Old RPG Review #26: Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

NuMetalManiak After playing Lunar Silver Star Story Complete, I knew for a fact that I wanted to play the sequel, Eternal Blue, at one point. Well I did, and even managed to finish it on Halloween no less! So #26 takes place on that day! Again, like the first game, I played the remake on the Playstation

Gameplay: Pretty much is just like the first game. That's fine and all, really. Look at my Silver Star Story Complete review for how the gameplay is. Very few changes, a rather notable one though is addition of crests, which have different effects when equipped by characters. Combinations exist too. The player is slower when navigating dungeons. He can run with the circle button, but it's not infinite. Overworld navigation isn't much to talk about either, until you get control of the Dragonship Destiny, which allows all-terrain navigation. So yeah, not much to say. Grade: B

Characters: Like the first game, lots of diversity with our characters.
"Adventure Boy" Hiro: Main character, great attack power and speed. Has a few wind spells (one's a boomerang). Comparable to Alex, but Hiro's not aspiring to be a Dragonmaster in this game.
"Red Dragon" Ruby: not a playable character, but she's Hiro's flying cat companion in the same way Nall was Alex's companion in the first game. What's disturbing is that she thinks she's Hiro's girlfriend.
"Blue Star Girl" Lucia: An interesting character. Why though? YOU CAN'T CONTROL HER! She is fully controlled by AI and utilizes her moves accordingly. In a way she's a wildcard character in that regard, but she's not overly strong.
"Charming Gambling Priest" Ronfar: Probably my favorite character, he's functionally equivalent to Jessica in the first game. Wields a mace, good attack, alright speed, but his speciality is healing spells. As such he's vital. I love his charisma.
"Karate Flamenco" Jean: She's my profile pic! Also a decent attack in the beginning, with her fans. She's a dancer, who eventually comes to terms with her past and becomes a powerful blackbelt sort-of character, almost matching Hiro in attack power. Great character.
"Money-grubbing Mia Palette Swap" Lemina Ausa: She's the main mage character, and functions almost exactly like her distant ancestor from the first game, Mia. That makes her exceptional in magic but leaves nothing physically. Her personality is hilarious too.
"White Knight" Leo: Pretty badass, but another mostly physical fighter. A few earth spells. Not in the party often, but there's some use when he's there.
"Old Guy" Gwyn: Tags along with Hiro at the beginning, he's slow, not too powerful, but has some healing spells.

Those are the playable characters, and there's plenty of important NPC characters as well, including a few surprises! Love the characters in this game just like in the first one! Grade: A+

Plot:
After the intro, Adventure Boy and Red Dragon are goofing off in a temple, and get a dragon jewel while running from enemies. As they head home, White Knight follows them in search for a destroyer, and Old Guy tags along with Adventure Boy to the Blue Spire. At the top, Blue Star Girl makes her appearance, and she's bent on seeing Goddess Althena. At first, she's way too powerful, until "What the Hell is That!?" Zophar drains her power. Obviously, Blue Star Girl wants to stop What The Hell is That!? before he destroys the world of Lunar, but with her powers drained, she's not strong enough. Not only that, but White Knight thinks that she's the destroyer. Adventure Boy takes Blue Star Girl to Charming Gambling Priest, and he decides to chance his luck with the two. Blue Star Girl gets healed, but ends up leaving, confronting White Knight on her own and getting imprisoned in another town. The guys get the girl back, and they decide to hide in the woods. They find a caravan where Karate Flamenco is performing, and she tags along for the sake of it. Continuing on the run, they go through a mansion, defeat a magic machine, and a hooded girl reveals herself as Money-grubbing Mia Palette Swap, and she tags along, because why not? She want's them to go to Vane to apply, but things never go as planned. The party finds themselves in a mystic ruin area, where they find a horrible vision of the past (spoiling the first game for those who haven't played it yet), and "Former Magic Emperor" Ghaleon makes his entrance! After that's over the group goes through places on the run from "White Knight", visiting Meribia (from the first game, even Ramus makes a return, looking just like his ancestor). The way to Vane is blocked, and apparently we see that "Now Takes Care of Kids" Nall is back too! He's in the form of a human instead of a dragon though. After making their way through Vane and witnessing "Tub of Lard" Borgan abduct Money-grubbing Mia Palette Swap's mother, they reach a peninsula town, where White Knight finally abducts the party. They're able to convince him that Blue Star Girl isn't a destroyer though, and Adventure Boy and Charming Gambling Priest journey with him to figure out what the evil really is! END OF DISC 1

