The LUNAR Remastered Collection, featuring LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete, were two iconic JRPGs from the 90s and thanks to GungHo Online Entertainment, modern day gamers and retro fans alike can finally play these titles on today’s consoles and PC via Steam.
So what exactly is LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and its sequel about and do these JRPGs hold up now in 2025?
LUNAR Remastered Collection
LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete is the 1996 version of LUNAR: The Silver Star and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete is the 1998 version of LUNAR: Eternal Blue. The original non-“complete” versions of the games were released on Sega CD and were later upgraded with more story and characters and released onto the Sega Saturn and PlayStation 1.
LUNAR Remastered Collection includes the 1996 and 1998 versions of the game listed as “Classic Mode” as well as the enhanced “Remastered Mode” versions which is what modern gamers should play. Retro fans and purists can opt for the classic mode with the CRT filters but the “Remastered” looks so much better so I’m not sure why anyone would want to do this unless they _REALLY_ want to relive their childhoods.
First and foremost, LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete or LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete can be played in any order since the events in the second game take place one thousand years after the events of the first game. The sequel also features a lot more voiced dialogue and in my opinion, is overall the better game in terms of quality of life features and storytelling though this may be debateable depending on who you ask.
LUNAR: Silver Star Story Completes story revolves around Alex and Luna on their quest to travel the world and ensure that Alex becomes the next Dragonmaster. It’s quite a grand adventure and the game slowly drip feeds you information as you explore further. The story of LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete is great and features a lot of humour throughout.
LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete’s story focuses on Hiro and Ruby who encounter an ancient gemstone called the “Dragon’s Eye” and get sucked into a greater conflict with world ending consequences. Again, much like its predecessor, the writing in the game is filled with humour and some very clever storytelling that draws you in.
Gameplay in both titles are very similar to each other with turn-based battles being the order of the day here. Players will move their characters in a top-down view across numerous environments that have great visuals and there’s an overarching world map to traverse too. LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete features monsters in the dungeons which can be avoided whereas the sequel features random battles that trigger as you walk around.
Graphics have been spruced up for the Remaster as expected but nothing really massive has been done here. It’s just been given a shiny new coat of paint to bring it up to modern pixel art standards and the animated cutscenes have been upscaled. It looks great with sprites that are vivid and crisp! And also both games run great too.
Thankfully a fast forward option has also been added to the game so players can speed up the tedious and grindy battles significantly. However what this also does to the game means that you can breeze through the game since the slow paced turn-based battles would have taken exponentially longer without the fast forward option active. Still, I’m glad the fast forward option was included and you can opt to use it or not so it’s up to the player themselves.
The Remastered version also features updated character portrait sprites, menu icons, sound quality and different voice acting. Purists will also dislike the fact that the game’s script has been updated slightly to reflect the original Japanese version a bit more.
Other than the above, The Collection is quite a barebones package. It would have been nice to see some additional content here like the original Sega CD versions of both games or the Game Boy Advance version or even the PlayStation Portable version (which is the one I’m most familiar with) but alas this isn’t the case.
Final Verdict
Overall, the LUNAR Remastered Collection is a fairly straightforward update to both LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete. There’s quality of life improvements here which bring the games up to modern standards and both games are still fantastic JRPGs from an era long gone by. If you’re a fan of JRPGs, give this classic collection a go. Chances are you’ll love the story and the gameplay itself too.
LUNAR Remastered Collection Trailer
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Game code was provided by the Publisher.
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