The heart of Lunar 2 is its fascinating storyline and endearing characters. For a game that’s nearly a decade old, it still tells a tale as epic as any one of today’s modern RPG’s. Centering around a mysterious girl named Lucia, the plot is a lot darker than the first game and moves along at a much quicker pace. You’re no longer waiting for big events to happen, and there’s a greater balance between humour and seriousness that was sometimes missing in SSSC. Yes, the infamous pop culture references are back, but WD has toned down the comedy in favour of quality story telling. You never lose sight of your goal, and you’re constantly being pushed forward to uncover all of the various plot twists.

With the story taking a turn for the better, the characters are also a lot more fleshed out this time around. Each one has a past that they need to come to terms with, and while the outcomes of their individual fates may be a bit predictable, it’s still one heck of a journey. The adventurous and more vocal Hiro has replaced the shy and quiet Alex. A ruin explorer, Hiro is accompanied by his “flying cat” companion, Ruby. Their journey begins when they see a mysterious ray of light being emitted from the Blue Spire. Never one to back down from an adventure, Hiro sets out to investigate the enigma. As you can probably guess, he gets more than he bargained for and the cogs of fate are put into motion. Besides the all-new protagonist, you can also expect some surprise appearances by a few familiar faces from the first game, and even a few descendents of the original’s cast. Needless to say, Lunar lovers should be quite pleased with the entourage.

In terms of graphics, Lunar 2 won’t exactly turn the heads of RPGers who were brought up on Final Fantasy VII. There are no pretty pre-rendered backgrounds, no polygonal characters, and no amazing spell effects. What we have here are good old-fashioned sprites and the style suits the game just fine. While not a huge improvement over SSSC, there are little touches such as more animation, as well as subtle lighting and shadow effects. The only real problem with the graphics is that you’ll sometimes see the game skip a few frames in larger areas, but it doesn’t happen often enough to hamper the overall experience.

Staying with the visuals, I wouldn’t be able to write this review without mentioning the stellar anime cut scenes. Gone is the letterbox format of the first game, only to be replaced by the much more practical full screen mode. The animation during the cut scenes is superb and while it does look a bit grainy if you view it closely enough, the overall effect is not lost. There’s also a lot more CG involved this time around, and that also looks spectacular. It should also be noted that the cut scenes tend to be a lot longer than the ones in the first game. Wait until you get near the end of disc 2; you’ll think you’re watching an anime short! These are the types of production values all RPG’s should have today.

One of the more commendable aspects of the original Lunar was its soundtrack. Featuring a very memorable main theme, the music complemented the story very nicely. While Lunar 2’s soundtrack may not be as memorable, it does feature some standout pieces such as the epic boss theme and the beautiful title theme. A lot of the tracks have been recycled from the first game, which should please purists. Sound effects and voices are all great, although some people may get tired of listening to Hiro shout “dodge this,” every time he uses his Poe Sword attack. On the whole, I couldn’t be more satisfied with the aural component of Lunar 2.

Now that we’ve got all of the aesthetic stuff out of the way, it’s time to talk about gameplay. Now, I urge you to understand one thing about this game: Lunar 2 is hard. How hard you ask? Try screaming “Why won’t you just DIE?” at your television kind of hard. Try 15-20 minute boss battles that drain your mp and items like no tomorrow hard. So, if you’re looking to just waltz through the storyline then you can forget it. Expect to be spending a lot of time in battle just leveling up and gaining new abilities for your characters. At times, Lunar 2 has a bit of a dungeon crawler feel to it. Old-school gamers who were brought up on Dragon Warrior and the earlier Final Fantasy games will no doubt enjoy this part of the game. As for casual gamers who want instant gratification, they may be out of luck. However, don’t let this turn you off from the game. It has way too much going for it to let a little difficulty stop you from enjoying the experience. On average, you’ll probably complete the adventure in about 35 hours. That number will easily shoot up to well over 40 hours if you want to see the “complete” ending. It’s not impossible, but patience is definitely required at certain points in the game.

The battle system also has more depth in Eternal Blue. You can now equip various rings and “crests” to customize your characters how you see fit. For example, you can equip a ring that protects your character from all status ailments, one that raises their attack power, and so on. The crests basically give your character the ability to use magic. Lightning, sleep, poison; all of the standard stuff is covered here. You can equip two rings and two crests per character. I found that the crests aren’t really necessary, but they do add another dimension to your individual characters. By the end of the game, you’ll be totally stocked up on these items, so the possibilities for character customization really are endless. Thanks to Game Arts for enhancing the gameplay.

Continuing on, one of the problems with SSSC was the sometimes-disorganized inventory system. Well, all of that is now a thing of the past, as the menu interfaces have been cleaned up quite a bit. No longer will you see 20 herbs in your inventory, instead you’ll see one with a number next to it telling you how much of the item you have in stock. Also, every character has access to all of the items in battle. Adding even more to the challenge of the game is the fact that you can’t carry more than 20 of any one item. This makes inventory management a crucial part of the gameplay, as you’ll want to save up those healing and magic restoration items for boss fights. These things may seem trivial, but they really do make the game feel more organized and add to the quality of the package.

Speaking of the “package,” Working Designs has stuffed their latest release with enough extra’s to make fan boys giggle with delight. In addition to the three game discs, you’ll also get a bonus music CD containing selected tracks from the game, as well as a “Making Of” CD, which pretty much speaks for itself. That’s not all though. WD is also packing a hardcover colour manual, 17 mini character standees, a paper map/poster, and a very cool Lucia pendent. For those of you who pre-ordered the game, you’ll receive a collector’s edition punching puppet Ghaleon. This may not mean much to a lot of gamers, but it’s nice to see companies go the extra distance.

Even without all of the little extras, Lunar 2 stands strong on its own and is easily one of the must-play RPG’s of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed my trek through the games’ magical world, and the only thing keeping this title from achieving an A rating is that it shares the common problem with most RPG’s today: once it’s over, it’s over. You may want to play through it again to seek out all of the bromides and to unlock all of the cut scenes, but there’s really not much to replay. However, that shouldn’t discourage you from picking this game up. With a memorable cast of characters, a wonderfully written story, and challenging gameplay to boot, Lunar 2 is the perfect addition to any RPG connoisseur’s library.