Review : Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (import)

Ok as you know I have done a Retro Review on Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and I love that game. This is a review on the PSP remake, which took the PS One classic and updated it for today's audience. So here's the review on Lunar: Silver Star Harmony.

Let me start with saying straight of the bat that the story is the same, but they've added extra story sequences, but changed the dialogue... the first thing they screwed with.... yes I have a lot of complaints about this. Graphically it looks great! Ramus actually looks fat in his sprite, but the new graphics has caused towns and dungeons to be remodeled to suit the new view and will cause veterans a little frustration because of memorising the PS One version. The soundtrack has been re-recorded as well as the voice acting, but the original theme song has been butchered with new lyrics and the voice acting while good is unfortunately not the original cast. Not to say the new voice cast isn't good, it's just that veterans like me have grown to love the original voices for the characters. The battle system has been re-tooled with a new menu layout and a new 'Arts Gauge' which allows you to use a special skill... which it seems like a Final Fantasy Limit Break. You know when it comes to the battles I actually can't find a fault.

Ok Now the story is of a boy named Alex who dreams of becoming a Dragonmaster like the legendary Dragonmaster Dyne. After the ice around the White dragon cave melts Alex and his friends Luna, Ramus and Nall(a little dragon) decide to go and get a Dragon Diamond(it's dragon poop) from the White Dragon and Alex after getting the diamond starts his journey to become the next Dragonmaster. Along the way the Vile tribe are trying to take over the healthy part of the Silver Star and a whole bunch of stuff happens that you need to experience instead of being told. It's turn-based combat and still has the auto-battle system from the PS One version and it's easy to get used to, plus thanks to the 'Arts Gauge" you can shred bosses easily with it. The remodeled dungeons are a little bit of a pain to navigate since the new view has forced more scene transitions and it's harder for veterans to adjust to it when their memory runs active and the game doesn't run the same.

Even with all the little niggles I have with it the original games is still there, but it's covered with all the new improvements. It's a great game still to this day, but fans of the PS One version and Sega CD version will be knit picking like I did and still enjoy the reborn classic. I honestly recommend playing the PS One version before this one, but either way the story is great, combat is simple and traditional and this is a JRPG worth owning like Chrono Trigger, Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy VII. If you miss out on this as a JRPG fan you'll regret it, but if you don't like JRPGs then this is will change your mind on classic JRPGs and increase your scorn for newer ones.

Score 4/5