Lunar: Silver Star Story (Lunar Remastered Collection) (Switch)

 

I mean, look at the helmet!

A remaster of the first game in the Lunar-series. Originally for the Sega CD (and was released on the Sega Mega Drive Mini II in Japan, but due to disagreement on payment it didn't follow with the western releases), later ported for Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn and then remade for the modern consoles. Fun with some old-school JRPG. Tells the story of Alex that wants to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Dyne the Dragonmaster. Together with Luna sets out on an adventure, first helping their friend Remus get a diamond from the White Dragon that lives in a cave near by and then taking it to the closest town to sell it. The story balloon from there where you meet Jessica, the daughter of the beastman hero Mel and her on and off boyfriend Kyle the bandit. You also meet Nash that takes you to Vane, the town of magicians. There you meet Mia and are set out to look into the fake Dragonmaster... and then it turns out that the magicians leader have been usurped by an imposter that have you arrested. Mia breaks you out and you unveils this conspiracy. Ghaleon, one of the four heroes joins you towards the white dragon to ask for help.

Well, turns out Ghaleon is the real mastermind behind it and captures the white dragon, kidnaps Luna (over the course of the game singers have been kidnapped so one would assume that's why they got Luna since her singing have magical effects). Alex is saved from the cave by Laike, a friend Alex and Luna met while leaving their town of Burg. Setting off with the other friends Alex looks to complete the trails set by the other dragons in order to become the Dragonmaster and stop Ghaleon. Turns out that Luna is the reincarnated goddess Althena who gave up her life to ensure that humans had free will and stood on their own legs and didn't depend on her. Ghaleon was a bit more cynical and believed humans needed a strong leader and if Althena wouldn't do it he was the one to carry the mantle. And Laike is Dyna and the world is probably our moon and the blue star they have as a moon is probably our earth they escaped from in ancient times when humans almost destroyed themselves. 

It's a standard JRPG, I think they modeled it after Final Fantasy IV since Alex turning into the Dragonmaster feels like Cecil becoming a paladin. Nash betrays you like Kain and Ghaleons armor looks  a bit like Gobbels. And their is 5 playable characters at the most! Well, it was fun. One town was the frontier town of Pao where people got sick as the evil songstress sang a song. I think that part is inspired by the Song of Hiawatha or one of the stories based on Hiawatha's life since after watching the feature on Disney's Pocahontas where they described how they tried to adopt it since Walt Disney's days (beside the kid Hiawatha short that spanned a lot of comics) and then ended with Pocahontas... would have preferred the supernatural Hiawatha than Pocahontas to be honest.

It was fun. Music was good and the remastered wide-screen graphics looks good. They have a lot of animated scenes introducing characters and pivotal moments in the story and they due their job, but at times the designs feel a bit generic... and the Dragonmaster armor looks kinda goofy. What is that helmet? It's just a cap! Voice acted and I get it's a new dub to avoid the problems the Sega Mega Drive Mini II had. The ending focused a lot on Alex and Luna's love for each other's and it's sappy, but I'm weak for this romantic moments. As Alex said, the human spirit will prevail. And for future me, remember that when you get into the thieves guild to return and get the locked chests since when I recalled it in this playthrough, two of them was locked out.

Grandia II (Switch)

Wow, that art... is rather special.

Since I've already played the first game I had to give the second game a go. It was a good game, several improvements from the first game. Basic story is that you play as Ryudo, a geohound that travels around. A geohound is just another name for mercenary I guess. You get an assignment to protect a songstress from a small church of Granas to the Tower of Valmar, Valmar being the god of darkness that opposes the god of light, Granas. By performing a ceremony they keep the seal on the destroyed god so that he can't be reborn. But the ceremony fails this year and the songstress Elana gets possessed by the wings of Valmar, which takes the form in Millenia. Basically at night with a large moon Millenia takes over. Ryudo is tasked with taking Elena to the St. Heim Papal state and meet with Pope Zera that is the only one that would know what to do. He can't do much but sends us on a quest to find the Granasaber, the weapon which pierced Valmar in the battle between light and dark. 

On the way we encountered the kid Roan and Mareg, a lionman looking for Melfice, the brother of Ryudo that apparently killed some people and Ryudo promise to help Mareg. You end up in the kingdom of Cyrum where Roan is the prince. The king tried to open some Gates of Darkness that was hidden beneath the castle and apparently the people of Cyrum are descendants of the people of Darkness that fought for Valmar in the past. Melfice kills the king and Roan has to stay as king so you are joined by an automata named Tio that Mareg takes under his wing teaching her about what it means to be human and have a heart. They travel across the sea, first to Ryudo's hometown island where it is revealed that 3 years ago Melfice was possessed by the horns of Valmar when he was forced to kill his fiancé that was the songstress keeping seal intact on the shrine on the island, that also failed. Ryudo was blamed together with his brother for the incident and he ran away. And now he's back and fight Melfice again, killing him, but in doing so is also possessed by the Horns. Elena breaks down and summons Melenia that up till now have devoured all other parts of Valmar that we encountered, but this time she hesitates and instead seals it away in Ryudo since travelling together made her love him. 

