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The first game in the Game Arts-developed Lunar series of console role-playing games. The game has gotten multiple remakes and/or enhanced re-releases over the years on multiple platforms. The titles are:

  • Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD. The English version was released by Working Designs.
  • Lunar: Silver Star Story for the Sega Saturn and its updated re-release for the PlayStation. Working Designs localized the PlayStation version as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. It had a Windows PC port, which never left Japan (or South Korea) due to technical problems during the localization process.
  • Lunar Legend for Game Boy Advance. English version was released by Ubisoft.
  • Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for PlayStation Portable. English version was released by XSEED.
  • Lunar: Silver Star Story Touch for iOS. Released by SoMoGa Games.

All five games tell the story of a young man named Alex who sets out on a classic hero's journey with all the trimmings. The details vary a bit from version to version, but have the same underlying structure: the protagonist, Alex, admires a famous hero named Dragonmaster Dyne who died 15 years prior. So, when a dragon offers him the call to adventure, he jumps at it, seeing it as an opportunity to follow in his idol's footsteps. His journey gets him mixed up in a conflict between the forces of good and a villain called the Magic Emperor, with the fate of the world at stake. By facing this foe, Alex gains the wherewithal to make all his dreams come true. He goes on a grand adventure, prevails against the baddie when it seems like all hope is lost, gets the girl, and saves the world.

Story and gameplay are expected for an Eastern RPG (though when launched in 1992, the plot twists caught some players by surprise), but the music, engaging characters and colorful dialogue full of shout outs and fourth wall breaking humor gave it its staying power.

The original Lunar: The Silver Star was released in North America back in 1993. 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.


Lunar: The Silver Star and its remakes provides examples of:

  • Accidental Pervert: The novelisation contains a scene where Alex stumbles upon Luna bathing in a spring in the woods. She is none too pleased when she spots him.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Subverted. Just before the final confrontation, Ramus recognizes Alex as a true hero, and allows you to take any item you want from his shop for free.
  • Adaptational Modesty: Lunar Legend replaces Dark Althena's thong and thigh highs with black pants during the scene where she raises Althena's Fortress... However it's only during this one scene, her outfit is exactly the same in every other scene.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Dross the jeweler in the town of Meribia. In the original version, he's just a con man who steals the dragon diamond from Alex & Co. and flees into the sewers. When the heroes catch up with him, he hands over the diamond fairly easy, and forks over a good amount of cash, and Mel promptly bans him from Meribia. In the remake, in addition to stealing the diamond, he sends his pet dragon after the heroes with the intention of them being murdered. note  He also coughs up far less money in the remake.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The Vile Tribe in The Silver Star. The remakes add exceptions.
  • All in a Row: How the party behaves when not in dungeons.
  • Ancient Keeper: Damon, the elderly, beard-sporting, robe-wearing keeper of knowledge and provider of Plot Coupons.
  • 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.
  • Artificial Brilliance: In the PSP remake; it's important to protect Jessica against the final boss because he actually goes after her first!
  • Ascended Extra: 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 and brainwashed into the evil goddess around the halfway point. In Silver Star Story, she stays with the party until the aforementioned kidnapping.
  • Award-Bait Song: Tsubasa/Wings and Wind's Nocturne from Silver Star Story/Harmony. Both songs fit the description to a T. Especially the Working Designs PSX version of the songs, whose lyrics actually sounds like something written at Disney.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite all their fighting, Kyle breaks out of stone to save Jessica.
  • Badass Normal: Despite being part of a group that also contains three magic users and guy who dreams of becoming a Dragonmaster and eventually does, Kyle is content with taking a sword and slaying monsters with brute force.
  • Base on Wheels: The Magic Emperor's Grindery, a castle on huge tank treads.
  • Batman Gambit: The Magic Emperor uses the heroes' altruism to help him achieve his goals. There's a bit of dramatic irony there because Ghaleon's introduction makes him damn close to Obviously Evil. But he is a Villain with Good Publicity who actually uses his right-hand woman to deflect suspicion off of himself.
