Star Odyssey - Official Thread

[Lutz]

I beat the game. Needed to grind a lot at the final planet. The ending was so-so. Overall a good game, leaps ahead of Legend of Wukong, but a bit worse than Beggar Prince. I'll give all my thoughts in an upcoming Reader Roundtable. Thanks again for the help, The Coop.

I agree with this, but this game had the potential to be a lot better but was let down by the encounter rate, grind (at the end) and boring dungeons (last one was good though).


Btw did anyone notice any graphic bugs on the last two planets? For me some enemies appeared invisible sometimes and showed some garbled graphics when defeated. Using an unmodified PAL MDII with MCDII and 32X (both PAL also).

[QuickSciFi]

'Just beat this baby. It was awesome. I loved the colors and, once you learn it, the gameplay as well. I found it extremely satisfying. 'Very lengthy, very Japanese, but most importantly, excellent story.

and, btw, the key in the gameplay was accepting that, sometimes, you do have to sacrifice your characters in order to go further. This was evident throughout the starting stages of each planet, and even more so during the final boss. It was a unique element that I believe was very much programmed intentionnally (and mathematically) into the game (There's a reason why you get a shit-load of reviving potions as you approach the final boss, after all). I disagree with anyone who would say this game is in any way broken because of this. Even as a seasoned RPG player, it gave me a new insight that I hadn't marked before. Overall, once again, the story, gameplay, music AND graphics were extremely satisfying.

[CMA Death Adder]

Btw did anyone notice any graphic bugs on the last two planets? For me some enemies appeared invisible sometimes and showed some garbled graphics when defeated.

Those aren't bugs. Force magic exists to become invisible during combat (refer to the instruction manual for details), and when invisible enemies are defeated, their shadow is the only thing that disappears.

[Lutz]

and, btw, the key in the gameplay was accepting that, sometimes, you do have to sacrifice your characters in order to go further. This was evident throughout the starting stages of each planet, and even more so during the final boss. It was a unique element that I believe was very much programmed intentionnally (and mathematically) into the game (There's a reason why you get a shit-load of reviving potions as you approach the final boss, after all). I disagree with anyone who would say this game is in any way broken because of this. Even as a seasoned RPG player, it gave me a new insight that I hadn't marked before. Overall, once again, the story, gameplay, music AND graphics were extremely satisfying.

Hm, I did not let any characters die except that temporary one on the Aury planet (did not feel like wasting time leveling her up), don't see any benefit of doing it with other characters.
With the final boss it was kind of useful though (to keep him from healing too much) but if I understand correctly the Excel potions did not have the effect of reviving in the original game.

Those aren't bugs. Force magic exists to become invisible during combat (refer to the instruction manual for details), and when invisible enemies are defeated, their shadow is the only thing that disappears.

I see, my bad.

[synbiosfan]

I beat it with Toby (41), Quam (36) and Grim (40).

Thank you Brandon I really enjoyed that!

[makinagenesis]

so frustrating hearing some people have actually beat it by now yet there's no sign of the game arriving at mine

[CRV]

I'm playing Sword of Vermilion in lieu of Star Odyssey.

[The Coop]

I'm playing Sword of Vermilion in lieu of Star Odyssey.

Then you'll be good and used to the random encounter frequency

[synapse]

I'm playing Sword of Vermilion in lieu of Star Odyssey.

They're more or less the same age... and graphic level, yes? :P

[CRV]

Then you'll be good and used to the random encounter frequency

At least the battles in Vermilion are real-time, which I actually like. And if you don't want to fight, you can just walk away.

[Joe Redifer]

They're more or less the same age... and graphic level, yes? :P

Kind of/sort of. Sword of Vermilion is light years ahead in the music department. I think Vermilion is older than Star Odyssey as well.

[QuickSciFi]

It's funny you guys make mention of Sword of Vermilion. I actually had been wanting to play anoter stand-alone RPG from the early repertoire of the Genny for quite some time since I beat Sword of Vermilion. Star Odyssey was very much a treat in that sense. I have much love for Sword of Vermilion and it's soundtrack. In fact, it is one of my favorite Genesis games and one of my favorite RPGs overall. But let's not forget that where Sword of Vermilion lacks in writing (and by 'lacks' I mean there's very little of it to ammount to a profound story, not that the story itself or the writing is bad), Star Odyssey proved to have one of the most profound stories of any console game up to the 16-bit era. It was very well written (and edited). And, also, I do agree that Sword of Vermilion has a superb (Grade A) soundtrack as well as very colorful graphics, but Star Odyssey doesn't exactly lag too far behind. Maybe it's true, you may have to see it in motion as Melf stated in his review, or perhaps one simply needs to play it through various levels to grasp just how awesome the graphics actually are.

I'm going to give CRV's comment on Sword of Vermilion the benefit of the doubt and hope it is not a trolling attempt, as it would actually suck to have to get into another versus topic between an established cult classic and a new game that has greatly proven it's worth (imo).

[Joe Redifer]

Star Odyssey has some good writing and a good story so far, but the mundane (re: dreadfully boring) and unemotional music ruins any attachment I would otherwise have to the story. Just imagine how much worse your favorite movie would be if the music was completely inappropriate for the scene.

[QuickSciFi]

Come on, Joe. It's not that mood-breaking. I actually found each planet to have quite a good accompaniment. I can see where you're coming from, though. I personally find the soundtracks for, both, Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star II to be the most memorable in my personal trek through 16-bit RPGs. But to each his own, I suppose. Like I said, Star Odyssey's soundtrack may be no Sword of Vermilion soundtrack (it's hard to beat, actually), but it's still a good soundtrack.

[Joe Redifer]

Come on, Joe. It's not that mood-breaking.

When you are used to the usual high-quality of games that came out for the Genesis, yes it is. It's as if a random NPC is talking, no different whatsoever. No importance is given and I get bored reading it. Starfish was truly a third-rate developer.

Speaking of that, I just rescued myself from B-Prison on Planet 2. Some old guy was going on and on and I was a bit disinterested in what the text had to say (lots of made-up words in there made it harder to retain any clues). Anyway, he said I needed a Lenovo or something like that before I could fly my ship away. Where is it?

WTF, man? How does this happen?

It's one of at least two bugs that Super Fighter Team completely missed or ignored because they couldn't figure out how to fix 'em. Fortunately your bug seems pretty rare.