Together Retro: Lunar Silver Star

Post by **marurun** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:02 pm

OK, playing the Sega CD version, I'm currently investigating the washed out bridge. I've explored up-river and found a forest but I haven't explored it yet. Part of me says down-river might be a better idea, but meh. I probably won't play again until after the Memorial Day weekend.

Post by **Hiryu76** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:41 pm

Visit Saith yet?

Post by **marurun** » Sat May 24, 2008 10:47 am

I think I have to restore the bridge first. I dunno. I just wrapped up at the dragon cave and then headed west. And I'm away this weekend and won't be able to play again until middle of next week.

I do know that the battle system is interesting, but the AI function pretty much kills the need to interact with it much. I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing. If there were fewer combats (and the combat encounter rate really doesn't seem too high) that were harder, or at least a little more strategic, I could see eliminating the AI feature altogether. As it is I guess it's nice that for the easy battles I can just let the game take care of it.

I've also noticed the AI can do stuff I can't figure out how to, like attacking multiple enemies rather than just pursuing a single one. That makes the AI function sometimes even more useful than controlling combat.

Post by **xraydash** » Sat May 24, 2008 11:51 pm

I had a difficult time with the giant mushroom boss in the Cave of Trials and was getting pretty frustrated. Took about a dozen tries to defeat him. Basically if he paralyzes Alex or Luna, you're done for. Some of the battles were cheap too, like when he does three attacks in a row. Finally got lucky and beat him. I've fought two bosses since then and neither were nearly as difficult as those first few.

Even though the challenge has decreased, the story has really picked up. There's a stretch around the 8-9 hour mark that has a lot of plot twists. Things get really exciting! Sure, you can see most of it coming but that doesn't make it any less exhilarating.

I'm just over ten hours and very much enjoying it. Headed for the red dragon, still playing the PSX version...

Post by **SpaceBooger** » Sat May 24, 2008 11:56 pm

Just began... well restarting the cave of trials. I was to the second dude who offers to heal you only once when I decided that I would go back to the start and save.
This way when I do the cave of trials again tomorrow I will have a better chance of leveling up before the giant mushroom boss you speak of.

Post by **xraydash** » Sun May 25, 2008 12:33 am

SpaceBooger wrote:Just began... well restarting the cave of trials. I was to the second dude who offers to heal you only once when I decided that I would go back to the start and save.
This way when I do the cave of trials again tomorrow I will have a better chance of leveling up before the giant mushroom boss you speak of.

Try to hold off and clear everything out after that guy, then go back and let him refresh you. The monsters don't respawn after you defeat them. That way you'll be maxed out for mushroom man boss. You'll need to be! I was at level 13 and like I said, I had a real hard time with him.

Post by **SpaceBooger** » Sun May 25, 2008 9:41 am

xraydash wrote:
SpaceBooger wrote:Just began... well restarting the cave of trials. I was to the second dude who offers to heal you only once when I decided that I would go back to the start and save.
This way when I do the cave of trials again tomorrow I will have a better chance of leveling up before the giant mushroom boss you speak of.
Try to hold off and clear everything out after that guy, then go back and let him refresh you. The monsters don't respawn after you defeat them. That way you'll be maxed out for mushroom man boss. You'll need to be! I was at level 13 and like I said, I had a real hard time with him.

Thanks for the advise.
I also noticed that the dude at the very beginning of the cave will continually refresh you with no limit... its just a pain to keep walking back to the beginning for the free refresh.

Post by **NebachadnezzaR** » Sun May 25, 2008 10:51 am

Here I am after being absent for the last two together retro games

Didn't really feel like playing Ristar again at the time and Samurai Showdown, although I like to do a quick battle once in a while, also didn't grab my attention.

Anyway, I'm back again, and so far I'm really liking Lunar. It's one of those RPGs I've heard lots about but never played, and if it wasn't for together retro I doubt I would, at least any time soon. So far (right now I'm in Meribia) the only thing I didn't really like was the battles, I think there's a little too much of them. Other than that, the game's being a blast to play. The 2D graphics are lovely, the story is nothing extraordinary but is engaging enough, the characters are really charming and the gameplay is pretty cool. I specially like the lack of random battles and the option to let the IA take control of the combat.

By the way, this may be a bit off-topic, but with all the story surrounding Luna and her singing, I couldn't help but think of this song more than once.

Post by **SpaceBooger** » Sun May 25, 2008 12:14 pm

When I first played the Sega CD version in college I loved it, it was my first JRPG and the first time I cared about a story. At that time I had beaten Shining Force, but didn't follow the story I just dug the battles.
But, last night I was playing and loaded up the save before Luna sings on the ship (PSX version) and my wife noticed something that I never noticed back then or even now: The moon for Lunar's world is - EARTH!
I never noticed that and it makes sense since Luna is the Latin name of our moon...

Post by **NebachadnezzaR** » Sun May 25, 2008 12:50 pm

SpaceBooger wrote:The moon for Lunar's world is - EARTH!
I never noticed that and it makes sense since Luna is the Latin name of our moon...

I'm not sure it was Earth, but I did notice that it strangely had what seemed to be oceans and continents, so it's definitely not a regular, desert moon.