  • Beautiful Singing Voice: Luna is known within her village for her extraordinary singing voice.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jessica and Kyle.
  • Betting Mini-Game: 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 Cheating Bastard from Reza, the game's designated 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.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Kyle - party resident crude, muscle-bound leader of a band of (friendly!) bandits. In the remakes he fools enemies with a considerably ugly and unconvincing Wholesome Crossdresser disguise. Another example is Master Mel - a crude, muscle-bound former leader of a band of pirates.
  • Bodyguard Crush: In the intro to Harmony, Dragonmaster Dyne acts like a schoolboy trying to work up the courage to ask Althena to the big dance. Ghaleon might have had a thing for her, too. He's either a devout believer in the Goddess, or he's crushing on her, hard. Or both.
  • Body to Jewel: The dragon diamonds, of the Solid Gold Poop variety.
  • Bonus Dungeon: 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 boss or Infinity +1 Sword waiting for you inside; there is, however, the 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).
  • Boring, but Practical: The Sega CD version gave the characters several more spells for all characters — including attack songs for Luna — but several of these were just multi-target variations on existing spells or were too overspecialized to be useful (curing only sleep instead of all status effects, for instance). Silver Star Story, in contrast, gives each character only up to eight spells, tops.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Nash is actually a little bit older than Alex, but matches this trope in personality with his conspicuously overinflated opinion of himself. His errors of judgment throughout the story bring him near, if not firmly into, Just Eat Gilligan territory.
  • Broken Bridge: Played with. In Meryod, your party members literally break a bridge themselves.
  • Brown Note: One of the girls in Silver Star fancies herself a potential kidnapping victim, since the Magic Emperor is collecting singers, but... "tone deaf" is putting it nicely. Also, Luna/Althena's singing under the Magic Emperor's influence can cause pain and illnesses.
  • But Thou Must!: Occasionally Lampshaded; one NPC that does this to you says that he can keep this up much longer than you can. Better still, it's a villain, asking you to let him go since he's learned his lesson...
    • You will always get the White Dragon Wings stolen from Nall, regardless of whether Nall even has them.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The sword in Dyne's Monument.
    • Alex's ocarina. You start with it in your inventory, and you never use it until the very end of the game. May also count as a Guide Dang It!.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Luna's First Girl Wins cred? Unbeatable.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Any time a female NPC flirts with Alex, you can expect the next page of text to be an angry remark from Luna.
  • Covert Pervert: Ramus, debatably. His shop does have a rather large selection of saucy pictures featuring cute girls...
  • Crutch Character: Laike, whenever he tags along. Particularly notable in that he doesn't lose his edge over the hero late in the game. Given who he truly is, that's hardly surprising.
  • Cute Monster Girl: A lot of the Vile Tribe appear as goblin-like monsters. However, the three witches who lead them are hot chicks in stripperiffic outfits.
  • Damsel in Distress: Luna is the number one example, since she spends half the game in captivity and only the hero can free her. Mia and Jessica, otherwise very capable girls, fall victim to this trope when they contract an illness in Pao. None of the boys are effected.
  • Damsel out of Distress: In the remakes, Jessica and Mia have one in the Talon Mines. Xenobia snares them in magic bonds and forces Alex and Kyle to duel one another. Afterwards, Kyle and Jessica pretend to have an argument, giving Jessica enough time to break herself and Mia out of Xenobia's spell and escape.
  • Darkest Hour: Right before the final dungeon. Big Bad just leveled you in a Hopeless Boss Fight? Check. Kyle drinking himself blind? Check. Nash completely convinced that you're screwed and everything has been for naught? Check. Girlfriend just turned into a Goddess of death and destruction? Check. All life being drained from the world? Check. You even lose your Dragonmaster duds and revert to civilian clothes for the whole sequence.
