Secret of the Stars

"An overall good RPG from Tecmo!"

Secret of the Stars is an RPG game made by Tecmo and in my opinion, it's a pretty good game.

The story begins on Heart Island. Taking the role of a young, adventurous guy called Ray, raised by his mother, Sonya, he embarked on an adventure to Likado and discovered that an inevitable disaster is about to happen. An evil monster, Homncruse is waiting for a chance to destroy the world. Along with your trust worthy companions, only you can stop them.

The story, in my opinion, is pretty typical of a traditional RPG. You are the hero and you must save the world from some big baddies..blah..blah..blah. Pretty standard plot, huh?

But i do like the story and the way the plot develops. You can of course, expect surprises. Somehow, Tecmo gives very little clues to the game as to what or how you should now at a particular point. And, because of that, it leaves the story overhanging and creates a suspense, which i think is very good.

But still, i can't deny that some of the puzzles or riddles are ridiculously hard to solve and the clues given are so little that you are often caught in a dilemma as to what or how you should do. This can sometimes add to fustration. The bosses, enemies are not really hard, in my opinion, but the puzzles or riddles are really a..... [Sometimes, it's isn't that easy as you think when comes to solving puzzles or riddles and often, the way to solve it can be rather quite surprising.]

The combat system is much like most other traditional RPGs that you have played before. It's turn-based and the combat scenes are quite similar to that of Lufia 1's but then, Secret of Stars doesn't have those cross-menu interface like Lufia.

Like most traditional RPGs, as you win battles, you gain more experience points and eventually gain a level and may learn some new magic spells.

The character cast is pretty big, about 8 or 9, if i remember correctly. And, there will be a time when you will be able to split into two parties. Pretty challenging, huh?

The graphics, in my opinion, are pretty average. It's quite colourful, and at least when compared to the older SNES games, it won't hurt the eyes that too much, don't you think so?

The scenes during combat are pretty good and it is definitely not worse than Lufia 1. The magic spells are pretty nice and the characters are quite well animated.

As for music and sound, i have nothing much to say. The audio is pretty average when compared to games like Final Fantasy series. [Hey, Tecmo don't have Nobuo Uematsu or Yasunori Mitsuda.]

The gameplay, overall, is pretty good and it will take more than about 15 hours or more to beat it. [I suppose it's around that duration.]

RPG veterans may want to take up the challenge and play this game. It's rather hard to find a copy of its cartridge nowasdays. But, you can download an emulator and the rom to play it. Overall, Tecmo has done a pretty good job, don't you think so?

Story : 8.5/10.0
Graphics : 8.5/10.0
Concept : 7.0/10.0
Control : 8.5/10.0
Music : 7.0/10.0
Sound : 7.0/10.0
Gameplay : 9.0/10.0
Replay : 8.5/10.0
Challenge : 9.5/10.0
Overall : 8.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/00, Updated 12/16/02