Disc 2 starts with everyone at Pentaguila, the holy city where Althena resides. Everyone goes to the respective towers while Adventure Boy takes Blue Star Girl to the goddess. Only she doesn't believe that that's the real Althena. In an attempt to attack, she and Hiro are outsmarted by Former Magic Emperor, and are separated. White Knight rescues Adventure Boy in a totally not convincing disguise as Mystere. Together they rescue the rest of the party who were also imprisoned. Eventually, they are warped to safety by Nall, who at that point reveals that he once was a dragon, and that Adventure Boy must acquire the dragon auras from the four heroes, and then re-unlock the powers of the dragons that "Former Magic Emperor" took away. White Knight's easy, as he realizes his wrongs already, of course he has to duel Adventure Boy anyways. Next, Karate Flamenco revisits her past, becoming a blackbelt and taking on her former master "Chinese Fighter Torture" Lunn, who's tactics made heartless warriors. Afterwards, a new Vane, known as Neo-Vane, floats in the sky, with Tub of Lard in charge, a dictator who doesn't accept those who can't learn magic. Money-grubbing Mia Palette Swap helps the party take Tub of Lard down, and with it the whole city. Her mother is safe as well. The final aura is taken from "White Knight's Sister" Mauri, who happens to be Charming Gambling Priest's girlfriend. White Knight intended to have her killed, but with negotiation and power from Blue Star Girl, he manages to save her from her possession and retrieve the aura. Around this time, Red Dragon realizes her power as the Red Dragon. The party tackles the Goddess Tower in Pentagulia (apparently the same place that was the last dungeon in the first game), and Blue Star Girl speaks with the real Althena, but not until the party fights off the fake one. END OF DISC 2

Disc 3 doesn't hold too much, but a lot of astounding scenes, where What the Hell Is That!? swallows the goddess tower, sucking up water, lots of terrible stuff. Blue Star Girl saves the rest of the party, but sacrifices herself to What the Hell Is That!? Adventure Boy is wanting to rescue her, and then Former Magic Emperor challenges him. He loses though, and reveals that he was a good guy all along, atoning for his actions he had done to Alex previously. After Former Magic Emperor dies, Adventure Boy goes with Money-grubbing Mia Palette Swap, Karate Flamenco, White Knight, and Charming Gambling Priest to confront What the Hell Is That!? and rescue Blue Star Girl. With the power of humanity, they succeed, and everyone is happily ever after and back to normal. Or not, as Blue Star Girl leaves to the Blue Star and Adventure Boy is lovestruck. In a playable epilogue, a lot of stuff is open, and the former party members can help Adventure Boy reach the Blue Star too. It's bittersweet though, because he is leaving everyone in that quest. Overall though, this was quite a plot, deserving an A.

Music: Of course the music is nice. A rather prevailing theme is in this game too, in several mixes. Some are good and some aren't. I expected at least one song from the first game to be here, and one of the dungeon themes sounds like that. Like in the first game, there's a sound test in the form of Alex's Ocarina. However, it's in an epilogue dungeon, and not already in the player's hand. Grade: B+

Overall Grade: A-

Eternal Blue Complete is just as enjoyable than it's predecessor, but a bit less so, since there's not a whole lot of gameplay changes. The new plot and the character development was great however. The fact that this game takes place about 100 years after the first one, and the fact that the characters from that game were referenced (or in the case of Nall, Ghaleon, and Luna (as Althena)) is a very nice touch. However, I still like the first game better.

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