  • Death Glare: Done for laughs with Mel's introduction, capping off a Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon threat.
  • Difficulty by Region: The original game saw six bosses have their HP increased, with two of them also getting buffs to their Attack stat. However, the real culprit here is the Playstation remake - similar to the Sega CD version of Eternal Blue, Working Designs buffed up enemies pretty much across the board - nearly every enemy in the game got a 45% higher Attack stat, gives out roughly 14% less EXP and 10% less silver, as well as having 10% less HP. The amount bosses scale to Alex's level is also increased, the amount of silver received from treasure chests is halved, and several puzzles are made more difficult. Somewhat famously, the bromides were also moved to new locations and/or have new triggers in the North American version, some of which are virtually impossible to find without a guide.
  • Distressed Dude: Nash ends up as this on two occasions: first in his introduction when he's caught in a trap 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.
  • Doomed Hometown: 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.
  • Double Entendre: Among the primary reasons the PSX is so beloved is for the sheer amount of these.
    Guard: When Jessica returns from her studies, I'm gonna be assigned to guard her bedroom...
    Nall: Isn't he holding onto his sword just a bit tight?
  • The Dragon: Xenobia of the Vile Tribe. In the remakes, she is joined by her sisters Royce and Phacia. The skeletal remains of the Black Dragon in The Silver Star arguably counts.
  • Dramatic Irony: In the PSP remake, if you choose to let Laike help you in the ambush, Luna will joke about Alex's skills, saying that if he doesn't improve quick enough, then there wouldn't be anyone to save her. Anyone who has played the earlier versions of the game know just how dark the meaning behind her words are.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In Working Designs' translations, they change "Mel governs Meribia" to "Mel founded Meribia," which completely alters the franchise's mythos.
  • Duet Bonding: Used for blatant ship tease in the remakes, as Alex and Luna perform duets together with ocarina and vocals. It shows up most memorably in Lyton, where only a duet of true love can open the path to the Blue Dragon's Shrine. So, Kyle and Jessica try it, as well as Nash and Mia... unfortunately, all four are lousy singers and fail, but the ship tease is still pretty heavy. Alex and Luna, on the other hand, are able to open the shrine despite Luna being nowhere in sight, hearing the song through the pure Power of Love.
  • Empty Levels: Ramus gets hit by this hard towards the end of his portion of the game. Although his stats level up comparably to Alex, Luna, and Nash, the start tailing off the further along you go and eventually he gains no stat increases at all when he levels up. This typically happens at about the point when he leaves the party for good.
    • Even worse in the remake, where the ONLY stat of his that increases upon leveling is HP, and that will eventually drop to zero. The only way to increase his other stats past base level is through equipment.
  • Eternal Engine: Might's Tower, Taben's Tower, and the Grindery are all machine-themed dungeons.
  • Everything Fades: Be they monster or NPC, everything in the game disappears into nothingness when they die. In fact, the fact that Ghaleon doesn't fade away and leaves behind a body when you defeat him is a pretty big tip-off that he's Not Quite Dead.
  • Everyone Can See It: Nash presumes his crush on Mia is something no one else knows about. Unfortunately for him, his infatuation would only be slightly more obvious if he had a sign around his neck reading, "Take me, I'm yours."
  • Evil Costume Switch: Luna. Also, observe the progression of Ghaleon's Four Heroes costume, his Premier outfit, and the Magic Emperor armor. And his final costume exhibits Bishōnen Line.
  • Evil Overlord: The Magic Emperor is this and Card-Carrying Villain for the most part, and pulls off the traditional Evil Overlord look with style. There is some hidden moral ambiguity in his reason to conquer the world, though.
  • Evil Laugh: The Magic Emperor at his 'coming out' party.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Ghaleon.
