Thought it would be fun to do a series of articles discussing some of our major inspirations from the past that we’re keeping in mind as we create Cosmic Star Heroine. And what better game to kick off the series than with my all-time favorite 16-bit RPG, Lunar: Eternal Blue!
Much of Lunar: EB’s appeal was its status as one of the first CD-based JRPGs (and one that came out a good 2-3 years before Final Fantasy 7 really wowed people with technology). Frequent anime-style cutscenes, voiced dialogue in key scenes, and a stunning soundtrack (which remains one of my favorites) were some of the highlights of this new CD-based world. The PS1 version of the game is probably better than the Sega CD version overall and well worth playing even now – it’s not the huge upgrade that Lunar: Silver Star Story received but on the other hand, the original game didn’t need it – but you miss out on just how revolutionary the game was at the time if you didn’t play it soon after it originally came out.
But what really struck me with Lunar: Eternal Blue was its characters. Lunar: Eternal Blue marked a major milestone in my life as an fan of RPGs – it made me realize just how badly the writing & characters in other RPGs were at the time. Yes, Earthbound had some fun dialogue (although none of the characters were well developed) and the SNES Final Fantasy games had some entertaining character archetypes, but compared to the competition, Lunar: Eternal Blue blew everything else away. A good translation (out-of-place pop culture jokes aside) and characters that actually had a voice really helped but I think the key is all the incidental dialogue they threw into the game. Not only would characters talk to each other in major story scenes (which was rare enough in and of itself back then) but you’d talk to a random person in some town and it might trigger a big discussion from some of your party members that would help to show off their personalities.
So how is Lunar: EB likely to influence us while developing Cosmic Star Heroine?
Emphasis on fun, colorful cast of characters.
Focus on dialogue quality.
Try to somewhat separate the drama & the comedy aspects of the game so that they don’t interfere with each other (In Lunar: EB, most of the comedy was in the incidental stuff while the main plot was usually serious).
Make the world feel like it has a history (but unlike many Western RPGs, don’t bore the player by spelling out that history in huge tracts of text).
Awesome soundtrack (you can already hear some Lunar: EB inspired songs in some of our previous games like in the final boss battle theme in Precipice of Darkness 4).
And if we think we can pull it off on our budget & schedule, maybe some cool Sega CD-style animated cutscenes for key story moments. 🙂
Earthbound’s formula on dialogue is hardly applyable for every RPG, but one aspect of the game that people don’t copy enought is the visible enemies running away from your characters when you are overleveled. Visible, avoidable enemies are good, but some of them actually trying avoiding you? It’s perfect.
Earthbound’s formula on dialogue is hardly applyable for every RPG, but one aspect of the that people don’t copy enought is the visible enemies running away from your characters when you are overleveled. Visible, avoidable enemies are good, but some of them actually trying avoiding you? It’s perfect.
Don’t forget the obligatory hillbilly town. I played both the original Lunars when they first came out and those hillbilly towns just blew me away. They were just so funny. I also love characters who do weird things when you talk to them, just because. Few examples are some of the hillbilly’s, like in part 2 the one who falls off the bridge, and another example are the dancers in Final Fantasy 4. Just finding a random bit of action like that makes the game world more enjoyable.
Exposition is a necessity. It’s only skipped over if done awfully wrong.
Some good examples include townsfolk that gradually unearth the backstory of the town and world through short, concise dialogue; occasional monologue or dialogue exposition from protagonist or party (like on entry to a new location that is important lorewise); and finding BOOKS within the world, in a futuristic setting it could be some sort of historical database or what have you, that can both detail what fiction writing is like in the world you’re creating and what history occurred before the game begins.
The best way to do it is gradually, and naturally, through steps the player would actually take in the game. Rewarding people who explore everything with a bit more lore is a great way to do this. The absolute worst is long, overdone intro cutscenes that set up the entire political climate of the game world and then expect you to start caring about random characters (Generation of Chaos is really bad about this).
Make sure you have a button that skips every cutscene. As in, instantly gets to the end and not fast-forwards. This really makes a game much more replayable because you don’t have to sit there for 15 minutes and press through everything – especially if you are making a second run immediately after the first one, just at a higher level.
Exposition is a hard thing to get right in my mind. Too much and people lose interest, and just start skipping it, too little and you don’t feel connected to the world.
I suppose a player’s connection to the game world’s history should follow the characters they follow. Not as in use the characters to dump tons of text on the player, but rather as things become relevant to the characters, expose only what’s needed to get whatever point across. But that’s just a “shot from the hip” thought on doing better exposition.
I hate exposition. Diegetic overkill is the worst.