Lunar: Eternal Blue: Difference between revisions

The second installment in the Game Arts-developed ''[[Lunar]]'' series of [[Eastern RPG|console role-playing games]] -... not remade as much as the first, but still existing in multiple versions. The titles are:

* ''Lunar: Eternal Blue'' (no numeral) for [[Sega|Sega CD]], English version released by [[Working Designs]].

* ''Lunar 2: Eternal Blue'' for the [[Sega Saturn]] and its [[Updated Rerelease]] on [[PlayStation]], ''Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete'', English version released by [[Working Designs]].

''Lunar: Eternal 2Blue'' takes place a thousand years after ''[[Lunar: The Silver Star|Lunar 1]]'', and centers on a teenaged [[Adventurer Archaeologist|treasure hunter]] named Hiro, who is fascinated by the Lunar world's epic past (in short, the events of ''Lunar: 1The Silver Star''). While exploring a ruin, he meets Lucia, a [[Mysterious Waif]] with [[Mystical Waif|vast magical powers]] who immediately announces that the world is "[[Foreshadowing|in grave danger]].". As if to prove her point, the [[Big Bad]] shows up and puts a curse on Lucia, [[De-Power|depowering]] her. In response, Hiro [[Dulcinea Effect|takes it upon himself]] to help Lucia carry out her mission to meet with the [[Physical God|Goddess Althena]], who can set the world to rights. The trouble is that [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Althena's far-reaching religious organization]] thinks that ''Lucia herself'' is the threat to the world, and attempts to stop them at every turn.

Yes, it's a [[Corrupt Church]] plot... that well-worn trope which drives the storyline of many a late 90s90's [[Eastern RPG]]. But when ''Lunar: Eternal 2Blue'' debuted in 1995, the corrupt church plot was new to video gaming -... in fact, ''Lunar: Eternal 2Blue'' may have even been the pioneer. Be that as it may, the fact that the game held up well enough for a remake is testament to ''Lunar: Eternal 2Blue'''s other strengths -: the fun characters, the entertaining, humor-laden writing, and the fantastic soundtrack. The remake, released in the twilight of the PS1 era, is notable for: being the ''only'' remake of ''Lunar: Eternal 2Blue'', (unlike ''Lunar: The Silver 1Star'' which developers can't seem to leave alone) and having a lot more in common with its Sega CD original than its counterpart, ''[[Lunar Silver Star Story Complete]]'', does.

* [[Accidental Pervert]]: Hiro, when he comes across Lucia while she's bathing and then runs for cover... after a [[Distracted by the Sexy|moment of gawking]]. In ''Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete'', Lucia (inadvertently) turns the tables and walks in on Hiro, [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|not getting what the big deal is]].

* [[Actual Pacifist]]: Jean, when she is first introduced in the remake. {{spoiler|She hates her violent past so much, she is reluctant to fight even to save her friends.}}. Not so in the original version, where she doesn't seem to mind re-purposing her dancing ability for combat at all.

* [[The Atoner]]: {{spoiler|White Knight Leo}}, {{spoiler|Ghaleon}}, and {{spoiler|Master Lunn}}.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|In the "first" ending, Lucia returns to the Blue Star alone to continue her vigil in ensuring it becomes inhabitable again. The Epilogue is frankly not that much better;: Hiro finds a way to the Blue Star to join her, but it seems almost certain that he will ''never'' return to Lunar to see any of his friends again, and that Lucia and he will be alone for the rest of his lifetime.}}. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|As far as he's concerned, it's worth it]].

* [[But Now I Must Go]]: Lucia. {{spoiler|Hiro finds a way to go with her in the [[Playable Epilogue]].}}.

* [[Character Development]]: As well as Lucia, there's {{spoiler|Ghaleon, who deliberately invokes all sorts of [[Evil Overlord]] tropes before finally demonstrating that Alex and Hiro renewed his faith in humanity and the [[Power of Friendship]].}}.

* [[Childhood Marriage Promise]]: Sort of. Ramus once got Lemina to agree to a bet: if he can revive the family business before she revives the Magic Guild of Vane, she has to marry him. (Whatwhat Lemina gets if she wins isn't mentioned.). When it looks like Ramus's store is actually starting to recover, Lemina is not exactly happy with the prospect of Ramus trying to get her to go through with it...

* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]: Ronfar tries peeping at Lucia when she's trying out new clothes, and Hiro tries to stop him only to get [[Megaton Punch|clobbered along with him by the girls]]. In the remake, at least. In the original version, he was just trying to get his share of the view. (Lucia, meanwhile, [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|has no idea why the other girls are angry]].).

* [[Corrupt Church]]: Althena's Chosen (a.k.a. Althena's Cult in the Sega CD version). Its members are more interested in personal gain than anything else, but the organization is widely tolerated (albeit with a lot of grumbling). {{spoiler|The Chosen turn out to be agents of [[Big Bad]] Zophar, though it appears the lower-ranked members are unaware of this.}}.

* [[Dance Battler]]: Jean, {{spoiler|until she [[Took a Level In Badass|switches to martial arts]]. She still keeps her dance moves, though.}}.

{{quote|"If there is a god of destiny, he is fond of plot twists... and so am I."}}

** Hiro invokes this with {{spoiler|Ghaleon}} with the apparent intent of taking him on as a [[Sixth Ranger]], but [[Too Cool to Live|it's not to be]]. {{spoiler|Zophar's power is keeping him alive, and Ghaleon re-dies soon after betraying Zophar.}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Did Not Get the Girl]]: In the first ending, Lucia returns to the Blue Star and leaves Hiro behind. In the Epilogue, Hiro finds a way to go to her.}}.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: The defeat of [[God of Evil|Zophar]] by Hiro, Ronfar, Jean, Lemina, Leo, Lucia, and Ruby.

* [[Distaff Counterpart]]: Story-wise, female Ruby plays much the same role in ''Lunar: 2Eternal Blue'' as male Nall does in ''Lunar: The Silver 1Star''.

** When fighting the game's first boss, the Guardian, Itit is possible for Hiro and Gwyn to faint in positions that will block the Guardian's movement and prevent him from reaching Lucia (who cannot attack in this battle). In this unlikely event, Ruby will swoop down and use her fire-breath on the Guardian, destroying it in one hit. Not only a very cool bug fix, but also a bit of [[Foreshadowing]].

** Ruby serves as the cursor in the game's menus, flying to the different choices when a directional button is pressed. Press left and right rapidly in the inventory screen, and the Ruby cursor will eventually become dizzy.

* [[Element Number Six]]: Lucia favors a sort of non-elemental Star-themed magic that blows away enemies of all elements indiscriminately, despite carefully laying out a five-element system (especially in the remake).

* [[Emotionless Girl]]: Lucia, though she [[Character Development|feels more]] [[Defrosting Ice Queen|as time passes.]].

* [[Enemy of My Enemy]]: Why Zophar brought {{spoiler|Ghaleon back from the dead -: Zophar evidently assumed that since Ghaleon opposed Althena before, he'd be up for a grudge match. He's so very wrong.}}.

* [[Expy]]:A handful of characters appear to be simply re-tooled versions of characters from ''Lunar: 1The Silver Star''.

** Averted to some degree -: Lemina is a veritable [[Palette Swap]] of Mia and has the same [[Elemental Powers]], but couldn't be more unlike Mia personality-wise. Lemina is an extremely pushy extrovert, while Mia was an extremely polite introvert.

** At the other end of the spectrum, there's Ramus, the descendant of the first game's Ramus, who is a [[Identical Grandson|perfect replica of his ancestor]]. The Grand List named a line item for ''him'', too.

* [[Fake Difficulty]]: When they localized the Sega CD version of ''Lunar: Eternal Blue'', Working Designs added in a feature that [[Check Point Starvation|forced players to pay a certain amount of XP earned from battle to save the game]]. This feature was left out of the ''Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete'' on the Playstation, and Working Designs acknowledged in the official strategy guide for the game that "it was much more annoying than challenging."

** The [[Big Bad]]: Zophar.

** [[The Dragon]]: {{spoiler|Ghaleon}}.

** [[The Brute]]: {{spoiler|Master Lunn}}.

** The [[Evil Genius]]: Borgan. Not really genius compared to other examples of this character trope, but the closest one that this game offers.

** The [[Dark Chick]]: Mauri ( {{spoiler|when she is under the influence of Zophar}}).

** [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: Leo.

** [[The Hero]]: Hiro.

** [[The Chick]]: Lucia.

** [[The Lancer]]: Ronfar.

** [[The Smart Guy]]: Lemina.

** [[The Big Guy]]: Jean.

** [[Team Pet]]: Ruby.

** [[The Sixth Ranger]]: {{spoiler|Leo}} After defeating {{spoiler|Ghaleon,}}, it's clear the party [[Defeat Means Playable|expects him to become another one.]].

