Lunar Threads

Well, here we are. Harmony is out in the world now. Is it time to start thinking about a possible Lunar 2 PSP? I think so. ^_^

You may know that a company called Vanguard Works was the primary developer on the Lunar 2 remake, and if history repeats itself then Game Arts might go back to them for a PSP version. I found myself wondering if they're still around and what they're up to, and it turns out those questions are easily answered on their website. The first item of interest is how much Vanguard has been involved with the series - going back to the original Lunar 2. Now that I think about it, I remember seeing "Vanguard" in the credits of a lot of Lunar games.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue[sic] - Mega Drive[sic] - dungeon design, dungeon graphics
Lunar: Silver Star Story - Saturn - game system design, dungeon design, battle design, battle data
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue - Saturn - main program, main graphics, game design
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue - Playstation - main program, main graphics, game design

Vanguard did a lot of co-development in the '90s, but has been doing a lot more solo development (mostly Bandai licence games and online games) this decade. Also, a fair crap-ton of mobile games. Their most recent product released in North America is Trauma Center 2 (they didn't work on the 1st one).

Please tell me that those EBC roles don't also include dungeon design, because it would boggle my mind if the same people did EB's nicely complex ones and EBC's boring ones. Maybe there's less difference than I remember, since it's been so long since I played EBC, but I recall the disappointment of the Forest of Illusion just being about really obvious shrubbery.

Another reason why Sega CD EB is superior to the remake. There was better art design and actual animation in the backgrounds of EB unlike EBC. I loved the red dragon cave in the original EB because there was lava flowing in the backgrounds during battles, lights flickering on walls in certain areas. Overall just a lot more attention to detail.

Alunissage wrote:Please tell me that those EBC roles don't also include dungeon design, because it would boggle my mind if the same people did EB's nicely complex ones and EBC's boring ones.

I suspect that it does involve the remake dungeons. I agree that its puzzling since the Sega CD version showed so much more care than the remake - but to my mind it's another half-hearted aspect of an unfortunately half-hearted game. And the listing for the Playstation version seems to suggest that those slapdash bonus dungeons are also their work.

Unless Vanguard has really improved, (and I don't rule out the possibility that they have,) I'd rather see a future Lunar 2 go to JAM than them. Lesser of two evils.

Right you are. Sometime, some thread, sometime after we're all done talking about good things like Harmony, let's have a Thread of Lament together about Eternal Blue's remake. People grumble about the TSS to SSS conversion a lot (understandably), but given how different the two are, I've always been able to love SSS just as well based on all the new things it does right, but since as the developers admitted, EB was a much more well-perfected game and there was little change, all the changes appear to have been for the worse. The average person might not notice since on its own merits, it's wonderful, but it's sort of like trying to explain why the Star Wars 'special editions' or Final Fantasy VI Advance are junk, even if they're still amazing if you've not started with the original. But since both of those came out more than half my life ago and Lunar Hope is dead, there's little chance to talk about it...

Compared to the original, EBC looks like a cake that was covered in disgusting fondant and you just have a fake polish hiding what should be the delicious product.

I'm curious as to your dislike of Final Fantasy VI Advance, aside from remixed music.

Agreed on EB remake. Such a waste, especially after the splendor of SSS's production (all gripes about changes aside).

FFVI Advance is just...a valient attempt at a port for a weak system like GBA. "Remixed" music is charitable---it's the best they could do with the vastly inferior soundchip, but that's not good enough when you've heard the original. Seems to have slowdown, too, and those unfortunate enough to play it in English still don't appear to have an accurate script after all these years, from what I've read of it in the form of transcriptions. Oh well! It's about the best they could do on a handheld.

But yeah, EB remix's animation...rats.

Considering how awful SSS's animation looks if you play it on an HDTV, I probably would go blind watching EBC's animation.

As for FFVI, it is my favorite in the series and the music was superb. That is a game worthy of a splendid remake. FFVII is good, but way overhyped.

Temzin wrote:FFVI Advance is just...a valient attempt at a port for a weak system like GBA.

FF6 is one of my absolute favorites so I thought it was cool that SE released that port, but I'd never say it surpasses the original. My big sticking point is the script - it should have been re-translated from scratch.

Silver Phoenix wrote:Considering how awful SSS's animation looks if you play it on an HDTV, I probably would go blind watching EBC's animation.

I imagine that the technological divide caused by newer TVs makes the artistic poverty of the Lunar 2 remake animation harder to bare.