There are some games that just stick with you, you know?

Sure, most role-playing fans quickly name Final Fantasy or something like that. But there were quite a few lesser-known (or at least under-appreciated) RPGs during the original PlayStation days that have stuck with me.

One of those games is Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete . It originally released on the Saturn but as I never had that system, I first played this title on the PlayStation. Let me add that I really miss how Working Designs packaged the hell out of their games for western audiences. SSSC and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue were jam-packed with awesome goodness, like cloth maps, the full soundtracks, etc. By the way, the SSSC soundtrack was actually in my car for months . Yes, it was.

At any rate, it's really the story, characters and music that have embedded themselves in my brain. The gameplay was classic retro; hell, it was even retro then , as we had an old-school sprite-based presentation (with the exception of those great cut-scenes, of course). I loved that gameplay but it really wasn't anything particularly special. It was the other elements I can't forget, and let me add that such elements never seem to disappear. Things like music and story and atmosphere and characters are what matter and what will endure. Trust me on that.

The only downside of SSSC was that it was actually very short; I think the whole game could be finished in like 15 hours. Back on those days, that was absurdly short for an RPG. They fixed that with the sequel, though, as Lunar 2 took me 60 hours, I'm pretty sure. But I always want to go back to SSSC because of the indelible imprint it made. And that's that.