Hoshigami

by Atlus

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005NIT9
• Item Weight: 7 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: December 18, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,529 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

This 3D tactical simulation RPG is set in a fantasy type setting where you take control of Fazz, a young warrior who is thrown in the midst of an evil plot to destroy his homeland of Mardias!

"Hoshigami brings back the game play that hard core tactical RPG gamers crave," said Yu Namba, Project Leader for Hoshigami. "Hoshigami is poised to take the tactical RPG market by storm to fill the void left by classic games such as Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately frustrating and unrealized., April 22, 2002

By 

Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hoshigami (Video Game)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Most difficult game ever made, February 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Hoshigami (Video Game)

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.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hoshigami Has Nothing to Prove to The Next-Gen Systems, December 8, 2001

By 

Sixto Limiac (I Don't Know!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hoshigami (Video Game)

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.