Lunar is a role-playing video game series made by Game Arts and Studio Alex. The story happens on the moon called "Lunar," which circles a planet named "The Blue Star" that cannot support life. The first two games in the series, Lunar: The Silver Star (1992) and Lunar: Eternal Blue (1994), were released for the Sega CD and form the basis of the series.

Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue were praised by critics and sold well, becoming the two best-selling games on that platform in Japan. Over the years, remakes of the original games have been released on many platforms, including Silver Star Story Complete, Eternal Blue Complete, Lunar Legend, Silver Star Harmony, and Remastered Collection. Three spin-off games have also been released.

Plot

The Lunar stories take place on a livable moon named Lunar, also called "The Silver Star," which orbits a planet known as "The Blue Star." Long ago, the Blue Star was taken over by evil from a dark god named Zophar. His evil made people's hearts bad, turning some into monsters who followed him. The survivors begged for help from Althena, the planet's patron-deity. She fought Zophar in a major battle and stopped him by using her power to trap him in another dimension. This action nearly destroyed all life on the planet.

Because Althena could not fix the planet for many thousands of years, she changed the moon into a world similar to Earth and moved the survivors there. These survivors included humans, a group of "beast-men," and a group of elf-like beings who could use magic. The only elf-like being shown in Lunar is Ghaleon, who is part of the Vile Tribe in "Lunar: Vane Hikuusen Monogatari." However, this group is called a "fourth race" here, even though only three races are described. A fourth group, later known as "The Vile Tribe," rejected Althena's teachings. Althena had to send them to a place on Lunar called "The Frontier," a dry wasteland where her magic could not reach. They became enemies of Althena and her followers for thousands of years.

To protect Lunar, Althena created four intelligent dragons—a white one, a red one, a blue one, and a black one—each holding part of her divine power. Only four dragons exist at any time, though they are replaced by younger ones over time. When young, these dragons look like talking, winged cats until they take the power of their predecessor and grow into adults. The dragons mostly sleep underground until they are needed.

Althena also decided that a champion called The Dragonmaster would lead Lunar's heroes. This person would be anyone who reached the hidden homes of the four dragons and passed their difficult tests. Many Dragonmasters have existed over the centuries, and many people on Lunar have tried to earn this title. The people of Lunar became very loyal to Althena, though many remember Lunar's origins as an old legend. The various Lunar games and manga describe different events in Lunar's history.

Games

• Lunar: The Silver Star was first released on June 26, 1992, in Japan for the Sega CD. The game tells the story of Alex, a young boy from a small town who wants to become a hero like his idol, Dragonmaster Dyne. The game uses the CD-ROM format to include high-quality music, moving video clips, and voice acting. Working Designs translated the game into English, and it was released in North America in December 1993. The game was well received and sold many copies, becoming the best-selling title on the platform in Japan and the second best-selling overall.

• Lunar: Eternal Blue was first released on December 22, 1994, in Japan for the Sega CD. Set a thousand years after the first game, it follows Hiro, a young adventurer, and Lucia, a girl from the distant planet Blue Star, as they work to stop a powerful evil being from destroying the world. Compared to the first game, Eternal Blue has twice as much text and over four times as much original animation. Working Designs translated the game into English again, and it was released in North America in September 1995. While the game was well received, it sold fewer copies than The Silver Star, partly because it was released later in the platform’s lifespan.

• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete was first released on October 25, 1996, in Japan for the Sega Saturn. A version with better video quality using a Video CD card add-on was released a year later. This game is a remake of The Silver Star with an expanded story, improved graphics, and better sound. The original Sega CD version had about ten minutes of animation, but the remake includes fifty minutes of new, fully animated scenes by Studio Gonzo. The game was later released for the PlayStation on May 28, 1998, with an English version by Working Designs coming a year later. A Windows version was released for Japanese and Korean markets, but a North American release was canceled. The game received mostly positive reviews. Versions for iOS and Android were released in 2012 and 2024, respectively, as Lunar: Silver Star Story Touch.

• Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete was first released on July 23, 1998, in Japan for the Sega Saturn. This game is a remake of Eternal Blue with an expanded story, improved graphics, and better sound, similar to Silver Star Story Complete. A PlayStation version followed on May 27, 1999, with an English version by Working Designs released a year later, on December 15, 2000. The game received mostly positive reviews.

