|
Post by llj on Jul 17, 2014 11:04:56 GMT -5
Not knowing anything about how the Japanese versions of the Lunar games played (although knowing WD changed up some of the gameplay and challenge in many of their titles) I've pretty much concluded that Lunar 2 on the Sega CD is the best game of the Lunar franchise. Lunar 2 on the PS1 looks great and the added portrait expressions and voice acting add much to the proceedings, but I can't forget how the PS1 version always seemed to be pushing you along one way to play. You have to use a specific "x" amount of seeds and "x" amount of curing items for most of the game in order to proceed through it relatively "smoothly". But it's not fun like the rationing of items in a survival horror, because in those games you can get out of battles without much of a scratch. Since this is a Jrpg, you can't help but take damage in battles or defeat some enemies with magic, and it's just not much fun when you've run out of magic seeds right when you get to the boss of a dungeon. And if that boss requires magic to defeat, hooboy are you screwed. The Sega CD version for all its problems never has this problem. There's always enough magic seeds to get through a dungeon and if you use them conservatively you should have plenty to spare. On the PS1 Lunar 2 you can be conservative and still be dangerously low on magic seeds until late in the game when you're filthy rich. The bosses in PS1 Lunar 2 also seem to have more HP than is necessary which makes some boss battles become a repetitive war of attrition.
Lunar SSS on the PS1 is great though, and I think superior to the Sega CD version which while it has its pluses comes off slightly bland at times.
As for Grandia, Grandia 1 is really the only one you need to play of that series. Grandia 2 in contrast seemed rushed to release too early. Halfway through the game it doesn't even bother to have overworld areas anymore, the story just "takes over" and just pushes you from dungeon to dungeon in a most linear fashion. People criticizing FF 13's linearity probably forgot that Grandia 2 pretty much did the same thing about a decade earlier. The puzzles in Grandia 2 are often pointless and dumb: the "push lever beside door to open door" variety. And it often seems like you fight the same 10 enemies over and over, except recolored. How many re-skinned grasshoppers do you have to fight through the game? And yes, I own the "superior" DC version. That said, I don't totally dislike Grandia 2. I do actually like the voices and battle system. I haven't bothered with Grandia after III.
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on Jul 17, 2014 18:13:40 GMT -5
Guys are making me want to bust out the PS2 to finally give the other games in the series a shot. Have had them sitting around long enough. If I had a Dreamcast I'd play Grandia II on it. Hear the PS2 port has some technical issues. The DC one is the definite version, but the PS2 one is also perfectly fine if that's the one you've got, especially if you never played the original to compare it to. I always liked Ryudo. He's kinda like Squall, but less of a bitch. Has the same problem too, once he falls in love/warms up to the group he becomes a goody two shoes pussy. So I guess he's more like Lightning.
|
|
|
Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on Jul 17, 2014 20:06:28 GMT -5
Are there offical patches for Grandia 2 on the PC? Or were fan patches being refered to? I've played my copy a little bit, but I think I stopepd as I'd read there were some game breaking bugs present. This talk of Grandia kinda makes me wish I'd bought it instead of (well...rebought I own it on PS1) of the PSP Luna game for my PSP. I do recall disliking Justin quite a bit, tho I recall liking the battle system quite a bit. I don't recall disliking Ryudo much in my time with 2, but will agree it's hard to hate anybody Cam Clarke voices (I blame that on my TMNT/Akira fanboyishness. "Hey its Leo/Kanade/WoW male blood elf's voice! Nice....") Grandia 3...I think we here in Australia got skipped over for it If I ever get around to figuring out PS2 emulation on my PC so I can play my US copy of Suikoden 3, I might consider importing a copy of Grandia 3.
|
|
|
Post by voltagecontrol on Jul 17, 2014 20:26:34 GMT -5
Guys are making me want to bust out the PS2 to finally give the other games in the series a shot. Have had them sitting around long enough. If I had a Dreamcast I'd play Grandia II on it. Hear the PS2 port has some technical issues. The DC one is the definite version, but the PS2 one is also perfectly fine if that's the one you've got, especially if you never played the original to compare it to. I always liked Ryudo. He's kinda like Squall, but less of a bitch. Has the same problem too, once he falls in love/warms up to the group he becomes a goody two shoes pussy. So I guess he's more like Lightning. He's not a Mercenary, he's a GEOHOUND. He is also powered by sarcasm. There was a Windows port as well. It's not a very good port. Buggy as all Heck.
|
|
|
Post by The Great Klaid on Jul 17, 2014 20:30:19 GMT -5
Are there offical patches for Grandia 2 on the PC? Or were fan patches being refered to? I've played my copy a little bit, but I think I stopepd as I'd read there were some game breaking bugs present. This talk of Grandia kinda makes me wish I'd bought it instead of (well...rebought I own it on PS1) of the PSP Luna game for my PSP. I do recall disliking Justin quite a bit, tho I recall liking the battle system quite a bit. I don't recall disliking Ryudo much in my time with 2, but will agree it's hard to hate anybody Cam Clarke voices (I blame that on my TMNT/Akira fanboyishness. "Hey its Leo/Kanade/WoW male blood elf's voice! Nice....") Grandia 3...I think we here in Australia got skipped over for it If I ever get around to figuring out PS2 emulation on my PC so I can play my US copy of Suikoden 3, I might consider importing a copy of Grandia 3. Kratos might still be my favorite Mentor cliche character ever.
|
|
|
Post by Discoalucard on Jul 18, 2014 9:05:15 GMT -5
I booted up my PSP this morning and found all of my Lunar 2 saves gone. Huh. I have the worst luck with this game, apparently. I've already beaten it before so it's no big deal at least. I'd just met Ghaleon...I think there's a GameFAQs save that plunks you at the 2nd disc, so I might just grab that and start from there.
