Alex, a young boy living in the town of Burg on the world of Lunar, has always dreamed of becoming a Dragonmaster, the ultimate warrior and protector of the Goddess Althena. Nearly every day he visits the memorial of his hero, Dragonmaster Dyne, at the spring adjacent to Burg. Nall, his tiny, flying (cat) companion, finds Alex by the Dyne memorial and reminds him that he is late for his practice with Luna, the orphan girl his parents adopted years ago as an infant, for the upcoming town festival. He finishes his daydream and heads off to the spring by the town to meet with Luna as promised.

As he is leaving, Ramus, the brat son of the Village Elder, excitedly approaches and asks Alex if he would like to go with him to the White Dragon Cave to try and acquire a Dragon Diamond so they could become rich and famous. Never one to turn down an adventure, he agrees, but first he must keep his promise.

As he approaches the spring, Alex is entranced by the beautiful voice of his orphan sister. The leaves part and there is Luna, as beautiful as ever, sitting by the spring singing her song, their song for the festival. After a moment of gazing, Alex takes out his harp and joins Luna for their practice. After the song is finished, Alex tells Luna of the adventure he is about to embark on with Ramus. Luna asks to come along, something Alex cannot bring himself to deny her.

Lunar: The Silver Story is the original Lunar game released on the Mega CD then the Sega CD (1992). The format was originally chosen since the developers believed it was the only way to properly portray the story. But, because of the format, many never got to enjoy one of the best RPGs of its time (Lunar fanatics will tell you it is THE best RPG of its time, but Final Fantasy 2 and Phantasy Star 2 are stiff competition IMO). Thankfully, the PSX remakes will introduce a whole new generation of fans to the Lunar universe, something no RPG fan should be deprived of.

In terms of game play, you don't get much more traditional than Lunar: The Silver Star (TSS). In fact, besides some battle innovations, Lunar can probably be described as "Dragon Warrior on steroids". Like the granddaddy of RPGs, the Overworld, dungeons, and towns are all drawn on the same scale. You still walk from town to town fighting enemies along the way while gaining Silver (money) and experience points. Then you go to the dungeons to fight and duke it out with a boss. There's nothing wrong with this formula, it's just not different.

Just like many old RPGs, not much occurs event or story-wise outside of towns or dungeons. When you reach a new town, you talk with the townsfolk until you talk to that one person who advances the plot line. Unlike most RPGs, it's actually fun to talk to the townsfolk. They have personality and are entertaining, with the infamous Working Designs pop-culture references strewn about. Many of the main characters are also filled with personality, particularly when compared to other 16-bit RPGs.

Dungeons are also fairly standard. There are no puzzles or tricks, just go through and pick the right way. If you pick the wrong way, you simply double back. You do get attacked quite often, which brings us to the battles. Battles are much like the Final Fantasy 2 battles with a couple of extra options. However, there is no time gauge; basic my-turn, your turn stuff. You have two battle menus. When you first enter a battle, you are given three choices in the main menu: Attack, Nall, and Run. The first and last are fairly explanatory. Nall is simply your little flying pal telling you who your enemies are (the names are not automatically listed) and whether you're going to have an easy or tough battle. If you choose Attack, you are taken to a sub-menu in which you are given 6 choices: Atk (Attack), AI, Magic, Item, Flee, and Run. Atk is a physical attack and Run will cause that person only to run (of course, they lose all magic and experience points); Magic and Item are self-explanatory. AI is just the computer deciding what actions that character will make, but it's stone dumb. You don't want to use it. Flee causes your character to run across the screen and hide. The significance of movement is explained next.

Lunar is one of the first true RPGs to account for range in combat. In TSS, each character has a certain amount of steps they can take as well as a certain number of hits they can perform per round (from 1 to 4). Before your character can perform a physical attack, they must first move up to the enemy and vice versa. It's quite simple, but it has to be taken into account. Characters are loosely based on the basic classes (White Mage, Black Mage, Fighter, etc.), so a fighter (Kyle) can move further than a magician (Mia).

My main gripes come in a few areas. First, the Flee and AI commands in battle are almost useless. AI is completely useless and will only cause you to waste precious resources. Flee can be used occasionally for a useful purpose, such as getting a weaker character out of trouble, but it is often idiotic, like AI. When you have a strong enemy come after your healer and that healer decides to run around in a circle as opposed to across the screen on the obvious clear path, you'll know what I mean.

