Lunar (franchise)



The time was the early 90s; the console - the obscure Sega CD. It was starved for quality software of any sort, let alone RPGs, which were still a niche genre outside of Japan. Along came a game called Lunar: The Silver Star, developed by Game Arts (the company that would later go on to produce the Grandia series). It became a Sleeper Hit despite the Sega CD's short lifespan, and was one of the best-selling games in the console's history, paving the way for a sequel, entitled Lunar: Eternal Blue (no numeral). The series has been in a cycle of remakes and spin-offs ever since, with the PlayStation remakes, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete being the best known to English-speaking fans.

All the entries in the series are set in a common 'verse - the eponymous world of Lunar. It is a stock swords-and-sorcery fantasy world, high in idealism, that draws a lot of attention to its neat Alien Sky dominated by an object called the Blue Star. The twist is that Lunar is a moon - one that was empty and lifeless until a goddess transformed it and moved people there from the Blue Star...according to legend. But all legends are true. The reasons (and long term effects) of this become vital plot points.

While technically impressive in their Sega CD iterations, the games of the Lunar series have come to be standout classic JRPGs. All the elements are there in all the ways you expect, but they're functioning at their maximum potential. Let us consider the plot: in Lunar 1 we begin with a teen named Alex who idolizes a great hero, the late Dragonmaster Dyne. After jumping at the call to adventure offered by an ancient dragon, Alex finds himself dragged into a battle against the Vile Tribe and their leader, the Magic Emperor. Alex makes all his dreams come true, sees the world, gets the girl (his childhood friend, no less), prevails against the baddie when it seems like all hope is lost, and saves the world. The blend of engaging characters, the earnestness and sense of fun, the savvy localization (originally by Working Designs, with the requisite injection of fourth wall-breaking humor), and the acclaimed soundtrack combine to land it a spot among the greats of RPG history.

Lunar 2 takes place a thousand years after the first game, and centers on Hiro, a teenaged treasure hunter, who meets Lucia, a Mysterious Waif bearing a premonition of doom. When the baddie curses Lucia, Hiro takes it upon himself to help her carry out her mission to meet with the Goddess Althena, who can set the world to rights. But as they make their journey they find that things are not as they appear in the world. While not as primal as Lunar 1, the plot elements in Lunar 2 are classic nonetheless, and all that stuff about epic adventure, pulling victory from the jaws of defeat, and fantastic music still apply. And they are still engaging and funny.

The series' release list is as follows, split release dates comparing first Japanese release date to the U.S. date:
 * Lunar: The Silver Star - Sega CD (1992/1993)
 * Lunar: Eternal Blue - Sega CD (1994/1995)
 * Lunar: Walking School - Game Gear (1995)
 * Lunar Silver Star Story Complete - Saturn/PlayStation (1996/1999)
 * Magic School Lunar - Saturn (1997)
 * Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete - Saturn/PlayStation (1998/2000)
 * Lunar Legend - Game Boy Advance (2001/2001)
 * Lunar: Dragon Song - Nintendo DS (2005/2005)
 * Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP (2009/2010)

2/3rds of the series are different versions of Lunar 1 or Lunar 2. There are three exceptions - the Gaiden Game Lunar: Walking School on Sega's Game Gear handheld, its remake Magic School Lunar! on Saturn, and the Prequel Lunar: Dragon Song on Nintendo DS. The two gaiden games were never released outside of Japan, though Dragon Song was.

There are variety of other Lunar-related media that never left Japan - novelizations, manga, drama CDs, even a short anime film made for Magic School Lunar!. Given the decline of the series, they will probably stay that way, leaving American fans to rely on other methods if they want to get their hands on them. The one exception is the Silver Star Story novelizations, which are available in English via Kindle.

The Lunar series and related media provide examples of:
"Lunar 1 has its own page here, and Lunar 2 has one here. Please only include tropes that occur in multiple games or side-games in this list."

