Very nice indeed. Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and Vandal Hearts are all great games that have set the stage for the tactical, turn-based RPG genre. Time spent leveling almost always feels like a simple grind, and that's pretty true of this system as well. All your options are governed by something called action points, or AP, which determine when the units on the field can act. By December, the test build was completed and the team was given permission to begin full development. The story's heavy religious themes raised concerns that it would be censored for the west, but Atlus stated that it would keep the game intact, as they "[sought] to give gamers the same experience that Japanese gamers would have". Description: Original score for Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (developed and published by Atlus for PlayStation 2). The game's music was written by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, and its theme songs and vocals were performed by Japanese singer Reiko Ariga. Stella Deus doesn't set out to redefine its genre, but instead simply provides a good game of its type. The gameplay, which is similar to that of Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, has the player controlling six characters through story-driven tactical missions, revolving around … When you bring up the town menu while traveling, along with the option to enter the catacombs you'll have the option to visit the shop or the guild. [11][12][13], The sound design was one of the areas where Yamamoto was initially unsatisfied, making multiple changes with his staff during the development run-up to the game's Beta version. It takes a bit of time to get used to this system (particularly for spells and special abilities, which require both AP to use and magic points to cast). Stella Deus has a total of 21 recruitable characters. And so long as your party is of the appropriate level, nailing foes is generally easy enough with the wide array of skills you'll have at your disposal. At the end of each battle, the players gain a summary of their performance and spoils gained. Console strategy fans should have a good time with this one. Stella Deus is also not a "super deformed" game, meaning the characters are meant to more accurately represent actual humans and not the exaggerated giant … The lyrics were written by Yukiko Mitsui. By Bethany Massimilla on May 9, 2005 at 5:11PM PDT [2] The cutscenes used cel-shaded animation, and were created by Japanese studio Kamikaze Douga. Item fusion does just what it implies, letting you fuse two of your items and earn a new result. For Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity on the PlayStation 2, Fusion FAQ by Gundam4fun. Stella Deus is such a special game. [1][2] The world is navigated using an overworld map using point-to-point navigation, with a date system showing the length of time it takes to get to a selected location. With the exception of a slight misstep involving a fishing title, Atlus has really been on a tear as of late. There's some room for customization with skills, as you can get them from some items as well and have whomever you like spend the skill points to learn them, but for the large part you'll be using a character's innately learned set of abilities. This means that battles in Stella Deus aren't a matter of looking at a map, running to the very edge of your movement area, and unleashing your most powerful spell; you'll have to check your AP costs and be mindful of when you need to conserve them. Stella Deus: The Gate of Mediocrity. Possibly too stiff, if your characters are a little low in level--Stella Deus continues the long tradition of console strategies by being all about your party's level status. You can fully explore its depths at any time to satisfy any desire you may have to level your party to ludicrous strength, but even if you're not interested in that type of thing, chances are you'll still have to visit the place regularly to keep your group in tip-top condition. Your characters gain experience as well as skill points from defeating enemies, and the skill points can be used to purchase abilities. And the journey is made very easy on the eyes by some great artwork in the game. Activision Is Being Sued Over A Female Character In Call Of Duty, Xbox Series X|S Sales Not Far Behind PS5, Analyst Says, By Pokémon Hub Find it all Pokédex All the stats Pokémon Forums Get help and find friends; ... Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity FAQ/Walkthrough Character actions are arranged in a set order, and each character's weapon dictates their attack range. Atlus' Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity is a strategy RPG that was favourably compared with Final Fantasy Tactics.Its score was composed by the same two people too, Basiscape's Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, and they develop their military orchestral sound throughout the album. The Stella Deus BGM ReArrange Album adds little order to the chaos, featuring five arrangers doing a mixture of piano, electronic, jazz, and orchestral arrangements and medleys of Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata's material from Stella Deus. Great artwork and solid gameplay make Stella Deus worth the look. Stella Deus really captures this quality with a great opening track and the quality