A legend of old. A story forgotten. The memories of a true love stolen from time! Ok, ok, I'll stop. This game is still awesome and I loved every minute of it. From the cheesy songs and outdated 90s pop references to the amazing love story this game tells, there isn't a thing I would change after all these years. The characters are charming, the dialogue is on point even with random NPCs, and the music is just outstanding. Maybe I would ease up on the number of dungeons and enemies toward the end of the game, but even that doesn't deter me from replaying it almost every year. It still is one of the quintessential games most JRPG fans need to play.

I enjoyed my time on this podcast since Lunar and Lunar 2 will always have a special place in my heart: not just for the fact that I enjoy them so much but because both games eventually led me to LunarNET and RPGFan back in the day. For that, I am eternally grateful. Sometimes you really never know where life will take you, but there is a chance it can lead you to an awesome place.

One day, I know for sure we will get a Lunar 3/It'll happen just you wait and see/And until then I'll continue to hold out/Because my love eternal (for Lunar) shall be destiny!

You knew I wasn't going to stop.

First of all, I just want to say that I'm so happy I got the chance to play this series for the first time and to share my thoughts and feelings as I progressed with everyone on Retro Encounter. I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to record a whole month of Lunar episodes, but somehow I made it through to the end all the richer. Lunar 2 not only introduced me to one of my new favourite characters in any RPG ever — the stalwart and true White Knight Leo — but also to a whole world, rich with charm and romance. I was grinning like an idiot when Hiro was tapping the crystal while hanging upside down. It was just so beautiful, you guys!

It's hard to deny that the very dated and often goofy localization of this series is all part of the appeal. However, I sometimes found Saturday morning cartoon villain Ghaleon too much to bear. I would have much rather seen the revival of The Bitches of Eastwick — Royce, Phacia and Xenobia — instead.

The Lunar games will always hold fond memories for me from now on. Getting to share the experience with my good friends here at RPGFan and finally catch up on what is clearly a beloved series leaves me with no regrets.

Now, where did I park the Dragonship Destiny?

One of the great pleasures of the Retro Encounter podcast is being able to play the classics of yesteryear; Lunar and Lunar 2 have always been at the top of my "need to play."

Lunar 2 has always been praised on forum boards and RPG lists as the forgotten love story, a true gem that most people are unfamiliar with. And for the most part, it really holds up. The battle encounters are standard fare grind: it's usually fine, but it wears you down by two thirds of the way through the story. The end game grind is also akin to scaling a mountain...which is tough. But the cast, along with the world and its lore, were a delight to experience. Sure, there are the definite Working Designs translation quirks and frustrations, but the world of Lunar 2, its turmoil and the struggle for survival against the corrupted chosen, kept me captivated for what was in store. Much of this can be attributed the core cast, with Jean the dancer turned martial artist master and Ronfar being the two standouts. Leo's transformation pays off, but on the flip side, Ghaleon feels like a cheap throwback connection to the last game. Which is unfortunate, because most of the callbacks to the first title feel impactful (like Nall and Luna and the vision of Vane falling from the sky). In the end, Lunar 2 is still a very good classic RPG. It has its frustrations, enough that it may cause potential players to tap out on the experience. But if you are willing to keep going, you will be treated to a gem of a story with a delightful cast.

Lunar 2 has plagued my memories for the past two decades. After being stomped one too many times by the egregiously difficult Borgan and his Three Magical Orbs™ in the Sega CD version, I put it down, never to return, not even bothering to give the PS1 version a second look when it was current. It wasn't because I disliked the game — quite the contrary — I just felt I couldn't muster the strength to step back up.

After recording the Silver Star Story episodes with the Retro Crew earlier this month, something awakened in me and I felt the need to finally get some closure. I finally saw the second half of the game and vanquished Borgan in the process. As Eternal Blue Complete omitted his Orb Buddies, I managed to make quick work of him, but I felt a little dirty in the process as if I'd somehow cheated. But my shame soon turned to frustration as I witnessed his redemption scene, in which everyone forgives him for being a magic-eugenicist child-slaver and let him off with a slap on the wrist. He was the second child-slaver let off the hook on Disc 2.

Indeed, Lunar 2's story is both a success and a failure. An inversion of its prequel's relatively straight-laced Hero's Journey, Lunar 2 reframes the Four Heroes and the Goddess Althena as a ruthlessly oppressive theocracy, actively harming the citizens they'd sworn to protect. It's a very smart move, and one that tantalises the player by inviting them to see how this once-utopic world could go so wrong. However, giving the most irredeemable villains lengthy redemption arcs is a maddeningly half-baked decision. And then there's Ghaleon, prime villain of the prequel, back to be sort-of-nefarious-but-not-really. The game attempts to posit him as both an antagonist as well as a hero, but he doesn't work as either, instead feeling tacked on for brand recognition. Most notably, the party discover a secret garden filled with fairies who claim Ghaleon's been taking care of them; the scene attempts to show an empathetic side to the former Magic Emperor, but it's especially absurd because said fairies are never seen again — nor were any fairies ever mentioned existing in Lunar before or after this single moment!

Despite these issues, I still enjoyed putting Lunar 2 to rest. Although the story and cast are not not quite as cohesive and memorable as those in the prequel, it's still Lunar, and a quite charming coda to close out the duo of mainline titles. It may be a little expensive to track down these days, and Working Designs' script and integer tweaks are definitely showing their age, but Lunar 2 is a colorful and quirky standout PS1 JRPG.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is a game I was meaning to replay for years and hadn't, since I enjoyed it immensely when I first played it in 2004, but there were always new games to play and I figured I should replay the first Lunar beforehand. Retro Encounter afforded me the opportunity for that replay, and I couldn't be happier. This is a special RPG.

My inability to remember Hiro's name notwithstanding (I blame playing Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 in such close succession), Lunar 2's greatest strength is its characters. Ronfar, Jean, Lemina, and Leo have strong personalities, fascinating backstories, and undergo real growth over the course of Lunar 2, making them among the best supporting casts in RPGs of that era. I don't find Hiro, Ruby, or Lucia as entertaining as those four, but Hiro and Lucia's relationship is paced well and ends on a beautiful, poignant note. Seriously, the final scenes of that epilogue.

Lunar 2 isn't perfect, with a backloaded dungeon grind and some unexplained mechanics as the most offensive flaws, but there is so much to love here. The characters, dialog, story framework, callbacks to the first Lunar game, and epilogue ending make Lunar 2 worth playing if you have access to the discs. Sadly, Lunar 2 hasn't been available on a new console since the PS1, which is tragic since it's one of the best RPG experiences of its era.