Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete box art
Developer(s)	Game Arts Vanguard Works
Publisher(s)	Kadokawa Shoten / ESP Working Designs
Series	Lunar
Platform(s)	Sega Saturn, PlayStation
Release date	July, 1998 (SAT) May, 1999 (PS1) December, 2000 (PS1)
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Media	2 × CD-ROM (SAT) 3 × CD-ROM (PS1)

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is a retitled version of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (ルナ２ エターナルブルー, Runa Tsū Etānaru Burū^?), a Japanese role-playing video game. It is the sequel to Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Originally released in 1998 for the Sega Saturn console in Japan, it was ported to the PlayStation in 1999 and translated for the North American market in 2000 by the US publisher Working Designs. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is a remake of Lunar: Eternal Blue, originally released for the Sega CD platform. This game is part of the Lunar series.

As with the first game, Lunar 2 features an enormous amount of material appealing to game players on a personal level. The story features likable characters engaged in quests that will help them mature as people; in particular, the two main characters develop a powerful romance. The dialogue is also a standout, as even minor characters have large quantities of dialogue. There are several hand-animated full-motion video cutscenes, as well as a notable soundtrack, and after coming to the end of the initial game, an optional second adventure may serve as an epilogue.

Storyline

The story takes place approximately one thousand years after the events of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Once again, Lunar (an inhabited moon that circles a planet called The Blue Star) is endangered, this time by the return of Zophar, the God of Evil responsible for the destruction of life on the Blue Star millennia before. This causes Lucia, a being assigned the task of eventually reviving life on the Blue Star, to awaken before her time and set forth on a mission to once again eliminate Zophar's influence.

The story then unfolds from the perspective of Hiro, a teenaged archaeologist who resides in the Salyan Desert with his grandfather and adolescent dragon companion Ruby (who, like Nall in the previous game, resembles a talking, winged cat). The game begins with Hiro and Ruby pilfering a Dragon's Eye jewel from one of the several ancient ruins in their region. The escapade ends with Hiro inadvertently setting off a trap that forces their presence from the ruins and prevents their ultimate return.

On the way back to the research outpost, Hiro and Ruby are stopped by a principle member of Althena's Guards, the arrogant and boisterous White Knight Leo, who informs them that a 'Destroyer' is to appear at the ruins to the Northwest and that they should return to their homes immediately. Upon arriving at their home, the two find Leo attempting to extract information about the nearby ruins (referred to as 'The Blue Spire') from their grandfather Gwyn, an elderly archaeologist, in the hope of achieving access to the ruins' impenetrable interior. Finding Gwyn of little use, Leo departs, leaving the three of them to ponder the arrival of the so-called 'Destroyer'. When Hiro climbs to the roof to survey the status of their surroundings, he witnesses a mysterious light emanating from the Blue Spire. He informs his grandfather of the strange phenomenon, and the three of them decide to investigate the ruins for themselves.

Characters

Heroes

• Hiro (ヒーロ, Hīro^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Hiero
  • Origin: Salyan Desert
  • Age: 16
  • Interests: Treasure-hunting, adventuring
  • Voice: Hikaru Midorikawa (緑川 光, Hikaru Midorikawa^?) / Chad Letts

• Ruby (ルビィ, Rubī^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Ruby
  • Origin: Salyan Desert(?)
  • Age: Unknown
  • Interests: Being with Hiro
  • Voice: Kumiko Nishihara (西原久美子, Kumiko Nishihara^?) / Jennifer Stigile

• Gwyn (グェン, Guen^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Guen
  • Voice: Masaharu Sato (佐藤正治, Masaharu Sato^?) / (Uncredited)

• Lucia (ルーシア, Rūshia^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Lucier
  • Origin: The Blue Star
  • Age: Unknown
  • Interests: Singing
  • Voice: Chisa Yokoyama (横山智佐, Chisa Yokoyama^?) / Kelly Weaver

