Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity

"A letdown for a strat game coming from Atlus, but "ok" non the less"

Ok, I'll say it outright, just to get it out of the way, yes, this game desperately tries to copy final fantasy tactics. As with most reviews for this game, it just needs to be pointed out before everything.

Now onto the game itself, anyone who's a fan of Atlus games knows that they are generally incredibly good games, very intuitive, and almost always incredibly unique. Sadly, none of that really applies to Stella Deus.

Stella Deus does nothing more then "remind" you of better games you've probably played. It reminds you of Final Fantasy Tactics in it's core game play, it reminds you of Disgaea in it's skills and item descriptions, it reminds you of pretty much every generic strat-rpg with it's story, etc.

That's the general impression you get from it, it's a mixture of everything, yet it really isn't unique, or all that good for that matter.

--Gameplay--

The game play in Stella Deus is a bit different then the average strat game, but it still isn't all that unique. The AP system of Stella Deus is a change from most ones. Instead of turns and statistics like speed and agility, you are presented with a system that relies on AP to carry out your actions and movements.

In all honesty, the AP system does nothing but annoy you. It affects you and enemies, and to manage it completely you'd have to look at every bit of terrain on every map, and plan every move in advance.

The truth is, all the mechanics and systems of Stella Deus really don't matter. Nothing seems to matter in this game when it comes down to it. The only thing that matters are levels, you can have level 1 equipment, but if that char is leveled high enough, none of it matters, hence this makes things like items and item fusion kind of pointless.

Item fusion is interesting, but that's about it. It's almost completely worthless when it comes down to it. The only time it truly has a use is at the very end of the game, which by that time, it really doesn't matter.

There's lots of chars and lots of customization, but there are so very few skills and chars that are actually worth anything. Every one of your characters will have the same exact skills most likely, since there are only a hand few that are worth using the few slots you get for.

You get an onslaught of generic char's that join you through "quests" (extremely easy and short one stage battles 99.9% of the time) but are not even worth using a once. Story chars are the only ones worth using, and, well, you just don't get much variety, a healer, a swordsman, a dual swordsman, a lancer, a mage, that's about it when it comes down to it.

--Story--

The story in Stella Deus is awful, it just really is. It basically sums up to the world's going to heck due to a substance that's spreading and turning the world into a dessert, a religious sect tells the people to sit back and wait for death because it's god's wish for everything to end, and then an "overlord" shows up and laughs at that idea, and decides he wants to destroy the world himself. Our hero decides he wants to save the world, and well, he sets out to do so pretty fast.

About an hour into the game you go on a "quest" to save the world that makes about much sense as the lord of the rings trilogy when you really think about it. If anyone else thought that throwing a ring in a volcano is what the rings trilogy summed up to, then you'll get that same feeling here, you're looking for a gate that will save the world, there is nothing more, nothing less really to the story.

--Graphics--

The graphics are "ok." They're not good in any form or shape, the cell shaded graphics that appear in the very small amount of cut-scenes for example, just look odd. They don't look good, but you can't really say they're bad. The battle graphics are simply pretty generic backdrops with sprites. The sprites look good and have good animations, with "special detail" given to female sprites and their lack of bra's, ahem. Character portraits in this game look pretty good. They give you a false impression of this game having good graphics almost since they are drawn extremely well, and with lots of detail.

Like I mentioned, there is this strange "detail" given to pretty much every female in the game. I'll leave it at no women wears a bra, and it seems that even though the world is turning into a dessert, they're very, VERY "cold." There's also one female char who appears to be wearing a blouse with her chest exposed.

It just leaves you wondering if the things I've mentioned where added in for fan-service or to make young males like it a bit more.

--Sound--

The sound is dull. There's nothing catchy, there's very few tracks, and all of it just makes you want to hit mute and play your own music, it really is unberable.

As far as the voices, the voice actors don't show that much emotion, but there are a few very good voice actors in between the ones that act like they're reading from a text book out loud in school. It's about a 50/50 as far as the voice actors, half are good, half are bad.

------

In closing, sure it's an ok game, but there's just so many things to dislike about Stella Deus, there's to many little things that make it a bad game also. In complete honesty, sure it's a decent game to waste some time with if you find it in a bargain bin at EB Games or the like. It's not unplayable or anything, but it's not very good, it's just a little below average, I'd give it a 6.5 if I could, since it's not a 7, and still better then 6.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/07