"22. Why are Mauri and Leo different from other people? They're of the beastman race, like Master Mel and Jessica of Lunar I. There seem to be many types of beastmen - Jessica and Mel seem to be cat-types; Mauri and Leo, dog-types. Well, then, you might say, are there hippo-types and seagull-types? Umm... sure, why not; it'll be interesting ."
 * A Boy and His X: Both of the main games have flying "cats" that are constant companions to the main character; Nall in Lunar 1 and Ruby in Lunar 2. They are Deadpan Snarkers-in-chief for their respective games and they share the same Berserk Button - don't call them cats.
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: There's one under Meribia which appears in Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 both. And yes, it's filled with monsters. In Lunar 2, Ramus turns it into a tourist attraction called the "Tunnels of Carnage."
 * Adaptation Dye Job: A few occurred between the Sega CD games and their remakes.
 * Luna's eyes are usually brown in Lunar: The Silver Star, especially in promotional art, but have been blue since Silver Star Story.
 * Lucia and Jean were textbook examples of Curtains Match the Window, with the former having blue hair and Blue Eyes, and the latter having green hair and Green Eyes. In the remake they were both broken out of it, as Lucia's eyes were changed to green and Jean's were changed to brown.
 * Aerith and Bob: Alex, Jessica, Kyle... Ghaleon?
 * Alien Sky: Inverted, played straight and Justified. The Blue Star is always visible and is always huge in the sky. This is because Lunar is actually the Blue Star's moon that's been terraformed (the Frontier and the ground that the  passes over becomes rather moon-like).
 * Worth noting: the Blue Star looks exactly like Earth...
 * Anti-Villain: in Silver Star Story Complete and  in Eternal Blue.
 * Art Evolution: The art has changed a lot over the years. Toshiyuki Kubooka, the series character designer/animation director, has links to the anime production company Studio Gainax, so in the early 90s the art resembled Nadia. In the latter half of the 90s Lunar took on an Eva-like look...and has gone in other directions from there.
 * Assist Character: Nall and Ruby both fill this role in battles. They spend most of the time flying around in the background, but will jump in to help at the end of some turns.
 * Bag of Sharing: Averted (in all the games up to the Lunar 2 remake): Each character can carry a set number of items, and only those can be accessed in battle. Any extras can be left with Nall/Ruby.
 * Played straight in the Lunar 2 remake and every game since.
 * Big Fancy House: The Guildhouse in Vane, which also serves as the home of the Ausa family. By the time Eternal Blue, it's still standing despite the Guild itself (and with it, the Ausa family's money) being almost gone. But by that point, it has a large, unpatched hole in the roof...
 * Book Ends: Scenes at the end of Lunar 2 recall ones from the beginning. Lucia appears in the Blue Spire; Lucia returns home from the Blue Spire.
 * Also, we first meet Hiro as he's hanging upside down and being a bit of a of a lovable dork.
 * The Lunar 1 remakes add book ends. The game begins at Dyne's monument, and reprises that scene after the credits roll.
 * Boom Stick: Mages tend to have staves as their primary weapon, which attack through spells rather than hitting the enemy.
 * Broken Bridge, Inverted: It's an actual bridge, and your party members are the ones who do the breaking.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Attaching voice clips to special moves was the new hotness when the Lunar remakes were first made, but the characters don't strictly call their attacks by name - magic spells, for instance, get invocations. Everyone yells different things for different attacks; some will spout a Catch Phrase.
 * Capital City: Meribia, the largest city in the setting, is the commercial capital. The flying city of Vane is the magical/academic captial; its citizens call it the center of the world. Both of the cities are cool enough to get their own introductory cutscenes in Lunar 1, and they're important locations in Lunar 2 as well.
 * Catgirl / Petting Zoo People: The beastpeople, who are all over the map on this one. Lunar 1's catgirl is a halfcatgirl, and her features are rather elven. Leo and Mauri in Lunar 2 are more obvious beast people.
 * Elaborated upon in an FAQ from a Japanese artbook:

"3. What's the connection between Althena and Lucia? When Althena was on the Blue Star, where was Lucia? Althena, Lucia, and Zophar are all probably the same type of entity. We call them gods, and while that's a possibility, the truth seems to be a little different. So, then, what are they? Well...we don't really know. C'mon, this isn't sci-fi; gimme a break if I can't be clear on everything ."
 * Combat Medic: Lunar healer characters come from the Dungeons and Dragons cleric mold - let 'em Carry a Big Stick or an Epic Flail and they can crack heads. Jessica can hold her own with maces and claws. Ronfar too, but it's usually better to give him crests that enable magic spells.
 * Conspicuous CG: The Complete remakes feature animation sequences by Studio GONZO, and this trope is their calling card.
 * Silver Star Story (Complete) and Harmony, have a computer modeled ship from the "Wind's Nocturne" song sequence and the exterior of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
 * Eternal Blue Complete has many computer modeled objects, such as the building where Lucia sleeps on the Blue Star, most shots of the Dragonship Destiny, and.
 * Continuity Nod: There's a whole series of books in Eternal Blue which details what happened to the cast after the first game, and a number of returning locales.
 * Several books throughout Silver Star Story foreshadow Eternal Blue. One book in Damon's Tower openly references Zophar and the plot of the sequel, though it stops short of naming him.
 * During SSSC's Playable Epilogue, Lemia remarks that her descendants might not be as charitable as she or Mia. Hoo boy...
 * Cool Big Sis: Jean plays this role to Alice in the Childhood's End manga.
 * Cool Sword: Everybody knows that Heroes Prefer Swords, and the Lunar series doesn't disappoint on that front. (Unless it's a Gaiden Game or Dragon Song.) The coolest sword in the setting is Althena's Sword, the weapon of the Dragonmaster.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The people of the Lunar world worship Althena, a benevolent goddess who . Depictions of the the Church of Althena vary from game to game, vary in quantity of Christian elements.
 * While The Silver Stars religion has ancient Greek trappings, Silver Star Storys Temple of the Goddess may as well be a Christian cathedral. (Silver Star Harmony dials this down.)
 * All iterations of Eternal Blue are blatant examples, featuring missionary churches and "the end is nigh" preachings.
 * Underneath the trappings of Christianity, worship of Althena parallels Buddhism and other Eastern beliefs. In particular, the Four Dragons are quite literally a Crystal Dragon version of The Four Gods, and the Four Heroes can be considered the Shitennou of Althena. One of the inspirations for Eternal Blue was the introduction of Journey into the West, in which Sun Wukong, despite all he had achieved and all the power he commanded, could not escape Buddha's palm. The writer (Word of God) considered it an insult to the 'power of humanity' that he could simply do nothing.
 * Dark Is Evil: The Magic Emperor is described using dark magic, Zophar is described as a dark god that is revived by the dark side of humanity.
 * Defend Command: One of the commands in battle. Amusingly, in Eternal Blue Complete, Lemina's defending animation has her open an umbrella and hold it in front of her like a shield.
 * Demi Human: The beastpeople and the Vile Tribe both qualify as this, both with varying levels of humanity.
 * Determinator: As a rule, the series is keen on Heroic Spirit. It's also keen on Near Villain Victory, because there's no better way to demonstrate Heroic Spirit than rising up against impossible odds.
 * In Lunar 1, Alex, Mia, and Jessica don't let the end of the world get them down, giving Rousing Speeches (well, not so much Alex,) to raise Nash's and Kyle's morale.
 * The entire party of Lunar 2. In fact, this is referred to as the "power of humanity": the ability to absolutely never give up, no matter how hopeless everything seems, so long as there is still anything left to fight for.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Many fans believe Working Designs to be the creators of the game and not Game Arts, attributing various non-localization aspects of the games to them and in the past petitioning them to make another game in the series.
 * Disappeared Dad: There's a number of missing parents in the series, but one of particular notice is the father of Mia, the husband of Lemia Ausa... or any male in the Ausa line, for that matter. While he's simply never mentioned in the game, bonus materials turn this into a Justified Trope, explained best in Lemina's backstory novel: the heiresses of the Ausa family keep their romances and marriages a secret from the public, to separate their family life and their responsibilities to the Guild as much as possible. Suddenly, it makes sense why there's no mention of Lemia's husband, and why the series makes a point of avoiding confirmation on whether or not Mia and Nash hooked up.
 * Which means there's plenty of open territory for fan speculation about who Mia's father is. One popular theory is that it's Ghaleon, but the Tale of the Vane Airship manga suggests that it's more likely to be Dyne.
 * Do Not Pass Go: In the English translation of The Silver Star, the attendant at the teleporter will mention that after you pass the Cave of Trials, the warp will now take you directly to Vane. "You'll not pass Go. You'll not collect 200S."
 * Dub Name Change: Name changes are common in the two main games; generally, fans accept them as effective alterations. On the other hand, Lunar: Dragon Song averts this trope - the names of the main characters match their Japanese counterparts pretty faithfully.
 * Lunar 1 favored prosaic name changes. Ahres (アレス; derived from the English word "earth") became Alex, Killy (キリー) became Kyle, Temzin and Pilya became Tempest and Fresca.
 * Lunar 2 took the opposite approach, making names more exotic. Rainus (ライナス pronounced like Linus) became Lunn and the Masked White Knight became Mystere!
 * Earth-That-Was: The humans of Lunar all came from the Blue Star, which is now a frozen wasteland.
 * Elemental Powers: Some characters will have elemental magic in their special abilities. Ghaleon has one of each, except for Lightning.
 * Fire and Ice: Mia Ausa and Lemina Ausa.
 * Lighting: Nash
 * Wind: Hiro
 * Earth: Leo
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Spelled out in Eternal Blue with five elements, and color-coded crests for each: Earth (orange), Fire (red), Lightning (yellow), Ice (blue) and Wind (green).
 * Evil Albino: is one of the greatest examples you could ask for. Some close seconds would be the three women from the Vile Tribe from Silver Star Story, who all have either silver or blonde hair and red eyes.
 * By the end, though, turns out to be more of the heroic variety.  would also qualify at points.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Magic Emperor, who could not understand why , and Zophar, who.
 * Fan Service: The various "bromides" (pictures) of the female cast members in the Silver Star Story remake. There's a purchasable version in the original, but you can't do anything with it, aside from equipping Nash with it (for +1 defense).
 * Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete makes Lucia an Innocent Fanservice Girl.
 * There's also the hot spring scenes in the first game. Naturally, the female bath is considerably harder to reach than the male bath.
 * Fantastic Racism : Between the humans and the beastpeople in Dragon Song.
 * Fantasy Pantheon: Althena and the four dragons.
 * Feelies: The Complete remakes on the PlayStation came with mini-strategy guides, cloth maps of the overworld, and a life-sized replica of Lucia's pendant (in the case of Lunar 2).
 * Fortune Teller: Royce in Silver Star Story, Lemina in Eternal Blue.
 * The Four Gods: It is probably not a coincidence that the color of the four dragons of Althena are White, Red, Blue and Black.
 * Furo Scene: The sole reason why the Althena's Spring locations exist.
 * Gaiden Game: Lunar: Walking School / Magic School Lunar!.
 * Gameplay and Story Integration: A couple of subtle instances of this, involving Lucia in Eternal Blue. First and most obvious, when you first get her, she can solo the enemy encounters with ease. Once she's cursed by Zophar, she's helpless in combat and over the course of the game gets better as the party gains levels.
 * Additionally, despite being a pure spellcaster she doesn't have an MP display...and then you realize, oh yeah. She's basically a Physical God. She has infinite mana, or at least the source of her power is so fundamentally different from the other mortal party members that the game doesn't even bother tracking it.
 * Finally, you'll note that she's on AI control all the time (partially to avoid having the player abuse that infinite mana pool). As the story progresses, her AI will change. At first she focuses on using her massive AoE to blast everything in her path; after she's cursed, she does nothing but run away from enemies; when "forced" to travel with Hiro & co., she focuses on buffing herself and attacking; but after she has second thoughts about abandoning the party, she starts using her buffs and heals on everyone, but with a bias toward Hiro (even over herself).
 * Another one is in the epilogue sequence in Silver Star (at least in Harmony).
 * Genki Girl: Jessica and Lemina.
 * Genre Savvy: Despite all his noble intentions and hidden moral ambiguity, for most of the game the Magic Emperor acts like an utterly evil bastard, complete with Evil Laughs, Large Ham moments and a worrying tendency to go out of his way to mock the hero when arguably he should be busy conquering the world or something. Why? Apparently only because he knows that that's what villains are supposed to do! Or it's just that much fun.
 * Even more prominent in Eternal Blue:  is back, somehow, and is acting in an even more obvious, villainous way. He resumes mocking the heroes and laughing evilly like nothing ever happened.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Ever wondered how this series got away with a Teen rating with all those bathing scenes?
 * Not to mention some of the bromides, which range from "showing some skin" all the way to "voyeurism."
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: There are more that a few bosses for bosses sake in the Sega CD games, but many are cut from the remakes.
 * Subverted in the Sega CD version of Eternal Blue. The Phantom Sentry is a one time boss that appears out of nowhere, makes some cryptic statements, and disappears just as quickly, never to be seen again until the Playable Epilogue, in which he becomes very important.
 * Godiva Hair: Employed in Fan Service bathing scenes throughout the series.
 * Guest Star Party Member: Tempest, Laike and Ghaleon in Lunar 1. Gwyn in Lunar 2.
 * Healing Hands: Jessica and Ronfar's magic.
 * Heroic Mime: Alex comes pretty close to being one of these in Silver Star, but averts it with a few lines of dialogue here and there. Hiro in Eternal Blue averts it quite thoroughly.
 * Hilarious Outtakes: Working Designs always included some after the credits, even Lunar: The Silver Star, had one. Xseed produced some outtakes for Silver Star Harmony as well.
 * Ho Yay: It's sparse, though not absent. The Working Designs versions of Lunar 2 make a Running Gag of Ruby willfully misinterpreting Leo's attempts to get Hiro to join him as come-ons. Also, some have managed to interpret Dyne and Ghaleon's friendship as a bit more than friendship.
 * It's even less subtle in the Childhood's End manga, where states outright that "Ghaleon-sama's heart always held dear only one person... a human male..." In the same frame, there's a faded outline of Dyne. Combining that with the intro to Silver Star Harmony, which hints at Dyne/Althena as a Generation Xerox of Alex/Luna and shows that Gheleon is quite devoted to his goddess creates an OT 3.  still out of luck, though.
 * Hyperactive Sprite: The player characters constantly walk in place in most games in the series. The exceptions are Magic School, Dragon Song, and Silver Star Harmony.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Jean, for the first portion of the game, fights with dancer fans. Bladed dancer fans.
 * Dragon Song loves improbable weapons. Jian and Lucia use shoes and umbrellas, respectively.
 * Justified in Jian's case, since his fighting style is purely kick-based.
 * Informed Ability: Luna and Lucia's singing is supposed to be incredibly beautiful... but at best, it's decent.
 * Kikuko Inoue's singing as Luna in the Sega CD version was pretty convincing.
 * Interspecies Romance: Kyle and Jessica in the first game, Ronfar and Mauri in the second.
 * In the Childhood's End manga,  was involved in one, to the horror of humans and the Vile Tribe alike.
 * In the Hood: In Silver Star Story, Royce the Fortune Teller plays this straight, wearing one to give her a dark and mysterious appearance. On the other hand, Jessica averts it, wearing a hooded cape for the sake of a White Mage look. In Eternal Blue, Lemina initially wears a hood, to both hide her identity and play the part of a mysterious fortune teller... and the rest of the characters call her weird for it.
 * Jumped At the Call: Both Alex and Hiro.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: The Dragonmasters.
 * Leitmotif: Lunar: The Silver Star is not big on recurring musical themes, but Lunar 2 and the remakes sure are. Themes keep popping up in BGM throughout the games (and the general consensus is they're pretty darn good ones, too). Most notably, each game has a main theme which will show up in the introduction, the credits, and plenty of times in between. The Silver Star Story theme is Wings, and the Eternal Blue theme is Rondo of Light and Shadow. Many of the characters will get their own themes as well, which are listed on the Characters Page.
 * Left Hanging: Fairly deliberately done to a few of the wider "mythos" plot points, especially in Lunar 2. Some of these may be deliberate Sequel Hooks, but since Lunar 3 has been in Development Hell since 1996...
 * The in particular is popular target of fan speculation.  More than fifteen years fans have been waiting and we still don't have any payoff on this, not even in the extra material.
 * The closest answer the fans will ever get came from an FAQ from a Japanese artbook:
 * The closest answer the fans will ever get came from an FAQ from a Japanese artbook:

""Cower...in fear...as I demonstrate my TRUE...POWER!""
 * Magical Incantation: In the Childhood's End and Vheen Airship Story mangas, it's stated that humans need to use either incantations or prayers to use magic. When someone can cast magic without this, it's a dead giveaway that they're actually a member of the Vile Tribe.
 * Magical Society / Wizarding School: The Magic Guild of Vane, which serves as a school as well as the governing body of Vane. Also, in Eternal Blue, the new city of Neo-Vane, now with more Fantastic Racism against Muggles. Also, the titular magic school of Magic School.
 * Magitek: This trope pops up from time to time, and is most pronounced in the original Silver Star.
 * The Grindery, the Big Bad's giant Base on Wheels in Lunar 1, is depicted as an unholy union of magic and machinery.
 * There's nothing unholy about the Dragonship Destiny in Lunar 2. It's such a Cool Boat that NPCs everywhere admire it.
 * Melancholy Moon: With the Blue Star in the place of the moon, making it more like Melancholy Earth. The acclaimed Boat Scene in the Lunar 1 remakes is what this trope is all about, though.
 * Metal Slime: Cute, fuzzy creatures called Chiros, known in older translations as Ice Mongrels. They (along with their Palette Swaps, called Shiros/Ice Pups) yield above average experience in the Lunar 1 remakes, but in Eternal Blue and Eternal Blue Complete they are hard to encounter, hard to kill, and the XP is insanely good.
 * Mysterious Waif: Luna in the first game, Lucia in the second.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Vile Tribe.
 * In the Sega CD version of Lunar 2, the Corrupt Church is called Althena's Cult. This is not Foreshadowing, it's forebludgeoning. It gets toned down to Althena's Chosen in the remake.
 * Near Villain Victory: A staple of the series.
 * In Silver Star, the Magic Emperor's goal is control Althena's human incarnation. He succeeds, and takes over the world for about twenty minutes before the heroes come and kill him.
 * In the remakes his goal is to have there be a god, which he succeeds in until
 * Both versions of Eternal Blue, Zophar, despite being sealed away, pretty much rules the world. The Four Dragons are sealed away and his minions have pretty much created a Crapsack World. Once he gets released, Zophar successfully hijacks Althena's power, but the heroes stop him before he can create his "age of darkness".
 * Nice Hat / Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs: There's more characters with these than without. Hats, bandanas, hair ribbons, helmets, hoods...
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Nall, Alex's pet friend, who provides most of the game's jokes when interacting with townsfolk. Ruby in the second game, who does pretty much the same, but also breathes fire and has a crush on Hiro.
 * Oddball in the Series: Dragon Song attempted to update the series gameplay, but its plotting and characterization are rather sparse. This seems an odd path to take with a series that's known for old-school gameplay and well developed stories and characters.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Kyle claims to do this in Silver Star Story, but Ronfar in Eternal Blue is a better example. He uses this to try and duck out of helping Hiro, pretending to be a useless, Handsome Lech of a Gambler and not responding to the name 'Ronfar', up until he notices how serious Lucia's condition is.
 * Official Couple: Alex and Luna in the first game. Hiro and Lucia in the second.
 * With Beta Couples of Kyle and Jessica, Nash and Mia in the first as well (sort of). Ronfar and Mauri in the second.
 * One-Winged Angel: A veritable auto-include, but some games in the series play with this trope.
 * The Silver Star played it straight and gave the final boss a second, monstrous form, complete with epic Large Ham transformation.

