LUNAR Remastered Collection Review

2025 has been a great year to be a fan of turn-based role-playing games, with many titles receiving the remaster treatment, releasing for original fans and new players to check out. The title that I am checking out now is the LUNAR Remastered Collection. The first game in this collection, LUNAR: The Silver Star, was originally released in Japan on the 26th of June in 1992, and in North America the following year for the Sega CD. Growing up, I never had a Sega console, so I was playing other turn-based RPGs like Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI. I actually hadn’t heard of LUNAR until a couple of years ago when my friend told me it was her favourite series of all time and how she had heard rumours that it was going to be released for current consoles.

Fortunately, she was right, and this collection, made up of Lunar: The Silver Star and its sequel, Lunar: Eternal Blue, was released by developer GungHo in April of 2025. I knew I had to pick up this game and see what all the hype was about. I have played a tonne of retro turn-based RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, Breath of Fire, Secret of Mana, and Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, just to name a few, so I was curious to see if LUNAR would be different and stand out from all the other titles I had played before.

You are given the choice between playing the original version of the games or the remastered ones. I opted for the latter, as I wanted to see if it still retained the feel of the pixel role-playing games of that time. Personally, I had no idea how different a game on Sega CD could be from what I experienced on the SNES — I was blown away. I had only known of Sega CD games like Night Trap, which are known for full-motion video.

As soon as the game begins, we are treated to an anime-style cinematic with voices and singing. We meet Alex, the protagonist, who has dreams of becoming a great warrior like his idol, Dragonmaster Dyne. He is not alone: his childhood friends Ramus, who is always ready for an adventure, and Luna, who is an amazing singer who can heal people with her music, are by his side. I can't forget to mention Nial, the flying creature that resembles a cat (though he denies it) and is a source of humorous dialogue and great advice, plus he can resurrect a fallen character in battle. These three are the core members of our party that we begin our journey with, but additional people will join and leave as the story progresses. I don’t want to go too much into the story, as I don’t want to spoil anything for people who are planning on checking it out for themselves, so I’ll stop here.

First off, the games look great. I was concerned that, since it was a remaster, a lot of the original pixel visuals would be smoothed out and blended, like many other updated RPGs have been. To contrast the pixels, the cinematic scenes look like hand-drawn cartoons, which makes it feel like it was part of an animated show. The music is great and sounds epic, in addition to everything being fully voiced, which was a huge surprise to me for a game from the early ’90s. The talking isn’t restricted to the cinematics; even in battle, the characters talk when they attack, like the mage who joins your party saying, “Check this out!” or Luna singing a tune when she uses magic to heal.

Like most RPGs, your team is made up of four members, though depending on what is currently happening in the story, there may be fewer. The game lets you select a fight strategy for each character between always battle, always defend, or "give it your all", so the character focuses on doing whatever is needed to win the battle. This is also one of the only titles that I’ve played where you want to change the position of where your characters are standing for each boss battle based on where the enemy attacks. I’m used to just having the weak characters standing in the back, with the stronger party members in the front to take more damage. That is not the case with LUNAR: what worked for one boss fight doesn’t work for the next one. You really need to think strategically and plan your placement!

Control-wise, LUNAR Remastered is just like other turn-based RPGs out there. Pick the type of attack or magic that you want to use and the target you want to go after. If you are grinding, trying to earn XP to level up, and get tired of selecting all the different moves yourself, you can set the fight to Auto-Battle. With this selected, the game will pick which target to go after and which moves to use, whether it be magic, an attack, or using an item based on the strategy that you previously selected. I really appreciate how, when you are using a spell or item to heal, the game selects the character that has the lowest amount of health remaining. You can also change the speed of the fight, which works great for when you are battling weak enemies and just want to blow through the battle! Plus, it looks funny to see all the little sprites hopping around and attacking at super-fast speed.

LUNAR Remastered Collection lets you save the game anywhere you want; I absolutely love this, as in the past, I have lost a lot of progress in games waiting for the next save point! There are also 30 save slots available, so you will never have to worry about another person saving over your game when there is only one spot available. Though, it can't protect you from someone being careless. Maybe, as a precaution, save again in a different slot further down on the list, too. I remember many times as a child having my save erased or written over by my younger brother.

I am having such a great time with the LUNAR Remastered Collection. I just have to recommend this title to anyone who enjoys turn-based role-playing games. I now understand why my friend loved this series so much. You can play the two games in any order you wish, as Eternal Blue is set 1,000 years in the future, but I feel that if you don’t play LUNAR Silver Star first, you will miss out on some of the references you encounter in the second game. Either way, both games are done so well, from the visuals to the story and just the overall presentation, this collection does not disappoint. I can’t wait to finish my playthrough of this first game and move on to the next story. GungHo has done a great job with this collection, and I am excited to see what other games they will release in the future!