  • Fake Defector: In the original Silver Star, Xenobia appears before the party just after they have acquired the dragon helmet, and instructs Nash to bring it to her. He agrees, but not much later reveals this apparent defection to have been a ruse to learn the secret entrance to the Frontier. He returns to your party injured after having barely escaped from Xenobia's wrath, with the dragon helm in hand, and you can either forgive him or... forgive him, although he really was on your side the whole time. This was changed to a genuine Face–Heel Turn in the remakes.
  • Fake King: Xenobia replacing Lemia Ausa in Silver Star.
  • Fanservice: The bathing springs. There are actually two of them, one for the women and another for the men, so there's equal opportunity for beefcake and cheesesake. However, while the men's spring is easily accessible on the world map, the women's spring requires travelling through a forest filled with some very strong monsters.
  • Fantastic Racism: Between humans and the Vile Tribe. Humans regard the Vile Tribe as Always Chaotic Evil and the Vile Tribe hates them for exiling them to a barren wasteland where they can barely eke out a miserable existence.
    • Subverted for beastmen: Jessica and Hell Mel's appearances are barely worthy of comment.
  • Fighting a Shadow: The first battle against "Ghaleon" in the remakes. It went down a little differently in The Silver Star.
  • Filling the Silence: Silver Star Story Complete, when Ghaleon makes his Face–Heel Turn official Working Designs fills what would otherwise be silence with Evil Gloating.
  • Final Speech: Ghaleon gets one after you kick the tar out of him, following a Not Quite Dead moment.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Interestingly played with in Silver Star Story on, where Mia covers fire and ice magic while Nash covers lightning.
  • Floating Continent: The magic city of Vane. The first time you go through, you have to pass through a large dungeon with enemies that are highly resistant to physical attacks. Once you make it to the end of the dungeon, you don't have to visit it again.
  • Foreshadowing: The books at the top of Damon's Spire hint at events that will happen later in the game, and some even allude to what will happen in Lunar: Eternal Blue.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: Silver Star Story Complete has an exceptionally cruel example. Before the game was released, there was playable demo available wherein it is possible to transfer Alex's ocarina out of his inventory. In the full version of the game, it is not possible to do this, with good reason: the ocarina has a single required use. At the very end of the game. AFTER you defeat the final boss. And, unfortunately, at that point Alex is on his own, with no one else in the party - if the ocarina isn't in his inventory, the game becomes Unintentionally Unwinnable.
  • Generation Xerox: The original and current generation of heroes. Made very explicit in the intro to Harmony.
    • Hell Mel and Lemia bicker like Kyle and Jess.
    • Dyne rescues Althena like Alex rescues Luna.
    • Ghaleon is devoted to Althena in a way similar to Nash's feelings for Mia, and they both sort of Face–Heel Turn because of that person.
  • Genre Blindness: The main cast, when they initially meet him, have not the slightest hint of an idea that Ghaleon is 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.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Despite her mild-mannered and shy personality, Mia slaps Nash hard enough to undo his Face–Heel Turn. Of course, the mere fact that Mia was angry enough to strike him would be enough to change Nash's mind, but the slap still leaves a visible mark.
  • Get on the Boat: From Caldor Island to the main continent and back. In the original game, Luna stays behind and wishes Alex good luck, but in the remake, she stays with you for quite a while...just long enough to get kidnapped by Ghaleon.
  • Good Parents: 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.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Luna, Ramus, Tempest, Laike and Ghaleon.
    • In the remakes, while Luna and Ramus are still only with you temporarily, it's still through several dungeons at least, and you can change their equipment and give them items to carry. Laike, Ghaleon, and Tempest, however, each only accompany you for about one dungeon or so before leaving, and their inventories are locked.
  • Guide Dang It!: Getting all the Bromides and secret items. These are instances of Difficulty by Region in the Working Designs versions.
    • WD changed the triggers for some items in Silver Star Story Complete so that they were nigh impossible for the player to find without instructions. No such changes were made in Harmony, so the secret items are easier to find.
    • Raise your hand if you knew right away that you were supposed to 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  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.
