http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/18/ga … t-11281227
One could have argued with some of his localizations, but one can’t claim he didn’t love the hobby or what he was doing.
Let us see how fast we learn more about these other titles Miami Law was not confirmed until it was almost out. Playing that one at the moment, have yet to run across any glaring Vicisms but I am enjoying my time with it. Certainly reads cleaner than the original Jake Hunter or Lux Pain.
I’m not a fan of Victor Ireland. Long story short: Vic is a bit paranoid and/or deflects the blame. The reason why he fails - or so it works in his mind - is because “the first party company” screwed him. First it was SEGA. Then it was Sony. I hear he isn’t so happy about Microsoft, so off to Nintendo he goes. Get over it Vic: IT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE. We suck it up and move on: Vic holds a grudge.
I’m not a fan of his translations either… he literally raped Lunar. A lot of background fluff material from the original, describing the history and culture of the Lunar world, was removed to insert real world cultural jokes. It’s like instead of describing how Shinra took over the world (as we all know thanks to the fluff, was an arms company that subverted the world governments, then changed its focus to become an energy monopoly and genetic researcher), FF7 decided to have villagers make Michael Jackson jokes. :roll:
Now I do recognize that if it wasn’t for Vic, there wouldn’t have even been a Lunar in English… so I suppose the price we paid the Devil was worth it… But it doesn’t change the fact, that the Devil screwed the virgin before we got her…
Meh… whatever… not like I want him to fail or personally hate him.
Yeah, that’s precisely why Working Designs had to close up shop. Ireland burned too many bridges (IIRC, he also angered some development studios he had been working with), and the bad reputation spread throughout the industry. I doubt it’s any coincidence that Gaijinworks is unable to land any notable contracts.
At any rate, Miami Law is a lousy game (not Gaijinworks’ fault though). On the DS, I’d rank it alongside titles like Unsolved Crimes and LifeSigns.
[quote=“Nargrakhan”]
I’m not a fan of his translations either… he literally raped Lunar. A lot of background fluff material from the original, describing the history and culture of the Lunar world, was removed to insert real world cultural jokes. quote]
I think that will be fixed considering the PSP remake looks to be very promising (it looks a hell of alot better than the GBA remake(shudders):
http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2009/ro … ssint.html
Also the english release is being handled by xseed
Hmmm… how many remakes of Lunar do we need? 
However when reading that interview…
Seems like they aren’t sure how they’re going to translate it. They might still drop the fluff.
It’s the fluff removal that made so many “mysteries” in Lunar Eternal Blue unanswered. Many US gamers used to ask, when will there be a Lunar 3? Well there didn’t need to be one… the story was fully explained in 2. For example Lucia was Althena’s twin goddess, and one hibernates while the other is active, to conserve power for the revival of the Blue Star (which is where humans originally came from). That was never addressed in the US version, so people were left asking what relationship did Lucia have with Althena… 
Never realized how much was being left out of the dialogues…
Always wished for a Lunar 3 prequel to the first to expand on the events that occured with Dyne, Ghaleon and the others.
There’s a canon manga called Lunar: Vheen Hikuusen Monogatari (???), which gives a lot of additional back story on Ghaleon and the other heroes of Althena. That’s probably the other problem behind the unanswered questions of Lunar… although Working Designs can’t be faulted for that. The manga and various art fanbooks explained stuff, that players in Japan would ask, therefore closing loopholes. There was another canon manga called Lunar: Yonenki no Owari, which covers what happened to Phacia and Xenobia. It takes place during the time frame Lucia left Hiro, and he was hunting for a way to the Blue Star. Finally there’s a canon Lunar 2 manga that retells certain points of the game’s story in greater detail and sometimes from Lucia’s point of view.
All are canon because Shigema Kei gave input and blessed them so (who is the creator of Lunar). Lots of interesting points are revealed in them. For example 3 years had passed before Hiro rejoined Lucia, after Zophar’s defeat. Ronfar and Mauri have a little girl during that window. Jean and Lemina - much to their horror - are still single.
