Lunar is a semi-obscure franchise that was originally intended for the ill-fated Sega CD. Lunar 1 really took off with the release of the PS1-updated version, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, whose high production values and charming animated cut scenes made it stand out among the PS1's packed lineup of games. The sequel, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, was a worthy follow-up. Unfortunately, after that, the series all but vanished, aside from the memorably awful Lunar: Dragon Song. While the original Lunar has received multiple rereleases over the years, Lunar Remastered Collection is the first time Lunar and its sequel have been packaged together, giving fans a chance to experience the two games back to back.

Lunar and Lunar 2 are set in a far distant future, when planet Earth has become a lifeless orb known as the Blue Star, while the moon is where humanity has made its home. In this world of magic and fantasy dwells the Goddess Althena, a benevolent deity who brings peace and prosperity to the people of the world, aided by her divine paladin, the Dragonmaster. Lunar 1 follows the adventures of Alex, a young boy from a small town who dreams of someday becoming the Dragonmaster. He is joined by his childhood friend-slash-girlfriend, Luna, as they embark on a journey to fulfill Alex's dream. Lunar 2, set a thousand years after the first game, follows a young man named Hiro whose chance encounter with a woman who claims to be from the Blue Star leads the duo on a journey to find the Goddess Althena and stop a great evil from arising.

 Lunar and Lunar 2 are very straightforward RPGs. They intentionally feel like classic and comfortable adventure stories with simple characters and bombastic events. The good and evil sides are very obvious, with just enough depth to keep it interesting. They also have a heavy focus on romance, with the character's romance taking center stage over the main story. This might sound like a complaint but in the case of Lunar, it isn't. It's a fun adventure story that is in relatively short supply these days, and it can be shocking fu n to follow a group of plucky adventurers as they fight bad guys, get into antics, and save the world. It's very "classic" in a pleasant way, like eating a familiar meal.

I'm torn on the translations. The games generally use the Working Designs translations as the base. (Working Designs translations were noteworthy for having a very loose and lighthearted translation style.) In some ways, this worked in the game's favor, and at other times, it meant there was a random Austin Powers reference for no clear reason. A lot of modern localization may punch up scripts, but the Working Design ones often changed things to make them more comical or add tone-breaking jokes, such as randomly naming an enemy Nipple Yanker. I absolutely recognize that this is the version a lot of people are nostalgic for, but after experiencing the Suikoden remaster, I really wished that the Lunar remasters would've gotten brand-new translations. I should note that the translation fixes some of the more egregious changes.

It should be noted that the games are otherwise not the Working Designs version of the game. Changes made to the mechanics and core gameplay have been reverted. That means abilities have their original costs (such as Jessica's 1-MP Escape spell), enemy HP and damage numbers are different, and the location of certain items havechanged. These changes are mostly positive, as the WD mechanical changes usually increased tedium rather than difficulty.

Lunar's combat is by the book. It's turn-based RPG combat where players and enemies take turns attacking, healing, or using MP to cast special attacks. Perhaps the most distinctive thing about it is that instead of the characters lining up one side, they're scattered across the battlefield. This means positioning is important in Lunar. Both friendly and enemy attacks have specific ranges. If you're using a regular attack command, your character has to travel across the screen to hit, and the same goes for enemies. Special attacks can hit anywhere but may hit in lines, in AoEs, around a specific character, and more. If you position properly, you can hit multiple enemies with a single attack or prevent your party from taking full damage from a particularly deadly boss move. It's not hugely complex but adds extra spice to fights.

One neat aspect of Lunar's combat is that enemy animations reveal what they are going to do next. Each boss and most enemies have multiple sets of idle animations, and once you figure out what those mean, you can reliably predict what attack is coming next. Is the enemy planning their big AoE attack? Spend the turn defending instead. Are they going to do a weak attack? That's a chance to go all-out instead of wasting a turn healing. It's not the most complex mechanic, but it prevent fights from feeling entirely random and gives you enough tools to properly plan your next move.

Like the rest of the game, Lunar's combat is very comfortable and familiar. It's straightforward RPG combat and contains very few surprises. You hit enemies, they hit you, and this goes on until one side falls over. The core combat is enjoyable if you like RPG combat, with enemies hitting hard enough to make fights feel properly hectic unless you're grinding, but it's not so difficult that you're going to struggle. The boss fights are the highlights, as they use intriguing aspects of the combat system.

Outside of combat, Lunar and Lunar 2 are very much old-school RPGs that follow a very familiar town-dungeon pattern. There are not a ton of side-quests, and a good chunk of the game involves going from place to place following the plot. There are quite a few secrets and hidden items, but the core story quest is the meat of the game. Dungeons are large and varied and usually have some kind of gimmick, like poison traps or mazes. Some are very annoying — a dungeon in Lunar 1 has random treasure chests that suck away most of your MP, which is less of a challenge and more of a punishment for not saving before opening every chest — but most are fun enough.

The remasters for the two games fall firmly in the "good but not great" territory. The now-standard "speed up battles" has been added to the game, and it functions pretty well, but the fact that it still waits for voice clips to finish playing means it doesn't speed up as much as it might. You can still use the classic inventory, but there is an updated inventory option that gives everyone a single shared inventory instead of per-character ones. Some minor adjustments to auto-battle also allow you to configure it more easily. The bulk of the changes are minor but avoid doing anything that feels out of place.

The graphics are available in Classic and Remastered. Remastered is a much lighter touch than I'm used to seeing, and beyond nostalgia, there's no huge reason to play in Classic graphics mode. Remastered is wide-screen, and most of its updates are close enough to the original game (less blurry and more colorful) that I needed to look at comparison screenshots to see the difference. The voice acting has been entirely redone, but it mostly uses the same scripts. I find this a side-upgrade, with some one of the voice actors being big improvements (I love Kyle's new voice) and others feeling like a step down. Overall, I prefer the new voice acting, but it's difficult to get past the nostalgia of the old acting.

Lunar Remastered Collection is exactly what it needs to be: a comfortably nostalgic revisit to a comfortably nostalgic pair of games. Neither breaks the mold, but they remain charming and fun enough that they don't overstay their welcome. The remastering is done with a light touch, and there are times when I wish it had gone further, particularly with the translations. It does well enough to make it the best version of the games to pick up. Sometimes you just need an adventure, and Lunar delivers that in spades.

Score: 8.0/10