Lunar 2: Eternal Blue: Underrated Classic, Perfect Sequel

This game needs to be experienced by more people. Its predecessor, Lunar: Silver Star Story, been remade a hundred times (ok, well, three), but Lunar 2 was never remade past the PSX version. This means that unless you were around playing JRPGs in the 90's or regularly delve into retro games, it's unlikely that you've played this game. I love the first game as much as anyone else, but its sequel brought it to the next level in so many ways. Let's look at what Lunar 2 does right.

-It has a better soundtrack (and SSS already had a good one)

-The cast is much more colorful and involved in the story this time around. Lucia, the resident heroine, goes way beyond damsel in distress, Ghaleon comes back and subverts his role from the first game in completely unexpected ways, Leo is an amazing frenemy, the major villain feels a LOT more threatening this time around, I could go on. Every party member and villain feels incredibly fleshed out and substantial in this game, and the cast interact with the world and each other in much more nuanced ways than in the original game's relatively vanilla plot. The hero himself (named, appropriately enough, Hiro) also has a much more substantial personality and active role in the story than the relatively blank slate that Alex was in Silver Star.

Nall, Alex's dragon sidekick from the first game, returns in human form as a sort of Peter Pan analogue this time around. He acts as a mentor to the new heroes, which is a nice twist from his role as goofy sidekick in his last journey.

Leo is a white knight type of guy. Only problem is that the white knights aren't on your side. Uh-oh!

-The world is more creative this time, too. You get different cultures, such as Jean and her martial arts dojo, Nall and his band of misfits, and Leo and the holy knights that he serves, that feel completely unique from the rest of their world. In Silver Star Story, everyone seemed to live on a fairly culturally homogeneous world.

This screenshot is actually from the Sega CD version of the game. You can tell the sprite art has a slightly different, darker style to it in the original release.

-The stakes felt higher, the cast was more fleshed out, the story was pure unadulterated JRPG goodness with excellent pacing and use of its extended cast, the connections to the first game were on point, the soundtrack was bangin', and it's easily one of the best RPGs of the PSX generation (I never played the Sega CD version).

Characters from the first game return, often in very different roles. Watching their development between games is fascinating.

It does everything the first game did and more, while also carving out a unique identity for itself. I would put it above Grandia II, another sequel to a beloved RPG that has had the fortune of recent re-releases, as a classic sequel of its era, because it evolves without changing the mood or tone you grew to love in the first game all that drastically.

Classic Working Designs humor.

It's one of the only games I've seen that balances playing it safe and subverting expectations almost perfectly. The party members you get are blatant inversions of the first game's (the womanizer is now the healer instead of the warrior and the shy mage became the outgoing mage, oh my) but it works on both levels.

I'll top this article off with the lovely world map music.

I would say don't sleep on this game, but it's hard to find nowadays. I really wish it would get remade. If you can find it, I'd definitely set aside time to play it, as it's truly one of the classic greats.