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Could have been a great game... to bad it's not.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I first saw Hoshigami, I bought it immediatly, thinking that Atlas had finally done what no other producer had done to date: created a stratagy game that could rival even the great Final Fantasy Tactics! Keep looking. This could have been an excellent game if it weren't for a lot of really annoying things like the difficulty level. The most boring part of the game is the stupid "Tower of Trials," in which you HAVE to go through a few levels after every fight to level up your characters (which can take hours!) Even then, you'll never really be a comparable level to most of your enemies, and you'll be forced to spend at least half the game in the tower. The difficulty is impossible, and the combat system plays like a tired clone of FFT... wait... the entire game looks and feels exactly like a half-bit clone. The interface, music, graphics, combat system... nothing compares even halfway to Tactics. A warning to those considering buying this game: it will only sit and collect dust on your shelf if you do! Can I give it a negative score? Please?...

could have...not [stunk]..

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

But it does. Apart from the fact its too hard (any game were you HAVE to take lots of time in between game quests and level up is to hard); the control freaking [stinks]! It takes 8, EIGHT! Bottom presses just to tell your char' to do nothing and defend! God help you if you want to attack or move. Why the development team thought that would be a cool interface is beyond me, all I can think is that why didn't bother playing it before release. It may sound minor, but the control is the most important part of a game. You have to use it though the whole thing. If it [stinks], the whole game will.

...agh...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Yay, paychecks in, I'm going to the mall, oh lookie, a new tactics rpg, and look!! it's by Atlus! 45$? sure thing! ...

So I go home, put it in, it's sort of interesting... but not really dragging me into it, the way tactics ogre or vandal hearts did... but I press on, because, I did spend money on it...

First three battles... Not that difficult, but still, definitely harder then ones from other games I've played, but hey, that's alright, I don't mind a hard game, if it's fun...

But it's not, ever... I kept playing hoping for some big moment when I'd think it was all worth it, but it never came, I just wasted more and more hours, finally I beat the game, more out of habit then actually wanting to, as soon as I beat it, I put it back in its case, drove back to the mall, and sold it to the clerk at the store I bought it at for 9$... technically it's not his fault I bought the game, but since he worked at the store I bought it at, I felt I could get some revenge...

Don't even consider it as a coaster

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My rating = -1/0 (negative infinity) stars.... this is a veterate FFT clone: It has the turn based battle system where actions and moves consume your turn gauge (not even an analog.....a facsimile of FFT). Even the target for your spells and attacks is a set of red squares. Don't get me wrong... I played FFT for over 300 hours and I still enjoy playing it (although I conquered deep dungeon etc.), but this game became intolerable after two hours. Why ? This is not exactly a FFT clone... because it is lacking a job system entirely... meaning that you can only choose between certain deities (sort of like zodiacs in FFT) that modify your stats.... that's it and there are only 6.... so there are really only two classes: Melee/Range and Mage. So you could look at it as a FFT restricted to jobs/classes (meaning there are none), but with horrible music, and a ridiculous difficulty. Having the identical battle system induces it's inheritance of the one/two character lvl up, because otherwise you will die of the monotonous battles before you can lvl your entire party (that consists of 7). Unlike FFT, however, there is really no place to lvl up besides ONE STRUCTURE (THE SAME MAP OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN THE PLACE YOU SPEND YOUR MOST TIME GENIUS ATLUS!) And most of the time you may spend yout time cursing when you need to rescue a character and it dies instantly from three hits from three different enemies that have a 10% chance of hitting (probability is .001). This game is so horribly monotonous and frustrating that I gave up offering it to my friends (since they knew better the bastards) and simply smashed the CD and threw it away. I don't think atlus could have done a worse job with this game considering that it was FFTs successor: Dont buy it, dont even play it unless you want to piss yourself off, and make sure you throw it in a dumpster that you don't like because I wouldn't even defile my garbage can with it.

Ive not played it so the star isnt anything relevant...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 14
Date: February 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Im tired of hearing this is a Final fantasy tactics clone. It isnt, for one reason: Final Fantasy tactics was an Tactics Ogre Clone, which was way better than fft to begin with.

Facts

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game was not fun for me. Final Fantasy Tactics was a much better game. Tactics was released in 98 and Hoshigami was released in 01. Tactics was released almost 4 years before Hoshigami. Check the dates.

dumb game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: June 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this game is one of the worst games ever made befor. if you people what good game get final fantasy 2,3,4,5,6, and 7 thoes are good ones and lunar 1 and 2. they are much batter than Hoshigami

Ultimately frustrating and unrealized.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 31 / 34
Date: April 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I desperately wanted to like this game. As a strategy RPG, Hoshigami occupies a very niche corner of the video game world. Truthfully, I'm obsessed with strategy RPGs, and I'm always eager to devour new ones (which are rare, you see). Games like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics, two titles which heavily influence Hoshigami, are some of my all-time favorites. I love them for their exciting battles and elaborate character micromanagement systems.

So, when I started up Hoshigami, I was impressed. It looks pretty good (along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics), the story is interesting, and it seems intelligently designed, intricate, and difficult. I love a challenge. But I was betrayed...as I played further, Hoshigami became a chore, subject to a stupid loophole in the gameplay that made the entire thing quite ridiculous (I will explain below).

