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I'm surprised to see how well this looks like it's aged. It's not fancy, but it's certainly not painful to look at, which is sadly the case with a lot of other Sega CD games. Also, I have to say that the title chosen for this thread is fantastic.
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Feb 28, 2013 16:01
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:03 |
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He gets two of them, at that (in the PSX version anyway -- I do sincerely hope it's also in this one), and the circumstances behind the second one are one of the most shining moments in JRPG history. So, as JRPGs are all about the character leitmotifs, it stands to reason that Leo is the greatest JRPG character of all time.
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Mar 1, 2013 08:12
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So, for the stat gains you're seeing on level-up here, is it just completely randomized? Can this wind up totally gimping your party, hilarious as it'd be to see, say, tons of strength growth for like the mage you get later? Or can it actually be useful, somehow?Camel Pimp posted:The geography, on the other hand... I'm not actually referring to the Blue Spire, and how it wasn't in the first game. I can just assume the world of Lunar is bigger than the game showed us and I didn't see everything. However, the Salyan desert, which is where the sequel starts, is new. Most of the geography is completely changed from the first game, and most places from the first game are just gone. But not all. There are some familiar places. I remember this bugging me a lot when I first played. A thousand years passed since Silver Star, and while technology and even fashion sensibilities haven't changed much, the world itself is totally rearranged. If it were a different region, that'd be one thing, but given the conspicuous presence of some very familiar cities and dungeons, it doesn't seem to be. If you want to handwave it, I guess you could say that since the entire world is a magically-terraformed moon, as a result of it's fantastical origination it's prone to occasional shifts.
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Mar 1, 2013 23:16
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The "cult" thing is, I think, a specific difference between the Sega CD and Playstation versions. The script for the remake doesn't refer to Althena's followers that way. It's a pretty significant thing, though. Here, we get the impression that a lot of the world actually does see Althena-worship as this really weird, possibly even shady thing, which not only paints a much different picture of the setting, but handily demonstrates the passage of time since Silver Star (something they could have stood to do much more of), where everyone saw her existence as a given. I have to wonder now if the Japanese script in the remake had similar differences, or if that was changed by the localizers.
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Mar 4, 2013 17:11
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Jenner posted:Leo being Kyle and Jessica's son. Even if the idea didn't survive, implying that he's the direct descendant of the two greatest characters in Silver Star makes him somehow even more amazing. 
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Mar 5, 2013 09:31
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This line always reminds me of when I got pulled over by a cop for literally no reason and he was desperate to try and find something to bust me on. Alternatively, Leo has found someone who shares his love of red capes and just wants to be friends.
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Mar 7, 2013 22:01
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I have yet to experience a JRPG where you're not just better off ignoring what everyone's "official" age is supposed to be. So Ronfar, your scoundrel with a very poorly-concealed heart of gold, was kind of a surprise, back in the day. Rather than some maidenly gal, you had a rough-looking dude your primary healer. Also, his exchange with Leo gives us our first clue that he might not actually be a complete dick, which is nice. Also, Larpa teaches us a lesson that we should all learn while playing a Lunar game: Encountering random NPCs who aren't some kind of degenerate is a rare thing to be treasured.
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Mar 10, 2013 10:16
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Jenner posted:Speaking of which, it's incredibly likely that I am an idiot. I may have mixed up Hiro and someone elses Jean again original proposed background. It's been suggested/hypothesized/and sperged about by fans that one of them was planned to be Tempest and Fresca's child and the other is supposed to be descended from the Vile Tribe, either Xenobia or Phacia. I'm beginning to think Hiro was the latter... Phacia (and Royce) didn't exist in the Sega CD edition of Silver Star, if I'm remembering right, so it'd have to be Xenobia. If her descendent was the one party member we'll be having later, I guess there's a recurring familial theme of getting involved with very shady characters. I'm liking the idea of Hiro being descended from Tempest and Fresca, though. He's got a look about him that's a bit more wild and rugged. Maybe the combination of the boomerang and that tattoo/scar on his face.
