Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is one of my favourite videogames of all time. It’s a great little package full of memorable characters, a tight story and a world that comes to life (thanks, in many ways, to Working Designs original localization back in the SegaCD days). I was rather ecstatic when I found out that XSEED Games would be bringing over the recently announced PSP remake.
While everything is calm on the surface, the world of Lunar is slowly devolving into chaos. The legendary Dragonmaster Dyne and his faithful companions have faded into obscurity only to have a shadowy figure known as the Magic Emperor begin to wreak havoc on the world created by the Goddess Althena. Meanwhile, in a small, humble village far removed from the turmoil in Lunar, lives a young man named Alex. As one who idolizes the legendary Dyne, Alex dreams of one day becoming the next Dragonmaster and matching the accomplishments of his life-long hero.
Egged on by his childhood friend Ramus and with his adopted sister Luna in tow, Alex heads off on what seems to be a meaningless adventure, unaware that it would be the first step in an epic journey with the fate of the entire world at stake.
Since it debuted over a decade ago, Lunar: Silver Star Story has continuously captivated fans with its timeless tale of love, betrayal and redemption, expertly woven into its involving gameplay and cinematic presentation. The classic masterpiece has now been reborn on the PSP as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony with all new graphics, added gameplay features, and a re-mastered soundtrack so a whole new generation of fans can experience this legendary first entry of the Lunar universe, while added story elements are sure to intrigue returning fans alike. This title is being developed by Game Arts and is scheduled to be released Fall 2009 exclusively for the PSP.
Source: Siliconera
RPGamer had a chance to talk with Development Producer, Masato Dobushi and Jimmy Soga of XSEED Games, and shed some light on the remake:
The last remake of Lunar on the GBA wasn’t as well received by fans as the Sega CD and PlayStation versions. What aspects of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will appeal to new fans? Long-time fans?
Masato Dobashi: I really think the opinions of Lunar fans towards the series is very important. For this PSP remake, I really wanted to use the Sega Saturn version as the basis to create a solid title because it was also what everyone was hoping for [in Japan].
For the new fans, I would love for them to experience an adventure full of dreams and hopes. Don’t you feel like we’re lacking those types of RPGs lately? I really wanted to show why Lunar has been loved for 17 years with this new PSP version.
For the old time fans, I would first like to say thank you to everyone. The reason Lunar can be played on the PSP now is because of their long time support and love for this series. For this version, Kei Shigema has put extra effort into the scenario and created a new episode to make it a more complete version of Lunar.
How does XSEED plan on handling the game’s quirky humor and sexual innuendos? That was one area that really stood out for me in the prior releases.
Jimmy Soga, XSEED Games: We’re still in the early stages of translation so it’s hard to say how we will handle it, but it would be a fine balancing act between keeping the original Working Designs English translations as is or to retranslate some of the stuff to be more true to the original Japanese. Working Designs did an excellent localization job, but their text has a lot of 90’s pop culture references and possibly some copyright issues that might have been okay when the original was released, but something we need to be more careful about today (such as “Tootsie Rolls”, “M&M’s”, “Wheaties,” etc.)
From all accounts, it looks like a lot more care is being put into this remake than the neutered (but still enjoyable) Gameboy Advance Remake and certainly much more than terrible Nintendo DS ‘sequel’. Hopefully there’s enough there for fans of the series and newbies alike, the Lunar series deserves as many fans as it can get!
