Lunar: Dragon Song
Posted November 22, 2005
Many best remember the ill-fated Sega CD for the enchanting Lunar games. The Lunar games had whismical storylines and wonderfully interesting characters. These games also truly showed off the power of the Sega CD with their beautiful CD-Quality Music and animated cut scenes. Truly this series was the pinnacle of the Sega CD.
After that, Lunar showed up on the Playstation and the GBA. Once again, these were some solid titles. There was a version of Lunar to be released on the PS2 but it was eventually cancelled.
Now UbiSoft is taking a crack at the series with the Nintendo DS. What better way to reintroduce the series to today's audience on the highly innovative Nintendo DS? Surely the game creators could harness the innovative DS with an amazing version of Lunar. Sadly that's not the case.
Gameplay:
In this prequel to the Lunar series you play a glorified package courrier named Jian. You get packages to deliver from the local Fedex, or in this case "Gads Express". You are joined by a lass named Lucia who is a master at beating people over the head with her umbrella. Yes she's as worthless as she sounds.
The game features three different ways to get around in this game. First is a world map that shows every location. You cannot go anywhere at anytime, only to places you are currently next to. Then there's the town map mode. You see all of the stores in a town and choose where you want to visit. You don't see yourself walking around in this mode, but just making a selection with the D-Pad. Lastly there's the walking mode when you select a house, store, or area to go into. You can talk to NPCs, get into battles, and buy stuff in this mode.
The biggest problem I had is when you are walking around, you can run, but will easily get winded and slow down. This makes it hard to avoid battles and makes it very slow and tedious to get through various areas.
Speaking of battles, there are two different modes: manual and automatic. When you battle with the manual mode, you can't select your target and everything feels very random and pointless. It's basically just click and click. There is little strategy in this game compared to the Final Fantasy series for example. You will quickly start using the automatic mode.
Aside from all the nitty gritty details I've just gone over, to me the true "gameplay" of an RPG is the storyline, the characters and their dialogue. Unfortunately the game falls short in these areas with a rather boring storyline that feels rather rehashed from previous Lunar games, boring characters with wooden dialogue.
Graphics:
Let's face it, the graphics in an RPG aren't that important. A great RPG can have horrible graphics and still be immersive and brilliant. So it's not saying a lot for this game that this game's strongest feature is its graphics.
The maps and artwork are very nicely done, the vistas are intriguing, the game creators did a nice job catching the spirit of the Lunar games.
Honestly though, the game could have easily be done on a GameBoy Advanced other than occasionally spanning an image on both screens (that has been done to death on DS games). I'm not complaining about that because I did think they did a good job, but I'm sure some will be disappointed.
Audio:
The audio is also excellent in this game. It's sometimes hauntingly beautiful and sometimes charmingly cute. It goes well with the look of the game. To me the audio of an RPG is more important than the graphics in setting the mood so it wins some points from me there, even if the game falls short.
Conclusion:
Lunar: Dragon Song fails to achieve the high standards that the previous Lunar games achieved. The charming inhabitants of the other Lunar games are not longer as charming in this version. The wonderful and quirky story you found on previous Lunar games cannot be found here.
I really wanted to recommend this game, but unfortunately I cannot. Instead I recommend you go pickup a Sega CD and find some of the older Lunar games to play. Hopefully the next Lunar game can recapture the original magic.
After that, Lunar showed up on the Playstation and the GBA. Once again, these were some solid titles. There was a version of Lunar to be released on the PS2 but it was eventually cancelled.
Now UbiSoft is taking a crack at the series with the Nintendo DS. What better way to reintroduce the series to today's audience on the highly innovative Nintendo DS? Surely the game creators could harness the innovative DS with an amazing version of Lunar. Sadly that's not the case.
Gameplay:
In this prequel to the Lunar series you play a glorified package courrier named Jian. You get packages to deliver from the local Fedex, or in this case "Gads Express". You are joined by a lass named Lucia who is a master at beating people over the head with her umbrella. Yes she's as worthless as she sounds.
The game features three different ways to get around in this game. First is a world map that shows every location. You cannot go anywhere at anytime, only to places you are currently next to. Then there's the town map mode. You see all of the stores in a town and choose where you want to visit. You don't see yourself walking around in this mode, but just making a selection with the D-Pad. Lastly there's the walking mode when you select a house, store, or area to go into. You can talk to NPCs, get into battles, and buy stuff in this mode.
The biggest problem I had is when you are walking around, you can run, but will easily get winded and slow down. This makes it hard to avoid battles and makes it very slow and tedious to get through various areas.
Speaking of battles, there are two different modes: manual and automatic. When you battle with the manual mode, you can't select your target and everything feels very random and pointless. It's basically just click and click. There is little strategy in this game compared to the Final Fantasy series for example. You will quickly start using the automatic mode.
Aside from all the nitty gritty details I've just gone over, to me the true "gameplay" of an RPG is the storyline, the characters and their dialogue. Unfortunately the game falls short in these areas with a rather boring storyline that feels rather rehashed from previous Lunar games, boring characters with wooden dialogue.
Graphics:
Let's face it, the graphics in an RPG aren't that important. A great RPG can have horrible graphics and still be immersive and brilliant. So it's not saying a lot for this game that this game's strongest feature is its graphics.
The maps and artwork are very nicely done, the vistas are intriguing, the game creators did a nice job catching the spirit of the Lunar games.
Honestly though, the game could have easily be done on a GameBoy Advanced other than occasionally spanning an image on both screens (that has been done to death on DS games). I'm not complaining about that because I did think they did a good job, but I'm sure some will be disappointed.
Audio:
The audio is also excellent in this game. It's sometimes hauntingly beautiful and sometimes charmingly cute. It goes well with the look of the game. To me the audio of an RPG is more important than the graphics in setting the mood so it wins some points from me there, even if the game falls short.
Conclusion:
Lunar: Dragon Song fails to achieve the high standards that the previous Lunar games achieved. The charming inhabitants of the other Lunar games are not longer as charming in this version. The wonderful and quirky story you found on previous Lunar games cannot be found here.
I really wanted to recommend this game, but unfortunately I cannot. Instead I recommend you go pickup a Sega CD and find some of the older Lunar games to play. Hopefully the next Lunar game can recapture the original magic.