* [[The Gambler]]: Ronfar, who swears by his dice... even to the point of having attacks that involve rolling them.

* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: Some of the bosses seem to exist just so there can be a boss fight at the end of the dungeon. Of particular note is the Sega CD version's "Phantom Sentry" that shows up out of nowhere (there's no indication whatsoever that a boss fight is imminent), looks like a gun-slinging samurai (in a setting that otherwise [[Fantasy Gun Control|completely lacks firearms]]), and makes cryptic comments to Lucia before vanishing, never to be seen again... {{spoiler|Until the Epilogue, in which he returns and actually becomes important to the plot.}}.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Apparently, being {{spoiler|dead for a thousand years}} gave {{spoiler|Ghaleon}} a lot of time to reconsider his past actions. So when he's {{spoiler|resurrected as Zophar's [[The Dragon|Dragon]]}}, he immediately begins subverting the [[Big Bad]]'s plot. First subtly, and then overtly, despite knowing he's [[Redemption Equals Death|guaranteed to die]] {{spoiler|again}} as a result.

** In the Sega-CD version, he's pretty explicitly playing both sides up until the last moment, going so far as to {{spoiler|kill the main character}} to try to {{spoiler|1=[http://www.lunar-net.com/eb/screenshots.php?startingNo=495&endingNo=622&directoryNo=3&fileBegin=LUNAR%20%20ETERNAL%20BLUE_&pageTitle=Ghaleons%20Crisis goad Lucia into giving him the secret to an actual resurrection.]}}.

** {{spoiler|Leo...}}. He really does want to do good, but discovers that sometimes [[To Be Lawful or Good|the law stands in the way of doing the right thing]]. Thus, he ends up in the [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] -... at least until he realizes {{spoiler|how he's been duped and joins Hiro's side for good late in the game.}}.

* [[Heel Realization]]: {{spoiler|White Knight Leo. This is the reason why he flip-flops between Heel and Face. By the time he's mostly sided with Hiro, he's had to accept that the Althena he served was a fake goddess, put into position by the real dark god, Zophar, and that the woman he's been trying to slay, Lucia "the destroyer", was ''actually'' carrying out the will of the ''real'' goddess Althena by trying to protect the world from Zophar.}}. It's a tough pill to swallow.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: White Knight Leo, who, after finding out that he's a {{spoiler|servant for Zophar}}, has one that lasts until the final act of the game, at which point he becomes permanently playable.

* [[Heroic Second Wind]]: {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|The entire party during the fight with Ghaleon.]]}}.

* [[Hilarious Outtakes]]: In the Playstation remake, as before, your reward for watching the entire credits roll is these. Of particular note is Jean's VA commenting on her character's [[Stripperrific]] outfits and {{spoiler|Ghaleon}} [[Large Ham|hamming it up]] to extreme levels.

* [[Humanity Ensues]]: Nall. Ruby also had a human form drawn in the artbook, whether this was ever planned to be implemented in the plot at all is anyone's guess. Also Lucia, who is apparently a goddess who learns to be "human".

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Master Lunn and Borgan}} are too [[Easily Forgiven]]. Subverted by {{spoiler|Ghaleon,}}, the game's only [[The Atoner|atoner]] for whom [[Redemption Equals Death]].

* [[Naked on Arrival]] / [[Naked First Impression]]: Lucia, being an [[Emotionless Girl]], has a lot of these scenes and takes a long time to figure out what the big deal is about Hiro seeing her naked. By the time she gets it, she's not pleased.

* [[Names to Know in Anime]]: The Japanese version of ''Lunar: 2Eternal Blue'' is a roster of top seiyuu talent of the 90s90's.

** Hiro -: [[Hikaru Midorikawa]], a.k.a. [[Gundam Wing|that other Heero]].

** Lucia -: [[Chisa Yokoyama]].

** Ronfar -: [[Ryotaro Okiayu]].

** Jean -: [[Aya Hisakawa]].

** Lemina -: [[Megumi Hayashibara]], a.k.a. [[Ranma ½|heroine]] [[The Slayers|of]] [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|everything]].

