Stella Glow is strategy RPG for the Nintendo 3DS system developed by Imageepoch (Luminous Arc franchise). As most reluctant heroes do, Stella Glow protagonist Alto starts as a country boy in a small town. One day, he hears a song coming from the forest (which is odd, since song has been absent on the planet for thousands of years), where he discovers the lone Hilda. But after the chance encounter, Hilda reveals she's the Witch of Destruction, hellbent on destroying the world with her harbingers. As Hilda is about to destroy Alto's hometown, he and Lisette are rescued by the Knights of Regnant Alto will encounter the Regnant Knights and whisked back safely to the kingdom. Alto joins the 9th Regiment for the sole purpose of reuininting the rest of the witches to stop Hilda.
Reviews View More
The writing is still exemplary, with a well-developed empathy for the characters. Unfortunately it is also mired in problematic sexual situations which I had a lot more difficulty ignoring on my replay. The overall plot is still extremely well executed, but I had a much harder time engaging with the dialogue this time around. The combat is still challenging and tightly designed, but it suffers from a lot of quality-of-life issues which can render certain elements (e.g. the witch's songs) a bit tedious.
I really can't evaluate this game properly as both of my playthroughs were heavily colored by a dramatic mismatch of expectations vs experience. Still, I would recommend that any fan of story-driven RPGs or Persona style games give this one a try. Just be prepared for excessive anime-isms.
Although nothing special, I found the graphics to be fine although have different art styles within the game.
With some RPG's they seemed to fall a victim to traditional roots which can be annoying with modern gaming demands. These being:
- The game took about 45 hours. in that time there were cut scenes that were too long to get their point across. Spending 30mins reading text instead of playing a game I find tiresome
- There is grinding in this game to get to the right level or unlocks. Being quite a full game of content, the grinding aspect feels like unnecessary padding
- Difficulty spikes do occur and can cause several attempts in key areas
- Being a SRPG, the game starts slow in each battle, taking around 3 turns to engage in combat feeling like a wasted opportunity when playing.
- At end game it was really annoying how bosses self heal making the fight harder/longer for no reason
I liked the game but the flaws can't be overlooked. I know this game is pricy and cannot justify it's current price.