Lunar Remastered Collection, a package of the first two Lunar games for the PlayStation 1 ported to modern consoles and PC, received a story trailer over the weekend. In the trailer, we’re shown brief bits of the story, animated cut scenes from both games, some of the combat, and plenty of the characters you’ll be meeting along the way.
Lunar, for better or worse, has an interesting history being ported around on different consoles with many different variations. Lunar: The Silver Star and it’s sequel Lunar: Eternal Blue were originally JRPGs released on the Sega CD. A novelty in and of itself, eventually they would find a wider audience with both versions being re-released on the PlayStation. Using the CD-ROM format of the Sega CD, Lunar was able to feature high quality audio, full motion video, and voice acting which were rarities for RPGs and nearly all games in the early 90s when they initially released.
Eventually, the games would go on to garner a cult following of RPG fans after becoming the number one selling Mega-CD title in Japan and the second highest selling Mega-CD title in general. Perhaps prescient, Lunar: Eternal Blue would go on to sell well despite retailing for the high price of ¥9,900 which would be about ¥11,552 today. At the time, this was roughly $100 USD, and adjusted for inflation we’re looking at $142.55 USD today. Of course, the Japanese Yen isn’t doing so hot right now, so even adjusted for inflation, it’d only be about $80 USD. Huh, a new game retailing for $80 USD, unheard of.
LUNAR: Silver Star Story
LUNAR: Silver Star Story introduces Alex, an aspiring Dragonmaster who bands together with his friends to combat the perilous emergence of the Magic Emperor and stop him from taking over the world.
Introduced in the remastered version is a toggleable inventory management system in which all characters in the party share a combined inventory. I feel like the primary QoL functionality in these remasters is messing with the inventory system. Why were inventory systems so bad in the 90s? Along with the QoL inventory system upgrade, the auto-battle system has been improved, making it possible to customize the CPU behavior of individual characters. This is huge because if you’re anything like me, you pretty much auto-battle through most of the trash battles anyway. If you introduce auto-battling into your game, I’m gonna grind, and I’m gonna love it.
LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue
LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue picks up a thousand years later, and follows Hiro and his friends as they set out in search of the Goddess Althena alongside an enigmatic girl named Lucia. On this grand quest, fend off enemies like Borgan and White Knight Leo, who hunt down the group to eradicate what they deem to be the “Destroyer of Lunar.”
It’s really exciting that both of these games are getting the remastered treatment. Both are RPG classics and my hope is renewed interest in these otherwise dormant IPs means we’ll get new games in the series. Of course, new IPs are great, but some world settings are just unmatched and it’d be cool to see new takes on them. Along with these QoL features, mostly for Silver Star Story Complete, comes the split between playing the game in Remastered Mode and Classic Mode.
- Remastered Mode – Embark on the iconic adventures of LUNAR 1 and LUNAR 2 with all the remastered features, such as: widescreen (16:9) layout, enhanced sound and graphics, and updated character portrait sprites, menu icons, and bromides!
- Classic Mode – If nostalgia is what you crave, switch it over to the classic mode! Experience retro visuals with a 4:3 screen; original cutscenes, effects, and icons; three CRT filter options; and more.
Ugh, LUNAR and its bromides. The story trailer gives us a little more than a tease ahead of the LUNAR Remastered Collection release coming up later this month on April 18th, 2025. LUNAR Remastered Collection will be available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Stay tuned for more LUNAR Remastered Collection news and our upcoming review.
