Spriggan: Lunar Verse

***Spriggan: Lunar Verse*** (スプリガンルナヴァース,, *Supurigan runavu~āsu*?) is an action adventure video game based on the Spriggan manga, developed by From Liquid Mirror Software, and published by From Software. It was released in June 1999 for the Playstation console.

Taking place after the events of the original manga, the story centered on Tatsuki Otsuki, a high school student recruited to become a Spriggan agent for the ARCAM Corporation. Tatsuki would eventually see himself to be involved in a war involving the legacy of ancient civilizations. Ultimately, Tatuski must prove his worth as a candidate for Spriggan and protect their heritage from various adversary forces.

Despite being set in the same universe as the manga, *Lunar Verse* established its own setting and characters not presented in the manga. However, the overall scenario remains the same, and several characters from the original manga made an appearance in this game.

## Gameplay

*Spriggan: Lunar Verse* is a third person three-dimensional action game, in which the player takes control of Tatsuki Otsuki, a newly recruited ARCAM operative who utilizes arrays of fighting movesets, firearms, and knives to fight against variety of enemies while exploring the 3D environmental stages. The game contains multitude of weapons and items that could be used to assist Tatsuki throughout the duration of different missions.

### Combat

The combat system plays a significant role for the game's action identity. The default controls setting uses the left analog stick or D-pad to move and look around horizontally, circle button to perform a light attack, triangle button to perform a strong attack, X button to jump, square button to change weapons, walk, or reset the camera behind the player, the L1 and R1 buttons to strafe horizontally, and L2 and R2 buttons to look around vertically. Therefore, Tatsuki is able to attack, overcome occasional platforming obstacles, and dodge with minimal hassle.

*Lunar Verse* uses a primitive health model that is common before the health regeneration feature became popular. Tatsuki begins the game with 37 hit points, but is able to recover the lost ones through the use of limited quantity of Rations. He will die if his H.P. reaches zero, falling into an instant-death obstacle, or being crush to death. Below his hit points is the energy points that is used when performing special attacks mainly from the game's own AM suits.

The game contains an abundance of different types of weapons for the player to select from. Projectile firearms, ranging from pistols to rocket launchers, allows Tatsuki to attack enemies from range. They contain limited amount of bullets or rockets to be used upon, but can be replenished through being picked up from stages and using them in the item menu. On the other hand, Tatuski is also eligible to use melee-based type weapons, knives, to deal an increased damage against hostile forces within a closing distance.

### Ability Points

In a typical action-adventure genre, Tatsuki starts out weak at the beginning of the game, but is able to improve his stats through obtaining ability points (crystal-like objects) hidden through the stages and clearing missions with the best possible results. The player could then spend the remaining ability points through five different core attributes that expands Tatsuki's strength in the STATUS menu.

* CONCENTRATION: Affects the amount of time it takes for Tatsuki to fill his psyche gauge.

* POWER: Determines the amount of attack power Tatsuki contains when dealing damage against enemies.

* RESIST: Demonstrates the amount of defense Tatsuki has when taking damage from enemies.

* STAMINA: Showcases the duration of the H.P gauge Tatsuki has.

* MIND: Affects the duration of the E.P gauge Tatsuki contains.

### HUB

Upon the completion of the first mission, the player is thrown into the screen of the ARCAM Operating System, which serves as the game's hub menu and a preparation phase before starting the next mission. There are four main options immediately available upon the system being booted: MISSION, EQUIP, ADJUST, and SYSTEM.

* MISSION: Brings out the two additional options when selected: BRIEFING and REPORT. Selecting the former automatically transports the player into the briefing section, where they are briefed by Graham Bruton towards the mission's details and objectives. The latter exposes the files that act as statistics on how well the player performed for each of the game's 16 missions.

* EQUIP: Selecting this option switches the player to another menu where they have the ability to choose different types of guns, knives, and AM suits (unlockable upon completing a certain mission or if several conditions are met) to carry with towards operations.

