Lunar(SCD) Vs. Lunar(PS1)

[Magister]

I own both of these games.  I bought the one for the SCD when it first came out.  Yes, I own a Sega CD.     Loved the game.  The Intro at the time blew me away.  The cut scenes were great, and the soundtrack was damn good.  I thought the humor in the game was great as well, even though Working Designs had to tone it back some for the U.S.   Just a shame that the final boss had some kind of glitch where he wouldn't attack you for some reason.  Maybe it was just my copy that did it, I don't know.  But he just stood there and did nothing while you beat on him.  I played it multiple times and it was always the same thing.

Then along came the updated version for the PS1.  New Intro and everything else got a face lift.  Soundtrack was cleaned up, voice acting was much much better.  And the cut scenes were all redone.  And one thing I loved about this game was that they actually changed up the storyline. 

SPOILERS: Making it where this time around Luna goes with you on the boat instead of staying behind was a shock.

I know there is really no comparison.  It's like comparing Blu-ray to DVD.  The SCD version had it's charm and the intro was great for the time.  But Working Designs instead of just porting the old copy over to the PS1 and calling it good, went back and remade this game from beginning to end.  Just a shame they closed their doors over 10 years ago.  We have Sony to thank for that.  I know they started over with a new brand name.  But it's just not the same.

[bob]

why are these f*cking "vs." threads are all of a sudden coming back?

[Black Tiger]

Silver Star is an unrealized vision of a game that never materialized and is very rough in the WD and Japanese games.

Silver Star Story for Saturn is a lot of fun and very cool and Complete is the best cersion of the game.

The Playstation versions of Complete are botched pretty bad and a pain to play in comparison. Heavily downgraded visuals, long loading and misc.

[Magister]

Silver Star is an unrealized vision of a game that never materialized and is very rough in the WD and Japanese games.

Silver Star Story for Saturn is a lot of fun and very cool and Complete is the best cersion of the game.

The Playstation versions of Complete are botched pretty bad and a pain to play in comparison. Heavily downgraded visuals, long loading and misc.

Never knew this.  After the Sega CD, I sort of gave up on Sega altogether and never bought one of their systems since.  Glad I never fell for the 32X.  I did enjoy the PS1 version though.  I've never played Lunar 2.  Was never able to find a copy in stores when it came out.  One day I'll get around to picking up a copy.

[Gypsy]

why are these f*cking "vs." threads are all of a sudden coming back?

I thought about making a couple retarded ones in fighting street.

Anyway as for this thread I feel I've discussed this a lot. Eternal Blue on Sega CD is great. I've played the SCD and PS1 version of each. I need to INCREASE MY RUNES to play the Saturn versions.

[Digi.k]

Silver Star is an unrealized vision of a game that never materialized and is very rough in the WD and Japanese games.

Silver Star Story for Saturn is a lot of fun and very cool and Complete is the best cersion of the game.

The Playstation versions of Complete are botched pretty bad and a pain to play in comparison. Heavily downgraded visuals, long loading and misc.

Never knew this.  After the Sega CD, I sort of gave up on Sega altogether and never bought one of their systems since.  Glad I never fell for the 32X.  I did enjoy the PS1 version though.  I've never played Lunar 2.  Was never able to find a copy in stores when it came out.  One day I'll get around to picking up a copy.

A similar scenario with lunar 2 EB too.  Especially the soundtrack.  Overall PS1 version does some stuff better than the saturn and likewise the Saturn does other stuff better than the ps1.. But at least the PS1 versions got released in English.






EDIT
Also the saturn versions of Lunar silver Star come in two releases, the standard one which has smaller FMV cut scenes and the MPEG version that requires an additional accessory to run the game that allows almost full screen almost 30 frames FMV.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I didn't have a Sega CD when it first came out, got one much later.  So I ended up playing the PS1 versions of both first, & prefer those.  Haven't played too far into the Sega Cd or Saturn versions.  I don't care at all for the GBA version, but the PSP game was fun.

[SuperDeadite]

SSSC > SSS
EB > EBC

Enough said.

[DragonmasterDan]

TSS is the Superior Version of Lunar 1 for a few reasons.

First off without going into spoilers there were some very severe story changes. This went from having two scenario writers who collaborated on The Silver Star to just one on the remakes. The end result leaves a few plot holes and an overall less rewarding plot in my opinion.

