Welcome to the "What Is LUNAR?" section here at LunarNET which all newcomers to the LUNAR series should find helpful. The first LUNAR game, LUNAR: The Silver Star, was released in 1992 on the Mega CD (Sega CD here in North America) by a company named GameArts. It was developed by a group that GameArts put together by the name of Studio Alex, and consisted of key LUNAR people such as Kei Shigema as the head writer, Noriyuki Iwadare doing the sound and music, and T. Kubooka doing artwork and character designs. Originally, three stories were developed for the LUNAR series. The second story is what LUNAR: The Silver Star came to be. The first story was set in the background of LUNAR TSS and was based on the original four heroes: Dyne, Ghaleon, Lemia and Mel. This story was never made into a game, and would have taken place at least 15 years prior to the events of LUNAR TSS. The final story that was created is what LUNAR II: Eternal Blue became. Originally it was designed to be the next generation of heroes after LUNAR TSS, but when developing the game, they created a much larger timespan between the two games.

After the release of LUNAR EB, a portable "gaiden" or side story to the LUNAR series titled Lunar: Walking School was released on the Sega Game Gear. It took place a few hundred years prior to LUNAR TSS. Domestic LUNAR publisher Working Designs never brought LUNAR WS out in the US, but they did bring over LUNAR TSS and EB. When the Sega Saturn was first making it's debut, talk of some LUNAR remakes started happening, and eventually we got remakes of all three LUNAR games. LUNAR: The Silver Star became LUNAR: Silver Star Story (Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete in North America), LUNAR II: Eternal Blue became LUNAR 2 Eternal Blue (LUNAR 2 Eternal Blue Complete in North America) and LUNAR: Walking School became LUNAR: Magic School. Like Walking School, Magic School was never brought to North America. Ever since the remakes were first announced, talk of a LUNAR 3 has been rumored. 10 years later, and we still are waiting for LUNAR 3. More information about this legendary rumored title can be found on our LUNAR 3 page. Both of the main two remakes were eventually ported to the Sony Playstation, and brought out in North America with their Complete titles by Working Designs. It should be mentioned that GameArts did not develop these remakes. A number of companies were responsible, including Kadokawa Shoten, Japan Art Media, Gonzo (animation), Gekko (scenerio design company run by Kei Shigema), and TwoFive (Noriyuki Iwadare's music company). Artwork was again done by Kubooka. During this time period, TONS of merchandise was created, from soundtracks to manga, and novels to phone cards. All of the merchandise can be found in our merchandise section.

Fast forwarding to the 2000's, over eight years after the release of the original LUNAR: The Silver Star, it was announced that a portable version of LUNAR 1 was coming to the Nintendo GameBoy Advance. The title name was Lunar Legend and was a remake of the Saturn/Playstation LUNAR: Silver Star Story (a remake of a remake!). However, unlike other versions of LUNAR, Lunar Legend was released in North America by UbiSoft.

Last, something has to be said about the LUNAR fans. LUNAR fans are probably the most cult-like fans for their series of any RPG series ever. A lot of the success of the remakes of LUNAR had to have been due to the fanbase that really pushed these games after having played the original games. As LUNAR fans, we knew that after playing the originals, everyone else had to experience these wonderful games. When Working Designs released LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete it sold something like half a million copies and is still the best selling release Working Designs has ever put out. In fact, it was taken out of print so that it wouldn't become a greatest hits that ended up in a bargain bin. The general feeling was that a game like LUNAR didn't deserve to be relegated to a bargain bin. Fans of the LUNAR series have always been great about getting the word out about how wonderful this series is, and they deserve at least some credit for making the series as popular as it has been over the years. In fact, it was widely known during the Playstation releases that fans in America outnumbered fans in Japan. For an RPG series that came from Japan, that's an amazing feat! No other Japanese-developed RPG series can claim that. Not Final Fantasy, not Phantasy Star, not Dragon Quest/Warrior, none of them. LUNAR is a series with a great fanbase, and a rich storyline and history. So if you've never had had the wonderful experience of these classic stories, make sure to hunt down these great games. And make sure to check around LunarNET for more LUNAR information. We hope you find the information and materials on this site of great use, and be sure to let us know what you think about the site, or the LUNAR series itself on our forums. Take care!