally considered the worst version of Lunar.

The most recent version on PSP, Silver Star Harmony, is mostly based on the PS1 classic, but again makes some changes to make it better, including a cool prologue of the Dyne, Galleon, Mel and Lemia fighitng with Eifael before Alex was even born. There's also new voice acting that gives the Working Designs translation a run for its money.

Good to know! Seems like I am even happier about going with the SS edition.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Actually, all of the remakes of Lunar throughout the years change things pretty drastically. In the original Mega/Sega CD version, there are random encounters like in a Final Fantasy game, and the battle system, while still range based, is a lot more primitive than in the Saturn/PS1 remake. Also, Luna leaves your party and stays in Saith before Alex leaves for Maridia. No boat song, and nothing that happened on the mainland with her in the original.

Then there's the Saturn/PS1 classic that most people know. Then there's the GBA's Lunar Legend, which is like Lunar Abridged. Sort of the PS1 version, but again has sweeping changes and is generally considered the worst version of Lunar.

The most recent version on PSP, Silver Star Harmony, is mostly based on the PS1 classic, but again makes some changes to make it better, including a cool prologue of the Dyne, Galleon, Mel and Lemia fighitng with Eifael before Alex was even born. There's also new voice acting that gives the Working Designs translation a run for its money.

Good to know! Seems like I am even happier about going with the SS edition.

It's all subjective, really, on which one you like better. I still think the battles in SSS are the weakiest out of all of them and I like the TSS and, oddly enough, the GBA version's best. I did like the revamped 3/4 perspective for SSH and the re-scored music sounds sooo much better than the originals on the SS/PSX version (though the SS version does technically sound better). Some of the voices in SSH aren't as good as the originals as well. The biggest things I still enjoy more in TSS are the music and the overworld map. It seems that, starting with the SS/PSX remake, the overworld map was wittled down to literally nothing by SSH came out...hell, in SSH, it's basically a "click a location" map now! lol

Regardless of which version you choose, it's a great series to get into and one I still love (and play) to this day......

[Satoshi_Matrix]

You know, I'm really surprised Lunar was never turned into an anime, or at least an OVA. There have been many RPGs far less deserving of the full 26-episode anime conversion treatment, and yet there's never been anything for Lunar, outside of the game cutscenes. Lunar has all the makings of a great anime, and it's not like its not popular in Japan.

If it worked for a great RPG like Tales of the Abyss, why not Lunar?

[MetalFRO]

Lunar is still one of my favorite childhood games. I still have a love/hate relationship with the opening theme song.

Something that a lot of people don't know is that the English opening is merely a redub of the original, Japanese version that screams early 90's jpop almost to the point of self parody.

Do check it out if you're a fan of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOCnbTjcN_k

As for Snatcher, well, I've still never played it. I no longer have a working Sega CD, so I'll have to emulate it on my Ouya or something.

I much prefer the Working Designs PSX version intro song:


One of the few intros I never skipped when booting up a game. Love that song.

[kainemaxwell]

Ok so, best cinema scene of the Sega CD Lunar, and the ps1 Lunar?

Go!

Fav of the Sega cd, Ghaelon killing Quark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv9Uzi9ErOg

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Without question, the Wind Nocturne rearrangement from the PSP's Silver Star Harmony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGTZcRgGnP0

Sung by the same singer from the PS1 Working Designs localization, but the lyrics are far less localized and match the Japanese original lyrics.

[kainemaxwell]

That was pretty. The Boat Song always brings a tear to my eye.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Favorite cinema from TSS would be a tie between Quark's death and when Vane gets knocked out of the sky...

While I do still love the opening to TSS, I also really like the opening to SSSC as well as most of the cinemas in SSSC including the beautiful Wind's Nocturne. I think I still prefer the WD version over XSeeds though. I think it flows better than the XSeed version especially moreso in the opening theme...