Anyway, we get off the island to Maregs homeisland where he tells the elder he succeed in his mission killing Melfice (who I assume killed people in the village) and they go to get the Granasaber in the middle of a desert on the island. Turns out that the Granasaber is a big spaceship. They enter it and go back to the S:t Heim Papal state, where the knights have begun slaughtering people. Inside the cathedral Pope Zera killed the other bishops and priests and it is revealed Zera sent Elena on the quest to gather all parts of Valmar in order to make himself the reincarnation of Valmar due to loosing hope in humanity since they are filled with Darkness, and during the battle of Light and Darkness Granas actually died meaning there is no god of light. So Zera take Elena to the Moon, and you follow in the Granasaber. On the moon you rescue Elena, but Millenia is separated from Elena and used to fuel Zera's turn into Valmar. Escaping they are hunted by monsters so Mareg sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape on the Granasaber.

Crashing back on the planet they go to Cyrum and join with Roan again and go to the mausoleum of the royal family that is some sort of memory bank. Apparently the seal was just something to help along the creation of Valmar so Ryudo volonters to fuse completely with the horns to be able to fight of Valmar Zera. Really the game lost me at this point since suddenly it's all talks about the human heart and such. You get a new granasaber that you actually can use and enters Valmar Zera. After a battle with the core Millenia emerges from Elena and they are two separate people... what? Tio and Roan are left behind trying to hold the monsters so it's Ryudo, Elena and Millenia. A boss rush mode and then fighting of Valmar Zera. Everyone escapes, the game fast-forward a year when Roan travels around the world meeting Tio as a nurse, placing a medal at Maregs grave in his village, Elena is a travelling minstrel, Millenia is a teacher and Ryudo disappeared, burying the granasaber, the end.

First made for the Dreamcast it was one of the two notable RPG:s for that system, the other being Skies of Arcadia. And they look a bit alike. Hero is blue, the body seems built the same way and such. Skies of Arcadia is better though. First off, game is only 30 hours long. Nice time, but the last 2-3 hours still felt like padding a bit since you had Zera right there on the moon, why did we have to return to earth, do another dungeon? The heart thing in the end felt a bit tacked on actually. Music is great, a lot of reused material from the first game and the "love" theme is a reworked intro theme from the first game... and the credit theme. Voice acting is superior (and also the sound mixing). Cam Clarke is Ryudo and is great. Graphics are nice, I think all enemies besides bosses is just 3D-characters of enemies from the first game (and some bosses is actually also from the first game). Problem is the CG cutscenes and 2D animated ones that looks really grimey and with a weird shades. Probably needed to be more polished for better effect... also, no subtitles for those. Sound mixing is better so I hear what they say, but still. Gameplay changes are really nice, instead of everyone having their separate magic they instead equip eggs that you level up with magic points from battles. Good, no more grinding magic to be able to use the better spells. You also get books with attributes that you can equip and level up so that's fine. Overall, liked the game. Maybe a bit short in 30 hours and really nothing in side content, not even side dungeons like in the first game. Story not as good as 1, might prefer replaying that again over this, but still fine. Another problem is that I have a bit of problem with Ryudo in the beginning of the game sibce he is just a sarcastic ass to everyone. He changes a bit a long the way, but this is another reason why I like Justin better and also why Skies of Arcadia is better, Vyse always was nice to people, except enemies.

Grandia (Switch)

Time for a rematch in HD!

Been 5 years since I finished Grandia for the first time so with the HD collection for the Switch I got it again and played through the first game again. Didn't take 60 hours but more akin to 50 hours this time and it thankfully wasn't 1 year between starting up and finish it this time. And what I wrote 5 years ago is still as true this time around. Knowing the mechanics of the skills also meant I actually got the water skills (and all the other) up to decent levels that made it rather easy. Especially when I found a acid river that I could deplete the HP of all characters and then just heal to get everyone above level 10. Also knowing what to level up, who was gonna leave and then redistribute the left over levels made it much easier. Also having a page on gamefaqs so I didn't miss the mana eggs made it easier to get the magic to every character fast enough. 

Storywise, still as fun. Really like the optimistic tone, but I still would say Skies of Arcadia is better since Vyse isn't stupid compared to Justin. What I don't like and it's the same problem I wrote about last time and that is that the Garlyle forces ain't that bad. They make excavations to find historical knowledge and they mostly act with the civilians, even though some officers where fond of torture and harassing civilian kids interested in adventure. And then of course they kept the people away from the fact about the end of the world... and also from their civilian sponsors that founded the forces in the first place. Alright, there might be some problems there, but still. And then we have Baal. How did he become the bad guy? Was he infected by Gaia and turned evil? Was he always that way? Why did he marry a humanoid and got a really decent son or was that part of the evil plan? Cause otherwise it's just humans sucks.

Finally, voice acting still terrible. Justin, Feena and Sue is alright, but my god, Mullen really needs to emote better. The ending part of the game with him trying to convey failure to protect Leen or anything else is just laughable. Baal when he hams it up as a villain is rather decent, but also speaks to softly. Also, it wasn't as much speaking dialogue as I thought. Should probably be grateful with what we have. Also, I don't know if it's hardware or the game, but the joycons really acted up. The left one needed to reconnect several times as if it lost signal and often I had to push around the left stick since it seemed to lock up in a direction. As noted, don't know if hardware or something with the game programming. But I have taken some precautions by getting a pro controller so we can see later on. Especially in games like Resident Evil 4-6 with all the action.

