Lunatic Dawn I Day 1: Let's get this party started!
As mentioned in the introduction, there is not much story to go on in Lunatic Dawn. There's a short intro with a few pretty images and some text that talks of a magical force that destroyed an ancient civilization, monsters appearing lately, yadda yadda yadda. At the end, the woman in the below screenshot morphs into some kind of horrific vampire monster, and some objects and creatures appear in a crystal ball, which might or might not tie in to an overall goal of which we know nothing yet.
The chapter title is to be taken literally, as we first have to assemble a group of adventurers before going into the wild. Well, at the very first we have to create the main character. There are no dice rolls, so everything is decision based. You can put in a name (amusingly, the default is "Lunatic"), then pick the character's age and sex (both affect stats).
The fourth row prompts you to pick a weakness, which basically includes all kinds of strange phobias, like fear of darkness, claustrophobia, fear of any type of fantasy race, but even fear of blood, fear of a specific gender or fear of gold, scholarly learning or muscle training. I don't know if the fear of fantasy races only causes weaknesses against enemies or also affects party dynamics. The main hero is always human, but you can get party members of other races.
Then you can pick a family background, like commoner, soldier, scholar, noble or peasant, which also changes stats. There are no classes, instead you get to distribute a bunch of bonus points on the eight base attributes, strength, intelligence, dexterity, agility, wisdom, magic, constitution, spirituality. Those in turn influence your max. life, magic and stamina.
Then we're dropped into the first city. The calendar to the upper right is important, as clicking on it opens the save/load window, and since there are no classes, there is also a menu to choose the player avatar in combat:
The two words in brackets in the lower window switch between character status and a description of the place, which goes like this (All the romanizations for names are just made up on the fly by me):
The four bracketed texts in the middle window are the available actions. The first (upper left, menues are described in reading order unless I get them confused) leads to several shops with different selections of weapons and armor. Party members start with standard equipment, but the hero only has clothes and I believe a dagger, so we should hit the stores and search for some decent equipment. When I started the game, there was no leather armor available, so I got a chainmail, a steel cap and a longsword. Might or might not be because I chose "noble" for family background, but I got a decent purse to start with.
There's a lot to take care of when buying equipment:
- Material (this one's a silver dagger, so it is made out of silver)
- Wearing position (hands in case of a weapon, of course)
- Size (not sure what unit the "O" is)
- Attack Range (once again, no clue what "L" stands for)
- Attack
- Hit rate modificator
- Defense
- Evasion
- Price
Below that there's a space for special traits. Here it says that the silver dagger holds attack magic power.
The second option leads to the temple, where you can donate money, study (upon which your entire party leaves you) and receive medical treatment. I've skipped the temple for now.
The third leads to the training quarters, where you can practice a whole lot of combat, magic, thievery and camping abilities for time and money. Decided to check those out later, too.
Finally, whe get to the inn. As with the stores, there are several available, and the prices differ greatly, so it's worth to compare them with each other.
In the inn, we can talk with everyone inside to gather information, stay the night, hire or dismiss party members, and buy travel supplies. I don't know exactly what the final option means, but when taking that you have to choose an item from your inventory and then it's gone.
At first we talk with the innkeeper to receive our first quest. This is randomized, but it seems the first quest in the first inn is always a very well-paid one. Here's the one I got:
So, apparently a Fengshui book has been robbed from a local merchant, and someone got killed, so obviously the assassins from the nearby cave are to be blamed. We're hired to bring back the book within 39 days, and the reward is 16,000 Gold pieces.
But we can hardly do it alone, so let's take a look at the adventurers staying at this inn. You can hire up to five companions, but I think they take a share from any monetary rewards you may get. They are so kind as to tell us their name, age and gender, but their abilities we can only guess based on appearance.
There's a bunch of different descriptions, but here's what I've seen so far:
(EDIT: I'm expanding this list as I encounter more while playing)
Strength:
どうってことなさそう "nothing special"
格闘には向かないな "no match in a fistfight"
力に溢れている "teeming with strength"
日頃から鍛えているな "better trained than average"
Intelligence:
筋力が高ければ許そう "if physical strength is good, i can look past it"
あまり賢そうじゃない "doesn't seem too clever"
好奇心が強そうだ "seems to have much curiosity"
ふつーっぽい "average"(don't know what the word ending implies)
Dexterity:
あ、箸お使ってる "ah, he uses chopsticks"
別に何とも、、 "nothing special"
節くれだった指だな "rough and bony fingers"
まあ、普通だね "hm, it's average"
今、グラスを倒した "just now he dropped his glass"
Agility:
反射神経け良さそう "reflexes seem good"
よくつまずいでる "stumbles often"
ちょっと鈍そう "seems a bit slow"
Wisdom:
会話のテンポが遅い "talks slowly"
何も考えてなさそう "doesn't seem to think of anything"
時折ぼけっとしてる "sometimes acts like a fool"
期待できないな "I don't have high hopes"
Magic power:
見かけで損してそう "appearance seems weak"
しぐさが癇にさわる "actions affected by temper"
まさに十人並み "obviously average"
Constitution:
普通の冒険者レベル "ordinary adventurer level"
重い鎧は無理かな "probably cannot wear heavy armor"
なかなかの身体つき "has a considerable built"
いい身体してるね "is in good health
Spirituality:
おどおどしている "is hesitant"
根性なさそう "doesn't seem to have much willpower"
あてにはなりそう (don't quite get this. might be a typo then it could be: "seems to talk to inanimate objects")
根性なさそう "seems to have a strong will"
何も感じない "I'm sensing nothing"
As you can see by most of those descriptions, the first town isn't exacly populated by elite mercenaries. But it seems adventurers that are too far out of your league can reject to join you, anyway, and even with two of those I hired being geriatric old men, my main character was still the weakest in the entire party in the end.
Getting supplies is also important. Lamp oil is bought in shares of hours and food in shares of days. They're consumed automatically while traveling (food) or exploring dungeons (oil). I ended up buying like 20 hours of lamp oil and 15 days of food, but that seems much more than is necessary for a single starting level quest.
Next time, we'll actually try and go on that quest we took.
Bonus Round: The Artwork
The early Lunatic Dawn games all have totally fantastic cover art made of detailed miniature models. The Legend Pack contains clean versions of them, so here is the stunning scene from the above cover, with the heroes covering around the campfire. I think the knight on the right is supposed to be the iconic main guy, as his figurine was either sold or given away at some kind of lottery or competition, I guess.
