Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth

[WulfeLuer]

Hey everybody,

I'm trying to find some info/opinions/spurious rumors about Hosigami: Ruining Blue Earth for the PS1. I randomly stumbled across it on EBay and I wondered if it was worth adding to my backlog. I tried a bit of google-fu and only turned up a barebones Wikipedia article and the usual schizophrenia from gameFAQs. All I've gathered for sure is that it's a turnbased strategy RPG and was published by Atlus, and had a mean difficulty curve. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Koa Zo]

That game was the cover story from GameGo issue 2. I don't recall what they had to say about it, though.

[celerystalker]

It got a port to DS that my brother loved to death, but I don't dig on the grid-based stuff so much.

[Wraith Storm]

One of the worst gaming decisions I ever made. The Playstation was nearing the end of its lifespan and there I stood in Toys R US. I was debating on getting one of two titles. Hoshigami or Suikoden 2. Suikoden 2 was already known as a classic at that point and I assumed that copies of it would be plentiful. Hoshigami on the other hand, I thought was an obscure new game and would have a low print run and be difficult to get later... So naturally I made the wrong decision and picked up Hoshigami ^^;

Its a decent title that can get really tough, but thankfully there is a training tower that you can visit time and time again and work your characters up. It also has a unique chain/ combo battle system. It takes a lot of planning or luck, but when you attack an enemy if he gets knocked back into another one of your characters then they attack him and can knock him back potentially into another character etc. So if you have a lot of characters in the right places a single attack can send the enemy into a chain reaction of hits as he is knocked from party member to party member.

Hoshigami is on both the PS One and the DS. I have both and believe the DS version is the preferred version. The graphics obviously are not as sharp or as clear as the PS1 version, but the game has been re-balanced and has selectable difficulty levels. The game also has completely new soundtrack that involved Saori Kobayashi.

Also don't forget to check out the spiritual sequel on PS2 Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity. This game has quite a pedigree with Ryo Mizuno (Record of Lodoss War) helping with the story and Hitoshi Sakimoto composing yet another masterful synth OST.

[WulfeLuer]

Ah, Suikoden II, source of all sorts of gamer angst. Don't feel too bad; most gamers have a story like that one (somebody even started a thread for that here).

Hmm, grindy and tricksy...This might actually be a worthy purchase indeed. Thanks for the responses thus far.