Also, having the Overworld the same scale as the dungeons and towns is just irritating. You'll spend a lot of time travelling from town to town. Couple that with the fact you get attacked often and prepare for some annoyance as you travel from one destination to another. The dungeons are fairly large and, as mentioned before, you'll do a lot of backtracking, another way for you to get annoyed at the frequent random battles.

There's nothing really too bad about the game play in TSS, but there's nothing really special either. It's fairly standard with a few annoyances.

If there's anything truly great about TSS, it's the story. At its core, the story is your basic young-boy-saves-the-world-from-ultimate-evil story, but TSS's story is far from basic. There's also a strong love theme between Luna and Alex. This, coupled with the good voice acting, computer-drawn anime cutscenes (some with a little bit of movement and some with a fair amount, but nothing like real anime), and excellent Working Designs translation (with pop-culture references), give Lunar the "heart" the fans of the series always talk about. The characters are just that, characters. They have personalities and are not just bland, stereotypical people going through and adventure; they even have vices and annoyances. Nash's hitting on Mia throughout the entire game, Nall and his little smart-ass remarks, Ghaleon and his sneers, and even the townsfolk are all, well, people.

There aren't many plot twists and the story does drag a bit between the Nanza barrier and the frontier, but overall, it is a great story that's very well told.

Considering that this game was released around the same time as Final Fantasy 2 (4j), the graphics are pretty nice. The Overworld gets a bit bland sometimes, but that's probably due to RAM problems; it is fairly large. The towns are nicely drawn and fairly distinct, but are not overly detailed. This is more a reflection of the hardware and time period. The characters, enemies, and battle backgrounds are well drawn as well. The only real graphical problem I had was the dungeons. All dungeons, save for a couple, looked alike and were simple palette swaps. I'm not certain why this was the case, but it would have been nice to see something different rather than the same design throughout most of the game. In the end, it's not a big deal, but it could have been better.

On area where TSS shines besides story line is in its music. When you first pop the game into the Sega CD, you're treated to a full song, which at the time, was unheard of; and it's not bad at all. Then you're treated to the wonderful Burg song as you head off to the spring to rendezvous with Luna, at which point you're treated to one of the best love theme songs ever, up there with great ones like Rydia from Final Fantasy 2 (4j). This is all in the first 10 minutes, and that's not all. Most of the soundtrack is quite memorable, although perhaps not quite as pristine as top ones, such as Final Fantasy 2 (4j), Final Fantasy 3 (6j), Chrono Trigger, and Panzer Dragoon Saga. However, it remains one of the better game soundtracks of all time and shall for quite a while. Good music never dies.

On the other hand, the sound in TSS is very basic, 16-bit fare. There is nothing special about it and there are even a few annoyances. That God-forsaken ringing sound when you or enemies run is of particular annoyance. Even the sound effects in the cut-scenes are basic and don't take advantage of the CD format; the only real weak point of the game.

TSS, particularly by today's standards, is not particularly tough. Hell, even by 1992 standards it wasn't particularly tough. There are a few difficult battles (the Skeleton Dragon) and dungeons (the sewers), but any gamer with moderate RPG experience should have no problems whatsoever. Those without the experience might encounter some difficulties in the dungeons (as you do get attacked quite often) and in travelling, since you have to memorize the Overworld due to the limited view you have of it at one time. It took me 17 hours to complete TSS, which is an hour and a half less than Final Fantasy 2. Considering they came out about the same time and I beat Final Fantasy 2 seven years ago, TSS's length is about par. Like many older RPGs, there isn't much replay value beyond going back to do it all over again. No sub-quests, no secrets, nothing to veer you off the main quest. But it is a very good main quest and you'll want to play the game again to experience it over and over.

Overall, Lunar: The Silver Star is a very good RPG and can hold its own against the great RPGs of the time, such as Final Fantasy 2 and Phantasy Star 2. I played it for the first time in the summer of 1999 (unlike the other two, which I played when they came out in 1992) and I still enjoyed it very much. The story is timeless and can be re-told hundreds of years from now and enjoyed just as much. There are some annoyances and signs of age due to the time period this game was made and the technology available at the time, but overall, Lunar: The Silver Star is a very enjoyable game and a wonderful experience. With the recent re-release on the Playstation, more people will finally be able to enjoy this cult-classic and with the changes that were made, the signs of age should become much less prominent. Do yourself a favor and get into the world of Lunar.