20 hours in, just cleared the 8th chapter, and... Now
come the SPOILERS! Avert your eyes, lest Stella Glow's main event
loses all its impact!
Well, the game got me good with this one. I absolutely never expected Commander
Klaus, i.e. the epitome of anime male perfection, to be a backstabbing traitor,
let alone Alto/Elcrest's former-brother-in-arms-turned-jealous-rival. And yet,
I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all in hindsight: although Alto was the
titular Hero and Chosen One, Klaus was the de facto party leader, and the whole
crew danced to the beat of his tune (pun totally intended). He lead us all on a
leash like good little poochies, myself included, and I didn't realize it one
second. I was totally and utterly fooled, and I loved being fooled. Well done, game.
On top of being pleasantly surprising, that plot twist answers the question nobody asked themselves: what if your typical messianic RPG hero that newly awakened to their destiny unwittingly ended up serving the bad side's interests? When you think of it, it's quite improbable that these guys somehow always magically wind up on the good side, all the more so as they are usually meek-as-lamb amnesic village boys who never wielded a sword before learning that they were The One, let alone took part in any fight with major stakes. My, they're really just ripe for the grooming, aren't they? I have to commend Klaus for being an genuinely clever and devious RPG villain: instead of charging dumbly against The One and setting himself up for a resounding defeat, he manipulated everyone and used Alto's and the Witches' powers to serve his own nefarious purpose. In hindsight, Hilda and her cronies' spiteful attitude towards Alto&co and their refusal to explain what they were up to makes perfect sense: they were actually the good guys all along, and we were the big baddies as far as they were concerned — and as scores of RPGs taught us, big baddies deserve nothing but contempt and harsh words from the good guys. Way to take the piss out of the players by turning RPG conventions against them, game.
As much as I dig that unexpected turn of events, there's a teeny-tiny problem: I really don't want to play Stella Glow any longer. See, everything until that point had led me to believe that the game was going to end there, at the end of the 8th chapter. I was fully poised for the grand finale: we were going to wipe the floor with Hilda&co, save the crystallized people, and restore world peace. Alto would be free to cavort with his own private little quatuor, the crew would live happily ever after, everybody would gorge on Klaus' delicious desserts until type 2 diabetes struck, The End. And now you're shoving that plot twist down my throat and telling me that the closure I expected is still some hours down the line, game? Oh heck no. I don't want to suffer through this, all the less so as I know exactly what's going to happen now. An inordinate amount of time will be spent laying down plan B, I'll have to run all around the world map to implement said plan B, Hilda will join my party and I'll have to Tune her several times, battles will get harder and I'll have to level-grind, yada yada. No thanks. In my opinion, the game should end right now — not only because that's what I was led to expect, but also because 20 hours feels like the right length for that game. According to internet wisdom, Stella Glow is roughly 40 hours long, and that's way too much, especially with a big baddie reveal at the 20-hour mark. How dare you pull a Tales of Hearts R on me, Imageepoch?
 |
| Nope, baby. No more Tuning for now. |
And so I'm giving up on Stella Glow. I'm not swearing it off, mind
you: I still see it as that delicious puff pastry of a game — but I'm sated
now. Will I replay it at some point? Absolutely; I'll skip all them cutscenes,
and I'll get my steamy endings with the Witches, my bro endings with the guys,
and my harem True Ending with the whole crew at my feet. Until then,
thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
Wait, so they
give you the best twist half-way through the game, and expect you to grind 20
more hours after that? Ugh, that totally kills my enthusiasm for this game. I
know RPGs are long and all, and I don't mind playing them to completion (I just
spent 300 hours on Story of Seasons *sob*, so 40 is nothing), but I hate it
when they feel padded...and it seems like that's what the later half of this
game will be like.
Reminds of a Tales of game...but I don't think it was tales of hearts. It was a
also a ds game though, so maybe it was tales of innocence? I just remember it
being utterly bland and totally unworthy of playing to completion. So even
worse than this game. So much so that I don't even mind that the vita port was
never brought over.
Either way, now that my poor 3DS is finally free, I think I'll skip on this
game for now. Maybe I'll finally finish the first pokemon mystery dungeon game
on 3DS, or play Ever Oasis. Probably Ever Oasis, since I don't feel like
grinding, and I know Pokemon will definitely have that.
If you want something light and fun, try gal gun! I just finished it on the
Vita, and I know it's totally up your alleyway. A perfect way to wash away all
this grind.
To be totally
fair, I could have seen it coming. I mean, I was far from having maxed up
everybody's affection, and I had seen some pictures with Hilda posing with the
other Witches in the Tuning Room, so yeah... But I just thought that there was
maybe some postgame involved, and that the game would let me carry over the
characters' affection levels a la Lord of Magna. I guess I just lied to myself,
because I hated the halfway big baddie reveal/plot twist in Tales of Hearts R
and wanted to believe that it was not going to happen again. Delusions,
delusions. :P
I definitely wouldn't recommand Ever Oasis. I gave it a try some time ago, and
it's a pretty underwhelming game that feels more like your run-of-the-mill
licensed platformer/adventure game than like a true blue RPG. It features some
baffling game design decisions, such as not letting you rest unless it's night
time in the game or encouraging you to develop your oasis' shops while not
letting you purchase anything in said shops. The last draw came when the game
started to force me to switch constantly between party members to solve
ability-based puzzles a la Zelda, after which I ditched it without regret.
