Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is one of the most anticipated RPGs this year. Originally released for the Sega CD, the PlayStation update to the second game in the Lunar series will contain the same quirky humor that made the first game extremely entertaining to play through as well as included goodies such as a medallion, a soundtrack, or a hardcover instruction booklet. IGN recently had a chance to interview Working Designs president Victor Ireland, who had much to say about the development of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, the upcoming PC version of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, and the eventual release of Lunar 3. RPGamer is pleased to deliver some excerpts from the interview:

IGN: Though we wouldn't want to spoil the surprises that players are going to want to experience in the game, can you go over some of the plot differences between the remix and the original Sega CD version of Lunar 2?

Victor Ireland: Perhaps the biggest overall improvement is that there's more depth to a number of the characters ... Not that the LUNAR series has ever lacked for depth, but the new version really finishes out the characters very nicely. When you've finished, that adds up to a more satisfying experience emotionally.

IGN: Compared to the first Lunar, which seemed to have a rockier development process (more noise from the fan community, at least), Eternal Blue has gone pretty quietly. Were there any particular hurdles you had to clear, or did Silver Star prepare you for most of what you had to do with Eternal Blue?

Victor Ireland: By the time we did Eternal Blue, I think most fans realized that the Saturn was dead. Really, the outrage over us changing the platform from Saturn to Playstation caused the most lasting mumblings with LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete. But we definitely made the right decision, because the LUNAR fan base increased more than fourfold and sales are on par with or have eclipsed Japan.

As for technical challenges, yes, there were new ones on Eternal Blue. The biggest were memory-related. Memory in LUNAR 2 was even tighter than the first, and we still had a large list of improvements we wanted to make, so much of the original code had to be optimized to make room for the new stuff. There were also problems with missing or corrupted video source data for the animations, but we managed to get them all solved. :)

The full interview is located here. Be sure to keep an eye out on RPGamer for any updates on Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, which should arrive for PlayStation sometime this month.