* ADJUST: Similar to the MISSION selection, two options, STATUS and TRAINING, appear when picked. The former allows the player to upgrade Tatsuki stats through ability points procured from missions. The latter gave the player the choice of returning to the Training area to further experiment on the game's basics.

* SYSTEM: Give the player privileges to save, load, quit, and adjust the game's option features.

### AM Suits

An iconic jumpsuit worn by Yu Ominae in the original manga made a return as one of the central gameplay mechanisms in *Lunar Verse*, but expanded upon as a new model so that there are three different types of AM suits available: power, defense, and speed. In addition to them providing Tatsuki different functions based on his preference, he is able to gain experience points from defeating enemies and clearing missions to further strengthen the suit's functionality and change their appearances.

An original game element, "Zero Burst", has been implemented. When Tatsuki is wearing an A.M. suit, he is able to activate it at any time, which instantly provides temporary damage nullification and unlocking the usage of the suit's special functions and mental wave attacks upon its activation.

 Power Suit
 Defense suit
 Speed suit

In addition to the AM suits, there are also prototype suits that are unlockable through certain conditions. They are usually distinguishable from the normal AM suits with the word "EXTRA" at the end of the prototype suit's name (EX: POWER EXTRA). They contain performances nearly equivalent to their level 2 counterparts, which can be served as a benefit towards players that desired to use a particular suit with added enhancements without having to first upgrade them. However, it should be noted that those prototype suits are not able to gain experience points in any way shape or form, so it is best to not mainly rely on them to progress through the story.

## Synopsis

### Background Overview

Decades ago, a plate was discovered in the deep sea. It was created with an unknown substance that even modern science were unable to identify. It was eventually called "God's Message Plate", since it was theorized mankind couldn't have possibly created it. It turns out that there was an ancient civilization whose great technological advances eventually led to their downfall. Before being permanently decimated, they left behind the divine plate that was inscribed in the ancient language of Hebrew: "Protect our legacy of civilization from the evil ones."

An organization took this message to heart, and the ARCAM Corporation was formed for the purpose of excavating and sealing the legacy of the ancient civilization. However, this also results in their constant strife against various organizations who seek for the heritage to expand upon their powers. S-class agents known as "Spriggan", named after the fairy who guarded the ruins, are the elite operatives who are part of the ARCAM Private Army that are deployed towards cases where the ancient civilization's legacy are in grave danger from their enemies.

Applying to become a "Spriggan" is known for being an incredibly demanding task, but there is a young man who greatly admires them and aspires to become one. Tatsuki Otsuki, a high school student who is also a member of the ARCAM Japan branch, decides to undertake training where he carries out dangerous missions. He is currently in the middle of his final exam to officially receive the status as a "Spriggan", and to successfully complete it requires him to complete the orders given out by his superiors without much difficulty. Despite supposedly being a test, real operations are still being executed, and failure usually results in death. Regardless, Tatsuki yearns for the title of "Spriggan", who are the most powerful and feared in the world. Little does he know, however, that a fierce battle for the survival of mankind awaits him.....

### Prologue

The opening sequence of the game showcases a brief recap of the fate towards the ancient civilization with the spinning plate in the background. The recap mentions of how there was once an ill-fated ancient civilization whose breakthrough of their development in technology results in their permanent destruction. They wrote a vital message on a plate for future generations about protecting their legacy from those who seeks to abuse it for their wicked purposes. The ARCAM Foundation was founded for the purpose of carrying out this message, and along them is their own Private Army consisting of elite agents that seals the legacy of ancient civilization. These special agents of that organization are called "Spriggan".

### Escaping From a Laboratory

For his first assignment as a candidate for Spriggan, Tatsuki was dispatched by his instructor, Graham Bruton, into infiltrating the warehouse in the enemy laboratory. Unfortunately at some point, he ended up being discovered by the guards, placing the whole lab on alert. Graham is notified by this unfortunate event, and has the mission's main objective being changed where Tatsuki must escape alive. He shuts down the power panels to access the locked doors or the large ventilation port, steals the card key from the soldier in the room, and use it on the scanner next to the door to escape from the warehouse.

