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Lunar Genesis - Hands On Mini Preview
Chris Leyton
13/01/2006
Marvelous Interactive continues to bring Japanese titles to Europe with the first original Lunar title in over 10 years...
Marvelous Interactive returns later in the month with a long awaited new title in the legendary Lunar series for the Nintendo DS. The first original title in the RPG series since 1995, Lunar: Genesis makes heavy use of the DS's unique capabilities however a general lack of finesse and respect for conventions could leave this largely for the devout fans of the series.
The Lunar series is a traditional RPG series by Game Arts that started out on the Mega-CD during the early 90's and enjoyed significant success in North America along with Japan thanks largely to the excellent work put in by localisation experts Working Designs (sadly no more). A string of remakes on the Sega Saturn, Playstation and GameBoy Advance however left the series with a waning popularity, appealing to few beyond the hardcore fanatics though the series lives on with the first original title in more then ten years.
Despite being the latest title in the series Lunar: Genesis actually takes place 1000 years prior to the events of the first title in the series Lunar: The Silver Star, making it a prequel of sorts to the chronology of the series, a tale of origins. A time when two races lived on Lunar, Beastmen and Humans; the former possessed immense strength and agility, whilst the latter were intelligent and adept at using tools. With their differences the two lived in very separate circumstances, with the Beastmen inhabiting large cities in the centre whilst the Humans lived in small towns on the outskirts. As such a sense of balance was maintained between the two disparate races.
Lunar: Genesis follows the adventures of Jian Campbell, a young human in the port town of Searis who works as a courier for Gad's Express along with her partner and childhood friend Lucia Collins. The story begins when the pair receive a request to visit the city of Healriz, which seems to answer their longing for adventure. When they arrive at Healriz however they find the Beastmen's contempt for the Human race; so enraged Jian challenges the Beastmen's arrogance and inadvertently draws Lucia and himself into an even greater adventure, one that threatens the entire balance of Lunar.
Lunar: Genesis marks quite a dramatic gameplay change for the series which has in the past remained largely the same; some of these come off, but regrettably a number of the new changes look to leave even the most hardened Lunar fanatic questioning why such alterations have been made.
Combat within the game is a turn-based affair although it moves away from the series signature range-based battle system, whilst the traditional five-party members have been reduced to three. The system attempts to make use of the DS dual screens by placing airborne enemies at the top and grounded ones on the bottom, with top opponents requiring special and magical attacks to destroy. Arguably one of the biggest changes is the introduction of two battle modes, namely Normal and Virtue, which reward the player exclusively with items or XP respectively. The system goes a bit further then that and it's one that rewards those who are willing to persevere; defeating opponents whilst in Virtue mode will also switch them from the "Dark Side" to the "Light Side", which means they can no longer be fought and will have a checkbox ticked, however defeat the monsters in Normal and they will regenerate somewhere else on the battlefield. A stopwatch accompanies the action with monsters defeated in Virtue mode resting this to the maximum time, however if it runs down then a previously defeated monster will reappear on the field; if you can defeat all monsters on the field before the time runs out you'll earn a 30% HP and MP boost and special Blue Chests can be opened.
Sadly this concept is let down by a number of quibbles such as the inability to select a specific character within a battle which was a particular area of criticism upon the game's release in North America last year. These critics also drew criticism to the fact that HP is slowly depleted for running within the game; it's a change from the series traditional short bursts and ensures you can't just run through a field without fighting, it certainly takes awhile to get used to but it's definitely not as bad as what some have made out.
In between the main storyline and the various quests that go along with this Jian picks up various courier jobs which act as side-missions within the game. Each town has a Gad's Express where players can select jobs to earn money, dependant on the difficulty of the task in question. Such examples include defeating certain opponents to earn a specific number of a particular item. The system seems to provide respite away from the main quest and breaks up the town/dungeon nature of the game.
Away from the single-player quest Lunar: Genesis includes a Wi-Fi multiplayer mode in the Coliseum, whereby players can compete against each other with scratch cards earned during the main quest. However with between 30-40 hours of gameplay in the main mode it's not as though you'll be left wanting for more.
Having waited over 10 years for a new Lunar title there does seem to be some doubt as to whether the monumental changes in Lunar: Genesis will be welcomed, and whether or not a handheld title can replicate the "epic" nature of the series faithfully. Despite this there's a number of subtle concepts within the game that anyone who's followed the series will appreciate, especially so if you're the type of person who doesn't clump all JRPG's into one group for comparison.
We'll have the full review of the European localised version very shortly...
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