never drops from there. If you're too low, you'll need to catch up, but the game provides a relatively easy way to do this with the Catacomb of Trials. -=Stella Deus: The Gate of ... most of the time. Your AP refreshes to 100 each turn, and those with the most AP have the most initiative, which lets you do interesting things, like juggle your initiative with conservative moves to have a healer always ready to heal, or lure your enemies into long trips to expend their AP, letting you nail them. It was the first time the two had worked together since their work on Final Fantasy Tactics: Sakimoto tried his hand at more serious dramatic music, while Iwata used more symphonic material than in previous works. Soejima managed to get the post, which was his first as a character designer as well as art director. [2][4][5][6] The story Yamamoto's earlier work as a debugger for Atlus proved useful during the final stages of development. [4] Players navigate the field across a grid-based map, which can include obstacles such as bodies of water and high structures. [1][2][3] Each character has a specific character class, which they keep throughout the game and continue to level up as they gain experience points (XP). EZ powers can be helpful to your allies (like giving a boost to evade or accuracy, or regenerating some health every turn), or they can be offensive (giving baddies bad status effects). Stella Deus takes place in a world called Solum, which is slowly being swallowed by "Miasma", a mist-like substance that destroys all life it touches. If you must level, this is one of the more accessible ways to arrange it, plus clearing a given floor will net you cash to spend on new equipment. In camps set up on a journey, characters can swap out weapons and armor, equip items such as healing potions and beneficial charms for future battles. The animated cutscenes have a cool sketched form to them, and the color palette used is muted and misty, like the world in which the game takes place. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The number of available levels in the Catacomb increases as players progress through the game. You can fuse just about every item in the game, and some items can be acquired only through fusion, so it's both fun to play with as well as genuinely useful. Some programming work was outsourced to company Designer 7. Its North American release was announced in December 2004. The gameplay, which is similar to that of Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, has the player controlling six characters through story-driven tactical missions, revolving around positioning, assigned equipment, and the special skills of individual characters. The time you have to spend advancing in levels is something you have to be prepared for, but it's handled well for what it is and is balanced fairly well in the game as a whole. I don't host or upload files of any kind (movies or music etc) on my Blog. [6] The characters' metallic clothing and contrasting colors of items was influenced by The Lord of the Rings, while some characters and the environmental textures were inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Special items used in character leveling can also be crafted by the player. I really enjoyed all the aural aspects of Stella Deus. [3][4] Characters' actions are governed by their stored Action Points (AP): a character's turn begins when their AP meter is at 100. However, the Nox faction of the Aeque becomes a major thorn in Spero's side, as its leader, Nebula, is dedicated to bringing about Solum's destruction by summoning God himself: Dies Irae, the God of Destruction. Stella Deus ~ Release by Various Artists (see all versions of this release, 1 available) The catacomb serves as a sort of required "side dungeon." Spero's two best friends and companions in the hunt for Spirits are Adara, a woman who lost her arm and had it replaced by an alchemic limb, an "argyrion", and Grey, a free-wheeling jokester who rags on Adara constantly. The game's shop is streamlined to the point that gathering any weapons or items you need is a breeze--you can apply your new equipment directly to your party and then just purchase it all in one fell swoop, no fuss. Each level of the dungeon corresponds to the strength of the enemies you find there, so floor two has level-two monsters, floor 10 has level-10 monsters, and so on. [2] While described as a spiritual successor to Hoshigami, Atlus said that it was not a sequel to it, instead being its own game. Three types of Skills can be equipped for characters: Action Skills, a special attack that player execute for a certain amount of Magic Points (MP); Support Skills, which grant passive abilities such as scaling higher obstacles; and Zone Skills, which grant passive abilities to both the equipped character and those in close proximity to them. Quests take many forms. And finally, an alchemist named Viser is using Dignus's patronage to hunt the world's Spirits (polygonal creatures whose nature is unknown), draining their life-force to fuel his alchemic inventions, which he is sure will save the world. As we continued to talk, we began to move beyond gaming and discussed issues with work, life, relationships, etc. Bah, villains! It was published in Japan and North America by Atlus, and in Europe by 505 Games. Fully armored warriors conjure images