History VideoGame / LunarTheSilverStar

* ArcherArchetype: Tempest is a textbook example; he's a fiercely independent tribesman from a prairie wilderness. And he equips bows.

* ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaCD. The English version was released by Creator/WorkingDesigns.
* ''Lunar: Silver Star Story'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and its updated re-release for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation. Working Designs localized the [=PlayStation=] version as ''Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete''. It had a [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer Windows PC]] port, which never left Japan (or South Korea) due to technical problems during the localization process.
* ''Lunar Legend'' for UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. English version was released by Creator/{{Ubisoft}}.
* ''Lunar: Silver Star Harmony'' for UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable. English version was released by Creator/{{XSEED|Games}}.
* ''Lunar: Silver Star Story Touch'' for UsefulNotes/{{iOS|Games}}. Released by [=SoMoGa=] Games.

[[indent:20:This is entirely an invention of the localization. The original Japanese version doesn't even remotely hint at anything like this.]]

The plot is traditional (and thus predictable) and the gameplay is much the same -- anyone who has played an EasternRPG will be perfectly at home with ''Lunar''. To be as successful as it's been, other elements have to seize the player's interest. In this case, those are the writing and the music. The blend of engaging characters, the colorful writing full of {{shout out}}s and [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall breaking]] humor, and the acclaimed soundtrack (two of them, as ''Lunar: The Silver Star''[='=]s music is distinct from the others) are what has given ''Lunar'' its staying power.

The original ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' was released in North America back in 1993, long enough ago that the plot twists actually surprised some players. In 1999 the widely-played ''Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete'' remake was released on [=PlayStation=], and it strongly influenced the versions to follow. ''Lunar Legend'' was released in 2001, early in the life of the [=GameBoy=] Advance; opinions on it are mixed. Most recently, ''Lunar: Silver Star Harmony'' was released on [=PlayStation=] Portable, serving as remake of ''Silver Star Story''. It is heavily based on Working Designs' version of ''Silver Star Story''; the new publisher XSEED even brought Jennifer Stigile (fan-favorite singer/voice actress from the Working Designs talent pool) on board to re-record English versions of the songs.

* Anti-Grinding: Of a sort; in the remake the entire first half of the game seemed to be designed with the expectation that players shouldn't spend too much time grinding by virtue of the fact that enemies give pretty crap EXP. The only non-boss enemy encounters to break 100 in the first half of the game are the rare ice mongrels in the cave of trials, and the last monster area, the Nanza barrier, has battles worth around 70 exp at best. However, once you reach the Marius zone the very first monster area you visit has battles worth around 350 exp at the minimum, with the best yielding twice that, and every area after steps up the exp yield by increments of several hundred each time. If you are under leveled in the first half, you can catch up with very little effort in the second.

* AscendedExtra: In the Sega-CD game, Luna is in the party for about a fourth of the game and doesn't have a major role until she gets kidnapped [[spoiler: and brainwashed into the evil goddess]] around the halfway point. In ''Silver Star Story'', she stays with the party until the aformentioned kidnapping.

* BatmanGambit: The Magic Emperor uses the heroes' altruism to help him achieve his goals. [[spoiler: There's a bit of dramatic irony there because Ghaleon's introduction makes him damn close to ObviouslyEvil. But he ''is'' a VillainWithGoodPublicity who actually uses his [[TheDragon right-hand woman]] to deflect suspicion off of himself.]]

** You will always [[spoiler: get the White Dragon Wings stolen from Nall, regardless of whether Nall even ''has'' them]].

* DarkestHour: Right before the final dungeon. BigBad just leveled you in a HopelessBossFight? Check. Kyle drinking himself blind? Check. Nash completely convinced that you're screwed and everything has been for naught? Check. [[spoiler: Girlfriend just turned into a Goddess of death and destruction? Check. All life being drained from the world? Check.]] You even lose your [[spoiler: Dragonmaster duds]] and revert to civilian clothes for the whole sequence.

* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler: Burg is razed by the Magic Emperor, while all its inhabitants are kidnapped and pressed into slavery (they're rescued eventually).]] Only in the original version, though, as this was left out of the remakes.