For as fantastic of a fansite as LunarNET is, it's really weird that they do tons of comparisons between English and Japanese lines, but they don't break down the differences between all of the ports. Figuring out all of this stuff is one of the major reasons I never really got this article off the ground before.
|
|
|
Post by voltagecontrol on Jul 18, 2014 16:55:44 GMT -5
Classic Working Designs-era Lunar: "Happy Hour!"
|
|
|
Post by cj iwakura on Jul 18, 2014 19:33:57 GMT -5
Magical School Lunar has more random battles than any other game I've ever played. Every. other. step.
It's way more traditional than the remake Lunars, at least. Probably because it was Studio Alex's last game.
|
|
|
Post by deadguy2322 on Jul 19, 2014 15:47:42 GMT -5
Magical School Lunar has more random battles than any other game I've ever played. Every. other. step. It's way more traditional than the remake Lunars, at least. Probably because it was Studio Alex's last game. Worse than Legend of Legaia? Damn!
|
|
|
Post by Discoalucard on Jan 23, 2018 11:23:04 GMT -5
Bumping this three and a half year old thread because I've committed myself to finishing all of the articles I've dropped and I'm FINALLY getting this damn thing ready.
The big roadblock was just making myself sit down and play the Magical School games. If it weren't for me discovering the way to speed up the emulation in SSF, I don't think I could've taken it. It's actually got a cute story and interesting characters (barring some creepiness here and there) but the random battle rate is insane, the result of development difficulties and publisher demands. I also need to go back and write a proper Lunar Dragon Song article (expanding on the previously published kusoge article), which is something else I'm dreading.
It's sad Lunar ended up like this. The first two are still excellent, even if their charms may be lost on a modern audience.
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on Jan 23, 2018 13:16:29 GMT -5
Magic School is the Saturn version, right? Because I don't remember having problems with the enemy density of the dozen hour romp that is the Game Gear game.
|
|
|
Post by Discoalucard on Jan 23, 2018 14:09:23 GMT -5
Yeah, Samposuru Gakuen ("Strolling School") = the Game Gear one, Mahou Gakuen ("Magic School") = Saturn one. Despite sharing the same basic characters, plot, and concept, their actual content is much, much different.
|
|
|
Post by ResidentTsundere on Jan 24, 2018 3:10:40 GMT -5
I enjoyed the PS1 versions of the first two Lunar games. I didn't beat Lunar 2 despite getting to the final boss.
|
|
|
Post by Allie on Jan 24, 2018 8:22:23 GMT -5
Not knowing anything about how the Japanese versions of the Lunar games played (although knowing WD changed up some of the gameplay and challenge in many of their titles) I've pretty much concluded that Lunar 2 on the Sega CD is the best game of the Lunar franchise. Lunar 2 on the PS1 looks great and the added portrait expressions and voice acting add much to the proceedings, but I can't forget how the PS1 version always seemed to be pushing you along one way to play. You have to use a specific "x" amount of seeds and "x" amount of curing items for most of the game in order to proceed through it relatively "smoothly". But it's not fun like the rationing of items in a survival horror, because in those games you can get out of battles without much of a scratch. Since this is a Jrpg, you can't help but take damage in battles or defeat some enemies with magic, and it's just not much fun when you've run out of magic seeds right when you get to the boss of a dungeon. And if that boss requires magic to defeat, hooboy are you screwed. The Sega CD version for all its problems never has this problem. There's always enough magic seeds to get through a dungeon and if you use them conservatively you should have plenty to spare. On the PS1 Lunar 2 you can be conservative and still be dangerously low on magic seeds until late in the game when you're filthy rich. The bosses in PS1 Lunar 2 also seem to have more HP than is necessary which makes some boss battles become a repetitive war of attrition. Lunar SSS on the PS1 is great though, and I think superior to the Sega CD version which while it has its pluses comes off slightly bland at times. As for Grandia, Grandia 1 is really the only one you need to play of that series. Grandia 2 in contrast seemed rushed to release too early. Halfway through the game it doesn't even bother to have overworld areas anymore, the story just "takes over" and just pushes you from dungeon to dungeon in a most linear fashion. People criticizing FF 13's linearity probably forgot that Grandia 2 pretty much did the same thing about a decade earlier. The puzzles in Grandia 2 are often pointless and dumb: the "push lever beside door to open door" variety. And it often seems like you fight the same 10 enemies over and over, except recolored. How many re-skinned grasshoppers do you have to fight through the game? And yes, I own the "superior" DC version. That said, I don't totally dislike Grandia 2. I do actually like the voices and battle system. I haven't bothered with Grandia after III. I'm kind of at the point where I don't like a sprawling overworld map that you have to traverse anymore. It's too easy to forget what you're supposed to do next if you take a 2-4 week break from playing.
|
|
|
Post by IrishNinja on Jan 25, 2018 17:24:19 GMT -5
It's sad Lunar ended up like this. The first two are still excellent, even if their charms may be lost on a modern audience. agreed - they really justified my Sega-CD purchase in the day, and i adored the party's interactions. 1 was predictable & short but i prefer JRPG's be that then dragging on (a la Tales, etc). ive wanted to replay the vastly superior 2 forever now, but i'm torn:Sega-CD has the better OST no plot fuckery, but is pretty hard at times (saving can be a bitch later, and fuck the Borgan fight). PSX made too many changes for my liking, but does look good. if i can just sort out this un-Working Designs ISO patching, i think that's the way to go!
|
|