of tribal idols or old-fashioned robots, with full-face helmets and their sculpted metal features. [8], For its release in North America, Atlus' USA branch took up localization and publishing duties. Many parts of the artistic design revolves around realistic depictions of the world's setting, clothing and weapons. They're all pretty straightforward, but many are worth doing, for easy money as well as the possibility for recruiting new generic party members to fill out your ranks. [10] After release, two mobile titles based on the game were published in Japan by Atlus and mobile company Bbmf in September 2006 and January 2007 respectively: Stella Deus: Raven Spirits, a mobile version of Stella Deus featuring a separate story, and Stella Deus: Time of Alchemy, a sequel to both Stella Deus and Raven Spirits. Head on over to the catacombs, then meet us at the boss when you're ready. -- About Stella Deus ~ Alpha Project -- Stella Deus (an unofficial sequel to Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth) was developed by Pinegrow, a reconstructed team formerly known as Max Five. Once these had been finalized, production began in earnest. His friend and deputy, Spero, is the game's protagonist. [15][16][17] "Holy Spirit" was the first in-game vocal theme Sakimoto has written.[14]. You can learn new special attacks, passive abilities (like a 10 percent boost to attack power or immunity to poison), and effect zone (EZ) powers that let you affect units in your immediate vicinity. Japanese turn-based strategy games have enjoyed their own niche on the PlayStation 2, the more notable representatives being Nippon Ichi's colorful and entertaining games. Stella Deus, released in the west as Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity, is a tactical role-playing game co-developed by Atlus and Pinegrow for the PlayStation 2. [1][3][4], Alongside Action Skills, two or more characters in conjunction trigger unique special moves called Team Attacks. Among the staff were Atlus director Akiyasu Yamamoto, and scenario supervisor Ryo Mizuno, author of the Record of Lodoss War fantasy novel series. "Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity North American instruction manual", "Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity - Review", "Stella Deus to be Released as New PlayStation 2 Class This Week on North American PSN", "TGS2004イベントレポート 〜アトラス編〜 「九龍妖魔學園紀」など多彩なイベントを開催", "Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity for PlayStation 2", "Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity Review", "Reviews - Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stella_Deus:_The_Gate_of_Eternity&oldid=995915127, Articles using Infobox video game using locally defined parameters, Articles using Wikidata infoboxes with locally defined images, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles using Video game reviews template in multiple platform mode, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Articles with Japanese-language sources (ja), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 December 2020, at 15:38. One of his major problems was that he had yet to refine his own drawing style. As a deadly mist called the "miasma" spreads across the land, you must guide a team of characters on a mission to save the world. [1][2] The game uses the turn-based Replaceable Action Position battle system, much of which was carried over from the battle system used in Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth. Character positioning within the environment can be used to their advantage, such as an archer gaining higher accuracy when at a high point in the level. [2][9] The English voice recording was done by Elastic Media Corporation. Stella Deus OST [FLAC] Composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto / Masaharu Iwata Arranged by Hitoshi Sakimoto Format 1 CD - 42 tracks Release date October 06, 2004 ... (in my opinion) I find every time I surf the Interwebz. Its battle system is slightly different but still easy to pick up and learn, and the skill and fusion systems allow for some character customization on already solid templates. In the summer of 2003 they first unleashed Nippon Ichi's Disgaea: Hour of Darkness in a time of darkness for the then meager sampling of strategy-RPG titles on consoles. Not only did the developers need to provide places of interest to players, but Soejima needed to create realistic clothes for characters. The amount of AP used with each action depends on the weight of the armor the character is wearing.[3][4]. Skills vary by character class, and there are a number of these in the game--from fighters and swordsmen and samurai, to archers and clerics and alchemists, and more. Beyond some obvious tactical advantages (strong melee versus ranged magic and archers), the character abilities are fairly homogeneous, with all melee classes and ranged classes having equivalently strong skills. Not only is the game fun, but the memories of talking about it with a group of other gamers really made the experience memorable. EZ skills are nice, though everyone has a differently arranged effect zone, so sometimes you'll find yourself unable to take advantage of them efficiently. Initial preparation for Stella Deus's development began in the second half of 2002, when the project was first proposed to the developer and publisher. The