Feminist
Pro-Queer
Anti-Racist
Gaming

After playing Legend of Dragoon, I felt disinclined to play any other RPGs anytime soon. It's just so damn good and I can't help plugging it right now. However, I found myself bored riding the abomination that is public transportation. What could I do to pass the time and distract myself from the foul stench of urine and stale cologne and perfume and drown out the din of the person sitting right behind me screaming into their cell phone? Surely not a book as they are a pain in the ass to carry around with all of my unnecessarily heavy crap in my backpack. Not a magazine because I don't want to inspire any conversation or have person next to me who smells like macaroni for some reason reading it over my shoulder.

A solution presented itself in the form of my Gameboy Advance. Since I didn't feel like returning to the Final Fantasy series, I figured I would see what I had lying around. I found Lunar Legend(2001) and figured I'd finally give it a whirl.

I was unimpressed with what I saw at first. The beginning of the game was quite slow and painfully easy in terms of encounters. The characters are introduced in a wooden manner and there are few engaging qualities to their personalities or back stories. (On a side note, perhaps because of the way the game was translated I ended up thinking that two of the characters were related and thus their crushing on each other was blatantly incestuous. I guess that's not true, but the mix up has left me with a bad taste for the entire game.) However, a redeeming quality to its character introduction is the anime-style set-up. The characters are introduced in a cartoon still frame and when they speak, their animated face is shown on the bottom of the screen next to the text. Some may find that to be off putting, but I feel like it gives the text a little extra flavor- especially to those not used to traditional RPG video game dialogue.

Despite its sluggish beginnings, the story does pick up and I found myself no longer sighing with boredom. It starts with a lad (complete with windswept hair and an earth-tone tunic) kneeling in front of the gravestone of the last great Dragonmaster, speaking longingly about his desires to set out and become a Dragonmaster himself. His flying, cat-like companion serves as a window character to receive this information and banter with him until his very portly friend shows up. This leads to the introduction of a female character and a smarmy young wizard with a very serious pompadour going on. It all seems ridiculously cliche, I know. And originally, I felt like I was reading some Wheel of Time kid's spinoff text but by the time I arrived at my destination, I was hunched over the screen.

...

I did like the battle system more than I thought I would. The power attack feature is interesting and gives boring leveling battles a little more zest than those of its peers. Plus, you get a little anime still shot when they perform these which consistently amused me. It also has a tact and automatic feature, which are both ideal for multitasking, saving time and energy (if one happens to be that lazy), or hiding it during class. There are several random encounters, which enable you to level quickly but the boss fights are no less challenging because of it.

The graphics are also fairly impressive. Having played a few not so great translations of old RPGs to GBA, I was not expecting much but was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant colors and clarity of not only the character sprites, but the monsters and locations. The soundtrack, however, was terrible. There is nothing else I can say about it other than I eventually had to play it with the sound off.

Although the story-line is no more or less what one would expect of an RPG series game, it is made more engaging by a quick pace and not overly convoluted plot. The simplicity makes it excellent for casual playing during hellish travels on public transit, in-between class/work, visits to the dentist, or whatever boring shit one needs to do. Since it is a remake and I have not played the original game, Lunar: The Silver Star(1992), I can't attest to the game differences. Perhaps the original is crafted better but the Gameboy Advance version ends up being good, but not great. The game stays with you though, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say that playing the GBA version has made me want to pick up the Playstation version of it, Lunar: Silver Star Story(1996).

Overall game-play- 4/5
Story- 3/5
Graphics- 4/5
Soundtrack- 1/5

Feminist Critique of Lunar Legend

What truly appealed to me was the game's treatment of the practice of othering. Although it is not done subtly, it is worth saying that for a game of its release time, the mere fact that it addresses it as bluntly as it does is impressive. The game deals with two warring races both of whom hate each other and find the other 'vile'. In fact, the characters themselves discuss how both sides are sharing the same ideas/delusions about the other. Although the 'other' race is vilified early on in the game through kidnapping, intrigue, and destruction, when the main set of characters enter the land of their others, several events and a great deal of interaction occur that cause both the characters and the player to empathize with the other race. Despite these attempts, it still ends up feeling like the other race was more evil than the main human race and although there has been insight by the characters into the similarity of circumstance and the subjectivity of 'truth', it never overcomes being an offhand realization in the fashion of a Lifetime special. Whether or not players identified with that or took anything away from the discovery of the characters is suspect as it wasn't treated as well as it could have been.

In terms of inclusion, there were what appeared to be Native American characters in the game. There is a village set in the plains which closely resembles that of a stereotypical Native American village in style and culture. There is only one non-white playable character, but he is very clever, an adept and fair leader, and has a surprisingly virtuous set of morals for being the head of a band of thieves. I also feel it is worth saying that this game has an overweight playable character. Although he initially serves as cowardly comic relief, he does exercise a great deal of intelligence and shrewdness.

However, I'm still not sure how I feel about this game's treatment of women. Although there are several strong women in the game, many of them are evil or 'bitches'. The 'good' women are sweet and fairly docile. On top of that, many girls in the game are abducted and unable to save themselves until the main group (comprised mostly of men) do something about it. The women in the game are also treated flippantly at times, especially by the playboy character. Despite this, I still commend the game for having any strong female characters at all. In fact, I really enjoyed one of the main 'bitch' characters who fought with claws and hammers and yet was still a healer character with some pretty bad ass white magic. This same character was also one of the most complex of the playable characters in the game. She comes from a hero warrior father but plays a hyper feminine role when in his presence so that he doesn't worry about her midnight marauding, similar adventures and vicious battle encounters. This duality and her relationship with her father is an interesting dynamic which is probably lost on many male players. Although men end up having incredibly complex relationships with their fathers of a similar nature as well (being unable to accept a child is growing up and partaking in adult activities) but the consequences are entirely different. In some cases, for a woman a father can either be a great friend, a role model, or a warden. The story is not as in-depth as to give the player the real nature of their relationship but it is definitely something that can be inferred or dismissed if the player is not interested. I personally took it to reflect a relationship where a father was overprotective and stuck in more archaic notions than conventions. He possibly emotionally restricted his daughter instead of physically locking her up to preserve her all important virginity/purity/whatever one wants to call it. He did not recognize her full talents and thirst for adventure (which mimic his own personality) and instead tacitly implied what he felt was expected from a daughter in terms of her behavior. Or perhaps it was just what she felt he wanted to see. Who knows?

Although this game does not equal levels of inclusion and feminism I have seen in other RPGs, it is pretty damn good for what it is. Any game that openly acknowledges the practice of othering and the effects of it as well as honestly dealing with a real father daughter relationship (however comically cliche) is worth at least one play through.