### Mining Escort

ARCAM's excavation team has recently started excavating the ruins, so Tatsuki and Jean Jacquemonde are sent as escorts to oversee the operation. During the conversation between both of them while in the ruins, the American army unexpectedly invades the ruins, and begins attacking any hostiles on sight. Tatsuki attempts to join the excavation team, but part of the tunnel that leads to its path was blocked during the attack. Therefore, he must find C-4's throughout the quarry and from dead U.S. soldiers to blow up the rock blocking the tunnel, and rejoin Jean and the excavation team. After reaching to the rendezvous point and with the U.S. forces being nearly crushed, Tatsuki witnesses Jean blowing up the last helicopter with the U.S. forces onboard attempting to retreat from their failed operation with a rocket launcher. The U.S. army has been repelled, and the ARCAM's excavation team are safely escorted back to their institution.

### Containment of Smuggled Goods

Information has been given to ARCAM about an ongoing robbery occurring at the warehouse district of the port. Apparently, an out-of-place artifact (OOPArt) has been discovered to be part of the goods that are being stolen from mercenaries. Tatsuki is quickly deployed to find the artifact before it is taken into the mercenaries' hands. There, he search within the warehouses and break down the crates that might contain the artifact. Eventually, he manages to obtain it and starts to extract himself from the port. However, he encounters David Khan, a mercenary who appears to be a leader behind the robbery operation. He attempts to fight Tatsuki, but the latter defeats him and escape with the artifact.

### Undersea Temple Survey

An intruder has infiltrated the undersea temple ruins managed by ARCAM. Tatsuki is sent in to identify the intruder and their purpose, and neutralize them if necessary. He explores the ruins and finds a diving suit laying on the floor, implying the intruder's method of infiltration entrance. Then, he comes across a glowing, crescent camp in one of the rooms, but he is unable to interact anything with it. Confused, he heads back to the room where the diving suit is located at, only to encounter Yu Ominae and Jean Jacquemonde investigating it. Both are trying to investigate an insider within ARCAM. After a brief conversation, Yu gives Tatsuki a crescent-shaped lithograph since he doesn't know what to do with it, and leaves the room with Jean. Tatsuki experiments with the item he just received on the crescent camp and has himself teleporting to another room afterwards.

He explores the next section of the ruins and eventually discovers another crescent camp that is buried underwater from the flood. He will have to access the room that has a keyhole to remove the flood. After dealing with the two evil gods in the room and using the key on the keyhole to drain the flood, he returns to the crescent camp and uses the same item Yu gave him earlier to warp to another area of the ruins.

There, he finds an unidentified woman who is constantly knocking against the door and expressing frustration of her futile attempt to open it. The woman notices Tatsuki and engages a battle against him. However, she loses to him and passes out from extreme fatigue. He grabs another crescent-shaped lithograph from her body and notices a gap on the door that appears to be missing a piece of object to fit in with. He places the lithograph on the gap, causing the door to finally be opened. What awaits in the room ahead is the Guardian of the Soul Stone, who sole purpose is protecting the stone and attacking any intruders of the ruins. Tatsuki duels against it and eventually becomes the victor. The Guardian gives a warning to him before the Soul Stone begins floating onwards to him. He obtains it and exits the ruins.

### Transport Truck Escort

The ARCAM research team has recently finished analyzing the OOPArt that was collected from the port. It is then that it must be transported and secured in the underground vault at the ARCAM headquarters. Graham expresses concern, however, that other organizations will be attempting to steal the OOPArt from them, so he requests Tatsuki to provide escort of the truck belonging to ARCAM in order to ensure success for the transportation of the artifact. The new A.M. suits have also been developed and are in a prototype stage, in which Graham suggests to Tatsuki to experiment with one of the A.M. suit types for the purpose of collecting data from it.