The second reason TSS is the superior version is tied to the actual size of the game. The dungeons are large, there are random encounters in overworld which while it slows down gameplay, adds more exploring, and more of a sense of scope and adventure.

The redbook audio and different audio tracks in the original game I also find to be superior.

Yes, the remake(s) have better art, are less tedious due to the lack of random encounters and no battles on the overworld, but they lack the exploring and story of the original.

[Gypsy]

Reading that post, it's no wonder you like the Dragon Quest games so much. I prefer the style of the later releases for Lunar 1 but would agree the plot changes are meh.

[DragonmasterDan]

Reading that post, it's no wonder you like the Dragon Quest games so much. I prefer the style of the later releases for Lunar 1 but would agree the plot changes are meh.

I'm guessing you also played the remakes first allowing them to shape your perception of what the game should be?

[Gypsy]

Reading that post, it's no wonder you like the Dragon Quest games so much. I prefer the style of the later releases for Lunar 1 but would agree the plot changes are meh.

I'm guessing you also played the remakes first allowing them to shape your perception of what the game should be?

Honestly I just don't much care for the exploration aspect of JRPGs. So the big world map does nothing for me.

I prefer the Sega CD version of Lunar 2 fwiw.

Edit: Honestly not big on random battles or battle systems that require a loading transition either at this point but I understand the limitations at the time.

[Black Tiger]

I played Silver Star for Sega-CD as soon as it came out, after playing almost every 16-bit JRPG'ish game teleased in North America, as well as several PC Engine imports.

It was neat that it was a JRPG for Sega-CD, since I love RPG'ish games, but it was never really enjoyable to play or experience in general. I still played it to death like I did every game and really pushed to progress through at the lowest level possible each time as a challenge.

It wasn't appealing or impressive as a Sega-CD game or as a Genesis RPG. It wasn't terrible, since it was still a JRPG, but certainly was disappointing.

Eternal Blue was the opposite. It was fun, even with Vic trying to ruin the gameplay, and it actually felt like you were experiencing a real adventure (as Grandia would do even further later on). It really felt like thr realization of the potential of the hardware/format and was the kind of HRPG experience that felt "right" and couldn't be found in SNES carts.

I bought Silver Star Story for Saturn as soon as it came out and couldn't believe how well they fixed the experience. I'm not a fan of non-random battles, but they did a great job with the balance between their distribution and the enjoyable battle gameplay. No longer a rough grungy world, I actually cared about the memorable places I visited and the characters actually felt like they had real personality finally, even with the language barrier. This was such a great start to what 32-bit 2D JRPGs could be and it's unfortunate that most would go off in directions that didn't appeal to me.

Eternal Blue for Saturn was fine and it was nice seeing a more colorful version of the backgrounds, but the Sega-CD version was still more enjoyable and a spruced up PC Engine version would have been much better.

I rented Silver Star Story Completd for Playstation when it came out and it was pretty disappointing how every part of the visuals had been downgraded and the long save/load times were particularly mood killing. The localization was a typical WD mixed bag, but the story turned out to be exactly how I believed it to be from my Saturn experience. I'd still much rather play the Japanese version of the Playstation game, if not the Saturn versions, just as I typically do the Mega-CD versions over Sega-CD.

[SignOfZeta]

It's 2017 and still people are giving Working Designs credit for making ports and things. Amazing.

All they did was translate stuff and occasionally "adjust" things, often making the game worse like charging for save points and making Exile II %99 unbeatable. The state of translation of Japanese games to English was in transition at that time. We were changing from, for example, Dragon Warrior I (NES) to Earthbound (SNES) and this akward time in the middle saw fanboy slobs doing the jobs. Don't get me wrong, they were an indispensable service during that weird time in the 90s when RPG interest was at its peak but almost none were being released. However...come on. The humor is submental and the gameplay tweaks are rare and terrible.

Not to mention everything they printed after a while had that Dorito-proof 8x gloss on it that made the shit so shiny you have to adjust the lighting in the room to see through the glare. 

[Gypsy]

It's 2017 and still people are giving Working Designs credit for making ports and things. Amazing.

I must have completely glazed over this when reading a post but lol.