Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity

"In the end, sort of a letdown."

Atlus has been one of my favorite developers/publishers since their earliest releases. My love for them grew during the Playstation era as a lot of my favorite games for that system were Atlus releases. Even their other Playstation 2 releases, while far from as strong as the PSX lineup, were still rather enjoyable. This is why I was rather excited about Stella Deus and picked up the day it came out. In hindsight, I probably should have waited and picked this one up in the bargain bins a few months down the line.

Don't expect anything amazing here. The story is very linear and is presented through a series of static pictures. You'll see the picture of one character's face while he speaks then we switch to a picture of another character while he replies and so on. At times, the character pictures change just a tad to deal with emotions such as surprise or anger. As with most PS2 games these days, there is voice acting and as with most PS2 games these days, it's pretty mediocre. Some characters sound terrible while others are merely decent, no one character really stands out although Avis and Linea are probably the two I disliked least The main character's lines are delivered with almost no feeling or interest. There are some twists in the story and it remains somewhat interest through the game but if you're thinking of buying an RPG in order to see a good story then look elsewhere to games like Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics or the Shadow Hearts series.

The music is done by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. In the past, these two have worked together on games with such great music as Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics. Sakimoto also worked on Vagrant Story, another game with fantastic music so naturally I was expecting a lot here. Thankfully, the music is one of the highlights of the game. From the opening theme to the great battle theme, the sound scape is very rich. These composers are two of the best in the video game world today and they deliver here yet again.

When I get into an SRPG, I expect a good battle system. I want depth, I want good character interaction in battles, well designed battle fields and the like. Here, the battles are merely decent. The game uses a fairly basic movement system but adds to the mix an AP system that controls what you can do each turn. Each character has 100 AP at the start and each movement, attack, spell and the like use up some AP. For example, using this system, it is possible to attack three times in one turn if you forgo movement. The same goes for enemy characters so you have to use strategic movement to prevent such things as an enemy attacking your characters three times in one turn. This system works pretty well for the most part.

Now for the battles themselves. The main problem is that the battles are very similar in nature and they get pretty repetitive quite quickly. The battle fields are all very similar and somewhat restrictive. There really isn't any interaction between the player and the battlefield. Some sort of field effect system would have been nice and would have added some more depth to the battles. As it stands, the battles simply break down to move close to your enemy and kill them without using much strategy. If you're more powerful than the enemy, you'll win easily and if you're not, well you'll lose pretty easily. The game basically breaks down to levels and there are no other things that affect the battle outcome.

Another problem is that most of the characters play the same. Sure, they have their unique skills but I rarely even used those as a strategy of move in and attack a lot works well for the most part. In the end you're left with a pretty bland system that gets boring only a few hours into the game.

Then there are the enemies. They all look the same! The enemy and character sprite and battlefield designs are some of the most boring I've seen in quite some time. You'll tire of seeing the same exact sprite over and over especially when you wander into the catacombs. This dungeon is the worst offenders as it overuses the same exact battlefield with some height variations.

There are no random battles here. The aforementioned catacombs serve as your level up lair. You can go in there at any time and fight down the floors which basically contain the same battlefield with the same enemy sprites as you go down. The thing is that each level contains enemies that match the level of the catacombs, so you'll fight level 8 enemies on level 8 of the catacombs. The catacombs themselves are 100 levels and if you somehow manage to bear the 100 levels of repetitive battles, you'll receive a stat raising accessory that has no point since you've already beaten the hardest level in the game.

As far as secrets go, well, there are some as most of the bosses in the game can be recruited if you go out of your way and over level in the catacombs in order to be able to meet the requirements. The fact is that the casual gamer will miss most of these secret bosses and never even know the chance at getting them exists if they don't look at a guide.

Great music, decent graphics, decent story and a pretty mediocre battle system is what this game boils down to in the end. Perhaps if the battle system had more depth, this game could have been something but as it stands, the battle system gets boring really quickly. This is one of those game I'll play once and probably never again. The secret characters don't really seem all that interesting to me if I have to dredge through same old battles yet again. The music is great and I encourage you to obtain the OST as it is one of the highlights of this otherwise drab game. Otherwise, unless you're a huge fan of the SRPG genre, you won't be missing much by skipping this title. If you're new to the genre and looking for a good entry game then choose something else as this is far from the best the genre has to offer.

Recommendation: Even if you're a fan of SRPG games, rent or pick it up down the line in the bargain bins. Otherwise, skip this one.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/05, Updated 07/19/05