Lunar 2 : Eternal Blue Complete Retrospective Review

PlayStation Top 10

After the announcement of the PlayStation Classic I decided to look back at my personal Top 10 PlayStation games to see if they hold up. Each gets a minimum of 3 hours of game play before I compare how I remember the game and how it plays now.

The rest of my Top 10 games are:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Motoracer
• Grandia
• Crash Warped
• Resident Evil
• Quake 2
• Metal Gear Solid
• Final Fantasy VII
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete – Then (2000)

After finishing Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, I wanted the sequel. I knew there was one, and the internet said it was coming. I’d have to wait a whole year to play, but knowing it was coming made the wait tolerable. I wish Grandia had been on my radar back then. It would have made for an amazing experience between these two titles. Alas, I did not, but the wait was worth it.

I am rare among Lunar fans. I prefer Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete over Silver Star. It’s so close, as they’re both my top 2 games on the PlayStation, but Eternal Blue always edges it out for me. Everything that made the first game great is present here, and I like the plot and characters more. That’s a personal preference, and I understand those who prefer the first game, but Hiro, Ruby and Lucia are my favorite JRPG party of all time. They beat all others.

Hiro is essentially Alex from the first game. Ruby, a baby dragon, is his best friend but she’s also clearly in love with him, which makes for a fun dynamic as he doesn’t see it at all. Then there’s Lucia, who starts out cold and determine to locate the Goddess Althena at all cost and slowly grows into a three dimensional person who struggles between duty and her heart. The romance between Hiro and Lucia develops throughout the game, something Alex and Luna had from the start. Seeing that relationship grow and change through their adventures endears them to me more than Alex and Luna. The only characters that I love more from SSSC are Jessica and Kyle….if they were in EBC it would be the perfect game.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete – Now (2018)

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is much harder than the first game. Roughly 90 minutes in I was killed in battle. Hiro and Gwyn fell in the Blue Spire due to my over confidence. The Spire is filled with enemies and one must grind through many battles to level your characters accordingly. This grind will be off putting to some, especially those used to modern JRPGs which have a more balanced approach to game play. Thankfully the game has a save anywhere feature, and I continued with only a five minute loss.

The battle system is identical to the previous game. Characters move around the screen, making position and move stats important factors to consider. Physical attacks are low level hits, while magic does more damage while consuming your limited mp. It’s a standard JRPG dynamic, but Lunar 2 makes you consider all attacks. In many of the battles you’ll have a single strong enemy surrounded by multiple weaker ones. Do you attack the weaker ones first, limiting the number of hits you’ll take, or do you attack the strongest foe, reducing the chances of taking a single powerful hit. It’s a classic system for a reason, and Lunar 2 executes it well.

You’ll get used to the battle system quickly, because after the intro video the game drops you right into the action. Lunar: SSSC had your characters interact in the village of Burg before battling monsters in the White Dragon Cave. Eternal Blue Complete starts with Hiro traversing a monster infested path. Thankfully the game provides you with a Goddess statue on the path, so you can experiment with the battle mechanics in a low risk environment.

Another positive for EBC is how quickly the story begins. The intro video sets up Lucia, then you’re right to Hiro doing his Indiana Jones thing. That’s not a tired comparison, Hiro is literally exploring a temple and gets based by monsters and giant boulders. After those first few fights, we meet White Knight Leo and follow him to Hiro’s home where he announces he’s out to fight the destroyer coming from the Blue Star. Hiro and his grandpa Gwyn head to the Blue Spire to investigate the destroyer. This quick pace carries through the whole game. Hiro is always chasing adventure.

The opening also establishes the game as an exploration of the history behind Lunar. The first game hints at how the land of Lunar came to be, created by the goddess Althena travelling from the Blue Star. During the game we get an explanation about why the goddess came to Lunar and brought people with her. The lore expands so much in this game. If you like fantasy world building, Lunar 2 is an excellent example. Setting the game a 1000 years after the first helps with this. The expansion is framed around all new characters and a changed world. Nothing feels forced.

Lunar 2 is a great sequel. It captures the same charming sense of fun and adventure the first game had. It keeps the successful battle system, while upping the challenge enough to keep it interesting. My big gripe from the first game, the inventory system, is corrected with a simple stacking feature. In SSSC items of the same type required a separate inventory space. EBC allows multiple of the same items to stack, showing a count of how many you have available. It’s a simple change, but one that streamlines the game play nicely.

Like the first game, Lunar 2 comes in a collector’s package. Bolstered by strong sales on SSSC, the sequel boasts more items in the box. The collector’s edition helps keep the game’s price high on eBay. It’s an expensive retro game that cannot be legally downloaded anywhere. Eternal Blue also lacks a modern remake, so the PlayStation and Sega CD versions are the only ones in existence. Despite these obstacles, I whole-heatedly recommend picking it up. It’s still a great JRPG and is worthy of being played. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete remains my favorite PlayStation game.