• Lunar Legend was first released on April 12, 2002, in Japan for the Game Boy Advance. This game is a remake of The Silver Star, based largely on Silver Star Story Complete, with some changes. Ubisoft translated the game into English, and it was released in North America on December 10, 2002. Due to the limitations of the cartridge format, features like voice acting and full-motion video were not included. Instead, the game used real-time cutscenes with detailed character images to tell the story. Still images from Silver Star Story Complete’s cutscenes were used in certain parts of the game to create a more cinematic feel. The game received mostly positive reviews.

• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony was first released on November 12, 2009, in Japan for the PlayStation Portable. This game is a remake of The Silver Star. It includes the animated cutscenes from Silver Star Story Complete, along with a new playable prologue, a more talkative main character, a remixed soundtrack, and newly recorded voice acting and English translation by Xseed Games. The game received mostly positive reviews.

• Lunar Remastered Collection was released worldwide on April 18, 2025, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. This collection includes remastered versions of Silver Star Story Complete and Eternal Blue Complete, with widescreen support, improved visuals, additional language options, and quality-of-life features. It was developed by Ashibi Co. and published by GungHo Online Entertainment.

• Lunar: Sanposuru Gakuen was first released on January 12, 1996, in Japan for the Game Gear. The game follows Ellie and her friend Lena as they leave their quiet town of Burg to attend a new magic school on the island of Ien. A remake titled Mahō Gakuen Lunar! was released a year later for the Sega Saturn. Neither version has an official English release, though a fan-made translation patch for the Game Gear version was released in 2009.

• All the Lunar: Hyper Applications was first released in July 1999, in Japan for Windows. Unlike a traditional game, this CD-ROM includes software for Windows-based systems, along with wallpapers, art galleries, and a digital daifugō card game featuring characters from Silver Star Story and Eternal Blue.

• Lunar: Dragon Song, known in Japan and Europe as Lunar Genesis, was first released on August 25, 2005, in Japan for the Nintendo DS. Set a thousand years before the events of The Silver Star, the game follows Jian Campbell, a young delivery boy and adventurer, as he works to save the world from the rising threat of the Vile Tribe. This was the first game in the series to be released in Europe. The game received mixed reviews.

Reception

The Lunar series has led to the creation of many other works, including a comic book series, two art books, and books based on the games The Silver Star, Magic School Lunar!, and Eternal Blue. The console versions of the games have generally been well received. The two PlayStation versions are often considered among the best games available for that system. The original two games and their remakes have received high scores, averaging between 82% and 91%. Eternal Blue is widely considered the best-reviewed game ever made for the Sega CD platform. However, Lunar Dragon Song received poor reviews, with an average score of 58% on GameRankings.

The Lunar series has sold more than one million copies, making it one of the best-selling Japanese role-playing game franchises.

Total sales of the Lunar franchise: 1,052,011 copies:

• Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD): 100,000 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar: Eternal Blue (Sega CD): 89,480 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Sega Saturn): 200,035 copies sold in Japan (original release); 8,346 copies sold in Japan (MPEG Version)
• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (Sega Saturn): 90,837 copies sold in Japan
• Mahō Gakuen Lunar! (Sega Saturn): 15,999 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PlayStation): 44,802 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PlayStation): 53,983 copies sold in Japan
• PlayStation versions: 393,000 copies sold in the United States
• Lunar Legend (Game Boy Advance): 13,506 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar Genesis (Nintendo DS): 24,673 copies sold in Japan
• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP): 17,350 copies sold in Japan

Abandoned sequel

After the release of improved versions of the games Lunar: Silver Star Story and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, people have often discussed the possibility of a game called Lunar 3. In a 1998 interview, Victor Ireland, president of Working Designs, said that Lunar 3 was being planned or designed. However, neither Game Arts nor Entertainment Software Publishing, the Japanese company that published the Lunar series, ever officially announced the game. At the time, Ireland, during a disagreement with Sega of America, often mentioned in interviews that Working Designs had the rights to publish the Lunar games in the United States. He said the company would only release the games on consoles that were not made by Sega. Ireland also threatened to move the games to competing consoles if they were released only on Sega consoles in Japan.