Some time later, Tatsuki was already onboard of the ARCAM's freight truck containing the OOPArt on its cargo. However, him and the truck driver are unaware that they are being followed by two unknown individuals on a jeep. The passenger aims at the truck's cargo with the rocket launcher and fires at it. Its direct impact causes the truck driver to lose control of the vehicle, causing it to be flipped. Tatsuki got kicked out from the cargo shortly afterwards, and finds himself ambushed from an army of ninjas seeking for the artifact. Therefore, he is forced to fend off waves of them until they are out of reinforcements. Despite the odds against him, Tatsuki defeats all of them and successfully defends the driver and the artifact.

### Archaeological Site Exploration

The ARCAM investigation team has recently uncovered a ruins that is packed with deadly traps. This results in the ruins being declared extremely dangerous to investigate at. Graham informs Tatsuki of this situation, and orders him to release the traps for them to guarantee their safety during the exploration process. Tatsuki arrives to the ruins and begins to explore it. There, He deals with against living creatures such as scorpions and spiders, and overcoming traps like escaping from the poisonous gas room. At one point, he has to complete a trial where he has to kill specific creatures in three separate rooms. After completing the trial, he enters a large room where he finds three stone statues in their inactive state. However, one of the statues begins talking unexpectedly, and he activates the two Ashura-like curly statues that starts to attack Tatsuki. However, he defeats them and proceeds to the door that was unlocked after the battle. The next area mostly consist of him avoiding lava by jumping from different rock platforms that occasionally rise and submerge from it. There, he eventually finds a philosopher's stone in one of the caves and exits the ruins with it.

### Rioting Suppression

A riot has occurred within one of the ruins that is excavated by ARCAM. An investigation team has been sent in to discover the cause, but their contact was lost eventually. With no other options left, Graham has Tatsuki deployed to the ruins where he must locate the team, determine on what sparks the rebellion, and suppress it. He arrives to the ruins via dinghy and after exploring for a bit, finds a dying man laying near against the entrance of the heart of the ruins. The man states to him about a particular researcher who uses an ancient mask to transform his fellow researchers into werejaguars. Before succumbing to his wounds, he gave Tatsuki his pistol and requests him to save everyone. Tatsuki accepts his request and head to the heart of the ruins.

There, he encounters werejaguars who attack him on sight. They appeared to be the former excavation team based on the remains of their clothes. Unfortunately for them, They cannot transform back to their original, human state upon the completion of their transformation, so they must be killed upon encountering them. Tatsuki continues to investigate the ruins and eventually finds the researcher, Thomas W. Coop, in one of its areas. Thomas appears to be so fascinated by the stone mask in his right hand that he is willing to rebel against ARCAM and occupies the ruins. He puts on the mask to enhance his strength and summons four ancient jaguars to battle against Tatsuki. He defeats all five of them, and obtains the mask from Thomas's body. Afterwards, the passage to the basement has just opened up, and he jumps down to it to find a computer on the pillar left behind by an ancient civilization. He breaks the pillar, and begins to listen to a message that appears to be a warning from the ancient civilization. The computer then explodes, and Tatsuki exits the ruins to report back to Graham about the mission's aftermath.

### Interception at the Antarctic Ruins

Trident's special forces have ambushed the ARCAM excavation team at the Antarctic Ruins. Before the ambush, the team has yet to discover what lies within the ruins. Given the possible scenario where Trident could access one of the ancient civilization's technology from the ruins, this causes the situation to be very urgent. Graham suggests of providing reinforcements ASAP to combat against Trident troops. However, the arrival of reinforcements could take a while, so he sent in Tatsuki to deal with Trident in the meantime.

The snowstorm made visibility very limited, so Tatsuki must be cautious when attempting to fight against Trident soldiers and avoiding falling off into the sea, and from the cliff when he reaches to the higher part of the mountain. When he finally bypasses the tunnel leading to the ruins, he encounters Maria Leskov and Hayato, the former of which recalls the encounter against Tatsuki back in the undersea ruins. Using this opportunity for revenge, she encourages Hayato in assisting her to battle Tatsuki. He defeats them both, and notices a Mysterious Girl coming out from the gate leading to the entrance of the ruins. She approaches him to share some cryptic statements, causing him to display a confused body language. By then, Graham contacts him to offer praise for successfully driving back Trident forces from their operation. He then instructs him to check within the ruins to confirm if Trident manages to procure the legacy of the ancient civilization. By the time Graham breaks contact, the girl was already back at the gate, but states to Tatsuki about something, before heading in to the ruins again.

