is a 1994 role-playing video game developed by Game Arts in association with Studio Alex for the Sega CD as the sequel to Lunar: The Silver Star. The game was originally released in December 1994 in Japan, and later in North America in September 1995 by Working Designs. Eternal Blue expanded the story and gameplay of its predecessor, and made more use of the Sega CD's hardware, including more detailed graphics, longer, more elaborate animated cutscenes, and more extensive use of voice acting. Critics were mostly pleased with the title, giving particular merit to the game's English translation and further expansion of the role-playing game genre in CD format.
Set one thousand years after the events of The Silver Star, the game follows the adventure of Hiro, a young explorer and adventurer who meets Lucia, visitor from the far-away Blue Star, becoming entangled in her mission to stop Zophar, an evil, all-powerful being, from destroying the world. During their journey across the world of Lunar, Hiro and Lucia are joined by an ever-expanding cast of supporting characters, including some from its predecessor. Eternal Blue was remade in 1998 as Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, published by Kadokawa Shoten for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, with the latter version localized and published in North America by Working Designs. The PlayStation version was later re-released on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita in Japan in September 2015.
An enhanced version of Eternal Blue Complete is included alongside Silver Star Story Complete in the Lunar Remastered Collection, was released by GungHo Online Entertainment in April 2025 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Gameplay
Lunar: Eternal Blue is a traditional role-playing video game featuring two-dimensional character sprites and backgrounds. The game is presented from a top-down perspective with players moving the characters across numerous fantasy environments while completing story-based scenarios and battling enemy monsters. Basic game function remains similar to Lunar: The Silver Star, with story segments being presented as both on-screen text and animated cutscenes. Players advance the story by taking part in quests and interacting with non-player characters, which engages them in the story as well as moves the narrative forward.
Battles in Eternal Blue occur randomly in dungeons and hostile areas. Players defeat enemies using standard attacks or magic, with combat ending when all enemies are defeated. Characters must move close to their target or use ranged attacks. The battle system, enhanced from The Silver Star, allows pre-positioning of characters and features improved AI. Characters gain experience points from battles, leveling up to face stronger foes. After combat, "magic points" are awarded to enhance magical attacks and unlock new skills. Progress can be saved to the Sega CD's internal RAM or a separate RAM cartridge, requiring magic experience points in the North American version.
Plot Characters The characters of Lunar: Eternal Blue were designed by artist and Lunar veteran Toshiyuki Kubooka. Hiro – a young man and would-be explorer who is skilled with a sword and boomerangs Ruby – a pink, winged cat-like creature with a crush on Hiro who is a baby dragon like The Silver Star'''s Nall Gwyn – Hiro's adoptive grandfather, and an archaeologist Lucia – a mysterious and soft-spoken girl from the Blue Star who is skilled with magic and mostly naive of the world's customs Ronfar – a priest-turned-gambler with healing skills Lemina – money-grubbing heiress to the position of head of the world's highest magic guild Jean – a traveling dancer with a hidden past as a prisoner forced to use a deadly form of martial arts against innocent people Leo – captain of Althena's guard and servant of the goddess.
While the cast's primary personalities remained intact for the English release, some changes such as colorful language, jokes, and double entendres were added to their speech to make the game more comical.
Primary supporting characters include the servants of the Goddess Althena, the creator of Lunar thought to have vanished centuries ago who suddenly appeared in mortal form to lead her people. Borgan – an obese, self-absorbed magician with his eyes on the seat of power in the magic guild Lunn – a martial artist and Jean's former instructor Mauri – Leo's sister and Ronfar's love interest. Ghaleon (the primary villain killed in the previous game) - the current Dragonmaster, Althena's champion, and supposed protector of the world. His final end reveals that he regrets the evil he committed and does what he can to aid Hiro. Zophar – the game's principal villain, a long-dormant evil spirit who is attempting to destroy and recreate the world to his tastes. Although his voice is heard numerous times, he remains faceless until the final battle.
Story
On Lunar, Hiro and Ruby explore an ancient ruin and find a large gem called The Dragon's Eye. Removing it triggers a trap, causing the temple to collapse and monsters to chase them. On their return, they meet White Knight Leo, who warns of the "Destroyer," a prophesied being who will bring great calamity. Despite this, Hiro, Ruby, and Gwyn investigate a strange light at the Blue Spire tower. Using the Dragon's Eye, they enter the tower and meet Lucia, who needs to see goddess Althena to prevent disaster. The malevolent god-like being Zophar appears then drains Lucia's magic. The group seeks help from former-priest Ronfar to heal her, after which Lucia continues her quest alone.