  • Half-Witted Hillbilly: In most English versions, the town of Meryod is populated by inbred hicks who seem to delight in mentioning their squicky close interrelation with each other. This element was added to the game by Working Designs, and thus only present in versions of the game that use or adapt their scripts.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Nash from Silver Star Story Complete counts. It takes a huge slap from his mistress and beatdown by the party to knock some sense into him.
    • Phacia from Silver Star Story Complete.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Zigzagged, because while the Dragonmaster outfit comes with a red helmet, Alex only wears it in his portrait; the in-game sprite goes without it. Averted in Lunar Legend however, Dragonmaster Alex always wears the helmet in his sprites.
  • Heroic BSoD: Dyne's supposed death is one of the reasons Ghaleon turned to the side of evil.
  • Hero-Worshipper: Alex really, really loves Dragonmaster Dyne...but not in that way, of course. He actually gets a chance to live out his dream.
    • Ghaleon towards Althena in the intro to Harmony: appropriate, since she is a goddess.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: In the first remake, you're treated to a bunch of these if you watch the credits roll completely. Unsurprisingly, the VA for the Magic Emperor gets the lion's share of these. Here are links for all of them.
  • Hillbilly Incest: The English localization has the rural village of Meryod being populated entirely by severely inbred hicks. Almost every single NPC in the village is some flavor of The Ditz. You're treated to this conversation when you first enter the village:
    Nall: So this is Meryod... This is amazing, Alex. They built a city entirely of wooden planks suspended over the water.
    Nash: No, the amazing part is that these hicks managed to nail anything not related to them.
This is entirely an invention of the localization. The original Japanese version doesn't even remotely hint at anything like this.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight against Ghaelon in the remake after you defeat the fake Magic Emperor.
  • Hospitality for Heroes: 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.
  • Hub City: Lunar 1 has the Merchant City and Shining City types, played very straight and very faithfully.
  • A Human Am I: Luna.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Part of why Ghaleon thinks Lunar needs a god.
  • Humans Are Special: Why Althena thinks that it doesn't.
  • Hypnotize the Captive: What Ghaleon does to Luna after capturing her.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: If Alex wants to survive approaching Luna/Althena at the climax while she assails him with lightning, he has to play his harp/ocarina first to reach out to her remaining humanity and love for him.
  • An Ice Suit: The main characters come from a snowy village in the north, and the heroes wear modest, fur-covered winter clothing to help the "northern feel" of the setting.
  • Ignored Enamored Underling: In the remakes of Silver Star, Xenobia harbors an unrequited love for Ghaleon. She even seems aware that he'll never return her affections, and claims it's part of what attracts her to him.
  • Inconsistent Dub: There's a type of enemy that's called a "Puwa Puwa Bug" in dialog, but in battle they are referred to as "Puffy Bugs". The Prairie Tribe is also consistently referred to as well, the Prairie Tribe in dialog but in Tempest's introduction cutscene he says that he's of the Plains Tribe.
  • Informed Ability: Luna's singing is supposedly the most beautiful in the world. While the actress has a beautiful singing voice, she falls short of "God[dess]ly". The bar singers are also said to have beautiful voices... but they sing a pretty silly-sounding tune that's off-key to boot. It's notably averted in Meryod, however, whose songstress is just as bad as she's said to be.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kyle. Because of the way he is, Jessica can't decide if she loves him or hates his guts.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: Kyle.
  • Kaizo Trap: So you just beat the Magic Emperor. If you're playing The Silver Star or Silver Star Story Complete, do remember to play the harp/ocarina, mmkay?
  • Large Ham: The Magic Emperor. Also, Hell Mel to a lesser extent.
  • Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Played mostly straight. You start on an island in the Northwest corner of the game map and your overall progression is Eastward.
  • Lethal Chef: When Jessica announces that she plans to make dinner, the staff panic. Her utter inability to cook bothers her deeply, since she doesn't exactly like being unfeminine.
