Who's Playing Pier Solar?

[mobiusclimber]

My copy finally arrived in the mail yesterday so I fired it up and started playing. I'm on my way to the second town so far but had to quit as it was getting quite late. So far it seems really fun, tho the "gather" option in the battle menu has me a bit worried. (You use it to gather energy for advanced attacks/spells.) I guess most Genesis RPGs did have some weird different things going on in the battle engine, but I'm not really a fan of wasting turns to build up strength (over 9000!) especially if it leaves you vulnerable to attacks. There's also a weird feature where the game takes into account whether the enemy is flying or not, meaning if you're attacking w/ a sword you're going to miss. You can guard tho, and if you get attacked you'll likely counterattack while taking no damage. You can even choose who to guard (meaning you're not just defending yourself, but you can if you want to). It's an interesting way of doing it, but I'm just not used to it yet and it seems overly complicated without really adding anything (besides increasing the length of battles). So far tho, the fighting has been super easy.

If I really wanted to bash the game, it would be over the graphics. They're fugly, there's just no way to get around it. The shame of it is that the character portraits and a lot of the backgrounds are very nice. Its just the map screens (towns, dungeons, forests) that don't look all that great. Part of the problem is really with the little tile graphics that you stick over top of barren land or whatever (like trees, chairs, whatever). Half the time I can't tell what they even are, and they seem to just be randomly tossed around. I actually saw a tree growing out of a friggin wall at one point. The characters themselves are fairly indistinct too, which is a problem when casting a spell on a character outside of battle because you have to select the actual character (rather than select their name from a menu). On top of that, a lot of graphics just blend into the background, and it's tough to tell when you can walk over something and when you can't. I really would rather they went w/ a less is more approach too because every place just feels really cluttered.

But honestly most of that doesn't matter too much. I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the graphics and I've certainly played worse looking games on the Genesis. The music is very good, I'm liking the story so far even if bits of it are a little cliched (and they're definitely tossing in stuff that wouldn't have flown in a game back in the day, like saying "balls" or talking about getting drunk). I really haven't played enough of the game to even start to "review" it, but I'm enjoying it so far.

What do you guys think of it?

[Bradtemple87]

I would be if I was actually able to order one

[mobiusclimber]

Didn't catch the pre-order for the second printing? They're likely going to do a third run, so I'd suggest getting on their mailing list.

[Bradtemple87]

Didn't catch the pre-order for the second printing? They're likely going to do a third run, so I'd suggest getting on their mailing list.

I have the site bookmarked now

[Inazuma]

Didn't catch the pre-order for the second printing? They're likely going to do a third run, so I'd suggest getting on their mailing list.

I want the game but I don't want a half ass version that's missing stuff. If they do another run of the game the way they did it at first, complete with soundtrack CD, I will happily buy it.

They sell for like $300 on ebay. It's absurd.

[Bradtemple87]

Didn't catch the pre-order for the second printing? They're likely going to do a third run, so I'd suggest getting on their mailing list.

I want the game but I don't want a half ass version that's missing stuff. If they do another run of the game the way they did it at first, complete with soundtrack CD, I will happily buy it.

They sell for like $300 on ebay. It's absurd.

Tell me about it!

[Phades]

I just got the email today that my copy is about to ship. Really looking forward to it.

[Bootaaay]

Not me, because the Posterity Edition I pre-ordered way back in 2008 and that was supposedly shipped to me 45 days ago still hasn't arrived - also, just to compound the matter, the development team's customer support are about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine. So fuck knows when I'll get to play this game. Soon hopefully.

[mobiusclimber]

Not me, because the Posterity Edition I pre-ordered way back in 2008 and that was supposedly shipped to me 45 days ago still hasn't arrived - also, just to compound the matter, the development team's customer support are about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine. So fuck knows when I'll get to play this game. Soon hopefully.

Sorry to hear it, tho I will say that shipping from China using the "cheap" method takes quite awhile and tracking is mostly useless since a lot of the time it's either "in transit" (ie on a boat) or stuck in customs.

[khyrox]

Not me, because the Posterity Edition I pre-ordered way back in 2008 and that was supposedly shipped to me 45 days ago still hasn't arrived - also, just to compound the matter, the development team's customer support are about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine. So fuck knows when I'll get to play this game. Soon hopefully.

Sorry to hear it, tho I will say that shipping from China using the "cheap" method takes quite awhile and tracking is mostly useless since a lot of the time it's either "in transit" (ie on a boat) or stuck in customs.

I just received my copy a week ago so I can agree it can take a heck of a long time to reach its destination. Haven't had time to play it yet... hopefully this weekend!