### Trident Institute Infiltration

Unfortunately for Tatsuki, he is unable to locate the legacy of the ancient civilization within the ruins. When Graham discovers this, he believes it was already stolen by Trident forces. He manages, however, to at least obtain information on what the legacy's appearance displays like, and where it is currently transferred at. It turns out to be a large, humanoid robot superweapon that is capable of creating massive destruction. Satellite images showcases that the superweapon is located at the Trident's laboratory building. Graham informs Tatsuki of these intel reports, and instructions him to infiltrate the lab and recover the stolen weapon. If it becomes activated and cannot be recovered, the weapon must be destroyed.

Tatsuki arrives to the laboratory through an elevator. He begins to unlock the locked doors through the use of interacting with security control devices and security computers while eliminating Trident's guardsmen and patrol security robots. Eventually, he finds another elevator that leads to the underground where the superweapon is being stored. When he arrives to the underground, he makes his way to the area where the ancient weapon is located. Unfortunately, the moment he approaches towards it, the weapon already starts to be activated. Therefore, he has no choice but to destroy it. The weapon begins to initiate self-destruct sequence upon receiving too much damage, and Tatsuki begins to sprint away from it. He appears to be blown away from the blast, but later reveals to be safe.

### Investigation on the Cave Site

ARCAM has discovered an information about the U.S. military presence within a particular cave site. Apparently, they were intrigued by the escorts of a U.S.' mechanized platoon, suggesting that their investigation operation is significant. Graham thinks that they are searching for a vital object, in which ARCAM has yet to identify, belonging to the ancient civilization on the site. Before Tatsuki is sent in, he is provided with images from the satellite showcasing the cave's complex layouts and fragile nature. Graham suggests to him to remain cautious when exploring the cave.

Tatsuki explores the cave site and fights against the U.S. army special forces and mechanized infantries. Eventually, he finds the captain of the mechanized platoon, Leon Steinback, being irritated by the girl's presence from the Antarctic ruins. He knocks her out by slamming her against the wall, causing a crystal ball to fall from her pockets where he quickly picks it up. The ball appears to be an ancient object that the U.S. army is seeking for. Tatsuki arrives to the scene and begins to duel out against Leon and his two subordinates. Leon eventually dies by Tatsuki's hands, and the latter retrieve the crystal ball from his body. By then, the girl regains consciousness, and suggests to him to store the ball to somewhere where nobody could easily steal it. However, the cave begins to collapse and Tatsuki must escape from it within an allotted time. As he nears the exit point, he encounters a mysterious man containing the appearance of a vampire. The man demands him to hand over the crystal ball, but the latter refuses. The former then attempts to forcibly take it through violent means, but Tatsuki significantly injures him to the point where he transforms into a bat as a method of retreating. Tatsuki exits the site from the same point where he entered the site.

### ARCAM Institute Defense

The ARCAM research institute has been invaded by Trident special forces. It appears that the invasion was lead by someone who seeks for the ancient civilization's contents within the underground vault. Graham received word of this occurring incident, and was confused by the fact that the institute's security wouldn't be breached that easily, even if a platoon were to attack the building. He instructs Tatsuki to intercept them before the vault's content is stolen.

Tatsuki arrives to the institute's rooftop after jumping from the helicopter's ladder, and immediately encounters modified lycanthropes and Trident soldiers attempting to kill him. He grabs the key on the helipad and uses it to unlock the door leading to inside the institute building. There, he finds the building on high alert with scorching flames blocking certain paths, and lycanthropes and Trident troops occupying the building's halls. As he continues to head towards the underground vault, Graham contacts him about the intruder that he just identified. The intruder's name reveals to be Leticia Dale, who is head of Trident's Weapons Development division. Graham believes she is the one who is aiming for the vault, so he encourages Tatsuki to arrive there quickly for interception. When he approaches the elevator leading to the underground, he finds a dying ARCAM researcher who informs him that Leticia and her subordinate is already at vault. With no time to waste, Tatsuki quickly heads to the elevator.