  • Level Scaling: The bosses in Silver Star Story Complete/Silver Star Harmony adjust their statistics with Alex's level (up to level 50), making over-leveling impractical.
  • Magical Society: The Magic Guild of Vane is the main body responsible for the research and instruction of magic on the Silver Star.
  • Magic Music: Luna's special attacks. Also she can make people sick and raise the fortress of Althena with her music.
  • The Magocracy: Vane is home almost exclusively to magic users, as you need to display aptitude with magic to even be allowed access to the city.
  • Metal Slime: The Ice Mongrels in Vane's Cave of Trials give pretty good experience and money for that point in the game, as well as a rare chance of dropping a useful accessory that boosts agility. However, they also have very high speed and a tendency to run away before your characters can get their turn.
  • Mind Rape: Before the party can fight her, Xenobia casts a spell that forces each of the characters to face their own inner doubts in the form of an illusory evil twin.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Fireflies in the middle of the ocean.
  • Musical Spoiler: In Silver Star Story Complete, the Alex's Ocarina item functions as a music test. One of the tracks is titled "Magic Emperor Ghaleon". Yeah...
  • Music for Courage: Luna and the other imprisoned girls in the Grindery when Alex is trying to raise the Blue Dragon Shrine.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: In Harmony, when Jessica mopes after the rest of your party gets turned to stone.
    Jessica: "My father... my friends... and Kyle..."
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: How exactly are you supposed to get to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon when it's floating way up in the sky? 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.
  • Nintendo Hard: The PS1 version, in comparison to the PSP. The PS1 hasn't the same item storage style, meaning less space. They also haven't limit breaks, meaning bosses are much harder (since you can't rely on Luna's Limit for most of the game to restore MP, or any of the attack Limits in battle). Also, experience seems to be slightly slower.
  • No Loves Intersect: The main party can be broken down into three perfect Official Couples; the question is not who's going to hook up with who, but how. Possibly not the case for the previous generation, though.
  • Noodle Implements: In Silver Star Story Complete, you can check under a child's bed in Saith and Nall will laugh and say that he didn't realise you could make one of THOSE out of a stick of butter and a rubber band. What, exactly, you find is never explained, but Nall suggests you not tell the kid's parents, lest he wind up in big trouble.
  • Not Blood Siblings: Luna is Alex's adopted sister. Thankfully, this fact is not brought up much, and they are presented more as childhood friends than as brother and sister.
  • Not Herself: Lemia. She throws Alex and company into the dungeon upon their first meeting at the Vane magic guild. It is later revealed that this Lemia was actually Xenobia, and the real Lemia was thrown in the dungeon and slapped with a crown that robbed her of most of her memory.
  • Not Quite Dead: Ghaleon winds up lying face-down on the ground, apparently dead, after you beat him. However, a few seconds later when it's revealed Althena has apparently lost all memory of her life as Luna, fulfilling Ghaleon's plans, he lurches back to life for a Final Speech before dissolving into a ball of darkness.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Althena's Sword is an example of the Sword in the Stone variety.
  • Our Angels Are Different: In The Silver Star, Alex must journey to Althena's Tower as the final step to become a Dragonmaster. Two winged, humanoid dragons (the Dragon Angels) challenge him to a two-on-one Duel Boss for the right to wield Althena's Sword and then later appear when Alex is trying to save Luna. All of the remakes cut them out entirely and they never make an appearance in any version of Lunar 2 (probably because Ghaleon kills them at the end of the game).
  • Outlaw Town: Reza, home of the Thieves' Guild.
  • Party in My Pocket: In the remakes, only Alex appears onscreen in dungeons, probably to simplify the non-random encounter system.
  • Percussive Pickpocket: Happens to you at the gate of Reza, a town of thieves.
  • Permanently Missable Content: In The Silver Star, Alex needs to have his magic potential unlocked at Black Rose Street before he can start learning any spells when he reaches certain levels. If you spent time level-grinding past those levels, kiss the learned spells involved goodbye. The remakes avoid this by giving him non-magical skills, later supplemented by Dragon Magic.