* FightingAShadow: [[spoiler: The first battle against "Ghaleon" in the remakes.]] It went down '' a little differently'' in ''The Silver Star''.

* FinalSpeech: [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] gets one after you kick the tar out of him, following a NotQuiteDead moment.

* GenreBlindness: The main cast, when they initially meet him, have not the slightest hint of an idea that [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] is [[ObviouslyEvil eviler than evil]], despite all the pretty silver hair and evil eyes and such. Amusingly, as ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' was one of the first [=JRPGs=] where characters were represented by more than just small blocky sprites to land in the West, a lot of people actually fell for it.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GoodParents: Alex is a rare RPG protagonist who still has two living parents, and his father helps you get through the game's first dungeon. After this, however, they don't play much of a role in the plot.

** Raise your hand if you knew right away that you were supposed to [[spoiler: play music to Luna at the end of the game so she won't fry you with lightning]]. While there definitely are some hints, [[note]]One of the first things Alex does upon finding Luna is play his Ocarina. Alex playing his Ocarina [[spoiler: has the power to reach Luna across far distances, allowing passage to the Blue Dragon Shrine]]. Likewise in the most telling scene, [[spoiler: Alex first becomes the Dragonmaster he manages to break Ghaleon's brainwashing spell by playing his Ocarina! Ghaleon even comments about how strange (and pitiful) it is that this managed to work on such strong magic right before brainwashing her again.]][[/note]] upon looking back the main thing that makes this a Guide Dang It is that it's played so casually in the game itself that it's easy for the player to forget about it! WD actually added the tricky bit to their versions, so ''Lunar Legend'' and ''Silver Star Harmony'' are more straightforward.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Nash from ''Silver Star Story Complete'']] counts. [[spoiler: It takes a huge slap from his mistress and beatdown by the party to knock some sense into him.]]

* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Zigzagged, because while the Dragonmaster outfit comes with a red helmet, [[spoiler: Alex]] only wears it in his portrait; the in-game sprite goes without it. Averted in ''Lunar Legend'' however, Dragonmaster [[spoiler: Alex]] always wears the helmet in his sprites.

* HopelessBossFight: [[spoiler: The first fight against Ghaelon]] in the remake [[spoiler: after you defeat the fake Magic Emperor.]]

* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: In the remakes of ''Silver Star'', Xenobia harbors an unrequited love for [[spoiler: Ghaleon]]. She even seems aware that he'll never return her affections, and claims it's part of what attracts her to him.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: How exactly are you supposed to get to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon when it's floating way up in the sky? [[spoiler: Well, it turns out Nall has you covered, since he's actually a baby white dragon. He always had the wings, of course... he just wasn't big enough for the party to ride on until he gains the ability to transform into a much larger dragon at the very end of the game.]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Ghaleon]] winds up lying face-down on the ground, apparently dead, after you beat him. However, a few seconds later when it's revealed [[spoiler: Althena has apparently lost all memory of her life as Luna, fulfilling Ghaleon's plans]], he lurches back to life for a FinalSpeech before dissolving into a ball of darkness.

* RetiredBadass: Laike [[spoiler: [[ThatManIsDead the man once known as Dragonmaster Dyne]]]]

* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: [[spoiler: Luna's]] outfits before and after her FaceHeelTurn.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the Sega CD version, [[spoiler: Ghaleon murders Quark, the Red and Blue dragons are apparently DeadAllAlong, and the party accidentally kills the Black Dragon themselves. In ''Silver Star Story'', Ghaleon instead captures all four dragons alive and uses them to power the Grindery]].
* SpoilerOpening: In ''Harmony'', the prologue either gives away or strongly hints at just about every major spoiler in the game. The opening animation in both ''Story'' and ''Harmony'' also openly shows [[spoiler: Nall's adult dragon form and Alex as a Dragonmaster.]]
* SympathyForTheDevil: Luna expresses this towards [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] during the epilogue of Silver Star Complete and it's remakes. The citizens in Meribia will express their shock and disgust at [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] for what he had done, but Luna instead expresses sorrow for him. Luna understands that [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] was only doing what he felt was right, but his actions were horribly misguided.
** Laike also expresses sadness for [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] in the epilogue. But Laike feels [[spoiler: Ghaleon]] died standing up for what he believed in and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: In ''Lunar: Silver Star Story'', there is [[spoiler: The Fortress of Althena/Azure City of Althena]] which is a [[spoiler: huge floating city with the Goddess Tower located in the center, and sucks out the life energy of the land, essentially turning the surface of the world into something like our moon.]] Not to mention that as soon as it appears, the entire sky turns dark. Everyone is afraid of it and once it has been risen, everyone seems to lose hope in life.

