What happened to beat em' ups?

[Sarge]

I'm debating whether I want to order that or not. It's a big chunk of change for sure.

[Tanooki]

It looks like it's probably great, but we know what they'll do, whenever the year is it's done. Months/year later you'll see it pop up on GoG, Steam, and PSN etc for far less money and with some HD retouches to it like Pier Solar.

I say wait it out. Get the definitive release, much like the GOTY junk that really picked up on the PS3 era.

[akeley]

That may be true, but I can`t really hate on their business model. That cartridge price could be perhaps 10 bucks less - to be more reasonable, but apart from that, well, they operate in an extremely niche market so I don`t see why they shouldn`t sell the game later on other platforms.

And if you preorder now it`s probably a no-lose investment anyway, seeing as what prices Pier Solar still fetches on ebay.

[Sarge]

I just gave in. I figure it's a game that if I wanted to turn around and sell it, I could get my money back easily.

(Still, ouch on $89.)

[BoneSnapDeez]

Pier Solar was substantially worse than most any "random" old 16-bit JRPG. Curious to see how this turns out. It sure looks interesting.

[Exhuminator]

Pier Solar was substantially worse than most any "random" old 16-bit JRPG.

Huh? I thought everybody loved it. What was so bad about it specifically?

[Tanooki]

When you get beyond why it is supposedly special and why it was made, you get into a very generic story bordering on boredom. It's not very intuitive in some of its designs including even just the layout of where you walk making it a grind, and not in a seen as good grind like a Dragon Quest or a Xenoblade(N3DS/Wii) type way, but a painful slog.

I was in it for a bit on the GoG release up into the desert I think it was, then it just got annoying cumulatively so over that time period and I moved along. I didn't hate it, but my motivation was shot.

[Sarge]

It wasn't the greatest JRPG, but I definitely enjoyed it. It's certainly no worse than many of the B-tier JRPGs of the day, with many of the same flaws they had.

More detailed verbiage: http://gamespite.net/2013/02/03/gamespi ... ier-solar/

[BoneSnapDeez]

Pier Solar was substantially worse than most any "random" old 16-bit JRPG.

Huh? I thought everybody loved it. What was so bad about it specifically?

Long, wretchedly slow, terrible dungeons, terrible dialogue. What pushed it over the edge for me were the cornball anti-SNES "console war" "jokes" that would have sounded dated and cringey 20 years ago. It's doubly dumb/hilarious when one considers the fact that the developers were essentially aping SNES RPG design.

It's not horrible, but it isn't good. Probably on par with the likes of Vay and Cosmic Fantasy 2.

Here's a fantastic critique of the game if you have some time to kill:
http://www.codiekitty.com/File/PierSolar/index.htm
http://www.codiekitty.com/MOREC/piersolarmisc.htm
http://www.codiekitty.com/MOREC/piersolar.htm

[marurun]

Cosmic Fantasy 2 would have been a perfectly serviceable RPG, despite Wrecking Designs's translation, if only the included features and items worked properly and weren't non-functional or bugged. Some of the story beats were actually REALLY good.