  • Port Town: Saith, the town where your party gets on the boat.
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Right before his return voyage to Caldor\Honmel Island, Alex has a dream that Luna gets taken away from him. Guess what happens when he actually goes back?
  • Pun-Based Creature: There are overworld enemies that look like shrubs until they attack. They're called Ambushes.
  • Quit Your Whining: Jessica gives Kyle this treatment when he and Nash are having their pity party after losing to Ghaleon.
  • Razor Wind: Kyle's "Sonic Riser" attack, which is lampshaded with a kamaitachi reference in the description: "release weasel."
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Most evil or possessed characters get red eyes in Silver Star Story. Most notably, Luna's eyes turn red after she is both revealed as the Goddess Althena and brainwashed by the Big Bad.
  • Reference Overdosed: The English translation goes nuts with this. Characters will talk about anything from Courtney Love to Wheaties.
  • Replay Mode: Story Complete has a theater where the player can watch any of the anime cutscenes from the game, as well as the character bromides and other extras. Being one of the first games to offer this sort of content, it was considered innovative at the time.
  • Retired Badass: Laike the man once known as Dragonmaster Dyne
  • Samus Is a Girl: The Red Dragon is the only one of the four dragons that is female. Even Nall is surprised to meet this "Lady Dragon."
  • Sarcastic Clapping: The Magic Emperor, after Alex defeats the Black Dragon in The Silver Star. Nice job breaking the seal on Althena, hero.
  • Say My Name:
    Alex: "LUNA!"
    Luna: "ALEX!"
  • Scenery Porn: The remake is full of it, especially in the opening and Dyne's monument.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Luna's outfits before and after her Face–Heel Turn.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Ghaleon wears these in the remakes.
  • Shrinking Violet: Mia's sheltered upbringing makes her nervous around strangers, and she's unsure she has what it takes to fill her mother's shoes. She learns she's a lot tougher than she imagined she was.
  • Signature Instrument: Alex has a harp in the original Sega CD game and an ocarina in the Playstation remake and all subsequent remakes and ports. The ocarina itself serves as an item that functions as a sound test and even serves as Chekhov's Gun near the end of the game.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: The Vile Tribe was banished to a wasteland generations ago, and now they view fighting "Althena's children" as a fight for their own survival.
  • Solid Gold Poop: What dragon diamonds are made of. This isn't a translation gag, either. It's in the Japanese version as well.
    Quark: Don't they know that they're my sh-
  • So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Played straight in the original versions. Ghaleon and Laike join your party for a single mission each, and you can take all their equipment and sell it. They're both ridiculously powerful, and can usually beat whatever comes to them bare-handed.
    • Mostly averted in the remakes, as the equipment menus for most of the Guest Star Party Members are locked down. However, it's still played straight with Ramus and Luna, although you do have opportunities to empty their inventories before they leave permanently.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In the Sega CD version, Ghaleon murders Quark, the Red and Blue dragons are apparently Dead All Along, 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.
  • Spoiler Opening: 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 Nall's adult dragon form and Alex as a Dragonmaster.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Luna expresses this towards Ghaleon during the epilogue of Silver Star Complete and it's remakes. The citizens in Meribia will express their shock and disgust at Ghaleon for what he had done, but Luna instead expresses sorrow for him. Luna understands that Ghaleon was only doing what he felt was right, but his actions were horribly misguided.
    • Laike also expresses sadness for Ghaleon in the epilogue. But Laike feels Ghaleon died standing up for what he believed in and he wouldn't have had it any other way.
  • A Taste of Power: In Harmony, the prologue sequence involves controlling the Four Heroes in their prime. They're all based on what the main cast would eventually become (though missing a member - Ghaleon doubles for both Jessica and Nash).
  • Taken for Granite: Hell Mel.