Hiro, Ronfar, and Ruby follow Lucia and see her being abducted by Leo, who suspects her of being the Destroyer. They rescue her from Leo's ship, The Dragonship Destiny, and escape into a forest. There, they meet Jean, a dancer with a circus troupe, who helps them flee. Lucia struggles with human customs but begins to understand and appreciate humanity. Joined by Lemina, they journey across mountains and forests to reach Pentagulia, Althena's holy city.
Lucia demands to see Althena but dismisses the woman claiming to be her as an imposter. After a brief fight, the group is imprisoned. They are freed and joined by Leo, whose faith in the goddess has faltered. They decide to stop Ghaleon, the self-styled Dragonmaster supporting the false Althena, by restoring power to the four dragons. The heroes embark on a journey to free the dragons and confront Althena's strongest heroes, each facing and redeeming their troubled pasts.
The revived dragons, including Ruby, attack the false Althena's stronghold, where she transforms into a demonic monster. The group defeats her and learns the true Althena gave up her divinity for love. Lucia considers absorbing Althena's power to defeat Zophar but hesitates, fearing it could destroy all magic and Lunar. Zophar captures and drains Lucia's power; she uses her remaining magic to teleport Hiro and the others to safety. They train to fight Zophar, and Ghaleon appears, giving Hiro his sword and explaining his apparent villainy was a ruse to atone for past actions.
The group defeats Zophar, freeing Lucia and restoring peace. Lucia returns to the Blue Star, hoping to entrust it to humans based on her Lunar experience. Heartbroken by her departure, Hiro and the group later reunite to help him reach the Blue Star. Hiro succeeds, and he and Lucia look forward to a hopeful future for humanity.
DevelopmentLunar: Eternal Blue was developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex, with project director Yoichi Miyagi returning to oversee the production of the new game. According to scenario writer Kei Shigema, the game's concept of an oppressive god came from the image of Sun Wukong, hero of the Chinese epic Journey to the West, being unable to escape from the gigantic palm of the Buddha. Shigema stated that "it was a picture showing the arrogance of a god who is saying, 'In the end, you pathetic humans are in my hands.' The moment I understood that, I thought, 'Oh, I definitely want to do this,' it'll definitely match perfectly. So we used it just like that." Eternal Blue took three years and over US$2.5 million to produce, and contains twice as much dialogue as its precessor. The game's development team originally wanted the game to be set only a few years after The Silver Star, and would feature slightly older versions of the previous cast along with the new characters, yet discarded the idea when they thought the new cast would lose focus. Like its predecessor, the game contains animated interludes to help tell the game's story, which were developed in-house with Toshiyuki Kubooka serving as animation director. While The Silver Star contained only ten minutes of partially voiced animation, Eternal Blue features nearly fifty minutes of fully voiced video content.
The game's North American version was translated and published by Working Designs, who had previously produced the English release of The Silver Star. Headed by company president Victor Ireland, the game's script contains the same light humor of the original, with references to American pop culture, word play, and breaking of the fourth wall not seen in the Japanese version. Working closely with the staff at Game Arts, Working Designs implemented design and balance fixes into the American release, including altering the difficulty of some battles that were found to be "near impossible". Finding little risk in the ability to save the game anywhere, Ireland's team added a "cost" component to the game's save feature, where players would have to spend points earned after battles to record their progress, remarking that "[We] wanted to make the player think about where and when to save without making it too burdensome." In addition, Working Designs implemented the ability for the game to remember the last action selected by the player during combat, allowing them to use the same command the next round without having to manually select it. Like The Silver Star, the North American version of Eternal Blue featured an embossed instruction manual cover.
Audio The soundtrack for Lunar: Eternal Blue was composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, who had previously co-produced the music for Lunar: The Silver Star. The game utilizes studio-quality Red Book audio for one of the two vocal songs. (Both are CD tracks in the US version.) Every other piece of music was encoded into 16 kHz PCM files. Dialogue and certain ambient effects also used the PCM format. Most sound effects were generated through the Sega Genesis sound processor. Along with music director Isao Mizoguchi, Iwadare's goal was to produce music that contained "a high degree of originality" when compared to both the previous game and role-playing games in general. While the original game's music represented a number of styles and genres, Iwadare purposefully narrowed his range of composition to give the songs a unified feel. The English version contains an original title not found in the Japanese release, named the "Star Dragon Theme". It was used as the BGM for the Star Tower dungeon. The game's ending theme, "Eternal Blue ~Thoughts of Eternity~", also known in English as "Lucia's Theme", performed by Chisa Yokoyama in Japanese and Jennifer Stigile in English, is one of Iwadare's favorite compositions. An official soundtrack featuring selected tracks from the game was released in Japan on February 22, 1995, by Toshiba-EMI Records.
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