Once at the underground, Tatsuki heads to the vault only to find Rock, the same vampire man who he fought back at the cave site, leaning against the vault door. Shortly afterwards, a woman, who appears to be Leticia Dale, comes out from the vault room with several of its contents on her hands. She notices Tatsuki, and orders Rock to deal with him as she calmly exits the underground. Rock transforms into his true form, and begins to battle against him. Tatsuki defeats him and receives a call from Graham afterwards, stating that based on the data from the security system, bombs have been planted by Trident troops on the upper floor. A single bomb going off is enough to cause the destruction of the entire building, so Tatsuki runs back to the same elevator where he arrives to the underground. Once he arrives at the floor, he searches around the halls and eventually disarms the five bombs that are placed, preventing the destruction of the institute building.

### Interception within the Antarctic Ruins

Although the ARCAM institute building remains intact, Dr. Dale still remains at large with the contents from the underground vault on her hands. Just recently, however, Graham receives word that she is spotted to be at the same Antarctic ruins where Trident special forces previously attempted to raid at against the ARCAM excavation team. He orders Tatsuki to use this opportunity to quickly go after her, and secure the vault's contents.

Tatsuki already arrives to the mountain and begins to walk to the entrance of the ruins. Behind him is the Mysterious Girl who states a question to him, in which he seems to ignore it as he continues to walk towards the entrance. He drops down to the long corridor and explores the ruins to chase after Dr. Dale. Eventually, he arrives to the gate where he is transported to the moon passage room. There, he encounters two Moon Gate Guardians who attempts to stop him in heading towards the Moon Gate, but he defeats them and continues to pursue against Dr. Dale. After finding her in close proximity to the Moon Gate, she notices him as well, and tells him that she is willing to fight against him if it means preventing him from accessing the Moon Gate. The Mysterious Girl then appears out of nowhere, and pulls Dr. Dale to the Moon Gate.

### In the Palace of the Moon

Tatsuki starts approaching the Moon Gate to continue in pursuing against Dr. Dale, but is stopped by Yu Ominae, who throws him a plate that is inscribed by the ancient civilization with a warning message of misusing their technologies. Yu has faith in Tatsuki's ability of officially becoming a Spriggan and begins departing from the room. Before leaving, however, Yu begins to asks Tatsuki, but then refrains himself from revealing the full question. He tells him to be careful on his journey and then leaves the room.

Tatsuki approaches the Moon Gate and beings teleporting to the palace of the moon. There, Dr. Dale appears to be walking towards the warp zone and eventually disappears of which she presumably teleports to another place. Tatsuki comes out from the portal shortly afterwards, and starts to explore the palace. He eventually discovers that he has to destroy the four blue rings that are hovering around on each pillars. He destroys them, thus causing the platforms leading to the warp zone to appear. Using the platforms by jumping on them, he eventually arrives to the zone and teleports to another area.

He arrives to a room that appears to strike a resemblance of a tomb and approaches the ancient grave. The Guardian of the Grave, however, suddenly appears behind him and orders him to leave the tomb, since he would disturb his lord. Tatsuki refuses to abide his orders, and battles against the Guardian. The former wins the battle and approaches the grave again. When he interacts with it, the voices come from the spirits of the ancients who informs Tatsuki of their reason towards their extinction: they have tampered with the moon, which turns out to be the power of God's work, and no humans should ever handle it themselves. They urge him to not make the same mistakes as they did previously, before finishing off their speech with the quote, "May humanity have a future".

### Decisive Battles on the Moon

Tatsuki arrives to the moon, and finds Dr. Dale attempting to activate the lunar device. By the time he approaches her, however, she already booted up the device. She eventually discovers his presence, and is greatly annoyed by his stubbornness. She then engages him in a one-on-one battle, but he eventually knocks her to a seemingly unconscious state.