• Ronfar (ロンファ, Ronfā^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Rong-fa
  • Origin: Raculi Village
  • Age: 19
  • Interests: Gambling, drinking
  • Voice: Ryotaro Okiayu (置鮎龍太郎, Ryotaro Okiayu^?) / Ned Schuft

• Jean (ジーン, Jīn^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Jean
  • Origin: Unknown
  • Age: 18
  • Interests: Dancing
  • Voice: Aya Hisakawa (久川 綾, Aya Hisakawa^?) / Jennifer Stigile

• Lemina Ausa (レミーナ・オーサ, Remīna Ōsa^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Remiena
  • Origin: Vane
  • Age: 16
  • Interests: Making money
  • Voice: Megumi Hayashibara (林原めぐみ, Megumi Hayashibara^?) / Kathy Ostrander

• Nall (ナル, Naru^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Nall
  • Origin: Unknown
  • Age: 1000+ (estimated)
  • Interests: Karaoke
  • Voice: Rika Matsumoto (松本梨香, Rika Matsumoto^?) / Matt Atwood

Villains

• Zophar (ゾファー, Zofā^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Zone Pharaoh
  • Age: Immortal
  • Voice: Iemasa Kayumi (家弓家正, Iemasa Kayumi^?) / T. Owen Smith

• False Althena (偽アルテナ, Nise Arutena^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Althena
  • Origin: Unknown
  • Age: Unknown
  • Interests: Admiring herself(?)
  • Voice: Shiho Niiyama (新山志保, Shiho Niiyama^?) / Katie Staeck

The Four Heroes and the Dragonmaster

The Four Heroes and the Dragonmaster serve the false Althena at the highest level, and they constitute the few humans who are allowed into the false Althena's immediate presence with any degree of regularity.

• Dragonmaster Ghaleon (ドラゴンマスターガレオン, Doragonmasutā Gareon^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Ghaleon
  • Origin: Vane (hundreds of years prior)
  • Age: N/A (he is actually dead)
  • Interests: Collecting antique books
  • Voice: Rokuro Naya (納谷六郎, Rokuro Naya^?) / John Truitt

• White Knight Leo (白の騎士レオ, Shiro no Kishi Reo^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Leo
  • Origin: Raculi Village
  • Age: 19
  • Interests: Swordsmanship
  • Voice: Shin'ichiro Ota (太田真一郎, Shin'ichiro Ota^?) / Ty Webb

• Blue Master Lunn (青の拳聖ライナス, Ao no Kensei Rainasu^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Rainus
  • Origin: Horam
  • Age: Unknown
  • Interests: Physical training
  • Voice: Masaharu Sato (佐藤正治, Masaharu Sato^?) / Blake Dorsey

• Black Wizard Borgan (黒の魔道師ボーガン, Kuro no Madōshi Bōgan^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Bawgan
  • Origin: Vane
  • Age: Unknown
  • Interests: Stamp collecting
  • Voice: Daisuke Gouri (郷里大輔, Daisuke Gouri^?) / Dean Williams

• Red Priestess Mauri (赤の神官マウリ, Aka no Shinkan Mauri^?)
  • Game Arts official name: Mauli
  • Origin: Raculi Village
  • Age: 16
  • Interests: Cooking
  • Voice: Kumiko Watanabe (渡辺久美子, Kumiko Watanabe^?) / Emmunah Hauser

Continuity gaps

While Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is dramatically different from the game it was based upon, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete follows its original, Lunar: Eternal Blue, closely. This discrepancy has had an unintended effect of opening plot holes in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, due to the fact that the remake follows the original continuity of the Sega CD games in several places, rather than the altered continuity established in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete.

