Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

The cast of The Silver Star all return for the game's remake, retaining their original designs by anime and manga artist Toshiyuki Kubooka.[5] Players assume the role of Alex, who is joined by a menagerie of playable and supporting characters who aid him on his quest.

• Alex - a young boy from a small town who dreams of becoming an adventurer like his idol, Dyne.
• Luna - his childhood friend and sweetheart
• Nall - a winged, white, cat-like creature with an uncertain origin
• Ramus - son of the town mayor with dreams of becoming a rich businessman
• Nash - a boisterous magician-in-training from a prestigious magic school
• Mia - quiet daughter of the magic guild's headmistress
• Jessica - a tomboyish priestess
• Kyle - a self-absorbed vagrant and ladies' man as well as Jessica's strained boyfriend.[6]

Each character's personalities were expanded for the new version to make them easier for the player to relate to, and give each of them more presence in the game's story.[7] As the game's designers felt that Luna was lacking presence in the original game, she was included in the player's party for a longer period and her past was expanded by giving her confounding dream sequences.[8]

Ghaleon, a dark magician who seeks godhood, serves as the primary antagonist, and initially appears as an ally to Alex's cause. In the new version, Ghaleon's personality is altered to make him a more sympathetic character. Motivation for his plans to rule the world were shifted from revenge to misplaced concern for humanity not having a true leader.[7] He is still undeniably ruthless and cruel, however. Game Arts added new villains to the story, feeling that the game's opposition lacked enough characterization.[8] These include Royce and Phacia, two powerful sorceresses who are sisters to Xenobia, Ghaleon's top general who appeared in the original as his sole underling (who, in this version, actually has romantic feelings for him).[9]

The plot of Silver Star Story Complete remains true to the original Sega CD version written by Kei Shigema. Novelist Keisuke Shigematsu was recruited as the remake's scenario writer, and was tasked with expanding the previous script written by Shigema to make the game more current.[10] As in the original version, players assume the role of Alex, a young boy who hopes to become a great hero like his idol, the legendary Dragonmaster Dyne. At the insistence of his fortune-hunting friend Ramus, Alex travels to the nearby Dragon's Cave with his cat-like companion Nall, and sweetheart Luna, to seek a precious gem. When the team reaches the cave's interior, they find Quark, an aged, wise dragon who sees hidden potential in Alex, and beckons him to travel the world and become its protector as the new Dragonmaster. Returning home, the group expresses mutual interest in Alex's quest; Ramus wishes to sell the dragon gem at a large city, Nall wants to find out what he is, and Luna merely to protect Alex. The group sets off across the frontier to the port town of Saith to continue their journey.

An animated sequence with Luna singing "Wind's Nocturne", created by combining traditional and computer animation[8]

Traveling through the Weird Woods, Luna sings a magic song to clear a patch of thick fog in their path, yet is not sure how she knew it would work. The group is surrounded by a horde of monsters, and are defended by a traveling warrior named Laike. Finding Alex's quest to become Dragonmaster humorous, Laike nonetheless wishes him and his friends luck as they leave the forest. Arriving at Saith, the group meets Nash, a magician-in-training from a prestigious magic school who needs transport back to his home, and joins the group on a boat to the eastern continent. Unlike the original Sega CD version, Luna continues with Alex rather than stay behind to give her a bigger role in the plot.[3][8] After arriving in the port town of Meribia, Ramus leaves the group to become a salesman at his own shop, while the rest of the team travels to the floating city of Vane to meet Ghaleon, a former adventurer who traveled with Dyne before his death. Ghaleon sends Alex and Luna on a quest to stop a false Dragonmaster from harassing a village where he meets Jessica, a priestess and daughter of the legendary hero "Hell" Mel. Returning to Vane, Ghaleon tells Alex he wants to see Quark to discuss his future as Dragonmaster, with Luna joining them on a return trip to Burg. After arriving at the dragon cave, Ghaleon and Quark reminisce before Ghaleon cryptically asks whether Luna is "the one from back then". Upon hearing an affirmation, Ghaleon's mood changes, and suddenly transforms into a more sinister form, The Magic Emperor, who turns Quark to energy and kidnaps Luna, remarking that he will now use her in his quest to rule the world.

