Bring! Back! Terrible! Parties!
The first RPG I played to completion was Final Fantasy. However, I had read its strategy guide a billion times before I ever shoved that cartridge into my NES, so I can say confidently that I did not choose my opening party. Nintendo Power chose my party for me. But on subsequent playthroughs of Final Fantasy, I have exercised my right to vote on party configurations, and chosen everything from a team of three white mages and a karate man, to the indestructible all-fighters configuration. And, give or take a solo-thief run, it has been proven by various Final Fantasy scholars much more perseverant than I that you can conquer Chaos with practically any allocation of Light Warriors. Final Fantasy has party arrangements aplenty for picky players.
So what would be the Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Light Warrior build? Fighter, fighter, white mage, black mage, black mage. Hey… doesn’t that have obvious room for improvement? Throw a thief or black belt in there? Why do we need two black mages? Why two fighters? If this is going to be our endgame party, can it be a little… better?
No. And, in fact, over the course of the game, it gets worse.
Last week, we scaled a tower with two sword guys working in tandem. This week, an evil songstress is belting out some hits that only impact women, so Jessica and Mia are out of the party for a dungeon while we pick up a ranger. After that, we go back to our normal five for five damned seconds, and then our secondary black mage hits the bricks. We must venture through the whole dark side of the moon to get our boy back, and then (next week) it is already time for the final dungeon. Can we have a stable party for longer than a TikTok, please!?
No. Yes, I know I already said that, but no again. You are not getting it: it is not about one stable party that is optimized. It is about different challenges with different configurations, and learning why you use certain characters because they are not there. We lost our healer for a full dungeon this week! That stings every time a Nipple Twister bites off our health points. We fired Nash for two dungeons, and that meant we had to carefully ration Mia’s magic points in his absence. And when we finally get the gang back together? Spoilers for next week, but we are going to wreck up Ghaleon’s dungeon du jour. We are at our best with our not-optimized party!
Sure, they could give us something a little more balanced, but that is not Lunar. This is patently not one of its RPG descendants that will have super bosses or 100 floor dungeons or any of those “bonus” party challenges. This is a world (satellite) with one hidden bathhouse, and that’s it. The challenge is that you will never be able to pick an optimized party, and you must eternally work with what you have available. There is no best choice here, just whatever you happen to have on hand. Work with it, figure it out, and enjoy the challenge that comes with new problems.
You’ve got a party full of pidgeys and pikachus. Now puzzle out how to beat the rock gym. You’ll have fun with it. It’s what we did in the old days.
Let’s Play Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Night 6
July 15, 2025
Random Notes:
- We had a few weeks off from Lunar, but now we are back on the moon with fanboymaster, BEAT, Morning Song, Chromes, and Cassandralyn.
- We are off to a great start with the Nipple Yankers and the Hell Raisers of the Black Dragon Cave.
- BEAT apparently cannot remember what happened a week back. It was the Smash/Sunshine stream, if you are curious.
- “You know he’s a villain because he’s a landlord.”
- Alex is a Dragon Master! And we all rush to make the same magical girl joke!
We perform a quick world tour back to Ramus to score the Rememberizer. Hey, remember when that meant you would have to change discs?- We stopped by the optional bath dungeon as the one piece of Lunar optional content, and then it is off to get betrayed by a balloon.
- Caliscrub joins as we fly to the frontier, hosebag.
- “A drinking problem is just living in medieval society.”
- “That means Super Mario Sunshine had Dragula…” “It did! It was the theme to Noki Bay, I believe.”
- Let’s talk about isekais! And My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! You know, the only isekai that is any good.
- Caithness snuck in here while we were tromping through the mines of the moon.
- As we enter Ruid, it is confirmed that Lunar believes in no gods or masters.
- I have been informed that I do not need to rewatch Austin Powers. I will take this advice.
- Nash is a giant chicken.
- BEAT calling it now: the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie will include a random System of a Down song.
- While the Grindery grinds away, BEAT informs us that he is, apparently, all the kinds of male.
- This stream was right before Donkey Kong Bananza released, so we all make wild predictions of future Donkey Kong times as we close out for the night.
Next phase on Lunar: We all fall down.
