The 1990s gave us some of the most celebrated Japanese RPGs of all time, and although the Lunar games are often overlooked in comparison to their contemporaries, they still encompass everything magical about that era.
The Lunar Remastered Collection is a welcome revival, then. It bundles Lunar: The Silver Star Story and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue into one convenient package, offering higher resolution visuals, some (relatively minor) quality of life improvements, and an all-new English dub.
In terms of storytelling and characterisation, both games still hold up. Granted, the overarching plotlines aren’t anything special — chosen heroes, almighty dragons, a growing evil — but there’s an undeniable charm to the adventures themselves.
Fully animated cutscenes — complete with that classic 90s anime style — always helped Lunar resonate on a narrative level. They remain a pleasure to behold today, but the remaster’s use of AI upscaling does take the edge off once you notice it. Most players probably won’t even catch on, but there are times when the AI does the typical AI thing, creating odd linework or patterns that aren’t supposed to be there.
And this leads into a broader conversation about the Lunar games deserving a better return. Indeed, other aspects of this collection feel a bit half-arsed. For example, you can now double or even triple the speed of turn-based combat, which is great since the first Lunar in particular can be a slow, grindy game.
However, because combat encounters aren’t random, and you can only grind for levels in set dungeons, the process of beefing up your party still feels like a chore. At this point, why not just include extras like an optional experience booster? The draw of these old titles isn’t to relive their inherent tedium — it’s to soak up the atmosphere of a genre’s bygone era.
Given how many difficulty spikes these games have — as in, you have no real choice but to grind some levels to even stand a chance against specific bosses — it’s hard not to feel as though much more could have been done to improve the overall flow.
It’s a shame, because as alluded, it’s Lunar’s story and characters that reel you in. When you’re not mindlessly battering the same monsters in the same dungeon over and over again, these are really well paced RPGs that funnel you across a fairly memorable fantasy world.
And to be honest, the battle system is pretty basic anyway. It’s your standard turn-based affair that does little to excite here in 2025 — although the spritework is still immaculate. Setting up your party’s formation is about as in-depth as it gets, and in both games, it’s not until later on that combat demands strategic nuance beyond healing when your HP is low.
Having said all of that, there’s nothing quite like the gradual satisfaction of seeing your party’s stats creep higher. Maybe that’s the nostalgia talking, but there’s a straightforwardness to the stereotypical 90s JRPG that almost feels refreshing in this day and age.
You know what else is nostalgic? Lunar’s English localisation — a script so 90s that it even manages to reference cultural events of the time. From what we can tell, the dialogue is mostly unchanged in this collection, despite the completely rerecorded voicework (which, we’re happy to report, is solid throughout).
We understand why JRPG purists might have wanted a more… accurate translation for this revival, but there’s no doubt that the old script helps establish a true 90s anime aesthetic. The localisation team had fun with this one, and that lighthearted, often jokey tone bleeds into Lunar’s overall identity.
Conclusion
The Lunar games embody everything that’s nostalgic about 90s JRPGs, from the fun characters and colourful fantasy worlds, to the glorious spritework and catchy music. That said, Lunar’s underlying grind can make it difficult to stomach here in 2025 — especially when the Lunar Remastered Collection doesn’t do enough to mitigate the series’ most tedious aspects. It’s great to experience these games again — a fully deserved revival — but it’s a real shame that the collection isn’t flush with more helpful features.
