Lunar Confirmed for US

Lunar is on its way stateside.

Friday, Working Designs confirmed that Lunar: Silver Star Story - Complete is indeed on its way to US PlayStations this summer.

Currently, the company has set an August release date for the title - less than 90 days after the release of the Japanese version. The title will carry a retail price of US$54.99.

According to Working Designs, translation of the title has been under way since last summer, and one animated sequence is already finished.

The game is a remix or retelling of the original game, released on the Mega CD by Game Arts in Japan and by Working Designs on the Sega CD in the US. It contains extra side quests and scenes not included in the original game, plus full-screen MPEG cinemas.

With this announcement, it is also now official that the Sega Saturn version of the game that Working Designs had planned to bring stateside is canceled.

Working Designs says that Lunar is "the first game being converted from the nearly defunct Sega Saturn to the PlayStation in order to satisfy gamers stateside." The second will be an action/platform title, also from ESP, scheduled to arrive in the summer as well. Although not confirmed, it's speculated that the game is none other than Treasure's Silhouette Mirage.

Working Designs President Victor Ireland said in a statement, "We're quite pleased that Lunar can now be seen in the US as Game Arts originally intended. The fact that on the PlayStation it will be available to the widest gaming audience since the heyday of 16-bit cartridge units is exciting as well. The MPEG encoding of the incredible animation will drop jaws on lots of RPG fans. We've been working hard to make this a rewarding experience for new Lunar fans, as well as those that played the original. The new songs and dynamite performances from top-shelf actors like John Truitt (Ghaleon) and Rhonda Gibson (Luna) will get players involved like never before."

In related Working Designs news, here's the current Working Designs release schedule:

Magic Knight Rayearth - Saturn - April '98 - Action/RPG - Working Designs

Elemental Gearbolt - PlayStation - April '98 - Shoot/RPG -Working Designs

Action/Platformer* - PlayStation - July '98 - Platform - SPAZ

LUNAR:Complete - PlayStation - August '98 - RPG - Working Designs

RPG* - PlayStation - Nov '98 - RPG - Working Designs

* Specific titles to these games have not yet been released.