Lunar Legend is the GBA interpretation of SSS but without any of the originality or humor SSS paved for this series.
GAMEPLAY ~
If you ever played SSS you'll notice a world of difference when you attempt Lunar Legends (LL from now on) for the first time. Lost is the battle movements in where as you and the enemy move in closer for an attack, and if you aren't close enough you can't hit your target. Added in it's place was traditional Turn-Based RPG action with a small additive.
We all know how turn-based RPG's work, so I won't go into it much, but I will mention the additive they threw in. LL is one of those rare games that contains a "Auto" feature. Auto means all your guys just attack, no matter their situation, so more or less, it's Berserk mode, an you can cancel it with "B". Than there is another feature called "Tactics", which was icing on the traditional cake. Tactics lets you set a certain attack / magic / skill / item or defense from your arsenal and lets each character execute that set attack when the green scroll is selected during battle. To set tactics you need to click the green scroll (again) in the status menu, there you can set both battle formation and tactics.
Another feature in battles is the "Limit Break", which builds up when physical attacks are attempted (you don't need to hit the enemy for it to build) and once the bar is completely filled, each character has their own special attack which comes in handy during boss fights mainly. Or whenever.
Lastly to mention is the lack of explorable over-world. The original SSS had a free roaming environments for you to travel over and explore to your content. This was removed and given to fans is the always exciting point and click mannerism of movements... which made the game quite boring to say the least.
Overall, SSS is now your average run-of-the-mill RPG with only a little difference which isn't really noticeable over all the major changes made to fit it all onto one small GBA cartridge.
STORY ~
Lunar always has a solid story filled with love, vengeance and enough pop culture references to shake a stick at. Well, the story was almost a complete re-hash of the SSS telling and gone is a lot of the original dialogue too. Which makes you think, did we really need this? Not really... it's a GBA game, no one really cares about the story.
GRAPHICS ~
I am very impressed with what Magic Rings did with sprite design and dungeon layouts over the original Working Designs layout. Each character sprite is large and highly detailed giving each of them a huge head to work with. Battle sprites are the real winners here, never have I seen a more clean and fluid work on a sprite in my days of GBA bliss.
The battle sprites are also used during the more important parts of the game, giving the sprites more life and a ton of character actions. Battle action does not slow down the game nor is there any slowdowns to mention here in. Magic is huge and engulfs the entire screen. Some not as over encompassing, but still, worth the downgrade in game play.
Dungeon layouts are awesome as well. Very large beautifully crafted and layered areas, but maybe a little too straight forward for my liking. A truly wondrous experience, like nothing else on the GBA.
The only downside to the graphics is the deletion of cut-scenes. I realize that a GBA game can't contain cut-scenes, so instead we get "image stills" which still help progress the storyline where the original had a massive scene undertaking. I'll let this slide though, cause I really liked the look of this game. Brilliant!
SOUND ~
UGGGHHH!!! Why dear lord!?! WHY!?!?! LL had some of thee WORST music ever made into a MIDI. There is nothing accessible to the soundtrack nor is there any energy to behold. Even the battle music is bland and tired. You get the same 5 to 6 songs replayed over and over again 'till you just can't take it anymore! Thankfully it's portable and I can shut it down if needed. SFX aren't good either! Every physical attack makes the same slashing noise, even if you hit the enemy with your fist! Really a low point!
SSS was as well renowned for it's voice-overs and overall wondrous voice casting, but since the GBA cartridge can't really handle that kind of stuff, I let it slide, but it would have helped to progress the story a little more.
REPLAYABILITY ~
I'll mention the first thing that comes to mind whilst playing LL, glitches.
This game had two major glitches one good the other just concerning. Whilst collecting the equipment to become a Dragonmaster, I acquired the Red Dragon shield and after equipping it, it disappeared from my inventory. Eventually the game corrected itself when I finally became a Dragonmaster, but the 5 hours between Red and Black dragon was very disheartening. Did I mention this game is only around 20 hours long? It's quite short.
The other glitch was a good one, if it even was a glitch. LL offers a great save system which allows you to save anywhere in the world, but coupled with this is the awesome "health recovery" glitch! Meaning, every time I re-loaded my game, all my HP / MP was recovered! This made the game way too easy, and I never felt challenged at all. Still a very cool glitch, but I never had to heal until the final 2 bosses!
LL holds a few optional side-quest to undertake, that is, if you inquire about them before certain game progressions. Three of the four side-quest become inactive if the story progress too far, but the game gives no hints whatsoever about these optional dungeons, so unless you have a FAQ on hand at all time (which really isn't necessary) you'll most likely skip them. They really don't hold much important, unless you want to complete the special equipment sets or collect all the rare cards in the game.
Card Collecting was added in this game (an many other games) to slightly raise the replay value of lesser titles. LL is no exception. I didn't care for card collecting, mainly because some areas you can't revisit, or can't access later in due to game progression and if you miss one enemy, you are mostly screwed, cause I know no one has friends who will actually admits to owning this game. It doesn’t hold much interest to me and they edited out the "Hot Springs" areas (you know, the "bathing" area) for a card trader booth... very lame. Another point taken away from replay.
Last but not least is what LL would call the epicenter, the "Options" area on the start menu! This allows you to scroll through all your wonderful card collections and view game stills! Which is pointless because they are in "letter box" and all of the characters images have their heads cut off... not cool. An what do you get for 20 hours of not-so-hard work?
SOUND CHECK!!!! (re-read "sound" section)
Yes, LL sucks in the replay department giving you no reason to hold onto this game any longer than you have too...
OVERALL ~
This is really a disgrace to the Lunar series.
instead of taking the core idea of LL and developing a brand new LUNAR game, they decide to cut out anything Working Designs originally built and added in things we've experienced a million times before. They would have done better by using these graphics and adding them to a remake of SSS for the PSP, than at least the PSP would have a juggernaut of a RPG title to hold over rabid fans.
Not worth your time if you are a true Lunar fan.