* WeaponTombstone: In the remakes, Dyne's Monument has his sword stuck in it. [[spoiler: Eventually, Alex pulls it out and uses it to become the Dragonmaster.]]

* WhamEpisode: ''The Silver Star'': [[spoiler: Midgame wham - Ghaleon is revealed as a traitor, kills Quark, and kidnaps Luna. In the span of about 2 minutes.]]
** ''Silver Star Story'': The above, plus [[spoiler: lategame wham - Alex goes to rescue Luna after the final fight with the Magic Emperor. But then, YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle! Luna is BrainwashedAndCrazy, and spectacularly raises TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon out of the earth. And Ghaleon's death? All a ruse.]]

* WhiteHairBlackHeart: [[spoiler: Ghaleon, who is secretly the [[BigBad Magic Emperor]] despite being a former hero.]]
* WorldHealingWave: Lunar gets one after [[spoiler: Alex rescues Luna/Althena from the Tower of Althena]]. It provides the current image for the trope page.

* BonusBoss: The Guardian in ''Lunar Legend''.
* BonusDungeon: The aptly named "Forbidden Forest". It houses some of the strongest monsters in the game, which all give garbage experience/silver, making it useless for grinding. There's no BonusBoss or InfinityPlusOneSword waiting for you inside; there is, however, the [[FanService women's hot spring]]. Annoyingly, the springs close down partway through the game, meaning you need to fight your way through when you're likely severely underleveled (though the Dragon Grief spell helps a lot).

* ThreeAmigos: Alex, Ramus, and Luna.

