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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.

Hoshigami: Ruining My Life

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: January 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

ATLUS is great at bringing us quirky games translated into English, with a heaping helping of off-beat humor to season the dish. Hoshigami may be Atlus' swan song for the PS1 console. It is a strategy and battle game that has been much compared to Final Fantasy Tactics but is also very much like the earlier Vandal Hearts. There is an engaging story that ties the battles together. The graphics are on the high end of typical for this sort of game with one complaint. Though you can rotate the battlefield, you can not raise or lower the elevation of the view and there some battles where you almost need an overhead view to figure out what is where. This game will have you throwing your controller at the TV screen in frustration. It is hard! Rather than giving you a chance to build up your characters' attributes with a series of battles in increasing difficulties, the game starts out with a couple simple battles and then immediately launches into combat scenarios where your characters are outnumbered four to one, the enemies get three or four turns to your one turn, never miss, and do 50-100 points of damage every blow, while you miss nearly every blow and if you manage to connect, you only do 10-30 points of damage! The game is so difficult that it almost stops being fun. Be prepared to spend a lot of time delaying the game to climb the Tower of Training or getting your butt handed to you in a basket...ARRRGGHH!!!

Hoshigami Has Nothing to Prove to The Next-Gen Systems

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 26
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am enthralled, gone somersaulting in a world of medieval, fantasy splendor. Famished for a tactical haven, besides PC Real-Time brutes such as StarCraft or C&C, MaxFive, a nameless company behind Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, homes on the Strategy/Turn-based vicinity, and grips a dynamic footing on what is easily the ultimate zenith the PlayStation shall ever conceive. Like Dragon Quest VII, Hoshigami has been in the works for a wee-bit too long (well over two years), and at a first glance, the game seems principally archaic, but skulking behind its frail mask is a multiplex of strategic approval. If you are currently wrestling with a tactical appetite, Hoshigami perfectly quenches it and then some, making you one elated, flabby chap. Spiked with what was arguable Square's king for a Strategy/RPG, Final Fantasy Tactics and sleeper-hit, Ogre Tactics, Hoshigami borrows heavily on the two and fine-tunes their initial flaws to stage a central plane of gameplay glory.

Gyrating on a gigantic floating realm called Mardias, Hoshigami breathes fresh, moderate life with a non-conventional tale amongst the most amiable characters brought onto the RPG fodder. As a main course we have three supreme kingdoms ruling the continent; Nightweld, Valaim, and Gerauld. Altogether, the three are on the verge of lethal-hitting war. With the mysterious disappearance of the moon, an ill-omened, world-destructive apocalypse is bound for Mardias. Fazz, a youthful, high-spirited mercenary, rushes on the hero bandwagon to allay the war, and concurrently learns the mystery involving the Hoshigami, the Star Gods who supposedly stole the light of existence. Although, retaining the "save the world from imminent destruction" plot, the considerable troupe of sundry characters suffices players to be towed and deeply engrossed upon days. As an incentive, a number of astonishing story twists and turns are wonderfully unbuckled. Primed Fantasy authors may even go googoo-gaagaa over Hoshigami's inspirational storyline.