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Mar 14, 2013 03:20
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Because it's amazing, I'm posting this in this LP, too. From the Lunar I+II art book. White Knight Leo, ladies and gentlemen...  ...was almost a motherfucking centaur.
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Mar 16, 2013 13:20
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Camel Pimp posted:I like how centaur Leo is the one that looks the most like the finished design. As you scroll down it looks perfectly normal and then boom! Horse. I know, right? It also looks like it could be some kind of majestic transformation. "Behold, infidels! My true form!"
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Mar 17, 2013 05:47
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My opinion: Music is better than no music, but not 100% required -- the LP does fine without it. If you can manage to record from the emulator, that'd be cool, but if it's a huge pain, either skip it, or only bother with the tracks that you feel are particularly awesome or noteworthy. For the blander stuff you can get away with linking the PSX ones if you want to link it at all.
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Mar 17, 2013 17:56
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The muscle has arrived.
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Mar 18, 2013 08:37
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Well, that was...abrupt. Certainly so compared to the remake. "Hi, I'm Jean! I'm a showgirl with a tragic past as a professional badass killer. I'm going to join your party now so I can maybe work some of that out! Right, let's go.  "I hope Lunar NPCs never stop being complete loving goons. That seems to get better and better with each new place you visit.
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Mar 25, 2013 06:58
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Interesting, that little side-trip. I can't recall anything similar in the remake, but it's nice when RPGs do that -- throw you a nice, out-of-the-way spot of treasure that doesn't require committing to a gigantic dungeon crawl. It's probably become apparent by now, but our hooded friend is yet another awesome character. And another reason why Lunar games are still the best. Crowetron posted:The bathhouse scene isn't in this version? You mean I have to suffer it alone? Game Arts, why? Um, excuse me, unexpected encounters between love interests whilst bathing are an extremely important and critical component of character growth. 
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Mar 26, 2013 03:12
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Hiro's stat growth.  I think I like this version of the mansion better than the remake. Why would they remove those eccentric little test rooms like that? What I do like, though, is how Lemina is basically palette-swapped Mia with a new dress. They weren't even trying to be subtle there.
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Mar 30, 2013 22:37
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The phantom sentry is another thing they left out of the remake. I...think he's connected to one way, way later dungeon? But I may be wrong about that and he has gently caress all to do with anyone whatsoever.Camel Pimp posted:
Oh I love Lemina. A question for you, Camel Pimp: What do you use to make those wonderfully smooth gifs for when you're showing off battle stuff? It just looks really good.
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Apr 12, 2013 13:17
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: If you pay me, I'll tell you all about carnivals.
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Jenner posted:We're far past it now but I could have SWORN this game did have a hot springs scene too... I was almost ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it wasn't just something added in. I distinctly remember that scene in that context taking place in this game. It's later. Yes, the remake has two bathing scenes (four, if you count bromides). See that? That's how committed they were to improving the game. 
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Apr 15, 2013 08:22
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Now I say this in the manliest way possible, but if I were a dame, I would so do this kind of getup all the time.  This is the PSX version, but the Carnival music is so loving happy.
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Apr 22, 2013 19:02
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The color palette for Lucia's outfit is slightly off in the in-game video, but it works a tad bit better in the art: (not my scan, just GIS'd that one) I'm a fan of that shawl, personally. Looks a bit like Andean aguayo-style. All the "common" folk (that is to say, not wizards and not weird aliens from not-earth) sport that vaguely Latin-American look in their garments, and while not enormously noticeable unless you're specifically looking, it really helps establish a visual identity for this setting. Scalding Coffee posted:And so Leo tosses rock lances at the human launcher, which confuses it RPG style, to fire in the opposite direction. I love how, for just this one scene, Leo abandons the gallant crusader persona and pulls a full-on cartoon screwjob on our heroes. Mazed fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Apr 23, 2013 |
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Apr 23, 2013 08:59
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Camel Pimp posted:Words cannot express how wonderful it is to see you again, you hammy, malevolent elf-man.  (spoiler'd bit removed, I am really remembering things wrong tonight) Mazed fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 04:41
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Sure sure, edited that out. Also drat, how am I remembering something like that so badly out-of-sequence? I suppose I'll take this opportunity to go back and enjoy... Camel Pimp posted:...how circumstances keep causing Leo to break character.
