Yesterday, I downloaded the demo of Stella Glow, an upcoming strategy rpg from Atlus and Sega, from the 3DS eshop. I decided I'd write about the demo today. Here's what I thought of it...
The Stella Glow demo is so much better than the Legend of Legacy demo. Of course, the two games are very very different from each other, but the comparison comes from them both being released by Atlus.
Stella Glow is a tactical strategy rpg, similar to Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. In the demo (and the actual game), you move the characters around a grid based area. The game is turn-based and the very handy turn order is placed at the bottom of the top screen. I really liked where the turn order was placed and I enjoyed the battle system a lot over all. You move the characters by selecting move in the menu and then use the D-Pad to move. The D-pad is pretty responsive. The analog stick is used to look around the battlefield, but that felt a little stiff. There is another way to look around the battle too. You can scroll through the good guys and the bad guys individually. I liked this a lot.
The battles themselves are pretty quick and you don't have to wait too long for turns. You have everything you'd expect find in the battle menu: Attack, Skills, Items and its all laid out really well. I like how the game shows you gaining experience and leveling up in battle! Also I found that the bottom screen was really useful!
Stella Glow's use of the bottom screen is brilliant! You can look a various characters status & skills at the bottom screen or switch to the mission objectives. I also liked how you could use the touchscreen to check out what the character's weapons, equipment, skills, and more do! This is all extremely useful for every battle. It really helps you plan out what you want to do. The whole battle system is really great and I wish that we had been given a little more time with it.
I thought all of the battles in the demo were good, although they were a bit on the easy side and the demo is more like a tutorial than an actual part of the larger game. I do wish the demo had given us a glimpse of the game's world map and provided a couple of random battles to play. Also your demo progress doesn't transfer over to the full game like Legend of Legacy. That said, the demo battles are fun and give you a preview of what to expect in the full game.
Oh and I really love this game's graphics!
The artwork in Stella Glow is amazing. I especially love the in-game graphics, with its small characters, beautiful backgrounds, awesome close up battle animations, and fantastic 3D. But the character design artwork looks good too.
I'm usually not a fan of anime-like characters but Stella Glow's character designs and other artwork is just so very good. I was also impressed by the animated cutscenes in the demo!
I really liked the characters in this game too. All of the good guys are very likeable and the bad guys are rotten to the core, but also complex and interesting. I also thought the game's voice acting was good! I was actually surprised the demo had so much voice acting (a very nice surprise). I was never bored by the demo's story. In fact, I did a second playthrough of the demo where I skipped all of the cutscenes and the demo just wasn't as interesting. I love the battles, but the story & battles work so well together and make the demo well worth playing. I really want to know what happens next in the actual game too!
It looks like the game will have even more places to explore and lots to do. I've heard that the full game has multiple endings, 40-60 hours of gameplay, and lots of sidequests! I enjoyed the demo a lot and I'm pretty sure I want the game sooner or later.
I highly recommend downloading this demo if you're a strategy rpg fan!
Have you played the Stella Glow demo? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments!
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All of the above pictures come from Google.
I'll be back on Friday with a Halloween blog entry!
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