I got a loan of this game from a friend of a friend back in 1999 or 2000 in exchange for my Final Fantasy Tactics. Now over 20 years later I beat the game using a walkthrough for a perfect playthrough. The only things I remembered were how amazing the game was, the significant post game content, Lucia, Ronfar and some about the main character. There was a satisfying sense of righting wrongs in each town and seeing how each place improved in the post game.

I got game over a few times at the first boss because he would go after grandpa. I do not recall having that trouble when I first played, but it was because the walkthrough had me put everyone in the back row. I fixed it by putting Hiro in the front so the boss only attacked him. I liked how enemies gave tells for what attack they were going to use, especially the bosses. I enjoyed using the walkthrough to plan out optimal strategies, equipment setups, and positioning. The walkthrough heavily relied on white dragon protect, but I never used it at all nor any other dragon powers. I never needed any silver light full mp restores though I did use plenty of basic mp restore items late game. I only occasionally used healing items. Lucia was the star of this game and I absolutely loved her and the way she was portrayed; her naivety and sweetness, the romance, and her character growth. I loved her mechanics as well and felt her being entirely AI controlled reinforced the themes of the game, not to mention being novel and extremely well done. She went from being overpowered, to useless, to selfish, to a valuable team member. I put her in the front line while she was selfish to get her to counterattack enemies, and later put her in the rear. She is one of the best characters ever and she strongly influenced one of my own characters; Goldenflower the reverse gender clone of my character in Baldur's Gate 2, made by Irenicus and his cloning experiments. Essentially only being born at the beginning of that game but having an adult body, she had the same kind of extreme naivety and wonder as Lucia.

I completely forgot about Ruby. She was another great use of the cute annoying mascot character, and I liked how she did damage instead of reviving like Nall in Lunar 1. She was even smart with her targeting, always going for the lowest hp and getting a surprising kill count. It was cool how she became significantly more powerful after awakening as an adult, and the same happened with Jean when she gave up ranged dancing to go full melee monk. These kind of changes over the course of a game really add to the engagement, immersion and quality. I ended at level 61 for everyone and having the best gear. Hiro went into the final solo battle with the spirit talisman and fiend ring to take less damage from each attack than his sword passively healed. He used the goddess and warrior crests for a huge attack boost. Ronfar had that talisman for the rest of the game, while Hiro had endurance and healing rings. Later I replaced the healing with the shield ring, which I assumed was better than a protection ring. During normal battles I had him use the goddess + gale crests for crazy 6 attacks per turn. I especially needed to conserve his mp for triple sword, though before that it was not as important. Poe sword on bosses and tough enemies, wind magic and area attacks occasionally. He was the most powerful character but not so far ahead of everyone as Alex in 1.

Ronfar had healing the protection rings until I got that spirit talisman post game. I also gave him the burning talisman to buff everyone's attack power. I kept and used the second weapon of the game, the ancient dagger, for the entire game because it gave a boost to speed. Ronfar used it for bosses until I got 2 chiro crests for that sweet always act first. Before that and also in normal battles, he used 2 shiro crests to be able to move across the entire battlefield to attack. But once I got that attack booster I left the chiros on at all times so he could buff everyone first thing. That was such a powerful combination that post game I was finishing most battles in a single turn. Sometimes I had him use the star dagger to get some mp from attacks, but he only cast spells on bosses. Full heal for Hiro because of that fiend ring, then regen, heals and revives as needed. Throw out anger dice when nothing else needed doing. I even gave him thunder magic early on. I took the goddess Crest off Hiro and paired it with a mind Crest for half mp heals outside battle.

Jean used the barrier ring because of her weak defenses, and either a healing or protection ring. I stopped using the healing and stardust rings post game because most battles were over before they came into effect, and the effects were too minor for bosses. She used 2 warrior crests for maximum attack power, though before that (and for the post game boss that was strong vs physical) I gave her thunder magic. 2 power crests was decent too for boosting all stats a little, including speed and attack. I mostly used normal attacks for regular battles and special attacks for bosses and some tougher fights. Her status dances were occasionally useful while she was still a dancer but I found them pointless once she learned those monk specials. I wanted to have Lemina use the half mp crest combo but she was too slow. So I had her use 2 chiro crests to go right after Ronfar and drop some heavy nukes. I was quite liberal with her spells and she used most of my mp items. All of her nukes found heavy use, and the attack and defense buffs. I wished her buffs could hit everyone at once. The magic resist buff sucked because it only affected a small area and seemed like she had to cast it every turn to keep it up. Her dispels were important for a few fights. For bosses I maxed out her wisdom with 2 mind crests and 2 gorgon dolls, though she often needed some kind of defense ring. She used the ancient dagger to boost her speed too, and the legendary lid a couple times. She used the thief staff for most of the game though I kept a full set of damage staves. Post game she used the sage staff because stealing never worked. Leo did the most damage per hit but his lower speed and number of attacks hurt his viability. He used 2 warrior crests and 2 protection rings, or magic/elemental defense as needed. His special attacks were great, especially the high damage self healing soul blade. His wisdom was too low to do much with his earth magic, but it was worth it for physical resist enemies.

This is one of the best jrpgs of all time, and certainly the best on the playstation. Phenomenal characters, story and voice acting, lovely setting, excellent pacing and mechanics. This is one of the most user friendly jrpgs with saving anywhere outside battle, great inventory, and good direction. Also has the name interesting npc dialogue as Lunar 1, where I wanted to revisit everyone to see what was new. Excellent music too. I especially love Lucia's theme, and the main theme. Pretty much the pinnacle of jrpgs.

9.5+/10

Just removed my review for this game because it's an unfair 3-star. I bought the "Complete Edition" when I was 14 or so with all my birthday money and it was my pride and joy. I LOVED all the extras it came with, and listened to the OST all the time. The problem? I thought the game was "too hard". I thought the same about FF8 (which I used a GameShark to beat), and Wild Arms (which I beat, and LOVED, but thought was hard), too. I desperately wanted to love these games as a teenager, but I grew up on Street Fighter, Zelda, and Mega Man, almost exclusively. We didn't have a ton of games, and that's just what we had. So RPGs were alien to me. I just wanted to attack and win, and I found every RPG difficult. When FF9 was released, it finally clicked for me, and I began enjoying them a lot more. But I never revisited Lunar 2. In my brain it was just "nah, that one was too hard."

Fast forward to 2021, my wife is pregnant and we're selling a ton of our stuff to make room for baby. I'm looking at Lunar 2 with some mildly fond memories of the cool instruction book and OST, but ultimately it's just a material thing. I don't feel sad for selling it. This thing goes for $150 on eBay, anyway, so I listed it. But I'm making images of all the discs and I might actually give it a shot via emulator and see if I can enjoy it as an adult. We'll see. Maybe one day I'll get to it. Either way, I plan on ripping the "Making Of" video from the bonus disc and uploading that to YouTube.