""Zzzzz...grave...yard...zzz...duck... ...zzz...give me...the...bag...""
 * The Lunar 1 remakes...
 * The confrontation with the Big Bad in Lunar 2 is an ideal example of the trope, with three (or four?) stages, including Clipped-Wing Angel.
 * The Other Darrin: As a long-standing video game series, this happens in many directions.
 * The Japanese cast of Silver Star Story includes five or six other Marties, as none of the cast of The Silver Star returned. Meanwhile, all of the old English cast did!
 * Hiro was recast between North American versions of Lunar 2.
 * The entire English cast of Silver Star Harmony.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The baby ones look like winged cats. The grown ones are anything but reptile-like.
 * Overrated and Underleveled: Subverted to hell. When you get Ghaleon briefly, he's maxed out, can dish out more damage with his bare hands than Alex can with his current equipment, and Ghaleon is a magic user, so I need not explain more. Laike, is also maxed out, and his equipment, for the point of the game you briefly get him at, is even weaker than Ghaleon's, and he still hits harder than Alex until Alex does some level grinding. But wait, there's more, Laike can also attack FOUR times in one turn, and move four times in one turn (Alex can only either twice), and packs some abilities that can inflict a ton of damage, or raise his attack power up even MORE.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Played (ahem) straight by Kyle in the first remake, but subverted by Leo in the second remake.
 * Leo? Surely you mean Mystere! He knows not the "Leo" of whom you speak.
 * Mystere has his own Leitmotif for crying out loud. If the soundtrack was wrong, This Troper doesn't want to be right!
 * Two, actually, if you count White Mask Funk.
 * Pals with Jesus: And of course, Lucia.
 * Physical Goddess: Althena. Also Lucia, when her power isn't drained.
 * Also Zophar.
 * Playboy Bunny: There are bunny girl NPCs in both Silver Star Story and Eternal Blue. In the latter, there's even a martial arts dojo full of these, training in the art of Bunny Fist.
 * Portal Pool: The Springs of Transmission used used to enter Vane in Lunar 1 and Lunar 2. The entrance to the Goddess Tower in Lunar 2. The Silver Star had another one as the entrance to the Frontier.
 * The Power of Love: That's what it's all about!
 * Pretty in Mink: Fur trim is a favored costume element, especially in Lunar 1, justified in that the main characters come from a snowy village in the north. Luna sports a silver fur cape in more than one peice of early 90s promotional art. A few Lunar 2 characters sport fur trim, too.
 * The first game having the heroes deliberately wear modest, fur-covered winter clothing (to enforce the "northern feel", or cold setting) is a notable case of the dev team deliberately averting the Stripperiffic trope (at least for the heroes...). The fact that they were shooting for this was what makes it stick out.
 * Random Encounters: Played straight in the original games, but completely averted in the remakes.
 * Shout-Out: Many of the Working Designs jokes consist of Shout Outs of various kinds.
 * XSEED's translation of Silver Star Harmony has a Shout-Out to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in the form of Nall having a dream about getting a silk bag from a graveyard duck during the camping scene in the Lost Woods:


 * "Delays are temporary, mediocrity is forever." This line in Silver Star Story, uttered by Myght, is an allusion to Working Designs' frequent release schedule slips. Xseed kept it in Silver Star Harmony.
 * "Mystere" introduces himself with the line "Never give up! Never surrender!"
 * Xseed brought back Jennifer Stigile to perform the songs in Silver Star Harmony. 'Nuff said.
 * Smurfette Principle: Averted throughout the series. Which is fairly impressive, in light of the fact that the games were first released in the early 90s.
 * Silver Star had a respectable four-to-three ratio of lead characters, and that's only if you count Nall. This gets a tad diluted, though, considering one ends up as a damsel-in-distress for the majority of the game, and most of the Guest Star Party Members are male.
 * In Eternal Blue, on the other hand? If you count Ruby, there are actually more female lead characters than male. In fact, you spend the majority of the game with a party of four women and only two men!
 * Standard Status Effects: Nash and Jean have status-inflicting magic.
 * Status Buff: All characters with swords usually have a spell to boost their stats as well, while mages will usually have a spell to boost the stats of another character.
 * Summon Magic: The spells of the four dragons.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: Several in the form of the Dragonmaster's equipment, collected piece by piece.
 * That's No Moon: Inverted: yes it is! According to the Creation Myth of the setting, the Goddess Althena made Lunar habitable and populated it with people from the Blue Star, Lunar's omnipresent Weird Moon. All myths being true, the Blue Star isn't a moon, (the fact that it's called a star has to do with "star" being an acceptable equivalent for "planet" in Japanese,) but Lunar actually is.
 * Trauma Inn: Lunar was ahead of the curve on averting this trope. Every game has an alternative means of regaining health between missions - either NPC healers (Lunar 1, Magic School) or goddess statues (Lunar 2, all the remakes) located in towns.
 * Unusual Ears: Name a beastperson, any beastperson. Both of the main types are seen in their species.
 * Unreliable Narrator: A meta example. The changes between the Sega CD, PSX, GBA and PSP versions of the first game have many glaring differences in the storyline. There's no official word on which one is canon.
 * Updated Rerelease: Lots of 'em.
 * Lunar Silver Star Story Complete is a major overhaul of Lunar: The Silver Star.
 * Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete refines the scenarios of the original Lunar 2 and shifts cutscene placement around.
 * Magic School Lunar on Sega Saturn is a major expansion of Lunar: Walking School on Game Gear, with more characters, more magic, more chapters... more of pretty much everything. Japan only, though.
 * Lunar Legend for Game Boy Advance swaps in some plot points from the Japan-only novels and adds a collectible card element.
 * Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PSP builds on Silver Star Story a bit, including more Mythology Gags and inverted Continuity Nods. (For example, one person will mention that Ramus' shop will stay in business for centuries. It lasts for a millenia, as seen in Eternal Blue.)
 * Useless Useful Spell: Status effects in general.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Subverted with . Played straight with in the second game.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The first game practically wrote the book on the Shy Blue-Haired Girl and the White-Haired Pretty Boy. Green and pink are seen in other games.