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I won't lie. Nostalgia hits and it hits hard. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, its accuracy score is down right awful. Ironically, I had just been explaining to a friend that Crimson Gem Saga appeared to be "the new Lunar" based on its marketing scheme of being generic, old school, but funny. Naturally a few days later I read right here on RPGamer that the latest remake for Lunar 1, now known as Lunar: Harmony of Silver Star is in development. Boy, do I feel like a chump for owning the complete versions on PSX. Clearly, they will never be complete, but they really, really should be.
As I see it, there are three eras of JRPGs to date. The first is the completely nondescript era that is defined by games like the original Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. They have virtually no plot, dialogue or character development, leaving them as dungeon crawlers: with simplistic battle systems and lame dungeons. In other words, by modern standards, they're garbage and served only as an experiment. They are but the twisted remains of a lab rat which suffered for science that we, the players would have a more enjoyable tomorrow. The second era was defined by fleshing out the generic system, story and characters. Sure, It may not have been any great shakes. Empires are always bad and kingdoms always good. The world is always I danger, sacred lineages abound, unnatural hair colors dominate, and motivations are thin. Even so, saving the world to become un-exiled, revenge for your village which was burned when you were out hunting, or silently seeking justice against planet consuming aliens was a world apart from "That man is bad. He kidnapped the princess. Rescue her, and then kill the bad guy." This is the entire story for Dragon Quest, just not in so many words. I apologize for spoiling it for anyone who may not have played it yet.
The Lunar games, especially in their "Complete" forms, released for Playstation roughly a decade ago were great for just one thing: they were the pinnacle of what you could do for an old school game without drastically changing the formula. They were fun despite, perhaps even because of how undeniably old school they were. This third era of RPGs began its rise during the Playstation Age - an era characterized by increasing complexity and realism, even in its absurdity (political treachery, video games within video games, modern settings etc.) Games that only partially follow this format at least have the good sense to take every opportunity to make underhanded swipes at themselves and RPG clichés, which seems to be the entire shtick for works such as Crimson Gem Saga or the probably Japan only game Narisokonai eiyuu-tan, which was reported in the Japandemonium column on 4/24/09. Even that meta-humor can wear thin, but at least those are "new old school" games. Harmony of Silver Star is a same-old-old-school game.
The Complete Lunar games were the culmination, and funeral song, for an era. For God's sake, Alex was the dragon master. The dragon master! Dark gods re-awoke seeking revenge. Magic emperors tried to reign with an iron fist because they cared so much about people. Love conquered all. Quests mostly involved fetching: Airship part, dragons, etc. You couldn't go to any town or dungeon without it creating some side quest or another because there wasn't enough plot to spread over forty or fifty hours otherwise. Even a decade ago, there were pretty bitter disagreements between those who still saw value in something so "old school" and those who didn't. How much worse is it now when games such as Persona, The World Ends With You and Fallout 3 top the RPG charts?
If they're going to make a "new" Lunar, why not ACTUALLY make a new one? I know Dragon Song sucked, but that's hardly surprising. Lunar without Ghaleon is like Star Wars without Darth Vader. Maybe they should try making a prequel, and if that proves popular, then they have an excuse to remake the first two for the umpteenth time. It's cool. I'll wait for an actually new game. Everything from Devil Survivor to Sakura Taisen V is coming out in the next year. Third era games- Complex systems, unusual plots, "modern" settings, designed for replay, the whole nine yards. And you know, I'm in no rush to pay for something I already own. Twice.
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