Dr. Dale, surprisingly, gets up and slowly limps her way back to the lunar device. Unfortunately, Graham is already there and fully activates the device, implying his betrayal to Tatsuki and ARCAM. Graham reveals that he simply desires to control the world's military balance as he sees fit, and he is going to use the device as a tool of making his dream a reality. He then executes her with his rifle, and starts to eliminate Tatsuki as well. However, Graham underestimating him lead to his defeat in their duel. By then, the moon begins to shake violently, and the Mysterious Girl appears once again, fearing the event where the ancients were perished is happening again. Graham eventually dies to his wounds, and the circular field begins to surround the girl. She begs Tatsuki in helping her, to which he quickly dashes to her aid and head inside the field with her.

Tatsuki finds himself in a temple-like room, with the Guardian of the Moon appearing in front of him. The Moon Guardian expresses her disappointment with humans not complying with the ancient's warnings of misusing their technology and concludes there is no hope for the evolution of the human race. Afterwards, she transports Tatsuki and herself to the other area of the moon where it is only an empty space, and tries to kill him. Tatsuki, with the future of mankind resting on his shoulders, handles against the Moon Guardian until to the point where she eventually makes herself disappears, sensing that there is actually hope for the future of humanity.

Tatsuki appears to be transported back to the same area of the moon where the destroyed lunar device is located. Yu Ominae approaches him from behind to check on his status, and briefly apologizes to him for not assisting him during his dire situation. He looks at the Earth and concludes that it does not suffer severe damage. The moon, on the other hand, appears to be heavily damaged, but Yu still believes things will remain alright. Tatsuki is wondering where the girl went, to which Yu responds that he hasn't seen her anywhere. He then walks past Yu, and the latter questions him if he is going home. With the crisis finally over, Tatsuki wins the tomorrow of humanity alone.

## Characters

* Tatsuki Otsuki - The protagonist, Tatsuki is a high school student who is a candidate as a Spriggan agent for the ARCAM Private Army due to his well compatibility with Orichalcum.

* Graham Bruton - Tatsuki's boss and instructor who is affiliated with the ARCAM Japanese branch. He often provides Tatsuki mission details during the briefings, and assists him during the operations through the radio.

* Yu Ominae - The main character from the original manga, Yu acts as a senior and advice for Tatsuki. Despite no longer wearing an AM suit, he is still one of the most powerful Spriggan. In this work, he is investigating Trident's insiders in ARCAM.

* Jean Jacquemonde - A supporting character who also appeared in the manga, Jean is a top-class Spriggan and Yu's companion. He is also investing insiders along with Yu.

* The Mysterious Girl - A strange girl who's presence acts as a warning against the misuse of the ancient civilization's creations. Her appearance resembled Tatsuki's younger sister who have died from an unknown cause.

* Leticia Dale - A female scientist who is part of the Trident Weapons Development Department and previously worked with the U.S. army. Her deceased husband formed a theory that the moon was built by the ancient civilization, in which it could manipulate the Earth's environment. She desired to prove her dead fiancé's hypothesis.

* Yamamoto - Yu's boss in the original manga. He only appears during the game's credits.

## Development

Ryoji Minagawa, an artist for the original *Spriggan* manga, at some point wrote a comment in the table of contents of Weekly Shonen Sunday expressing his interest on From Software's other IP franchise, *Armored Core*.  The team at From, particularly Shinichiro Nishida who would be a producer of *Lunar Verse*, took notice of Minagawa's comment, and between late September or early October in 1998, contacted him through the editor of Shonen Sunday to form a rough plan of their next project. Hiroshi Takashige, the creator behind the story of the *Spriggan* manga, and Masanori Takeuchi, the planner for *Lunar Verse*, would also join to discuss about how to proceed with the development of From's upcoming project. The two authors would then acted as supervisors, and provided approvals and feedbacks to From's development team progress.