music of the game really infuses you and helps to capture the mood even when Grey dies YET AGAIN from having the defense of a piece of paper. Latest Team Posts What new on the Teams forums. Spero agrees to help her with her quest, which involves securing the aid of four elemental Summon Spirits before opening the actual Gate. Stella Deus purposely avoids Final Fantasy Tactics' insane level of character customization and Shining Force 3's flashy audiovisual sense, instead choosing to settle into its own comfortably safe niche. PS2 titles. The amount of damage done depends on how many characters took part in the action. Looking through my library of unplayed strategy offerings, I singled out Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity for a few reasons. Stella Deus: The Gates of Eternity is Atlus’ latest entry into the Strategy RPG genre, and continues Atlus’ streak of fun, quality SRPGs. Each time a character performs an action, they gain experience points and additional Skill Points (SP) that can be used to purchase supplies or raise individual character stats. A spiritual successor to the PlayStation One letdown Hoshigami, Stella Deus brings to the table the traditional isometric strategy RPG (a la Final Fantasy Tactics, the gold standard of the genre). [2][8] Character sprites and status images used high-resolution artwork. Alongside the story missions, Towns can be visited, in which characters can customize and create new weapons and armor, sell existing equipment in exchange for money, and shop for items such as healing potions. Stella Deus has a way of creating high levels gear and weapons from current inventory which is pretty exhaustive in the amount of combinations can be used. To get the feel he needed, he used brushes as opposed to cel-shaded drawing he used in later projects. 4. Stella Deus is a story-driven tactical role-playing game in which the player controls a group of characters both picked up during the course of the story and in side events. Describing himself as initially "at a loss", much of his memory of the experience is dominated by finding his chosen style rather than specific character designs. Pokemon. Sound Rating: 8/10. Get ready to embark on a quest that has you hunting spirits, battling enemies, and ultimately opening the fabled Gate of Eternity. First they Stella Deus is a Tactical Role Playing Game (TRPG) combining intricate gameplay with an impressive storyline. Lyon Campagne Nuit romantique Suites de charme. At Metacritic, the game received an average score of 75, based on 31 reviews. Resources: No MIDIs are currently available for this album. Along with swordsmen and archers, there are alchemists (mages), priests (healers), and units who fight using most things from axes to fists. Additional Information. Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (PlayStation 2) review by Zigfried . GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers. GameVortex's review of Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity. Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity is a relatively standard turn-based strategy game that, if nothing else, serves as a decent introduction to the genre. And you'll need those for the game's mighty boss characters, which almost invariably provide a nice stiff challenge. Listen, guys, it has come to my attention that we're not all level six. The initial proposal was then fleshed out into an entire game, including the scenario and gameplay basics. The game's story revolved around religions conflict, focusing on the Aeque faith, Dignus' attempts to undermine it, and the main cast's position between the two factions. While creating the atmosphere, the developers tried to stay away from standard fantasy tropes. Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity Review Stella Deus doesn't set out to redefine its genre, but instead simply provides a good game of its type. There was also a concern over whether the swords in the world were made using casting or forging, which would affect their design and other aesthetic elements. You have to clear a floor once to get to the next one, but once you've cleared a floor, you can go back to it at any given time. Characters have a variety of both active and passive skills they can equip. on May 9, 2005 at 5:11PM PDT. As such, it should more than satisfy anyone interested in the genre, though some drawbacks prevent it from being advisable for all. [2] The game's setting was in a vast desert, so this needed to be taken into account with environment and character designs. This is a game that aims to appeal directly to the existing console strategy audience, and there's enough that sets Stella Deus apart to make it worth a look to those fans. If you're the sort of player who loves maxing out your characters in every possible way, fusion is right up your alley, and both fusion and the catacombs give the already meaty story battles and progression a nice counterpart. The various effects for special abilities, team attacks, and even normal melee also look really good and pack a nice visual punch. A warlord, Dignus, has taken to ravaging the countryside with his armies, imposing the law of the jungle: he who will not fight for his life does not to deserve to live. PS2 (106) Game Genres. The game began production in 2002. 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