Showing posts with label Lunar. The Silver Star for Sega CD print ad (1994). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lunar. The Silver Star for Sega CD print ad (1994). Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Lunar. The Silver Star for Sega CD (1994)

Lunar. The Silver Star for Sega CD advertisement

Original ad published in the January 1994 of EGM (no. 54)
Press to view or download image in higher resolution. 

Historical Background and Graphical Analysis


American owners of the Sega CD swear by their copy of Lunar. The Silver Star (1993). This Role-Playing Game was released by Game Arts a full 18 months in Japan before it hit US shores. It would become the second-most popular game for Sega's optical system and would spawn a plethora of sequels for the following two decades. An absolute masterpiece.

Lunar is as Japanese as you can possibly hope for. North American gamers had timidly grasped the concepts and the essence of the genre with Dragon Warrior (1986) (Dragon Quest until 2005 in the US) and Final Fantasy (1987) on the NES, and the original Phantasy Star (1987) for the Sega Master System. But the newer 16-bit systems were yet to capitalise on the path opened up by their predecessors. Final Fantasy II, The Secret of Mana, primarilyand some other JRPGs had achieved success on the SNES in the early 90s, but Sega CD owners had been left dry.

Enter Lunar. Although I never owned the game, the brother of one of my close friends would spends days inside his room playing Lunar, only to crawl out from time to time to gush about the awesomeness of the title. And by all accounts, it is a fantastic game that owes much of its success to the team at Working Designs that achieved a wonderful English localisation. Every RPG fanatic knows the story is the most important part of the game. Working Designs understood that quite well and delivered big time. Today, there's a very strong ciber community surrounding the game.





And how about the graphical components of the print ad? Almost identical to the actual box-art. Good choice. It's a Japanese-inspired advertisement that masterfully conveys the most important elements of the game: a varied cast of memorable characters, actual game-screens and beautiful artwork. 



Lunar The Silver Star for Sega CD print ad copy



Sega-CD owners asked. We listened. Now. it's here...

Lunar. The Silver Star


  • True Role-Playing!
  • CD Sounds!!
  • Hot Animations!
Working Designs. 
Our games go to 11!