The big 'innovation' here is the RAP system. Each character has RAP points, which are consumed by executing actions (movement, attacks, etc.) I can see how a system like this could be applied to enhance the game's strategy, but something went wrong. In the end, the system only empowers certain characters to make an extra attack or move a few more spaces every turn. All that really happens is you end up pressing the button a few more times every turn, which makes already slow battles slower. Oh my. Why not just give a character more movement? More attacks?

Spells appear on little goodies called Coinfeigms. You can equip characters with Coinfeigms, and elective magic is an idea I really like. The number of Coinfeigms to be collected is very impressive, too. However, they are entirely useless. For all the game's difficulty, spells imbued in Coinfeigms are hopelessly underpowered. Further evidence that spells are completely unavailing is found in the fact that as I played through the game, none of my characters were ever slain by an enemy's spell.

In Hoshigami's polytheistic world, your characters develop skills by following a specific god and gaining powers through devotion. Devotion levels rise just like experience levels, so fighting makes you more devoted, getting you more abilities...right? Right. This was a very intriguing idea (unique skills according to different gods), but the developers messed up. Firstly, it takes forever to raise your levels. The stretches between levels are long, long, LONG. Secondly, the skills you earn with higher devotion levels are almost always useless. These two things make the game very difficult.

And I mean VERY difficult. Anyone who plays Hoshigami is sure to get slaughtered several times in the first few battles. The enemies are far more powerful than your team, and you are almost always outnumbered. Plus, if a character dies, he's dead -- resurrection only becomes possible much later in the game. Initially, I was glad for a challenge, but there is a fine line between "challenging" and "morbidly frustrating"...and Hoshigami crosses that line.

The only _apparent_ way to strengthen your party is to enter the Towers of Trial, which serve as training grounds for your characters. The Towers made me want to kill myself, quite honestly. They are stunningly boring, with repetitive battle maps, monsters, and everything else. I didn't want to train in these Towers, which were degenerating my sanity, but how else could I be match for the game's ridiculously hard battles?

So I discovered the "stupid loophole" I mentioned above. Instead of using a full team of characters, I used just two: Fazz (the main character) and one other mercenary. My mercenary would be a dummy fighter to draw enemy attacks while Fazz did the fighting. Usually my mercenary would get killed quickly, but I could always hire a more powerful one later. Even if the mercenary survived, any experience he gained would still leave him at a level lower than another mercenary I hire, so there was no point in keeping him. The beauty of it all? Fazz accrued 99% of the experience and became a death machine. It was mildly difficult at first, but soon I was able to kill most enemies in one or two hits. It became even easier when my weapon of choice became a bow & arrow so I could kill from a distance.

Suddenly, a viciously difficult game became mindlessly easy. I must say, I don't like strategy RPGs to be "mindless." I pushed on to the end to see what would happen in the moderately entertaining story, but the gameplay was probably making me stupider with every battle. Granted, the fact that I could defeat 15 enemies with just two characters was somewhat amusing for a few battles, but it became very boring, very quickly. A game that is too difficult is not fun. A game that is too easy is not fun either. With Hoshigami, it's either too easy or too difficult -- either way, it's not fun.

Get Tactics Ogre on GBA and skip Hoshigami.

Most difficult game ever made

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because of one reason. I love Final Fantasy Tactics. Hoshigame does share many elements in FFT, but this game is extremely difficult. In FFT, I level up some of my characters to 99, and breeze through the game. But you can't do the same in Hoshigami. Enemies in this game are at same level as your highest level character. Above that, your facing two to one, or three to one odds. This game is so hard that I had given up. I had never reset so many times in a game since FFT. Hoshigami could have been one of the greatest title if it wasn't so difficult. I would only recommend this game only if you have enormous amount of free time and a hardcore strategy gamer. You can only beat this game if your'e an expert on strategy games. Which I'm not.

Hoshigami stinks

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

You may have heard that Hoshigami is another Final Fantasy Tactics. Perhaps if you just glanced at the jewel case you'd think so, but five minutes of play time will tell you that is no where close. I thought IGN was being hateful giving this game a 4/10 but after playing it, I can assure you that was a generous rating.

The graphics are nice, and the interface isn't too bad once you turn all the navigation menus off. But that's where the similarity ends.

The story isn't as interesting, and the battles are longer, more tedious and massively, massively tougher. Mix that with the fact that your only hope of staying ahead is fighting countless battles in the so-called Tower of Trial, and you get one completely frustrating and boring game. (Every single level is the same, a few enemies in a big square room. With maybe some holes in the floor thrown in. Big fun there.)

It *IS* possible to beat hoshigami, but after an hour or two, you'll probably be like me and start wondering why anyone would bother. Essentially, if you take FFT, strip out the music, the storyline, the random battles, the various monsters, and the class system, and then make it so hard that every battle is a mix between tedious and maddening, you'd have Hoshigami.

Don't buy this one, don't even rent it. You'll regret it. The whole point of gaming is to have fun isn't it? Somebody should remind Atlus.

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