My Playtime: 110+ hours
Genre: Strategy Turn Based RPG
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Stella Glow has to be one of my top favorite RPGs of all time. I cannot recommend this game enough. The plot, the characters, the romance, the
music, the battles, and replayability made this a must have for any RPGer. Believe me. Stella Glow was an anomaly for me since I
don’t play strategy RPGs. Ever. The genre was never on my radar. But I was craving new RPGs for my 3DS. When I saw the cover, how could I pass it
up?
Stella Glow is a strategy-turn based role-playing game. Breaking down the gameplay - the strategy is that the battlefield is a grid.
Each character has their limit on how far they are able to move
depending on the terrain. Rusty, who is
very nimble and quick, can climb anything and travel the farthest, while
Archibald, who wears heavy armor, can’t climb certain areas and can only travel
short distances. Because of this, there
is also a disadvantage to leveling up characters. Faster the character, the faster they leveled
up. It took forever to level up
Archibald. With the grid system, at the
end of each turn, you have to face your character a certain direction. If an enemy attacks from behind, it is a
guaranteed critical hit. If they attack
you from the front, your character will either block, counterattack or get
reduced damage. And vice versa. Besides that, like most RPGs, it is you basic turn based
system. The character or enemy with the
higher agility stats, go first. During
your turn, you can choose to attack or use a skill or use an item. You can’t defend though. You are allowed up to 6 people on your
team. Depending on the situation, you can
have more but 6 is the norm. There are no random battles. There are locations on the map that has monsters. You can choose to do side battles or go to your next destination. Experience is only
gained if your characters battle, so you have to rotate. These are one things I hate about these RPGs. You have so many characters and you will
eventually have to use them for a battle and have to keep up with their
leveling. All I can say is that you
should focus on the witches.
Seriously. I couldn’t level up
Sakuya enough. Ugh.
This is also a harem game. In total, there are 15 characters that are available. There are 5 witches you develop feelings for. But what is interesting that you don’t have to end up with any of them. You will be given the option to pick any character (whom you have max affinity with) to end the game with. Your choices on who you spend your free time with in-game does affect the final outcome. It does not really matter on the second go round but will affect the first. I love all the characters. Each have their own quirks and their own story. I think they didn’t really develop Harbingers’ group as much as I want. I wanted to understand why Dorothy turned out the way she did. Besides that, the plot is so good. There was adventure, romance, drama, humor, and unexpected twists. Everything for everyone. How the story played out and how everything finally came full circle and properly explained was wonderfully woven. I’ll be honest, playing the second time around, I skipped most of everything since the surprise is gone. But I did have favorite parts that I liked to rewatch.
The artwork is candy to the eyes.
I love the designs of the characters.
There are no cutscenes. The
characters are 2D on the screen when they converse. Their lips don't move but their expression changes with their dialogue. There are occasional stills for special
events. It is in English audio only with
the songs being the original Japanese. There
is a lot of voice acting and the witches’ voices matched the Japanese singers’
voices pretty well. Speaking of the
songs . . . The music is amazing! There
are about 10+ songs in the game and each song is beautiful. The witches’ songs are so catchy and right
now, I constantly listening to the music in the car. The BGM is beautifully orchestrated. It was a pleasure to the ears.
There are only two things that I wish was different. First, you cannot achieve 100% completion of the game until you
play the second time around. I do recommend doing that. The first playthrough took me 60 hours. Second time took me only 50 hours. It was easier and faster, since money carried over and
you gained more EXP and triple the free time.
You can buy all the equipment you need, level up WAY faster and allowing
you to breeze through battles and you can max out everyone’s affinity, getting
the best abilities. Secondly, the
ending. I love all endings. Especially Hilda’s. However, if you want to see everyone’s
ending, you have to refight the final boss 15 times. If you are going through the true ending, it
took me 30 minutes to defeat her and that's with everyone at level 50. So,
no. I don’t have the time or inclination
to do that. I wished there was an option
to view these as extras.
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