Should I play this?

[Maus]

I'm honestly in the middle of another installment on the series, so it might take a while before I hunt down a copy of Dragon Song, but... reading LOTS of post on here -as well as many other online reviews- the game seems so jam-packed with deal-breaking "features" and bugs (such as the inability to save, depending on your copy of the game) that it is honestly making me have second thoughts regarding playing it.

So, my questions for you is: is there any saving grace to this game? Something that it does SO well that it can outweigh the bad decisions and bugs? Because I would love to believe that there is, but I'm not so sure if I'm willing to get stuck with a defective copy or putting lots of time in a game that would never take off in the process.

[Sonic#]

I thought and still think it's a merely okay game. Most likely I'll never play it again. Early on I liked the job system, cards, and the combat reasonably well, but the equipment breaking and some other elements really turned me off.

I'd say if you're really curious, watch a Let's Play of the first hour or so.

[Maus]

Will do, then.

Thanks, mate

[Alunissage]

Hm. Now -- that is, early in your Lunar-playing experience -- might be a better time to play it than other times because your expectations won't be as set. As a game, though, it's pretty agonizing to play at times, so unless you're at a point in your life where you have plenty of gaming time OR really really want some more Lunar story stuff even if it doesn't fit all that well, you probably shouldn't bother.

It does have one pretty good piece of music (maybe more than one, there's just one that really stuck with me), and I rather liked the dungeon design.

[Maus]

I have taken both of your posts into consideration (thanks a lot for the replies, by the way) and I have decided that I shall play it as soon as I'm done with Eternal Blue. Maybe I'll even write some sort of "journal" on here for you to enjoy as I struggle thru it... that can be fun (for you)

[Alunissage]

I'll be interested in reading it. ^_^ I just looked at my notes from my last playthrough (I played it first in Japanese, which I do not read, and then mostly in English but haven't quite finished the English playthrough), and they're 130 pages in Word. But that's also including most of the dialogue. When you start it I'll paste a couple of helpful notes, because that first playthrough of mine was rather agonizing without knowing some stuff.

[Maus]

That would be so cool, thank you!

And wow, you truly are a devoted fan! I can't even imagine how you managed to play the game in such a foreign language. And you wrote 130 pages on Word? I don't think I could do that even for the games that I love the most.

[camel pimp]

For as terrible as this game, and despite how much I would genuinely recommend never giving it a second of your time, the ending is AMAZING. It's one of the few times this game's inadequacies produce comedy rather than just boredom and frustration. Still not worth playing the game for.

[Alunissage]

I'm, um, a very thorough fan. Unfortunately, I also have ADD, so I get really intensely into something for a while and then get interrupted and it'll be years before I get back to it.

To play it in Japanese, I took some very careful notes, including drawing the towns and labeling who lived where (necessary because your main character is a delivery courier and nearly all money involves literal fetch quests). All the same, I missed one very useful aspect which would've made it far less excruciating.

I'm glancing back over my notes now, and correcting a typo or two. Actually, the writing isn't that bad, at least at the beginning. It's just, well, everything else about the game. I'll probably put myself to sleep tonight thinking about how to improve it. Every other Lunar game -- okay, all three of them -- has been remade, why not this one, which needs it the most? =)

[Maus]

I fancy the fact that camel_pimp here (welcome, by the way!) literally joined just to talk me out the idea of playing it. It probably IS that bad

I'm, um, a very thorough fan. Unfortunately, I also have ADD, so I get really intensely into something for a while and then get interrupted and it'll be years before I get back to it.

You just described me.

To play it in Japanese, I took some very careful notes, including drawing the towns and labeling who lived where (necessary because your main character is a delivery courier and nearly all money involves literal fetch quests). All the same, I missed one very useful aspect which would've made it far less excruciating.

That's SO awesome. I would adore to see some of that fine work.

I'm not even trying to be nice here, it is literally inspiring to see that much love and devotion for a game.

Also... Do I play as a delivery guy? LUNAR: Futurama

Every other Lunar game -- okay, all three of them -- has been remade, why not this one, which needs it the most? =)

I would assume a meeting went like this:

CEO of UBISOFT: Guys, we need a way to increase profits by at least ten percent. That golden bathroom ain't paying for itself.

Developer: How about if we remade some of our newer games? People would buy it, even if we don't change a thing.

CEO of UBISOFT: LOVE IT! Which one, though?

Developer 2: Assassin's Creed... something?

CEO of UBISOFT: Too early. People are starting to get suspicious.

Developer 3: How about... Lunar: Dragon Song?

Developer 1: We really messed that one up, didn't we?

Developer 2: For reals.

CEO of UBISOFT: Rainbow Six and a half it is!

!

[Alunissage]

Just so you know, Ubisoft only localized Dragon Song. The original developer of the Lunar series is Game Arts, with some of the later games made by other Japanese studios. The two SegaCD games and their PlayStation remakes were localized by Working Designs, then Ubi localized Lunar Legend and Dragon Song, then XSEED localized Lunar Silver Star Harmony for PSP. And then SoMoGa did a version of Lunar Silver Star Story for iOS with some of Working Designs' text and some of XSEED's. Magical School Lunar!, a side story, was originally released on Game Gear and remade for Saturn, but was never localized.

That's the simplified version. There have been four distinct versions of Lunar 1 on seven platforms, and Lunar 2 and Magic School have each been remade once. I think most people, both players and developers, want to forget Dragon Song exists, though. Which honestly I think is a shame. It was rushed through in order to be the first RPG for Nintendo DS, and, well. It shows.

Thanks for the compliments about the work. It was mainly sheer stubbornness, though.

[Maus]

I know, I just didn't feel like bashing the people who made those jewels.

I think I'm playing Dragon Song today... my Eternal Blue playthrough can use a break.

[Kizyr]

A bit late, but.... yes I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone play this game. It's incredibly mediocre, the storyline is dull, and there are so many irritating points of the gameplay (and the game isn't even *difficult*, so those parts aren't challenging, just irritating) that it's boring to slog through.

...but yes I'll echo camel pimp that the ending was very original. But like the rest of the game, it's a storyboard without any fleshing out of the details, so even the ending seems bare-bones.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the music is also surprisingly good for such a lousy game. We have the tracks available on LunarNET's Lunar: DS page by the way. KF