Taben's Peak, the moving mountain

Players who are only familiar with the PlayStation remakes are often puzzled by the placement of Taben's Peak, the mountainous ruins of a huge mobile fortress which appeared in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. It appears on the outskirts of the city of Meribia in Eternal Blue Complete, but in the Lunar 1 remake, the fortress stopped far to the south of Meribia, resulting in a discrepancy of a greater distance than can be attributed to normal geographic changes over time. This inconsistency occurs because Taben's Peak is left in the same location it occupied in the Sega CD original, Lunar: The Silver Star, since moving it would negatively affect the Lunar 2 scenario. In the Sega CD continuity, the fortress was looming over on Meribia before it was stopped by the Lunar 1 heroes.

Althena - reborn for love?

In Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, Luna had created a magical holograph several hundred years before her death, which she entrusted to Nall, who would be alive for several thousand years after Luna herself had passed. The document was in preparation of Lucia's inevitable arrival on Lunar, in which Luna explains that she had given up her immortality as Althena, remaining as Luna out of love for Alex. However, that claim contradicts Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, in which Althena gave up her immortality before she ever met Alex. The explanation for this is that the dialogue is essentially unchanged from the Sega CD version of Lunar 2, and in the original continuity, Luna was merely one of Althena's many routine incarnations, and after Luna's life had ended, Althena was to return to her tower. Meanwhile, in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Luna is the last, or perhaps only, human incarnation of Althena, and fully mortal from the start.

However, although it is true that Althena gave up her immortality before meeting Alex, she regained it near the end of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. When she says in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete that she gave it up out of love for Alex, she means just that: Althena (i.e., Luna) was immortal and could have stayed that way, ruling over Lunar, but she gave up the idea essentially because she wanted to spend her life with Alex. The confusion occurs because the time span between Luna being mortal, becoming the immortal Althena, and then becoming the mortal Luna again is very short- from Ghaleon's capture of her to her being saved by Alex, it was possibly only a few weeks, as opposed to the hundreds of years before, so it is possible to skip over the details and it is as if her immortality in Alex's time never happened at all.

NOTE: In the Saturn version, Althena is voiced by Masako Ikeda.

Version differences

Original to remake

The differences between this title and Lunar: Eternal Blue on Sega CD are numerous. The Lunar 2 remake implements many of the same gameplay revisions as are found in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete; there are no battles on the overworld and no random encounters. Also like Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, the size of most of Lunar 2's many dungeons decreased substantially from the original game. Four dungeons were cut from the remake, and several new ones were added (the exact number varies from Saturn to PlayStation). The graphics are more detailed than in the original release, due to the higher resolution and broader color palette of 32-bit platforms, compared with the Sega CD. While many monsters from the Sega CD version recur, they are all redrawn, and a number of bosses look quite different. The overall number of full-motion video (FMV) cutscenes in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is about 35, significantly reduced from the original MegaCD/SegaCD version's 61. A number of short, scene-setting cutscenes and minor character introductions were cut from the remake. Despite this, the total amount of FMV time is longer in the remake because many scenes were extended.

Saturn to PlayStation

In technical categories, the differences between the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions are as follows. The Saturn version has better quality music thanks to PCM encoding. On the other hand, the PlayStation versions use sequenced audio similar to the MIDI format. All sprite transparencies in the Saturn version, including the dialogue and menu boxes, are replaced with either solid colors or dithering effects. The full-motion video cutscenes in the Saturn version use the Saturn's standard Cinepak software compression method, which, in spite of unusually clean encoding in this case, still tends to display more compression artifacts than seen in the PlayStation versions. As the PlayStation versions use a higher-fidelity M-JPEG compression for the cutscenes, the game was extended onto a third disc for the Japanese and English PlayStation releases.

The PlayStation versions include a variety of features that were added after the Saturn version was released. The PlayStation versions feature one more cutscene than the Saturn version does. In the Saturn version, the first ending was simply still screens, while it is fully animated on the PlayStation versions. A number of bromides were added, and all bromides display at a higher resolution than in the Saturn version. The Saturn version contains two new dungeons, while the PlayStation version adds an additional two, with a host of extra monsters and items to attend them.

References

External links

• Home of Lunar Silver Star Information not only about the Lunar series
• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete at MobyGames