Talking about Gal Gun, you know that the sequel is coming to the Switch, right?
^^ It seems that this console is about to become the official successor to both
the 3DS and the Vita, and I'm quite thrilled about that development indeed.
It's also
coming to the PS4, so I'm getting it there instead. I'm still not sold on the
switch; it looks to unwieldy to be a proper handheld, and if I have to use it
as a console, I'd rather use my PS4. And yeah, it has a lot of games, but
exclusives? Not really...besides pokemon, there's nothing that interest me.
Since Sega wants to port Persona 5 to PC, it's questionable that they'll keep
the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games exclusive to Nintendo. And since it's so
easy to port them to other consoles, what's the point for them to keep it
exclusive, really? Story of seasons might remain an exclusive, so I'll get a
switch eventually, but it probably won't see much use...
It seems like most games won't be switch exclusives, minus a few indie titles,
and I'll definitely always go with PS4 if there's the option. Plus, Nintendo
sales are laughable compared to PSN sales; you get 10 euros off from a 50 euro
game at most, are you kidding me? To make things worse, their games never seem
to naturally decrease in price, not even retail! This was...manageable with 3DS
priced games, but full priced ones? Yeah, no. I'll get only the most
interesting exclusives, and stick to a console that actually gives me bang for
my buck.
And I'll probably still take a long while to get one. We have pretty much no
details for Shin Megami Tensei or Story of Seasons yet, and it's been a year.
Including if they're exclusive or not. No new pokemon game either...there's not
much to be excited about if you're not a fan of nintendo franchises honestly. I
can understand your enthusiasm, since you don't have a PS4, but for those who
have one, this is a hard sell. Almost everything is on PS4 already.
As for ever
Oasis, what a disappointment...still I just came from a 300+ hour grind, so
maybe a more platformer-like game would do me wonders.
(Also, I'll never consider the switch a vita successor until it gets visual
novel games. But again, they
are coming to the ps4 instead...)
Isn't Song of
Memories a visual novel? It's coming to the Switch soon. ^^
But heck, the Vita is being literally flooded with VNs right now. I guess they
won't all get localized, but it's heartwarming to see nich gaming being so
lively and vibrant even as the Vita is about to bid adieu. There is one
particular VN I really want to play, namely Variable Barricade; and I have no
qualms about admitting that I want to play it mostly for the art. It's not to
say that the premise doesn't look interesting, because it does. It's nice to
have a reluctant belle for once instead of your usual cheerful, happy-go-lucky
otome heroine.
Indeed, for a gamer like me who plays solely on handhelds, the Switch is
turning out to be a very appetizing proposition indeed. I can see where you're
coming from, though; I don't think I would even consider purchasing a Switch if
I owned a PS4 and were an avid home console gamer.
Oh yeah, I
completely forgot about that game. To be honest, I have zero interest in it
because the art looks like the most generic shallow anime art ever; shallow of
me, I know, but I can't help it. That particular style is like repellant for
me. I've heard the story can get depressing, but I'm "heh" on the
musical theme as well. I don't even play musical otomes, such as Kiniko no
Corda.
Personally, I'm excited for 7' Scarlet, but man, there's a bunch of otomes
coming out this year on vita, and I like all of them (unlike last year, where I
really didn't care for CollarxMalice and Bad Apple Wars). There's also talk of
Xseed localizing one as well, and people are guessing it's English Detective
Mysteria...a game by Karin Entertainment, that great company I talked about
previously.
Man, if it's true, I'll jump out of my seat with excitement. Not only is it
from a company with great track record, but it came out in 2016...which means
there's a chance Black Wolves Saga on Vita, which came out in early 2017, might
still get picked up for 2019. Come on Aksys! That game is beloved enough to get
a fan translation patch, so take a chance on it!
Yeah, I like
that development. I mean, romantic VNs are far from being my favourite genre,
but it's nice to see such a niche genre flourish on the Vita, especially so
late in the console's lifetime. It seems that there was a whole untapped pool
of otome fans in the West; and now that publishers have realized the existence
of those potential buyers, I guess they won't let go so soon and will try to
milk them as much as possible. Which is really a win-win situation for everyone
involved. :D
Game publishers are actually delving deeper than I ever thought possible into
niche content: lately, Limited Run Games released the yuri otoge Nurse Love
Addiction, and both the normal and special edition they offered sold as hot
cakes. Which I understand, because I've played it a little bit and it's a
really solid game, with lovely art and a charming, mellow atmosphere. Needless
to say, I secured a copy for my precious collection. ^^
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