Secret of the Stars

"Both innovative and annoying"

Although Tecmo may be known for sports games their venture into the RPG realm is not without some success. Released in 1993, "Secret of the Stars" is a fun early/mid generation title with some unique features later found in "Chrono Trigger". However, the lack of any coherent plot in the American version coupled with the fact that there is no map to guide players around the rather expansive world makes for a less than perfect score. The mistakes are acceptable for a group not known for RPGs but that is still not enough to fully redeem this title.

STORY: 3/10

It isn't that the story itself is bad. Far from it. The problem is that it isn't told in such a way as to be interesting or even coherent. The story appears to skip around randomly, and this causes confusion concerning the correlation between characters and events. New party members join your group in a very haphazard kind of way which excludes any feeling of accomplishment for attaining them. And, when curve balls are thrown in later on they seem to be from so far out that they aren't even shocking. Instead of an "oh, wow!" reaction these twists elicit more of an "ooooookkaaaaaaaaay" response. And, all of this is exacerbated by the fact that the sub-par translation often makes dialogue confusing or misleading.

The basic story is that you are the son of a famous warrior and you must form together with a group of people to form Aqutallion. Then you must go and defeat the evil Homncruse for some reason or another. However, this is literally the first thing that you are told in the game. There is no explanation for why you must do this. You wake up in bed, and a random woman in your house who has no apparent relation to you tells you this. Then you go and do it. The game feels like the summary of a story instead of the story itself.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10

Secret of the Stars offers many interesting game play elements. It plays like any other turn based RPG, but the battle sequences offer more than the simple repetition of attacks or spells. First there is an AUTO option which causes the computer to make battle choices for you. This can be very useful when random encounters become tedious, because the game will make intelligent choices such as healing wounded characters. Also, characters can execute combination magic attacks that are more devastating than either individual spell. These reminded me of the double and triple techs from Chrono Trigger(even though Tecmo's game came out first.) The only downside here is that there is no in-game description for what each spell does.

In between battles there is plenty of world-map to explore, and a veritable smattering of vehicles with which to accomplish this. However, here is one area where the game begins to run into trouble. There is a lot of possible ground to cover and no map to do it with. Players will often spend their fair share of time wandering around in search of the proper town or dungeon. This is coupled with the fact that the game can often be unclear about what players are supposed to do next.

There are plenty of different items and weapons for the various characters that join the player's party. However, it is very difficult to ascertain what items do. Players can ask shop owners for a description of the goods they're selling, but the only way to obtain an item description for trinkets you already possess is to take them to a specific town and ask a specific man. This same sort of ordeal permeates the weapon aspect of the game, also. Players can only check the stats of their weapons and armor by trying to equip them. Don't want to buy that new sword without checking to see if you have a better one already? Too bad. You can save first, but this is very inconvenient. Also, the only way to see who can use a piece of armor or a new weapon is to try to equip it to everyone in your party.

Aside from this description deficiency, there is one feature of this game that really interested me. At the beginning your main party member will come in contact with a member of the Kustera. This is a group of people who are also on a mission to defeat Homncruse. The Kustera can and must be controlled to finish the game, and players can switch back and forth between them and the main party at any time. There are more members of this strange group than there are main party members, and each will join up when their prerequisite conditions are met. The only problem with the system is that it is unlikely that players will want to level up two different parties. This causes the Kustera to be downplayed more than they should be.

CONTROL: 7/10

I swear that if I play one more SNES RPG that only uses 2 buttons for all commands then I am going to give it an automatic 3 for control. We have here another wonderful example of a game which only utilizes 2 out of the 8 possible buttons on an SNES controller. These 2 buttons used are changeable, but their functions are not. The cancel button and menu button are always the same. Aside from this, though, the controls are fine. Menu navigation is fairly simple and traversing the world map can be done with relative ease. Really I just can't get over their stinginess of button assignation. Plus, there is no way to cycle through status or equipment menus, an easily remediable situation with the use of L and R.

GRAPHICS: 7/10

As is the case with most RPGs the world map views are grossly inferior visually to the battle screens, and "Secret of the Stars" falls victim to this as well. While not in battle your characters appear pudgy and pixilated and are nearly indistinguishable as a specific gender. This also goes for all NPC met in towns and other places throughout the game. There is some animation for bodies of water in and out of town, but all out-of-battle character movements are restricted to about 2-3 frames of animation. So the game doesn't have that static kind of feeling, but it also doesn't flow like many later generation SNES games do.

Aside from all these flaws, though, the battle sequences did turn out to be a fun and lively experience. Although the initial view is merely of the monsters you are fighting, when it is your character's turn to act a better drawn representation of said character appears to do the assigned action. Weapon attacks are animated well and spell casting is in fact a visual treat. I particularly enjoyed the way that when a member of your party was equipped with a different weapon it was shown that way in battle. My only point of contention with this aspect is the fact that monster attacks aren't animated. When a creature lashes out at you he merely flashes. But, this style has been used before and I'm sure it will be used again.

SOUND: 5/10

There really isn't a whole lot to say about the sound in this game. There aren't many tracks and they aren't that interesting, but over all I wasn't annoyed by them. The tunes can get a little repetitive if you spend some time leveling up in an area but it isn't anything to turn the sound off over. An average rating is the best I can give here.

Recap:

This really isn't a bad game. It isn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but there was enough innovation to keep it interesting for most of its duration. If Tecmo had included a world map and fixed the rookie mistakes with item and weapon description, then this game would be very easy to recommend. As it stands, however, I wouldn't waste my time playing this game (unless you have played almost everything else out there.) I estimate that the game took about 15-20 hours.

STORY: 3/10
GAMEPLAY: 6/10
CONTROL: 7/10
GRAPHICS: 7/10
SOUND: 5/10

TOTAL: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05