Lunar Remastered Collection: The Story Behind Its Stunning Logo and Packaging Design

Amy Nguyen, a senior graphic designer at GungHo America, played a pivotal role in crafting the fresh logo for the Lunar Remastered Collection, now available on Xbox One and optimized for Xbox Series X|S. Eager to delve into the process behind the revitalized logo, I caught up with Amy to uncover her inspirations and design journey.

Amy’s career at GungHo has been marked by various exciting projects, notably leading the creative process for the Grandia console port in 2024. Her excitement was tangible when tasked with the Lunar logo redesign, yet she also felt the weight of preserving the iconic identity that gamers fondly recall. A cycle of creating, receiving feedback, and refining ideas led to the final choice.

Amy considered the legacy logos while crafting the new one, aiming to balance nostalgia with a modern touch. Her process involved meticulous research to understand the brand’s essence deeply embedded in gamers’ memories. She sketched countless concepts, tweaking colors and adding gold elements that signified the remastered games’ new qualities. The selected logo with its classic Lunar red, highlighted with fresh golden accents, perfectly nodded to both the past and its revival.

The logo underwent many iterations, each informed by imagery and themes integral to the Lunar series. Amy focused on the distinctive shape and color that fans associate with Lunar. Her sketches experimented with various design paths, incorporating familiar elements like colors from “Lunar: Silver Star Story” and “Lunar 2: Eternal Blue.” The designs ranged from subtle adjustments to drastic alterations, emphasizing elements like the dragon sword and ribbon, and other game symbols. Ultimately, they settled on a design that fused nods from multiple iterations into one cohesive look.

Highlighting her personal touch, Amy’s favorite part of the final logo is a nuanced tail in the ‘R’ of “Remastered.” This subtle homage to the original design brings a refined aesthetic by accentuating stylish details in key letters.

Toshiyuki Kubooka, the original Lunar artist, provided two new key visuals for the remaster. Amy found his compositions inspiring, which guided her packaging design. The dark backgrounds enriched the covers, allowing the artwork to fit seamlessly with minimal adjustments necessary.

Amy enjoyed creative freedom on the back cover, incorporating nostalgic pixel sprites that conveyed each character’s personality in limited space. She integrated screenshots for a broad look at the game while ensuring a cohesive connection to the “Remastered” theme with color and font choices. The gradient transition illustrated the duality of the games in the collection.

Teaming up with Mr. Kubooka and receiving support from GungHo’s Marketing and Production teams made the packaging design particularly rewarding. Amy’s work, coupled with contributions from original developer Game Arts, evolved into a product she’s proud to share with fans, hoping they cherish it as much as those who’ve brought it to life.

Now, the Lunar Remastered Collection brings back the beloved games – Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete – with enhanced graphics, quality-of-life upgrades, and language support adjustments, catering to both seasoned fans and newcomers drawn to the charming nostalgia they evoke.