Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete arrived on the original PlayStation in North America in May 1999, published by Working Designs. It is a remake of 1992’s Lunar: The Silver Star, and it does not pretend otherwise. The 1996 Sega Saturn version came first, built by Game Arts and Japan Art Media and published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten. Alfa System handled the PlayStation port in 1998. What Working Designs shipped is a role-playing game that knows exactly what it is and mostly delivers it.
Alex, Luna, and the Dragonmaster’s Heir
The setup is familiar. Alex is a young boy from a small, humble town who dreams of becoming an adventurer like his idol, Dyne. After being chosen as heir-apparent to the title of Dragonmaster, guardian of the forces of the planet, he sets out with a growing band of companions to pass the trials set by ancient dragons and stop a powerful sorcerer. That sorcerer is Ghaleon, a dark magician who seeks godhood and initially appears as an ally.
The cast returns from the original, keeping their designs by anime and manga artist Toshiyuki Kubooka. Luna, Alex’s childhood friend and sweetheart, gets the biggest upgrade. The designers felt she lacked presence the first time, so she stays in the party longer and gains confounding dream sequences that expand her past. Nall, the winged white cat-like creature of uncertain origin, tags along. Ramus wants to be rich. Nash is a boisterous magician-in-training. Mia, Jessica, and Kyle fill out the ranks.
Ghaleon Gets a Motive
Game Arts reworked its villain. Ghaleon’s personality is altered to make him more sympathetic, and his motivation shifts from revenge to misplaced concern for humanity not having a true leader. He remains ruthless and cruel regardless. The studio also added new villains, Royce and Phacia, two powerful sorceresses, because the opposition lacked enough characterization.
The remake’s script came from novelist Keisuke Shigematsu, who expanded Kei Shigema’s original Sega CD plot to make it more current. The story stays true to the original while making room for a larger cast and additional scenarios.
Visible Enemies and Auto-Battle
Silver Star Story Complete is a traditional, top-down RPG with two-dimensional character and background graphics. The presentation is the upgrade: a larger color palette, more sophisticated visual effects, and improved sound quality, plus fully animated cut scenes interspersed through the story.
The mechanical changes matter more. The original spawned random encounters every few steps in harsh environments. The remake makes enemies visible, and combat only starts when a character touches one. There are no monsters in the overworld at all. Many new battle features were adapted from Lunar: Eternal Blue, including auto-battle, which lets players set moves and actions in advance.
| Feature | Original (1992) | Silver Star Story Complete (1996) |
|---|---|---|
| Enemy encounters | Random, every few steps | Visible; combat on contact |
| Overworld monsters | Present | None |
| Auto-battle | No | Yes, adapted from Eternal Blue |
| Cut scenes | Limited | Fully animated, CD-based |
Where the Remake Earns Its Keep
In combat, a player can attack, move about the battlefield, use magic or items, defend, or flee. The movement feature from the original stays: characters must be within a certain distance of an enemy before attacking. Winning yields experience points, levels, and better abilities. Bosses scale to the party’s level with no limit, which keeps fights honest.
The visible-enemy change is the single best decision here. Random encounters were the genre’s tax on patience, and removing them from the overworld tightens the pace without gutting the challenge. Ghaleon’s rewritten motive is the second-best. A villain who thinks he is saving humanity is more interesting than one settling a score.
What holds it back is restraint elsewhere. The remake modernizes its systems but leaves the underlying structure intact, and the story beats remain the ones players already knew. It is a polished, generous version of a game from 1992, not a reinvention of it.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is the definitive way to play this story, and an enhanced version now sits in the Lunar Remastered Collection, released in April 2025 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It earns its reputation without quite transcending its origins.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