The game's final scenario and the reason for Ghaleon's actions differ slightly from the original, with the Goddess Althena's instability serving as the catalyst for the events rather than a rampaging Black Dragon.[7] In this version, Laike relates the story of how one day fifteen years ago, the Goddess Althena concluded that people were depending too much on her, rather than growing as people and as a civilization, and that by continuing to mother them, she was doing more harm than good. Despite Ghaleon's pleas, Dyne and Althena used their powers to spread her life force throughout the world, transforming her into an infant, to live out a mortal life as a human. Ghaleon, believing humanity could not survive without a god watching over them, cut off all ties to his former friend and set his plan into motion to ascend to godhood himself in Althena's place; his cause set on rule rather than revenge as in the original.[7] Believing that humanity was strong and resourceful enough to live on their own, Dyne left the young girl in the care of Alex's parents to raise her as their own daughter before he began his new life as Laike, a traveling adventurer. Now knowing the truth of Luna's origins, Alex and his friends travel to the Goddess tower to save her and stop Ghaleon from seizing control of the world. Defeating his generals, Alex confronts Ghaleon at the tower's upper pagoda, where the ritual to transfer Luna's power to him has already begun. Echoing Dyne's earlier declaration on the strength of humanity, Alex's team attacks and defeats Ghaleon as his fortress crumbles around them. With Luna still caught in a trance, Alex attempts to reason with her to leave while the others are teleported to safety. Playing his ocarina, Alex awakens Luna's memories before the two are transported to the surface as the tower collapses, re-uniting with their companions.

The North American collector's edition package

In late 1995, California-based software company Working Designs, who had previously provided the translation for the original Silver Star, signed on to produce the English-language version.[16] The company originally expressed interest in localizing the Saturn version under the name Lunar: Silver Star Story Director's Cut to be released in Fall 1996.[17] When Fall 1996 arrived the localization was still in its early stages, and the release date was accordingly pushed back to the fourth quarter of 1997.[18] Working Designs stated that its conflict with Sega of America would not impact the four Saturn projects from Working Designs which were already in progress,[19] but though the other three all were released as promised, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete was not. Work began on the PlayStation version in 1998.[20] Silver Star Story Complete was headed by company president Victor Ireland, who also served as head translator and localizer. Like the original game, the English version features a lighthearted, non-literal interpretation of the original Japanese script while retaining the same basic story, which now includes American pop culture references, breaking the fourth wall, and slapstick humor.[8] Working Designs kept in close contact with the original Japanese team, adding several new features to the North American version including DualShock controller support, the ability to switch between memory card slots on the save screen, and the ability to create up to fifteen save files instead of three.[21] Working Designs initially announced that the PlayStation version would be released in North America in August 1998, just three months after the planned Japanese release.[3] Programming and production difficulties stifled progress, resulting in numerous delays and changing release dates until the game's eventual release in May 1999. A stand-alone demo version of the game was distributed to several game stores across the United States which preceded the final version, as well as a Ghaleon punching puppet available with pre-order of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue.[22]

Silver Star Story Complete was initially released in North America as a limited collector's edition which included two game discs, a hardbound instruction manual, a soundtrack CD, a "Making of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete" special disc, and a cloth map of the Lunar world.[22] The package retailed for $60.00 to cover the cost of the elaborate extras.[12] Working Designs would also publish their own strategy guide for the game, also billed as a collector's item. Ireland's team would add an easter egg to the "Making of" video disc in the form of a minigame based on Atari's arcade game Warlords called Lords of Lunar accessed by using a code found in-game. In February 2002, a special "Fan-Art Edition" of the game was released featuring disc artwork by contributors to the Working Designs website, which lacked the extras of the collector's edition.[23] A Windows-based PC version of Silver Star Story was released in Japan in December 1999 by DigiCube featuring higher resolution graphics and video playback.[24] Working Designs had expressed interest in bringing this version to North America in 2002, but claimed that the English version was too buggy and unstable to be released.[25]

Silver Star Story Complete features twenty voiced characters,[29] four times the original version.[30] The characters' voices are used in pre-designated cut scenes, animated interludes and when using special attacks in battle. The English cast was composed of family and friends of the Working Designs staff, as well as local talent from the area.[8] Ashley Angel, Jennifer Stigile, Rhonda Gibson, Jackie Powers, Hal Delahousse, and John Truitt reprise their roles, and were joined by a number of talents to fill out the game's expanded speaking roles. Working Designs had considered replacing Angel, as Victor Ireland felt he may have aged too much to convincingly play a young boy, but reconsidered after his rehearsal, commenting that "the players have all aged a bit since the original, so Alex could have aged a bit, too".[8] Stigile sings the intro song as well as the "Boat Song" in the English version. While the English cast returned, the Japanese version was completely re-cast from the Sega CD original, bringing in several established anime and game voice actors, including pop idol Sakura Tange.[29] A four-volume sound drama album series, Lunatic Festa, was released in Japan between August and November 1996 featuring the Japanese voice actors performing skits and songs in-character, as well as arranged music tracks from the game.[31][32]