Lunar – 30th Anniversary Special – Carpe Ludum – Eidolon's Inn

written and copyrighted in 2022 by Christian A. Schiller. No reprints without permission.
The original German version of this text appeared initially in RETURN magazine issue 49 in May 2022.

The Lunar Universe is celebrating its 30th birthday in 2022. Some parts of the long-running series represent the best JRPG fare that hardly anyone in Europe has played – a reason for us to take a closer look at them to mark the anniversary. The following “genealogy” shows the series titles up until 2012. Afterwards, luckily the franchise continued as well – in 2023 with an Android release of Lunar Silver Star Complete, and in 2025 with Lunar Remastered Collection for a variety of platforms (Sony PlayStation 4, XBox One and Series, Nintendo Switch, Windows).

Introduction

From the late 1980s, early JRPG series such as Dragon Quest (from 1986) and Final Fantasy (from 1987) captured the hearts of Japanese Nintendo fans; it was the heyday of Enix and Square. Sega also jumped on the bandwagon, creating another blockbuster with the Phantasy Star series (from 1987), and the first Ys (Nihon Falcon, from 1987) also saw the light of day. These series became franchises that lasted for decades and are still active today. Other companies followed suit, such as Namco with the Tales of titles in 1994.
Unfortunately, the Lunar series did not fare so well: although individual titles are among the best in the JRPG genre, it is little known today. Although a total of eleven instalments were released on various platforms between 1993 and 2012, these releases can be traced back to just four main titles, marked in green in the genealogy: Silver Star (from 1993), Eternal Blue (from 1995), the Japan-exclusive Walking/Magical School (from 1996) and the latecomer Genesis/Dragon Song (2005). It was only with the latter title that the previously Japan- and US-exclusive series made its way to the European market, but failed miserably due to the poor quality of Lunar: Genesis/Dragon Song. Our background article will therefore take a look at the four main titles and their re-releases and remakes in chronological order, before concluding with game recommendations and an outlook. Interviews with Kei Shigema and Noriyuki Iwadare, scenario writer and composer of Silver Star and Eternal Blue, round off the Anniversary Special. Hope you enjoy it, happy to receive feedback!