I'm glad the Lunar Remastered Collection scrubs the Austin Powers references, but I wish it went further in overhauling its wacky '90s localisation

There is something about the Lunar series—a classic JRPG duology by Game Arts, first released for Sega CD—that makes them an endless wellspring of nostalgia. Despite being archetypical fantasy adventures (or perhaps because of it), many ‘90s kids have been looking forward to the Lunar Remastered Collection, which landed on Steam and consoles this week. Unfortunately, the spectre of ‘90s localization still haunts the game, with the first wave of players confirming that aside from a few tweaks to some of its more outdated lines, the remaster uses the original Working Designs english script.

For those unfamiliar with Working Designs, they were one of the few major localization houses operating back in the day, and while they are solely responsible for bringing many a loved Japanese title to the wider world, their translations tended to be on the wackier side.

On top of generally dated phrasing, their writers couldn’t resist cramming questionable references (such as Austin Powers jokes, sure to make anyone feel older now) into their scripts at every opportunity. They also had an unfortunate habit of tinkering with the balance of games, making the US/EU versions significantly harder than their Japanese originals.

Thankfully, those balance changes don’t appear to be part of the package here, but the script is primarily the Working Designs one verbatim, delivered through a new dub that some players claim lacks the charm of the original voice performances, with one particularly astute comment waxing philosophical on it: “I was hoping to listen to John Truitt's Ghaleon one more time because he truly was perfect for the role. It's like eating a food you loved from your childhood but just one small thing is off, but sometimes that's all it takes to turn you away from finishing the meal”.

Dubbing aside (although this version does let you play with Japanese audio too), a few of the sketchier lines and references have reportedly been scrubbed, but players hoping for a total rewrite that’s closer to the original Japanese script (myself included) have been left disappointed. Those who considered Working Designs’ screwball writing a key part of the experience aren’t too happy with the edits either, so it seems to be a lose/lose situation.

While the translation may be a point of contention, fans seem happy with the technical side of the remaster outside of some frame-pacing bugs being reported in the Steam user reviews. The remaster offers both classic and remastered modes. The former is a close approximation of the original Sega-CD experience, with crusty video compression, 4:3 aspect ratio and all. Played with the english script, it’s not far off from the original console experience, for those unwilling or unable to emulate.

The remastered mode upgrades the play-space to 16:9 widescreen, featuring expanded and redrawn backdrops while still retaining the chunky, pixelated sprites. No weird upscale filters here, which is probably for the best given how messy the 2D art and textures could look in GungHo’s earlier Grandia HD remaster. The most impressive part of the package appears to be the improvements made to the game’s cutscenes, which—while still 4:3 ratio—are vastly cleaner and free of compression artifacts, doing justice to the game’s nostalgic old-school anime aesthetics.

It's an uneven overhaul, but still the prettiest way to experience a classic series in our new digital era. Whether that’s worth the $50/£45 price tag on Steam is up to you, but the remaster is out now.