Magical School LUNAR! is a remake of LUNAR: Strolling School for the Game Gear. Strolling School, which came out in 1995, wasn’t too popular in Japan, but still was one of the noteworthy RPGs for that system. Although not following the storylines of The Silver Star and Eternal Blue (the other games in the series), it still had its own charm, and proved to be a good gaiden (side-story). Still, it was never released outside of Japan.
In 1997, Game Arts decided to remake Strolling School, and rerelease it for the Sega Saturn. Unlike the future remakes of the other two Lunar games, Strolling School had nearly EVERYTHING changed about it, except for the major plot and the characters. The battle and menu systems, for one, was totally reworked, and the new one became more ‘Lunar-like’, in a sense. New characters were added, the sub-plot was tweaked, all new music was composed (by Noriyuki Iwadare, the composer for all the Lunar games)... thus, Mahou Gakuen LUNAR! was born.
Mahou Gakuen (translated as either Magic or Magical School), although dimmed in some ways to the original, was a big improvement overall. Still, it wasn’t nearly as popular as those dang other two Lunars. Over in the domestic area of the world, Magic School very much has a love/hate relationship going. Many people can’t stand the game; they feel it was a waste of space and money. Yet there are others that love it to bits... myself included. Working Designs, the domestic translators of the other Lunar games, leaned more towards the ‘hate’ portion of the crowd. Therefore, they refused to bring it over here.
True, it’s not the kind of RPG everyone would like, but I feel it has an unique and very upbeat feel to it. I really do love it, although I can see why others wouldn’t like it. So what if nearly all the main characters are girls? That’s one of the things I like the MOST about it; IT’S NOT CLICHE.
My opinion aside, Magical School LUNAR! is a part of the Lunar series, like it or not. And it deserves to be.
