As a devoted fan of the role-playing game genre as well as the Lunar games, you can imagine my delight in finding the series make a jump to an all-new platform like the Nintendo DS.  Having been seen as a Sega CD game, two PSOne games and even a pretty good Game Boy Advance portable game, it’s great to see the Lunar franchise make its return on a system with a touch screen.  Lunar: Dragon Song for the Nintendo DS has innovative written all over it but somehow it just doesn’t do our favorite fantasy series right.

The world of Lunar is an interesting one.  For one thing, it’s a world that is shared with beings known as Beast-men (humanoid creatures that are half beast) and Humans.  For years these two races co-exist, although the relationship between the two isn’t exactly neighborly.  Dragon Song tells the tale of a young man named Jian and his female companion Lucia who just happened to be couriers for Gad’s Express in the town of Port Searis.  One day both Lucia and Jian accept to take a package to the village of Perit that isn’t far from home when they run into some problems that lead into a grand adventure that has Humans and Beast-Men banding together to fight an evil that threatens the land.  For Lunar fans, this is a story that takes place several hundred years before the events of Lunar: Silver Star.

Like past games each character has his or her own unique skill.  Lucia uses an umbrella as her weapon of choice and is great at casting a useful healing spell while Jian, master of standing on his head, has a mean high kick and later comes to learn the art of Black Magic.  Joining them is another Human named Flora who is great with a bow and can cast Althena Magic.  Along for the ride are Beast-Men, such as Rufus (a swordsman) and the spunky Gabryel.

You begin the adventure as Jian who gives you an idea of how gamers navigate through the game’s environments.  Traveling is simply a question of pointing where in a small map you want to go and this also applies to areas within a town.  For example, if you want to go to the restaurant in Port Searis, all you have to do is point on it on the touch screen and an icon that represents your character goes there.  Once there you can explore to your heart’s content and talk to anybody you want.  Unfortunately the characters move sluggishly along the area something that will become frustrating when you’re exploring areas outside towns.

The lower touch screen is used in this game, whether it's to touch the icons to initiate a conversation or to select a certain spell during battle (more on that a bit later).  There are quests you can pick when you’re in the Gad’s Express office mainly to earn money, items and, of course, leveling up characters.  Moving throughout the environments, whether it’s a forest area, dungeon or field you’ll spot an enemy and you can choose to move away in order to avoid a confrontation.  Beware, though, somehow that game slows down to a crawl when you spot an enemy so you’ll make an escape slowly and sluggishly.

This brings us to battle, an event that is both an interesting turn-based battle and something of an annoyance.  First of all you can enter a battle picking from Virtue Mode or Combat Mode.  Virtue Mode, selected by touching Jian’s portrait, earns you Althena Conduct points to level up your character if you‘re victorious.  Combat Mode, on the other hand, earns you items or money when you win the fight.  Depending on your priorities you can opt for gaining better abilities or strengthening your characters or finding important items such as Battle Cards used as summon monsters.

The bad news is that battles happen way too often and are often lengthy affairs that will try the patience of the more impatient gamer.  Sure you can speed up the battles with the push of a button but as far as turn-based battles are concerned this one isn’t fulfilling.  There are a nice amount of spells to learn and use but the many annoyances (like your weapons breaking or getting stolen) will make you shake your head.

Graphically speaking Dragon Song looks like a really great GBA game and that’s not a bad thing really but then again this is the Nintendo DS … it can do better than this.  Still there’s some really great backgrounds and many of the locales you’ll encounter are beautifully detailed.  The characters look pretty good in battle and the effects in particular really stand out.  There are no cut scenes though and that’s quite a let down.

At least some of the original games’ soundtrack is intact and it’s not bad at all.  Then again I’ll be happy never to hear the battle theme ever again.  Not only is it repetitive but it doesn’t seem to give the battles that tense feel.  There’s some ambient sound, though, and it’s nicely detailed.  The sound effects are pretty repetitive as well but not bad at all.

Lunar: Dragon Song might not be the best game in the series and its flaws will wear any RPG fan down but if you’re willing to look past these things that game will draw you in enough to see it to the end.  As a fan of the series I was enthralled by its several shining moments of enjoyable RPG goodness but then quickly disappointed by its weaknesses.  Maybe we will see another Lunar game on the DS that will remedy its bad spots so until then this fan will be waiting to embrace it with open arms. 

Gameplay: 6.5
The DS touch screen is used sparsely and there’s some Ok use of the microphone but apart from that this isn’t exactly innovative use of the handheld.  The battles are a bit daunting at times, although there’s some good summons and enough spells at your disposal.  Your characters move like drunken sailors while they explore.  The game is surprisingly lengthy in a good way.

Graphics: 6.9
The visuals are not Nintendo DS-like but that’s not a bad thing since the environments are colorful and nicely detailed.  There are few animations and the gorgeous cut scenes from the console versions is completely missing.  At least the effects are pretty good.

Sound: 6.2
The soundtrack is pure Lunar and it’s also lovely at times - with the exception of the battle theme music.  There’s some good sound effects and background noises such as birds chirping and the sounds of the great outdoors.  There’s no voice work whatsoever and that’s a bummer.

Difficulty: Medium
Battles will keep the game running pretty long because they’re pretty challenging.  The bigger monsters, naturally, pose a much bigger threat and bringing them down isn’t easy.

Concept: 6.5
There’s a pretty great story here and you’ll be exploring some pretty neat places.  There’s plenty of missions and quests to take so this game is pretty lengthy.  You can collect Battle Cards for your character to use and even trade or share some with a friend using the wireless multi-card play.  There’s even some multiplayer battles to fight.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The Coliseum is a multiplayer mode you can play wirelessly with a friend with his or her own copy of the game.  It’s a pretty fun game once you get the gist of its gameplay mechanics.

Overall: 6.2
A good attempt that fails in various aspects, Lunar: Dragon Song is not a bad RPG but it could have been a lot better than this.  For those willing to put up with its snail’s pace and battles that seem to drag on for a long time, it’s a worthwhile adventure with a lot of heart and a good story.  Here’s hoping the next time will be better.