Realizing that their graphics are quite obsolete, the guys of MaxFive fish out one heck of a wildcard, aggregating an excess of gaming spoils. Faithfully resembling FFT and Ogre Tactics, the player is first parked on a 2D map, akin to a wrinkly parchment with dots scattered from left to right. Several story events and optional paths are lined above the map, hinting sunny non-linear gameplay. Still on the map, players may save, visit shops, and organize battle configurations. In each town or castle there are equipment, coin, and recruitment facilities, along with a temple to convert faith to a different Star God. Preoccupying the player's social life are the long, ample, palm-sweaty battles. At the start of each battle, the map layout is displayed while enemies are visible. The player can select up to seven units to be deposited anywhere on the sizeable, 3D terrain as units are presented in 2D sprites. Played in Turn-Based procedure, the number of speed a character possesses establishes the order on who initially moves first. To help determine methods of victory or warding an impending onslaught, a row of Face Queues keep track of action order, enabling decision-making to sink in. Reminiscent of Front Mission 3, each party member is allotted with a certain number of movement points before a turn ends. Unbroken are the traditional Move, Attack, Item, and Defend commands. When a party member aims at an enemy, the accuracy and calculation of damage rolls up, followed by a rotating gauge acting as the basis on how the amount of damage is inflicted. If the player hits the X button when the meter is max, a lofty amount of damage distributes on the unlucky opponent and vice versa. Of all highlights, Hoshigami's grabbing feature is the Session Attack. Letting units "shoot" enemies, a clean shot from the Session Attack will thrust opposition forces two grids away on the map, and if that enemy comes in reach with another hero on Session Mode, that unit will implement an extra strike, smacking the enemy back a second time. Proving to be another tactical measure, the devastating combos are commonplace in the game. Difficulty ramps up little by little as foes ensnare heroes in a box of Sessioned units. On its skill learning system, Hoshigami is deficient of a class system. Character development depends on the Vow level (worshipping of a Star God), and equippable coins, or Coinfeigns, as the source of acquiring powerful incantations. Progressing further in the game, more formidable spells become accessible as characters gain strength, intelligence, HP, and MP. With a smoothly fathomed excursion to a perfect strategic feast, Hoshigami has nothing to prove to the next-gen systems, but bravely certifies itself as a spin-off from all the best tactical games released on the PS1, conducting a more extravagant tribute on how the PlayStation helped advance the gaming industry to reach its cosmic enormity of today.

Don't even deprive yourself from missing one of the most excellent games to be gracing on the PS1. Once you surmount the dated graphics and rather plain, drumming, war-like music, be prepared for days of heartwarming characters thronging in an enchanting narrative. Hoshigami is aimed for a good deal of exploration through immense and measurably intricate play. Burgeoning in every gaming aspect, though a 2P mode would have been worthwhile, Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth has vastly contributed to PlayStation's deluxe library of RPG's, redefining the Super Nintendo's Golden Age.

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.

Not FF Tactics...maybe even better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: October 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Ok, before we get a ton of misconceptions, this game has one thing in common with the FFT. The way the battle areas look. Other than that the systems are different. You use a meter somewhat like the kicking meter in most football games to attack or do a session(combo). There are no jobs, but instead you learn skills and your stats change according to which god you worship. Your magic is used through coinfeigms that are coins you find or buy which you can have engraved on to power up the magic. They also grow through usage, developing more powerful and more specialized skills. This game is gonna rock, and I think it has the potential to rank up there with Tactics Ogre, which is the best strat RPG on the market.(Yes, even better than FFT)

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.

Finaly a game that comes close to final fantasy tactics!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is simply one of the best strategy RPG's ever made. one of the reasons why is because it is so much like FFT. the battle system is great, and it is easy to level up your characters and magics, due to the "towers of trials" scatered around the world map. personaly i dont like strategys a great deal but when FFT came out i eagerly awaited a strategy that could even compare to it. Hoshigami is the game weve been searching for! not only is the story good, but the characters are very likeable, theres also allot of them to recruit. If you liked Final Fantasy Tactics then by all means buy this game now.

If you played every Shining Force...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love the strategic battle format. I've played every Shining Force, FF Tactics, both Vandal-Hearts, and was so happy to find Hoshigami. At first I struggled with the play control. The in-game tutorials are not all that clear, and the enemies were pushing my troops off their spaces and I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. But I stuck with it, found out how to level up my spell-casting coins, how to shoot enemies into a session attack, how to check out the enemies' magic and gear and use session attacks on the ones that had stuff I wanted them to drop. One of my characters has earned the ability to detect hidden prizes on the battlefield. Now I'm addicted. My only regret is that you can't save your game mid-battle like in Shining Force. This is no starter strategy. Experienced generals will love it.

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.

Can't say it was wonderful

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: September 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Yucki poo.
That's the simplest way i can write this. Hoshigami is just not a game i like. The fighting sequences are very predictable, confusing, and L--O--N--G. Also, when equpping, and even hiring characters/mercenaries it can get very confusing and muddled. The only thin i liked(and the part that stopped me from giving this game a zero) were it's very nicely drawn characters.

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