Grandia

Time for an adventure!

First a bit of confession. I began this game about a year ago, but didn't finish due to my sister returning home from Germany and with her in the house no one was safe so I let it be. Until two weeks before writing this. I remembered I still hadn't finished this game and started it up and after two weekends that totaled my playing time to around 60 hours when I reached the end screen. And what a journey that was. You have to excuse me if I can't remember every detail since I took a time off for a year. The story is that the age of adventure has come to an end since the great wall was discovered and no one could pass through it and the world was declared fully explored. This doesn't stop or main hero Justin, a boy living in... I have forgotten were he lives, but I know it was with his mom. He set out together with his... was she a cousin or just a next door friend? Her name was Sue anyway. Crossing the ocean on a ferry they meet up with Feena, a famous adventurer and they join forces. The reason Justin left I recall was also due to him antagonising the Garlyle forces who excavated some ruins where Justin was told to search for a mysterious legendary city.

Atlantis? No? Alent?

Of course you are able to traverse the wall and discover a new part of the world and as any JRPG the military antagonist already found it. And here I was stumped, I didn't find them as antagonising. I was trespassing in a dangerous area and they seemed to care very much for the protection of the citizen. So who was the enemy? Well, it was the General Baal (really? One of the false gods that Elias threw out of Judea? Clearly a nice guy) who seemed to have gone insane by fusing with a corrupted spirit stone that wanted nothing else than destroy the world in an eternal cycle of life and death. To help him his son Colonel Mullen and (*SPOILERS*) Feenas sister Leen tries to take Justins spirit stone his father gave him and so on. It feels rather fresh when there isn't a conquering empire as your enemy, but some misguided military people who are betrayed by the higher ups. Baals action even turns his own son Mullen against him as he forces a mutiny in the ranks of the military to depose his father. Of course I have to do the dirty deed and dethrone Baal since he won't give up. All in all a really tight story written from start to end. You have the sense of excitement of traversing the great wall, the sadness of farewell when Sue departs back home.

One of the saddest moments in the game

That moment also tells me Justin is really a sociopath, or does he have ADHD? Whatever it is, he can't seem to figure out other people. The whole love story between him and Feena is so obvious I can't believe he missed it. Still, it was fun playing. And mostly due to the levelling system. You have the normal levelling up system, but a twist is that magic and skills level up with use. Normal sword attacks, gain points and new special attacks. Use fire spells and learn a new spell. Hit the right amount of levels and detect other attacks and skills. Rather fun using spell after spell and see the numbers fly away and reach that level up to unlock another spell. A pity the only ones that makes it easy to level up are attack spells which are favoured by fire and after the first slope Earth. Water was woefully neglected by most party member even though it has all healing spells.

Um... who is the knight guy on the left?

The ending is that Baal merges with the stone Gaia and transform into a giant worm and is stopped by Leens sacrifice which traumatises Mullen and Feena is guilt tripped into join him on a suicide mission as their only course of action. Justin unable to figure out a way out of this is left behind and lost until a reunion with all characters that joined you creates a portal to the spirit world were he receives the spiritual sword and can challenge Gaia. He saves Feena and Mullen and fights of Baal and Gaia. Feena and Justin wakes up below the giant tree that appeared instead of the Gaia worm and we watch as the people celebrate, only Mullen stand above them, left alone after his fathers death and Leens sacrifice. Spirits starts to gather and in a flash of light Leen is brought back to life. Even Grandia knew what the players wanted Ni No Kuni! Then credits roll and after that a post-credit scene in which it has gone 10 years and Sue is walking to the port as Justin and Feena are returning and what do you know, five familiar looking kids runs past her and we end as she is waiving toward Justin and Feena as they get of the boat (I presume since it fades to white as she waives at the audience). And I was so excited to play the second game in series to see the follow-up adventure of Justin... but it appears they went with the Final Fantasy type of series and created a completely new world for each game. Damn.

Don't look so cheerful Sue, we ain't seeing you in those games either.

So is there something I don't like about this game? First is the points of no return. Each new town feels like it and I would really loved to have seen Justins mom's reaction of him returning home. Other games usually gives you an airship at the end so you can see the world and return to old places to give the end battle even more impact, but not Grandia. And then we have the biggest issue.... the damn voice acting for the game. This must be one of the earliest games I've heard with voices and they are mostly atrocious. Especially Mullen who sounds bored out of his skull and Baal I can't take seriously. Sadly, they open up the game. Justin goes back and forth with decent to abysmal and Feena is probably the only one that sound normal... most of the time. At least the music is awesome. No, but really, it was a fun game to play through and it hit some sweet spots. I'm more amazed that even though I didn't play it for a year I could jump right in and finish it and still remember all the characters that joined me and some of the more important moments like Justin and Feena at sea and the goodbye of Sue. Wonder what I should play next?