  • Temporary Party Member to Villain: Big Bad Ghaleon joins the party briefly for an Escort Mission... you're the ones being escorted. He has a host of spells that do max damage to all enemies, full MP and HP, and, despite being a magic-type character, can do three attacks each for far more damage then the main melee.
  • Tin Tyrant: The Magic Emperor.
  • Tomboyish Name: Royce, apropos of nothing.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Nash apparently in his introduction in the Silver Star Story/Harmony, though he's not that bad in rest of the game. The party comes across a very Obvious Trap, commenting that only a complete idiot would fall for such a thing. Cue Nash screaming for help.
  • Troperiffic: The head writer knew that the twists in Lunar 1 were easy to read. That's what he was was going for - rewarding veteran players by playing to their expectations.
  • Tsundere: Jessica, who as a priestess-in-training has a sensitive side, but also a very mean streak...especially when her boyfriend Kyle does something stupid. (Which is rather often.)
  • Unwanted Rescue: In Silver Star Harmony, Jessica berates Kyle for jumping into the waters of Meryod to save her despite not being able to swim, pointing out that she was raised by a pirate and can swim just fine.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Alex's party. See also Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Dragon Grief. It immediately sucks all non-boss enemies present into a void and destroys them, instantly ending the battle. Unfortunately, you don't get any experience or silver for doing so, meaning that running away would have the exact same effect without costing 15 MP. It does have a few uses (particularly for clearing out the Forbidden Forest), but it's overall pretty disappointing for being the last dragon spell.
    • Virtually all of Nash's status-effect spells also qualify.
    • There is also an element that qualifies; wind. There are some enemies in the game vulnerable to wind element, but the only wind type attack spells are used by enemies, and the only way the heroes can exploit this weakness is through a pair of wind themed weapons. Kyle gets a decent wind element sword, but the other is the wind staff for Mia, who will almost never be using her regular attack.
  • Vanilla Edition: Silver Star Story got the Feelie-free Fanart Edition three years after its original U.S. release, and Silver Star Harmony released regular and limited editions simultaneously.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: In Lunar: Silver Star Story, there is The Fortress of Althena/Azure City of Althena which is a 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.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Though he's never shown tending to it, the Magic Emperor keeps a garden. A garden full of pixies, to boot. Could count as a Pet the Dog moment, since most of the pixies think he's genuinely nice, if out of touch with reality. The first time the party meets him as Ghaleon, he's also shown to be good with a lute.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Ghaleon milks this one as well as anyone, effectively turning the heroes into his minions.
  • Visible Silence: Alex is the king of this.
  • Weapon Tombstone: In the remakes, Dyne's Monument has his sword stuck in it. Eventually, Alex pulls it out and uses it to become the Dragonmaster.
  • Welcome to the Big City: All the party members are thrilled to arrive in the bustling Merchant City of Meribia early in the game. Being that the story is high in idealism, just about everyone in Meribia is as friendly and well-meaning as can be. That doesn't keep the party from getting robbed by a crooked jeweler, though.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ramus' dad, the mayor of Burg, won't accept his son's insistence on leaving the continent for any reason. He also refuses to believe that Ramus became owner of a very successful item shop in Meribia.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Magic Emperor, albeit much more in Silver Star Story than the original.
  • Wham Episode: The Silver Star: Midgame wham - Ghaleon is revealed as a traitor, kills Quark, and kidnaps Luna. In the span of about 2 minutes.
  • Wham Line: "Now... who shall be my queen?" (Camera zooms in on Luna, still in the middle of her Heroic BSoD)
  • What the Hell, Hero?: The reason for Ghaleon's Face–Heel Turn in all versions, although the details vary.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: Ghaleon, who is secretly the Magic Emperor despite being a former hero.
  • World-Healing Wave: Lunar gets one after Alex rescues Luna/Althena from the Tower of Althena. It provides the current image for the trope page.

Alternative Title(s): Lunar Silver Star Story Complete, Lunar Silver Star Story

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