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Apr 30, 2013 06:39
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 Camel Pimp posted:Oh, now I feel like a shitheel for making the earlier Yonah reference. Turns out he did find a cute!  I'm sorry.
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May 10, 2013 00:12
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: Her father has left the village to find a cute, but he's never returned.
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Would it that Lucia ultimately was an eldritch entity taking human guise, but ultimately of inscrutable cosmic purpose that our Hiro could never hope to comprehend.
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May 19, 2013 04:11
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Camel Pimp posted:Anyway, if the Missing Link has both of his arms on the ground, he'll use a skill called Gas Blaster. Oh, let's not kid ourselves. If it seems like these translators are insinuating that the giant yeti is blasting himself off the ground with a monster fart, then the answer is Working Designs.
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May 21, 2013 02:56
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The Nineties. Really, while it's not an excuse, it's the reason why that stuff flew when this game, and even the remake, came out. We're in an interesting position now, where we're seeing the media of our generation start to show its age when it comes to social awareness. This includes video games, which we're prone to looking at as being a thoroughly modern thing. Ten years ago, gay jokes were considered a more "acceptable" form of off-color humor in the mainstream. We're getting away from that mentality now, and rightly so. But looking at some of the games we loved back in the day; we can understand, for example, our grandparents who might've grown up loving blackface comedy, seeing nothing wrong with it at the time, but now looking back with an uncomfortable mixture of nostalgia and embarrassment. All that aside, the Taben's Peak stuff is still pretty drat hilarious. Lucia is now officially out of her comfort zone and starting to fray, and Ruby is just the most fantastic little sociopath.
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Jun 17, 2013 04:28
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I'm just now catching up to the Lunar 2 LPs, and I'm still a few updates back, but I just need to say: Camel Pimp, you are doing an amazing job with this. Your LP production values, as it were, are far beyond what the page count of this thread would seem to indicate, and you've struck about the perfect balance between commentary and letting the game speak for itself. Don't ya just love how Zophar haphazardly bounces between nigh-indescribable eldritch horror and bishy JRPG baddie?
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Mar 9, 2014 10:49
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Alkarl posted:Man, Zophar's Eldritch horror exoskeleton thing horrified little me. I found this visual to be really cool, because the crater-ridden terrain is very obviously supposed to be the desolate surface of a moon -- the Silver Star before Althena arrived. It's a great way to take advantage of the setting's backstory to show how literally the whole world is now at stake. It helps that the lunar surface is something that we're familiar with through all kinds of real-life media, so it's a great way to get that audience reaction: "gently caress, he's turning the moon back into the moon  "
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Mar 10, 2014 04:30
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Also him vaporizing all the water made me sad, because I figured the poor fishies were all surely dead. 
I was a weird kid.
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:03 |
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This whole discussion is just the perfect case in point of how Lunar takes the most cliched poo poo and actually makes them work so well. Plucky romantic hero, distant-at-first love interest, one antagonist of the honorable-yet-flawed variety and another antagonist manipulating events with as much gloating theatricality as he can muster (both of whom present the hero with different kinds of challenges), a stew of supporting good guys and bad guys to flesh out the world and play off one another, and of course the godlike embodiments of good and evil as actual characters behind it all, with good being passive and relying on the protagonists to grow in strength and act in its name, while evil is an active presence but relying on minions who cannot grow as the heroes can (and if they do at all, it inevitably ends up being towards redemption rather than becoming a greater threat, as evil is egomaniacal and could never stand to be overshadowed) This could all be incredibly tiresome if 1) the cliche'd-ness of the cast wasn't perfectly justified by their motivations, relationships, and development arcs, and 2) it actually tried taking itself seriously and wasn't a shameless goofball cartoon from start to finish.
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Mar 11, 2014 04:28
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