* OffModel: One of the things sometimes held against the Sega CD version. Some of the portraits, sprites and anime scenes can have the characters looking substantially different from their concept and promotional art, particularly when it comes to color (which probably arose from palette issues with the Genesis, but some examples still seem extreme):
** Luna is particularly bad about this, as she goes from having mid-tone blue hair in the art, to having lighter blue hair in the anime sequences (except when it ''changes tone'' from cut to cut occasionally)... which then becomes ''greenish-teal'' on her sprite and game portrait. The game also can't keep her eye color straight - in the intro, they're brown, but in the "departing Caldor" sequence they are ''distinctly'' blue.
** Jessica's even worse - her rare anime appearances are decently on-point for the concept and promo art of the time, with the exception of this loose, beadwork circlet in the game art (and only ''this'' game - the remakes match the concept art and omit it), but that's at least consistent in-game - but then her sprite is radically different from even her ''portrait'', with her entire robe becoming ''bright teal'', except for her hood which is now ''bright grey'', or maybe that's her ''previously-blonde hair'' since the beadwork circlet is now ''over'' it and seems to have turned dark blue (when it was gold in her brief anime intro), and she now has a darker complexion than even ''Kyle'', which again doesn't even match her portrait, never mind her art or intro (where she has a complexion closer to ''Luna's'' than to Kyle's).
** "Teal syndrome" continues with Kyle, who goes from his signature black hair in the anime scenes, to teal hair in his portrait and sprite!
** Nash and Mia, at least, generally escape this - Mia's sprite in particular is far more accurate to her concept and anime-scene art than the others, even her "stylized black", very-dark-blue hair... except for her portrait, where a little bit of That Teal creeps in. Though even there, it's not nearly as prominent.
** Alex runs into one specific problem: his coonskin-style cap. He's wearing it in his portrait (and it is ''again'' bright teal for some reason, rather than bluish-grey), but it doesn't appear on his sprite (which also has somewhat redder hair than his art and portrait), and the anime scenes go back and forth on whether he's wearing it - the intro has it, and it at least matches the portrait for teal-ness there, then he doesn't have it during the early scenes with Nall and Luna, then he does have it during the balloon crash whereupon it changes color to ''dark grey''.
** Speaking of, the [[http://www.lunar-net.com/tss/screens/3/images/LUNAR_216.jpg balloon crash]] is particularly bad about this - even allowing for the goofiness of the scene, it's ''filled'' with coloring errors that aren't even consistent with other parts of the game or other anime sequences. Also, the game artists gave Jessica white frilly bloomers, which she doesn't wear in any of the remakes or anywhere else in the game and which no other female character in the game wears.
** Ghaleon also gets a lot of this - the anime scenes get his weirdly pale [[spoiler:Vile Tribe]] skin tone right, but his game portrait and sprite give him a "typical" complexion, which means you can actually ''forget'' he's supposed to be an albino playing only the Sega CD version, with the long stretches between cutscenes. The intro also gets his skin color wrong. His eyes also go a little back-and-forth - they're normal-ish size in his portrait and the anime intro, but pick up that distinct [[spoiler:Vile Tribe]] narrowness and shape in all other anime scenes. Of course, in his big [[spoiler:villain reveal]] scene, he's more classically off-model, [[http://www.lunar-net.com/tss/screens/3/images/LUNAR_017.jpg as his eyes begin to take up most of his head]].
** Finally, more generally ''TSS'' has an odd color palette for its sprite-work - in the main, ''TSS'' a very happy, upbeat, silly game, but it uses mostly dark colors for the map and character sprites... which ''isn't'' reflected in the anime scenes, which means these tend to be wildly brighter than the rest of the game.

* WhipItGood: Tempest, but only in the original game; Game Arts stuck him with a bow in all the remakes.

* DistressedDude: Nash ends up as this on two occasions: first in his introduction when he's caught in a trap [[WhatAnIdiot he fell for]], and second when the Magic Masher suit he dons in the Frontier begins acting on its own and Alex and the others have to break him out of it.

* FiveManBand: The games have a variation of this; TheChick is the MysteriousWaif, but ends up as a DamselInDistress before the game is over. Instead, there's an extra spot for TheMedic.
** TheHero: Alex
** TheLancer: Nash
** TheSmartGuy: Mia
** TheBigGuy: Kyle
** TheMedic: Jessica
** TeamPet: Nall

* HospitalityForHeroes: In the Sega CD version, near the end of the game, Ramus's store will start offering the game's best healing items to you at no charge, because he's your friend, he's become successful enough to afford it, and he wants to do everything he can to help stop the Magic Emperor.a

* NewPowerssAsThePlotDemands: How exactly are you supposed to get to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon when it's floating way up in the sky? [[spoiler: Well, it turns out Nall has you covered, since he's actually a baby white dragon. He always had the wings, of course... he just wasn't big enough for the party to ride on until he gains the ability to transform into a much larger dragon at the very end of the game.]]

* WingPull: How exactly are you supposed to get to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon when it's floating way up in the sky? [[spoiler: Well, it turns out Nall has you covered, since he's actually a baby white dragon. He always had the wings, of course... he just wasn't big enough for the party to ride on until he gains the ability to transform into a much larger dragon at the very end of the game.]]

* BettingMiniGame: The original ''Lunar'' features a blackjack mini-game with Brett in Saith. A bit of advice: ''do not'' take up his offer for a double-or-nothing game. He's a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Cheating Bastard]] from Reza, the game's designated [[ViceCity city of thieves]]. As it turns out, there is another NPC in Reza who will play the same game with you, but she proves less of a jerk by playing fair.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Despite her mild-mannered and shy personality, Mia wields a bitch slap that visibly leaves a mark.

* AnAxeToGrind: Not a playable character, but Master/Hell Mel can wield an axe that is much larger and heavier than he is..with only ''one hand''.