Lunar Legend

Reviewed by CL on 9/11/2004

I've heard some good things about the Lunar series, but I must say that I was not impressed at all by Lunar Legend. The game plays out like your standard RPG you’re your party on a quest to save the world from an unspeakable evil. The cliches don't stop there and the feeling I got while playing this game is that everything it offers has been done before and done better in other games. The game is also way too linear for a standard RPG. A linear quest is fine if there is enough structure but this isn't the case here. You'll often find yourself wandering around trying to find out where to go next because you have to talk to a very specific person in order to advance the storyline. There are also other little things that are kind of annoying. For example, when you get a new item, you can't tell if it is a sword, a hat, or a suit of armor. This is a problem when you try to equip something because you have to first select the inventory slot (L arm, R arm, head, etc.) and then scroll through all you items to find the one you want to equip. To further exacerbate the problem, most items are only equippable for one character. The main problem with the game is that it is too ridiculously easy for its own good. When you load a saved game, all your HP and MP are restored. Combine this with the fact that you can save anywhere you want and the strategy quickly devolves to having everyone attack with their most powerful spell and then whenever your HP or MP is low, simply save and reload. I never got wiped out during the entire game and it makes the experience pretty boring. The quest takes maybe 13 hours to complete, but in my opinion, it was a complete waste of time.