As for the game itself… another major item omitted by WD: there’s some strong hints that Lucia and Althena aren’t goddesses per se… Lucia makes reference that her purpose is safeguard the Blue Star, and that she exists only for that purpose, which is why she had to leave Hiro despite her wishes. It’s also the reason why she was willing to obliterate the Silver Star if it wasn’t for her devotion to Hiro (Althena was guardian of the Silver Star; so Lucia wasn’t bound to protect it). Some additional hints here and there, seem to indicate that the two were created for their purposes. Putting two and two together, the pair may represent what humans USED to be like. Sadly Zophar’s origin was never really explained (in-game or manga extras), although is intimate knowledge of Lucia and Althena, indicates he predates them. Maybe he was their prototype that lead to humanity’s original fall. The whole artificial creation thing, also explains why Althena and Lucia were originally emotional blanks. If they created humans in their image, the sisters shouldn’t have been so ignorant about them, or themselves when interacting with humans.
Another item to note in the epilogue of Lunar 2: notice how the various Shrine Guardians back to the Blue Star, have a decidedly mechanical look to them. Not to mention the whole “fallen advanced civilization” imagery, which is all human-centric (beastmen and demons, even at their respective heights, had nothing like it).
While it sucks hardcore (although mostly for tremendous gameplay redesign), Lunar: Dragon Song was also written by Shigema Kei. From this entry, we learn humans arrived on the Silver Star as primitives. However until they arrived, there was no Althena or Four Dragons. We also learn Althena isn’t the most faithful woman in the cosmos: seems like she’s screwed every Dragon Master there’s been. :o
Lucia evidently ages if she’s not in that crystal stasis - another unexplained reason why she had to leave Hiro. Ultimately I suppose Hiro and Lucia are hibernating in that crystal together. We’re really not given an indication of how much time had passed between the moment Hiro awoke Lucia after reaching the Blue Star, and the credit scene when the pair see grass growing. Hiro shouldn’t complain though: not a bad way to spend eternity, naked and cramped together with Lucia. 
Just curious, but has anyone played the non US released Lunar Magic School (I think that’s what its name was)? All I know about it storywise is that its a prequel to Silver Star Story.
Yea… it takes place “a few centuries” before the original Lunar, but several centuries after Dragon Song: there is no Magic City of Vane in Dragon Song, because humans hadn’t built it yet.
Basically the story in Magic School is how several students of Vane, defeated the Vile Tribe. Althena had banished them to the Frontier about 200 years earlier, for committing some evil crime. Never mentioned exactly what it was. In any case: a faction of the Vile Tribe had rebuilt some of their strength, and attacked the humans and beastmen. Althena does her human reincarnation thing every 500 years, so they picked a moment when she was in hibernation (300 more years). Therefore there wasn’t a Dragon Master and the Four Dragons were supposed to be hibernating too. However it turns out the Blue Dragon was still roaming about, and he helped the school kids defeat the Vile Tribe.
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
There are some hints in the game however, that Ellie (the red head main heroine) is a reincarnation of Althena. Hard to tell if it’s serious. On the one hand, it would explain why the Blue Dragon aided them, there’s a statue of Althena that looks like Ellie in the game, and that she can fly without known spell casting. However it kinda doesn’t make sense given the Vile Tribe attacked specifically at a time Althena was between incarnations, and there was no Dragon Master (who would have been Win, given the whole romance thing). Also none of the teachers at Vane sense anything strange about Ellie… Luna and Lucia give off divine energy like a lighthouse for people who can sense such things.
Thanks for all the info!
There really is nothing like reading a game in the original language… [well especially with instances like Lunar]
Always had a facination with Lunar even if I only played the two PS1 english remakes of Lunar. Fond memories…
“Toward the Horizon” “Field to Tomorrow” “Determination” “Magic Emperor Ghaleon” listening to
Learning about the translation makes me wish for another remake of the PS1 games, this time with the correct dialogue.
[Or better yet make a 24 ep anime ;)]
Here is a couple cutscenes from the Japanese PC version of Lunar…
The Dark Goddess
Warm Embrace
Much better quality than the PS1 videos…
And that Lunar Magic School video… lol! Good stuff.
