The Gamer's Quarter

SuperWes

Did anyone else realize this was coming out here? And so soon? And by Atlus?

Does anyone know anything about it? Is it going to be any good or just a generic turn based strategy game with great art design?

-Wes
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TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

From what I've heard, there's a set of people calling it the "Disgaea Killer". It is supposed to be more of a spiritual successor to FFT, with a nice AP system and lots of unique characters, but with only a little character customization in the form of teaching moves. It looks to be a good SRPG, but whether or not it'll be a great one will have to be seen when the English release comes out. I'm personally going to wait on getting it to see IC and GQ's reaction to it first.

Legal Step · . Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Los Angeles

Wait and Devil Tuna just came out. How will I have time for these games?

Persona-sama · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:37 am Post subject:

I played a little bit of this at my friend's house.

He likes to import really bad games.

There were no exceptions.[/list]

EightBit · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 30 Location: Florida

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

Legal Step · . Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Los Angeles

Tollmaster evertime I see your name I'm reminded that I need to buy more Nippon Ichi games.

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

Persona-sama · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject:

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:40 am Post subject:

So I bought Stella Deus last night despite Persona-san's less than glowing impressions.

I'm 3 hours in so far and I really enjoy it. It's nothing new, so it feels wrong for me to say that I enjoy it, but the graphic design is really pretty and the game is surprisingly well put together. It plays like pretty much any tactics game, but the in-game character art isn't proportioned in SD style, which feels surprisingly innovative after Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, etc, etc, etc. In a way, the game reminds me a lot of Vagrant Story, which I've always been a big fan of.

I'm not one to play a game for story, but Stella Dues' story is interesting, translated well, and well told. It's about a world like the one in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles where deadly gas is enveloping the planet, but when this started to happen, people started freaking out and a war began. To quell the fighting, someone created a religion where standing by and accepting your eventual death was the only way to heaven, so it created a world of apathy and death. The main bad guy of the game takes advantage of this, and starts slaughtering the apathetic in order to become the leader of the dying world. In typical RPG fashion, your character becomes a grunt in his army despite his true desires for peace and due to circumstance must turn against his superiors.

As Persona pointed out, the animation sequences have kind of a low frame rate, but he sort of glossed over that art style during these sequences is very unique, and looks like really nice colored pencil drawings that have been animated. The biggest downfall to the game that I can see is that you can't just play through the story without having to jump through hoops like pointless side-quests and battle tower style level-up battles. I feel compelled to level up my characters and evolve their classes, but I doubt I'll get very far without the constant reward of an ongoing story.

I wasn't planning on picking it up as I entered Gamestop and I feel stupid for admitting this, but when I looked at the back of the box and saw the elegant font they used for the US text I knew that I had to buy it. It's a stupid reason to buy a game, but it didn't disappoint this time. That said, I'll have to admit that I can't see myself playing it forever.

-Wes
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Legal Step · . Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Los Angeles

Hey I bought Devil Tuna because it has a box that holds its companion game. So don't feel bad.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 1:03 pm Post subject:

don't worry wes, typography gets the best of us all sometimes. i often dismiss games based on their artwork alone.

morrowind's box art is somewhat troublesome, for example.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

dhex · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 7:05 am Post subject:

calintz · . Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Nagoya

I'm almost finished for a second time, and I'd have to say that Stella Deus falls into the above-average SRPGs category. But that really is becuase Nippon Ichi's games occupy the upper ranks.

Okay...obtaining the hidden characters were annoying, as I only figured this out half way thru my first play, and it was too late, as I didn't "overkill" a couple of "escaping" bosses, hence losing my opportunity to recruit the enemies. But other than that, the game is easy, imo, and the story is pretty bland, in that it tries to be different, but falls into cliched "religious" storylines.
The saving graces would be Hitoshi Sakimoto's composition and Soejima Shigenori's character designs.
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...九龍で会いましょう...（*☼＿☉*）

deepblue · . Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Posts: 5