Lunar Threads

So I got another of my good friends to play Lunar SSSC on PS1!
He's about my age, has played hard games like Earthbound and some other RPGs including some classic and modern Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Zelda.
He should be good, right?
Says he's getting his arse whooped in the first cave!!
He didn't even know how to heal in the town.

....................................
But he says he's enjoying the game so far, he sounds like he wants to get far.

Nall tells you to go to the statue the first time you return to Burg, IIRC. However, if you don't know to take him literally, there's nothing obvious about it, really.

Nall tells you that only after you're done with the cave though.
I'd be surprised of anyone completing that cave without having returned to the town in between and having figured that already.

I usually back and forth to the Althena statue 3 or 4 times before I decide to wrap up the white dragon cave.

I found them both very difficult at times. It helps that the dev team tooks teps to ensure that you can never simply power level your way to an easy victory.

LunarRaptor wrote:I found them both very difficult at times. It helps that the dev team tooks teps to ensure that you can never simply power level your way to an easy victory.

Y'know, on this note, when I first heard that enemies would level with you (this is back before SSS was released in Japan), I was rather worried that it'd make the game too difficult, since you couldn't level your way out of getting stuck. But... after it was released, it turned out to be a good balance of challenge. Years later, the game is almost a breeze; I don't even find myself having to grind for levels at all.

Well, "a breeze" compared to the 90s-era RPGs where you did have to level grind a few times before continuing... KF

On PS1, It's mostly a matter of just NOT running from battles. If you pretty much never do that, you should be fine. Well except when you reach Zophar..

I worked my way back and forth to the Destiny so many times to STILL get crushed.. That bastard's difficulty was so intense that it sort of cheapened the epilogue a bit.

These games came out in an age where the JRPG was king. The thing about the JRPG was there was a lot of grinding involved. I mean, tons and tons of it. Stuck in an area? Start grinding son. Can't beat a boss? Why weren't you grinding? The amount of time needed to spend on these games was almost insane, but we did it because we were young enough to have that kind of time.

Lots of sugar and caffeine helped too. The 90s were a magical time.

Ardent Fox wrote:These games came out in an age where the JRPG was king. The thing about the JRPG was there was a lot of grinding involved. I mean, tons and tons of it. Stuck in an area? Start grinding son. Can't beat a boss? Why weren't you grinding? The amount of time needed to spend on these games was almost insane, but we did it because we were young enough to have that kind of time.

Lots of sugar and caffeine helped too. The 90s were a magical time.

Then there were the guys that would have their girlfriend do the grinding for them. "Hun, level me up for a little while."

Ardent Fox wrote:The amount of time needed to spend on these games was almost insane, but we did it because we were young enough to have that kind of time.

Think about a good RPG you grinded for exp points when you were young.
Would you do it again today?
I'm assuming yes, because the RPG is good. And you would do it for more good RPGs if they came out today.
So being young is not such an important factor!
On the contrary, nowadays you can easily find people with over 3000 hours in Pokémon, where RPGs like Lunar, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, were only 25 to 50 hours. 70 was an insane number back then. I almost got it set in my brain that a game longer than 70 hours is better avoided. And yet, Pokémon fans who are adults will put 3000+ hours into Pokémon, a 25 hours long game!
Also, Pokémon doesn't record more than 999 hours, I'm just assuming judging by how much it took them to get to 999 hours, and how many more months they played beyond that.
And why would they do it? Because Pokémon has a lot for the player to do. Lunar needs more than just "Attacking" the monsters or using an "All Enemy" magic spell if it means to be re-introduced to have success.

I'd be fine with a Lunar that used Tales of Symphonia's battle system.

I'd be fine with a lot more games using ToS's system, myself. It was simple, easy to remember and use, and loads of fun. It also made a lot of hits you took YOUR fault instead of random numbers being to blame.

Except I'd like the game to be hard enough that you have to fully understand it and utilize all of the abilities. I'd also like status effect spells to actually matter. I loved the haunted house in Eternal Blue because of that.

Agreed. One thing I'd love for RPGs in general to do if either make the Status Effect Spells matter or just eject them to save on space.