Originally, the team opted to use *Spriggan* as an inspiration of developing their next IP. However, as the project eventually grew closer to the identity of its source material, they decided to transform it into a *Spriggan* game. The idea of using the moon as a motif for the game's setting was established by the two original authors before the project was realized as a game of *Spriggan*.

When discussing about deciding a protagonist for *Lunar Verse*. the team desired to prevent themselves from using Yu as a main character since he was already fully developed by the end of the original manga, and since the game's setting took place several months after the manga's special act, *Gold Rush*, it wouldn't make sense to use his image when he was still often wearing his A.M. suit.  Therefore, they approached with the idea of creating a different protagonist who would serve as an "Apprentice" for Spriggan.

The primary focus of the action-adventure genre in *Lunar Verse* was inspired by the appeal of the abundant action scenes from the original manga.  In addition, the team wanted to create freedom of choice towards players to add replayability and accessibility to the game. To achieve that desire, they worked with the original authors who provided the concept of the A.M. suit that Yu wore in the original manga, and expanded upon that by creating different variations of it to provide players an opportunity in approaching the game from which they desired. Ideas such as throwing knives, a grappling rope coming out from the arm to hold onto walls, and hiding bodies were scrapped in favor of avoiding the change of direction toward covert action.

## Missions

1. Escape From a Lab
2. Defend From the U.S. Force
3. Take Back The Artifact
4. Investigation on the Seabed
5. Driving Back the Ninja
6. Explore an Unknown Ruins
7. Rescue the ARCAM Investigator
8. Get Back the Antarctic Remains
9. Sneak into the Trident Lab
10. Trace the U.S. Special Force
11. Retake the ARCAM Lab
12. Chase into the Antarctic Remains
13. In the Palace of the Moon
14. The Matter of the Moon
15. Gain Control of the ARCAM Lab
16. SENNIN-KAI

## Credits

### Staff

 Director
 Producer
 Programmers
 Artists
Hiroyuki Kani
 Composers
Tsukasa Saito
Keiichiro Segawa

### Cast

 Graham Bruton
 Yu Ominae
 Jean Jacquemonde
 The Mysterious Girl
 Dr. Leticia Dale
 Narrator

## Music

*Spriggan: Lunar Verse*'s soundtrack was composed by From Software's sound team, "FreQuency". When creating the in-game background songs, The team desired to emphasize the feeling of "intensity" and "mystery" without focusing on a specific style. The game contains a mix of various music styles ranging from techno to ambient types that further established the game's sense of atmosphere. The soundtrack was released on November 26, 1999, under the Kings Record label.

## Trivia

* *Lunar Verse* contains original casts of characters bearing similar appearances from the characters within the manga, implying the fact that the game pays homage to the original manga.

* Prior to the development of *Lunar Verse*, there was originally an another Spriggan PSX game being developed by the creator of the *Ninja Gaiden* NES trilogy and the *Klonoa* series, Hideo Yoshizawa. Like *Lunar Verse*, it was planned to be a 3D action game based on the Shogakukan’s Spriggan manga, but the project's development has ceased since Bandai Namco eventually lost the license to it. However, the team opted to use what they have established with its prototype to transform the cancelled Spriggan project into an original title, which turns out to be *Klonoa: Door to Phantomile*.

## Gallery

Japanese packagingTrial EditionRough sketches for the game's box art by Ryoji Minagawa. The sketch on the top right was adopted for the game's official cover art. The title name, "Spriggan: Luna Legacy", indicates that was the game's working title.One of the rough sketches for the game's promotional posterAnother rough sketch for the game's promotional posterA rough sketch, which is adopted for the game's official promotional poster

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Spriggan: Lunar Verse (From Software) - Official Guide Book (Shogakukan) - Special Talk, page 160 - ISBN 4-09-102687-7 (Japanese)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Spriggan: Lunar Verse (From Software) - Guide Tankōbon (Keibunsha) - Interview, page 118 - ISBN 4-7669-3239-0 (Japanese)
3. ↑ https://camelletgo.blogspot.com/2014/03/spriggan-lunar-verseOST.html
4. ↑ http://gaming.moe/?p=2894