My pixelated poison of choice for the past few years has definetly been Tactical RPG's, so I tend to get giddy when I hear about a new one being produced. Atlus has repeatedly proven themselves masters of the genre, and on Tuesday, Stella Deus hit the shelves.

I only got to play for about an hour, and the one thing that keeps resounding in my head is that this game seems like Atlus saying, "Yeah... sorry about Hoshigami you guys. Let's try that again." I mean I loved Hoshigami for the ten or so hous I played of it before I decided it was the most blisteringly difficult game I ever tried and just plain gave up. I got this thing against leveling up for four hours at a time just to advance storyline.

So far, it's probably one of the prettiest games I've seen in a long time, the battle system seems classic and simple, (but is obviously going to get deeper) and I've already gotten my keister handed to me by a boss who I think may be voiced by Mark Hammill. I think the Atus company motto must be, "Don't get cocky, jerk." but I'm glad to see they haven't gone that soft yet.

So who picked it up besides me? Any first impressions?