Lunar Legend
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| Lunar Legend | |
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| Developer(s) | Japan Art Media |
| Publisher(s) |  ESP Software Ubi Soft |
| Release date(s) | April 12, 2001 December 10, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Media | Cartridge |
This for the video game Lunar Legend. For the manga and Anime of a similar name, see Tsukihime, Lunar Legend.
Lunar Legend is an RPG for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance developed by Japan Art Media and published internationally by Ubisoft, who also provided the translation. It is in the Lunar series of games and is a re-telling of the events of Lunar: The Silver Star with minor story and content changes. All the characters from the original game re-appear, yet the dialog and situations they find themselves in are often different.
Originally released in Japan in 2001, Lunar Legend made its way to North America the following year. However, since Working Designs, the company that originally published the Lunar series outside of Japan, was not involved in this project, the game's dialog and character interaction is different from that in all other versions of Lunar: The Silver Star. The series, which usually prides itself on its very American and kitschy humor is presented a little differently in this title, without all the pop-culture references added.
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[edit] Story
Thousands of years ago, the benevolent Goddess Althena transformed the barren world of the Silver Star into the habitable place known to its inhabitants as "Lunar". In this world, three races were created: the stout Beastmen, the resourceful Humans, and the villainous Vile Tribe. While the latter was forced to live in the dark lands known as the Frontier, Humans and Beastmen lived side-by-side in the surrounding lands, occasionally fighting with each other before eventually declaring peace. In order to preserve the life-force of the planet, as well as guide the elements within it, Althena created four all-powerful dragons and a warrior who wielded their combined power known as the Dragonmaster. She decreed that if anyone was to take up the mantle of Dragonmaster, they would have to pass the four trials of the dragons themselves before gaining the power to protect the world.
One such Dragonmaster was Dyne, a young man who, together with the heroes Ghaleon, Mel, and Lemia, succeeded in pacifying the then-insane black dragon. Althena at this time was losing control of her power, and though Ghaleon protested, Dyne gave up his power to transform the goddess into a mortal girl who immediately reverted into a baby. Never forgiving him for denying the world its leader, Ghaleon severed all ties to Dyne and retired from adventuring. Dyne, now no longer a Dragonmaster, disappeared and was never heard from again.
Years later, a boy named Alex from the small town of Burg is infatuated with stories of Dyne and the Four Heroes, and longs to become an adventurer himself and one day become a Dragonmaster like his idol. With the help of his best friend, Nall, a small, winged, cat-like creature, and Luna, his love interest who has lived with him since she was a child, Alex leaves on his adventure to pass the trials of the Dragons, and ultimately gets caught up in a struggle for the very existence of his world.
[edit] Gameplay
Lunar Legend plays very much like a traditional RPG, with 2D character sprites and environments. Unlike Lunar: The Silver Star, the battles do not consist of characters moving across the battlefield to attack enemies, instead having them retreat back to their original positions after attacking. The battles themselves are random, occurring every few steps within a dungeon or in scripted circumstances. By gaining experience after each fight, characters can level up, gaining new abilities and becoming stronger in the process. A new feature includes the use of special attacks akin to Limit Breaks via a gauge underneath the character's HP and MP. It fills up as you attack enemies (whether or not the hit is successful) and once it's full, the character can unleash a powerful ability that generally does more damage than weapons or spells. Neither Ramus or Ghaleon have Limit Breaks however.
Additionally, some of these Limit Breaks can change if you equip certain items. For example, if Nash or Mia equip the Light Emblem accessory, it changes their Limit Break to "Charge", which allows them to store magic power for one round. The next time they cast an attack spell, the damage is increased more than normal.
The player travels through the world of Lunar via the world map, visiting various towns, cities, and dungeons. Unlike The Silver Star on the Sega CD, there are no random battles on the world map and each location is accessed by simply selecting it.
Due to limitations with Game Boy hardware, the animated cut scenes are absent, and are replaced by still shots taken from the original animated scenes, and appear whenever a central character is introduced.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Playable characters
Alex: The hero of the story, a boy from the small mountain town of Burg who longs to be a hero. He plays an ocarina and is handy with a sword.
Nall: Resembles a flying white cat and has been Alex's best friend for as long as any of them can remember. Though he isn't controllable in combat, he handles all the extra items of the party members and can occasionally nudge them back to life if they fall in battle.
Luna: An orphaned girl who was taken in by Alex's parents when she was just a baby. She has since become his love interest and aids him in battle by singing magical songs.
Ramus: Son of the wealthiest man in Burg, Ramus longs to make a fortune of his own, often thinking of nothing else.
Nash: A pompous mage-in-training from the magical flying city of Vane who prides his hair above everything, except of course Mia.
Mia Ausa: A shy, reclusive girl who is also the daughter of Lemia Ausa, the premier of the Magic Guild in Vane; she possesses powerful attack spells.
Jessica de'Alkirk: A priestess of Althena who has a real mean streak, but doesn't show it in front of her father, Hell Mel, who thinks her to be a perfect lady. She acts as the team's healer and has a somewhat rocky relationship with Kyle.
Kyle: Leader of the Bandits of Nanza and head of the Nanza Border Town, Kyle is skilled, self-promoting lady's man who is also an expert swordsman.
[edit] Changes from Silver Star Story
[edit] Story changes
Several changes have been made to portions of the story, yet the overall tale remains the same.
- Nash first joins the group in Burg, where he proclaims he wants to be a Dragonmaster.
- The White Dragon's Cave is now located in the Weird Woods.
- The Old Hag is now the "Card Hag" and can trade you rare cards.
- Pirates attack the boat heading for Meribia.
- There is a card dealer in Meribia, north of Royce's shop.
- Kyle and Jessica are first seen on the way to the Nanza Border.
- The layout for several towns like Lann are different.
- You can no longer bathe in the hotsprings, instead there are card dealers.
- Luna's personality has been drastically altered; she now seems to have a temper that she loses easily.
- You now fight Taben after you escape from Ghaleon's fortress. Originally, all he did was design Nash's Mobile Weapon suit.
[edit] Cards
170 collectible cards can be found throughout Lunar Legend. Though enemies drop most of them, some require the player to go out of their way to find. They serve no purpose other than to add to your own personal collection, though they can be traded to another Game Boy Advance via a link cable.
[edit] Special items
Certain special or hard to find items are placed all throughout Lunar Legend, which were never available in previous versions of the game. Red chests have been given new locations as well.
