Epica Stella (エピカステラ), launched 7/30/1998, developed and revealed by Human Leisure
There aren’t many SRPGs from this period with official English translations, however right here is one. Extra surprisingly I truly performed the English model (I’ll say why in a minute). The interpretation was performed by Working Designs, who introduced their ordinary “artistic” translation efforts (together with some unlucky informal homophobia).
I began out taking part in the Japanese model.
Every character has a mech, and three tools slots (weapon, jewel, and accent). The jewel merchandise can grant magic-type powers, whereas the weapon (and mech) grant common assault talents. All the energy are primarily based on the character’s stats — the assaults and spells work off the bottom stats with tools bonuses, whereas the varied “innate” talents solely work off base stats. When a personality ranges up, they get 3 factors to spend on any talents (with no automated raises in any stat).
The large drawback with the sport is that neither the guide nor the sport offer you any data in any way on what the stat necessities for strikes are, and it is a sport the place the problem ranges from cakewalk to inconceivable relying on the way you spend your stat factors. An additional drawback is that in case you search the Web for recommendation on how you can distribute the factors, yow will discover recommendation that isn’t effectively suited to folks taking part in the sport for the primary time — they are going to say issues like “DEF is a trash stat that you simply don’t have to put factors into” or which can be true from the standpoint of a really skilled participant who is aware of precisely which expertise to get and how you can cheapshot the enemies, however can get a newbie into sizzling water.
In any case, I adopted dangerous recommendation (plus a few of my very own errors) and reached some extent at about stage 7 the place I merely couldn’t beat the stage it doesn’t matter what I did, as a result of my models have been too weak and didn’t have the precise expertise. Usually on this case I’ll simply transfer on to the following sport, however I made a decision to restart utilizing the English model. I switched to the English model primarily as a result of it provides animation skip, which the Japanese model doesn’t have.
One other curious factor concerning the English model is the “help” bonus:
The English model reveals a bonus you get to your assault primarily based on what number of different characters you’ve gotten adjoining to the enemy. This bonus shouldn’t be proven within the Japanese model neither is it talked about within the instruction guide, and I’m actually unsure what’s going on right here. Did WD assume the Japanese model was too arduous and truly add this technique in? Or was it a hidden factor within the JP model that they merely hacked the sport to show?
On this playthrough, I adopted a reasonably easy process for stat growths — I saved everybody’s stats fairly even, apart from POW which I had 2-3 factors above the remainder. I believe that in case you do that, you’ll get a reasonably respectable workforce for the entire sport. In the event you additionally have a look at an inventory of talents, significantly the character-specific and elemental talents, you’ll be able to go for these and make your workforce much more highly effective.
One playthrough of the sport is 20 levels lengthy, however there are 56 levels within the sport. There are three separate routes, and one branching path on the “major” route. There’s a spot from the primary menu the place you’ll be able to see the entire variety of levels you’ve performed, and a file of what number of mech animations you’ve seen. One other curious factor is that within the Japanese model, these stats replace routinely as you play, however within the English model it’s a must to use this “load stats” command within the menu (which isn’t within the JP model). Many locations advocate that after every stage you play, you give up to the primary menu and use that load stats to ensure the whole lot will get recorded. I ponder why that developed within the transition between the JP and EN model.
I solely performed the primary “Kingdom” route, which is the essential anticipated storyline — you might be preventing for the small kingdom towards the large empire, and the primary villain is somebody within the Empire who’s attempting to make use of the facility for his personal greed. I don’t know a lot concerning the different two storylines (which individuals confer with as “Empire” and “Wreck”), however I might have an interest to listen to from individuals who have performed them.
The turns are performed on a pace foundation. There appears to be some uncertainty over whether or not having a excessive AGL makes you’re taking extra turns — quite a lot of locations say that it does, however I’ve additionally seen that individuals have used cheat codes to indicate that it doesn’t. In any case, in your flip you get 100 AP. You may transfer after which use one assault or energy. The strikes take AP primarily based on the terrain, and the assaults/powers have a value in each AP and TP (which I believe might stand for “tiredness factors” though the guide doesn’t say — within the English model they modified it to “FP”). Once you finish your flip, any AP you’ve gotten left over cut back your TP. In case your TP ever hits 100, you develop into frozen and all assaults have a 100% probability to hit (and there’s no choice to counter).
Managing TP is among the key features of the battle system. You achieve TP not just for utilizing your strikes, but additionally in case you defend towards an enemy assault or counterattack, you’ll achieve TP there as effectively. So the objective is to not let your individual characters’ TP get too excessive, however you need to attempt to freeze the opponents (significantly the bosses). There are particular assaults (like Turbulence) that make this a lot simpler.
The opposite secret is making use of again assaults and ranged assaults. A again assault can’t be defended towards or countered. Vary assaults typically can’t be countered both — the enemy will often defend, however that raises their TP/FP.
This sport has the very annoying “Major character 0 hp = sport over” factor that I all the time dislike in video games, but when anybody else dies they simply lose morale and exit the battle. Each character has a morale worth relative to each different character, however I’m not clear on whether or not this has any impact aside from on the primary route, you want a specific amount of complete morale to keep away from the dangerous ending. There’s one other characteristic that I wasn’t actually positive about both, the “emotion system”.
The diamond beneath the stats there may be supposed to point the emotion of the character, and that may have an effect on assault, evade, and different issues. However I do not know what causes it to alter or how a lot of an impact it has — I simply ignored that side for the sport.
Total this was an fulfilling sufficient sport. I didn’t prefer it sufficient to do the opposite two routes. The story is a bit of skinny, though the a number of paths do add some replayability. I believe what most bothered me was simply the opaqueness of the system (significantly within the Japanese model). After all if I had been in Japan when this got here out I might have simply paid the $15 or so for the technique information to search out out what the whole lot truly did.
