› ›

Superglobe's Super-Intelligent Review Corner!

Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
edited 2012-02-15 00:23:03 in General

So yeah, this is a thread for me so I can review....stuff!

So!

Today we're going to start with a quick overview of what I've played so far of The Star-Stealing Prince.

OVERVIEW

SSP is a JRPG made in RPGMaker, normally, those facts alone, coupled with it being neither Yume Nikki-related nor Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle, would mean it would suck copious amounts of ass. But that's not the case here. SSP is a fun little game, made by a person calling himself Blackbirds of Rye. According to his official site, SSP is inspired by "Chrono Trigger, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, and any other RPG I fell in love with as a kid during the SNES era." Making my liking of this game somewhat funny as I never cared for the Chrono Trigger series.

anyway,

TEH PLOTZ 

The plot is decent to good, it starts pretty typically. You play as Snowe, a young prince who is currently ruling his small kingdom after the death of his parents (more on them, later), BUT THEN....ONE NIGHT....YOU HAVE A DREAM in which a scarecrow-like creature tells you about a girl locked up in a tower by your parents (shock!) and that you need to rescue her or else the scarecrow-thingie will eat her. You, being a teenage prince, and the girl being a teenage girl, decide to wholly abandon your duties in order to go to what's known only as the Eastern Tower to rescue the girl (alone, of course). 

Spoilers ahead, folks:

After a trek through a cave, you're attacked by a bird demon named Lorel. This is set up as the first boss fight of the game, but it's wholly unwinnable, as Lorel takes you down in a single hit with his blizzard attack. After being mysteriously rescued from near-death, you wake up in a tower. The same Eastern Tower that you were trying to go to in the first place. Naturally, you decide to look for the girl in the tower anyway. And after solving a very confusing series of puzzles and fighting of phantoms, you meet her, but not after meeting her skeletal bodyguard Hiante, who is the best character in this or any game. 

In any case, you find out that what the scarecrow creature told you is (shocker) mostly total bunk. The girl was put in the castle by your parents, but she went there willingly. And indeed, the scarecrow is nowhere to be found. You learn the girl's name is Astra and that it's her job to keep the stars in place, and that when one is not in place she performs some sort of ritual to put it back in place. This is all well and good, so you decide to return home.

But now you have to get back to your castle, and in order to do that, you've got to face down Lorel again. With the help of Astra and Hiante weakening it, you do manage to get rid of him, though it's one of the most disproportionate boss fights in any game I have ever played, as Lorel is nigh invincible even in his weakened state.

In any case, you return to your castle, and to say further would ruin the plot. Suffice it to say that not everything is as benevolent as it first appears.

MECHANICS

I'm not big on JRPGs in general, so I was pleasantly surprised by the beginner-friendly combat system. Though I recommend looking up the various status effects, as what they do is not spelled out in-game. And without knowing about them, items like the Scary Mask come across as useless. Further, while useful, the idea of "Item Points" and Item Spells is not terribly intuitive or for that matter, explained, so points are lost here.

Combat on the whole is fun, as well as being intense without overly demanding. It's a turn-based system, somewhat similar to the early Final Fantasy games. It manages to avoid making you grind intensely in order to fight off a boss (though, as noted before, the bosses are hard. Really hard. And you will die repeatedly, but they're beatable without grinding, the challenge lies in working out a strategy).

VISUALS

This is one of the prettiest goddamn JRPGs I have ever played. RPGMaker or otherwise. Every area is drenched in lush, syurpy effects, and the snow practically feels cold. It's freaking gorgeous, is what I'm saying.

One minor gripe is Astra's portrait. She has a lot of blush on her profile and it sorta looks like she has pink eye because of it.

Otherwise? Awesome, especially for a sprite-based game.

SOUND

I am quite incapable of conveying to you how good the standard soundtrack is. But it's damn good. Less so are the battle themes, which tend to try too hard to be "epic" sounding and are somewhat grating as a result. 

The actual sound effects are mostly decent, but there are a few that are annoying. Such as the sound that's heard when you use a healing statue (MY EEEEARS), but otherwise fine.

I may change my grade when I finish the game, but for now....

OVERALL GRADE: 9/10

but wait, there's more!

MOST ANNOYING ASSHOLE

image

the bird, not Snowe.


Tagged:

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.