{"id":4118,"date":"2010-03-22T05:03:44","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T11:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=4118"},"modified":"2010-03-22T05:03:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T11:03:44","slug":"game-review-lunar-silver-star-harmony-psp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/22\/game-review-lunar-silver-star-harmony-psp\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Review: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LUNAR_BOX\"Lunar: The Silver Star is one of the most beloved classic role playing games. It was originally for the Sega CD and later remade for the PlayStation. And now, fans old and new can experience Lunar again on the go with Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PlayStation Portable (it\u2019s based on the PSX remake). Join young adventurer Alex, who idolizes Dragonmaster Dyne\u2014one of the Four Heroes who saved the world many years before. Alex teams up with friends old and new on a quest to become a Dragonmaster just like his hero, and they\u2019ll end up saving the world from evil again in the process!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lunar is pretty much a typical Japanese RPG. You\u2019ll gather clues and buy items in towns, then venture forth inside dungeon caves and forest mazes to defeat enemies, gain experience, and progress the story along. Battles are standard turn-based fare. Run into roving enemies in the dungeons and you and a group of monsters will trade blows with physical attacks and blasts of magic. Unique to Lunar\u2019s battle system is that enemies and allies can move all over the battlefield, so you\u2019ll need to use some strategy and tactics so you don\u2019t get surrounded! Defeated enemies net you experience points and items so you can level up.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019ve never played a Lunar game before now, I can\u2019t say if this remake truly does the original justice. However, I think Lunar fans will be happy with it. It certainly reminds me of other classic 16 and 32-bit RPGs I played back in the day. Lunar features animated cutscenes and voice acting to help enhance the experience, as well as memorable characters and a storyline that\u2019s easy to follow and not overly convoluted. And the music is really catchy and memorable, too!<\/p>\n

There are a few minor quibbles I had with the PSP remake, however. While the loading times aren\u2019t TOO lengthy, they are long enough to be a bit annoying. Plus, the game has to load every time you enter a building or engage in battle, and that interrupts the game flow. Also, Lunar has all the trappings of a classic RPG, both good and bad. They certainly don\u2019t spoonfeed you here, and sometimes goals can be a little unclear and battles can be tough unless you\u2019ve leveled up enough.<\/p>\n

Even with these minor quibbles, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony should please Lunar nuts and classic RPG fans alike. I would certainly choose to play this game over today\u2019s modern and overblown RPGs like the recently released Final Fantasy 13 any day!<\/p>\n

\"LUNAR_SCREEN\"<\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, and Use of Alcohol. While you trade blows and magic blasts in battle, violence is pretty mild as there is no blood and defeated enemies just disappear in a poof of light. While you do visit pubs to gather clues and talk about drinking in the dialogue, most of the mild language, suggestive themes, and use of alcohol appears in text only, and it\u2019s mostly used sparingly as campy dialogue and light crude humor. Like many other Japanese RPGs, some of the female characters are a bit scantily clad, but it doesn\u2019t happen very often. Personally, I\u2019d be OK with some kids younger than teenagers playing this, but good reading skill is still a must as everything is text based.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lunar: The Silver Star is one of the most beloved classic role playing games. It was originally for the Sega CD and later remade for the PlayStation. And now, fans old and new can experience Lunar again on the go with Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PlayStation Portable (it\u2019s based on the PSX remake). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}