** Nall -: [[Rica Matsumoto]].

* [[Narrator]]: At the beginning of ''Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete'', Ghaleon ([[Rule of Cool|for some reason]]) opens the story by talking about the history of Althena, Lunar and the Blue Star.

'''Lucia''': "Now I understand. You mean that Hiro tends to trip people who get too close. I will remember to walk several paces behind him in the future." }}

* [[Oh Crap]]: Ronfar sees a bunch of kids who previously pelted him with pinecones, and threatens to "introduce them to his belt." The group rounds the corner to [[Crowning Moment of Funny|see a massive cannonball on an oversized sling, armed and ready.]]. This is his exact reaction.

* [[Power Fist]]: {{spoiler|Jean's weapon of choice after her [[Took a Level In Badass|costume change]].}}.

* [[Rapunzel Hair]]: {{spoiler|The fake Althena}} has dark, curly hair that reaches the floor.

* [[Reverse Mole]]: {{spoiler|Ghaleon. Interestingly, in the original version of the first game, which this follows from, Nash pulled this on him, which is probably part of why he's so [[Genre Savvy]] about it.}}.

* [[Secret Identity]]: When forced to break his vows, Leo becomes {{spoiler|''The Amazing Mystere!''}} to correct things. He apparently doesn't realize that his [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] doesn't fool the heroes.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: ''Lunar: 2Eternal Blue'' has a fair number of these, what with {{spoiler|the revelations that there's a lot more backstory to the game than initially suggested and a lot of it is unexplored, Hiro going to live with Lucia, and then there's the matter of that big fortress on the Blue Star, which would sure make a ''lovely'' dungeon, wouldn't it.}}. ''Lunar 3'' was in various stages of development in the late 90s90's and very early 2000s2000's, but then stalled out over legal disputes between management members. The hooks have been left dangling for over a decade in some cases, now.

* [[Series Continuity Error]]: In the remake. Vane and the Grindery are not where they were left at the end of ''Silver Star Story''/''Harmony'', but remain in the spots they occupy at the end of ''Lunar: The Silver Star''.

* [[Steven Ulysses Perhero]]: The name of the hero in ''Lunar: 2Eternal Blue''? Hiro.

* [[Teach Him Anger|Teach Her Anger]]: This trope is {{spoiler|Jean}}'s backstory in a nutshell. {{spoiler|She was kidnapped by a cult of assassins, where an [[Evil Mentor]] taught her to fight, to feel nothing but anger, and to channel her rage into a killing instinct. Eventually, she realized what an awful thing she had learned, and was so dead-set against following her master's teachings anymore that she turned into a [[Actual Pacifist|pacifist]]. In fact, when Hiro meets her, she is ashamed after she loses control and opens a can of whoopass on a monster to save her new friends. Over the course of the game, she becomes more of a [[Martial Pacifist]] as she [[Character Development|learns that she can use her strength to help people, not to kill]].}}.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Hiro's party to certain degree. {{spoiler|Zophar allowed Hiro's party to humanize Lucia enough so that she could not bring herself to cast the ultimate spell on Zophar, which would have destroyed Lunar as well. Zophar took advantage of this and captured Lucia, stealing her power to make himself even stronger.}}.

* [[We Are as Mayflies]]: In ''Lunar: Eternal Blue'', Nall has been alive for the past thousand years, long after his friends from the first game are dead and gone. This is a major cornerstone for his friendship with Ruby, who has to come to terms that she'll long outlive her non-dragon friends, too...

* [[Wham! Episode]]: {{spoiler|Midgame wham: - Thethe Althena Church is obviously corrupt, but it turns out to be the front for Zophar's world domination efforts. And it's effectively succeeded already. Lategame wham -: Lucia is a destroyer after all, though unintentionally. If she uses Althena's power to destroy Zophar, it will un-create the world.}}.

** {{spoiler|The first ending, in which Lucia decides to go back to the Blue Star and leave Hiro behind.}}.

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Caldor Isle, a major location in the first game. You visit a ton of areas from ''Lunar: 1The Silver Star'', but never Caldor Isle. The place is barely even mentioned, which seems odd given how historically important it is.

* [[Zeroth Law Rebellion]]: The raison d'etre for '''Mystere'''! {{spoiler|When Leo finds that being [[Lawful Good]] isn't all it's cracked up to be, he whips up a [[Paper-Thin Disguise|paper thin superhero disguise]] to "anonymously" do the right thing.}}.