Lunar: Sanposuru Gakuen (1996). Play online

Summary

Lunar: Sanposuru Gakuen is a side‑story in the Lunar universe that takes place centuries before the events of Lunar: The Silver Star. While the main series launched on larger consoles, this title landed on the Game Gear and expands the world with familiar locations and creatures.

Gameplay follows a classic Japanese‑style RPG formula: you navigate a top‑down map, stumble into random monster encounters, and fight turn‑based battles from a first‑person perspective. Menus line the left edge of the screen, letting you manage items, magic, and character growth at any time. The game also uses the Gear’s battery‑backed save, offering three independent slots.

Although it never saw an official English release, a completed fan‑translation appeared in 2009, letting non‑Japanese speakers enjoy the experience. A year after its launch, the title was remade for the Sega Saturn as Mahō Gakuen Lunar!, preserving its charm while updating the visuals.

Storyline

Lunar: Walking School follows Ellie, a quiet farm girl, and her talkative best friend Lena as they leave the farming town of Burg to enroll in a newly founded floating magic school on the island of Ien. When they arrive the campus and the surrounding town are eerily empty, so the duo sets out to rally the scattered students—Senia the Beastwoman, scholarship‑bound Wing, and three mischievous boys Ant, Kule and Rick—into the town to restore order. Their quest is divided into twelve curtain‑marked chapters, each ending with a brief pause before the next scene. Along the way they confront magical creatures and the hostile Vile Tribe, whose second‑in‑command Barua covets Wing’s talent and whose leader Memphis worships a mysterious entity called “D.” The girls’ loyalty and curiosity drive the search for missing instructors while trying to keep the school alive.