The 3DS, just like the DS before it, is fertile ground for SRPGs.
Stella Glow is one of these SRPGs, developed by Imageepoch and published by Sega in Japan; an America version is scheduled later this year by Atlus.
And in two sentences I've written everything interesting about the game.
Mind you, Stella Glow is not bad, but it's so by-the-numbers that it gets lost very easily in the multitude of similar games available on the 3DS, let alone available SRPGs as a whole. Stella Glow has a striking resemblance to Luminous Arc, and this should not come as a surprise as that series and this game have been developed by the same team.
Battles in Stella Glow are turn based, carried over tiled terrain, each tile having an height, and giving movement, defense, and eveasion bonuses/maluses on the unit occupying it. Turns are affected by a unit's speed and how many actions and their type (walking, attack, special skill, item usage). Units have an elemental affinity with the usual strong/weak correlations and every character attacks in a different way based on his/her own weapon.
The system is nothing new, and probably the biggest thing here is that one character can carry only two items instead of having access to the whole inventory. A few characters have special abilities, like Sakuya's stances (either swordfight or magic) or Nonoka's skill to become invisible for one turn, but the battle system plays it completely safe.
The story revolves around Arto, a young boy whose village gets turned into crystal by a witch Hilda. Arto is drafted into the royal knights to stop Hilda, along his chidlhood friend, Lisette, that turns out to be a witch as well. The curse, that not only affects Arto's village, can be undone by having a quartet of witches sing in unison.
Playing as Arto, you can interact with all other characters to build up a relationship that will give others new or improved skills; the four main heroines play the biggest part of course, and sometimes you won't be able to progress in their private storyline unless you "tune" with them, essentially diving into their heart to take care of their fears. These parts usually play out as normal missions, but can also be dialogues with few choices here and there.
Stella Glow alternates between Mission and Free Time slots; during mission time you go around the world map undertaking story or random missions. During Free Time you can partake in jobs (to get more money and improve the various stores around town), interact with other characters, or test your luck and search for random items.
The game doesn't do anything particularly bad: my biggest gripe is that the battle progression is kinda slow at times, and the system tends to favour fast characters, making some of your companions useless; unsurprisingly enough, these two items are shared with Luminous Arc, though Stella Glow flows much better.
The thing is that Stella Glow...exists, and nothing more. It's a SRPG like many others, with no really outstanding feature, mechanics wise. The technical side, on the other hand, is pretty gorgeous, and a lot of care went into crafting a fine-looking and nice-sounding game that at least doesn't disappoint in this regard.
The structure is sound, but Imageepoch chose to stick to it to the letter, without trying anything new or take even the slightest risk: in comparison, Lord of Magna stumbles upon its battle system, but at least it was soemthing new, and I've found it more interesting to play.
Stella Glow is one of these SRPGs, developed by Imageepoch and published by Sega in Japan; an America version is scheduled later this year by Atlus.
And in two sentences I've written everything interesting about the game.
Mind you, Stella Glow is not bad, but it's so by-the-numbers that it gets lost very easily in the multitude of similar games available on the 3DS, let alone available SRPGs as a whole. Stella Glow has a striking resemblance to Luminous Arc, and this should not come as a surprise as that series and this game have been developed by the same team.
Battles in Stella Glow are turn based, carried over tiled terrain, each tile having an height, and giving movement, defense, and eveasion bonuses/maluses on the unit occupying it. Turns are affected by a unit's speed and how many actions and their type (walking, attack, special skill, item usage). Units have an elemental affinity with the usual strong/weak correlations and every character attacks in a different way based on his/her own weapon.
The system is nothing new, and probably the biggest thing here is that one character can carry only two items instead of having access to the whole inventory. A few characters have special abilities, like Sakuya's stances (either swordfight or magic) or Nonoka's skill to become invisible for one turn, but the battle system plays it completely safe.
The story revolves around Arto, a young boy whose village gets turned into crystal by a witch Hilda. Arto is drafted into the royal knights to stop Hilda, along his chidlhood friend, Lisette, that turns out to be a witch as well. The curse, that not only affects Arto's village, can be undone by having a quartet of witches sing in unison.
Playing as Arto, you can interact with all other characters to build up a relationship that will give others new or improved skills; the four main heroines play the biggest part of course, and sometimes you won't be able to progress in their private storyline unless you "tune" with them, essentially diving into their heart to take care of their fears. These parts usually play out as normal missions, but can also be dialogues with few choices here and there.
Stella Glow alternates between Mission and Free Time slots; during mission time you go around the world map undertaking story or random missions. During Free Time you can partake in jobs (to get more money and improve the various stores around town), interact with other characters, or test your luck and search for random items.
The game doesn't do anything particularly bad: my biggest gripe is that the battle progression is kinda slow at times, and the system tends to favour fast characters, making some of your companions useless; unsurprisingly enough, these two items are shared with Luminous Arc, though Stella Glow flows much better.
The thing is that Stella Glow...exists, and nothing more. It's a SRPG like many others, with no really outstanding feature, mechanics wise. The technical side, on the other hand, is pretty gorgeous, and a lot of care went into crafting a fine-looking and nice-sounding game that at least doesn't disappoint in this regard.
The structure is sound, but Imageepoch chose to stick to it to the letter, without trying anything new or take even the slightest risk: in comparison, Lord of Magna stumbles upon its battle system, but at least it was soemthing new, and I've found it more interesting to play.