Hoshigami Remix – NDS – Review

The tactical strategy/RPG, which has
been around since the original Fire Emblem on NES in Japan, gained popularity in
America with Final Fantasy Tactics for PlayStation. After that, the system saw
an explosion of titles in the genre, including Kartia, Master of Monsters, and
Saiyuki: Journey West. It also saw the release of Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth,
which gained a fervent cult following despite generally poor reviews. Since that
time, the Game Boy Advance saw a wealth of titles of this type, and now the
Nintendo DS is poised on the brink of seeing a similar influx. One of the first
titles to appear on the system is a remake, Hoshigami Remix. While it shares
most of the problems that plagued its forerunner, it’s still a solid choice for
anyone with an itch for a DS tactical title.

The game follows Fazz, a young
mercenary in the kingdom of Nightweld. When neighboring country Valaim makes
moves towards an invasion, Fazz, his good friend and combat mentor Leimray,
along with a group of hired mercenaries, are recruited to protect the nearby
Tower of Wind. This starts a chain of events that lead to Fazz and his party
becoming responsible for the fate of the land. The story in Hoshigami is
standard RPG fare and won’t surprise anyone who has played their share of RPGs;
at the same time, it is well told, and Fazz becomes a more sympathetic hero than
most stock RPG lead characters.

The gameplay system has more
originality going for it. While the basics are taken straight from Final Fantasy
Tactics, Hoshigami features a few innovations that really add to the strategy.
The biggest is the RAP (Ready-to-Action-Points) Bar, a meter that fills as your
characters take actions. Each potential action available to your characters
fills the bar a certain amount, and it’s only after filling the bar that your
character’s turn ends. In this way, it’s possible for a character to move,
attack, use items, then move again all in the same turn. The RAP Bar also
determines how quickly each character gets to go again, and at the end of each
turn, you can increase how many points each character used, essentially letting
you choose when that character will take their next turn. All of this leads to
much more flexibility on the battlefield than most tactical RPG fans will be
used to. The RAP Bar is a brilliant addition to the formula, and should become a
standard in games of this type. Other additions include a meter, similar to the
swing meter standard in golf games, that appears when using physical attacks.
Time your button press correctly, and you can achieve a critical hit every
attack, but miss and you’ll deal only one damage. Finally, upon attacking you
can choose to “shoot” your opponents, dealing minor damage but knocking them
back across the battlefield. If you knock them towards your allies waiting in
“session” mode, you can bounce the enemies from ally to ally in a “Session
Attack”, dealing major damage. These attacks are tricky and complex to set up,
but pulling one off is satisfying and destructive.

As I said, though, most of the flaws
from the original Hoshigami made the transition. The biggest factor that
contributed to its harsh critical reception on PS1 was its erratic and overall
high difficulty. While it is improved for the DS by the addition off two easier
difficulty levels, the difficulty is still erratic, varying wildly from mission
to mission. The game also suffers from poor balance, in that magic attacks
out-power every other offensive option to such a degree that it’s ridiculous. By
the time the story really gets going, having anyone in your party who’s not a
mage would be a bad idea, simply because magic is so very effective. Also, this
game is incredibly complex, even by tactical strategy/RPG standards, and that’s
really saying something. This may not be a flaw depending on the player, and
there are definitely those for whom the more complex, the better. Most people,
though, probably won’t want to have to try to remember which characters worship
what deities (each character actually has a level that signifies how devoted to
their particular deity they are), what elemental bonuses that confers, and so
on.

All technical aspects of Hoshigami
have been improved, with some being completely redone, for this release. All
character portraits have been redone and some visual effects have been improved,
although by-and-large the graphics are identical to the PS1 original. A majority
of the game’s text has been rewritten, and the dialog is much better for this,
although the story remains the same. The game’s soundtrack has also been redone,
and the new music is far superior to the original’s, but it’s still nothing
extraordinary. The controls have been redesigned to take advantage of the DS’s
touch screen, but honestly it’s simply easier to use the buttons.

Hoshigami Remix is not a bad game,
but it does practically define “niche title.” It’s certainly a game that’s
designed for a very narrow audience, and as such most people aren’t going to
find anything here that entertains them. For a certain type of gamer, the same
people who broke the level-up system in Disgaea and completed all the missions
in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, there’s a ton of interesting strategy combat
to be found here. Anyone else with a mild interest in the genre would probably
be better off waiting for the upcoming Luminous Arc or Final Fantasy Tactics
Advance 2.

Gameplay: 6.3
This is a solid strategy/RPG, unfortunately broken by an inconsistent difficulty
level and poor game balance. Fans of tactics can lose themselves in layers upon
layers of strategic depth, but others probably won’t want to bother.

Graphics: 7.4
The game looks quite a bit like Final Fantasy Tactics, and that’s not a bad
thing. Excellent character art, sprites, and pretty 3D environments are
attractive in a retro way and overshadow lackluster spell effects and bland
menus.

Sound: 5.8
The music, although improved from the PS1 version, still isn’t super impressive.
Sound effects are decent (especially dying character’s death cries-awesome) but
nothing here will blow you away.

Difficulty: Hard
Assuming you don’t play on “Easy” mode, in which the enemies don’t use magic
(which is crazy powerful) and you can, the game is hard on the whole, with some
levels being absurdly difficult. Then, every once in a while, you’ll hit a level
that’s super-easy. This game has no concept of a learning curve.

Concept: 7.1
This game throws out a ton of great ideas, like the RAP Meter and Session
Attacks. It’s also got a deep magic customization system and plenty of
characters, classes, and abilities for you to try.

Overall: 6.8
This is a hard game to score. Some will love it, and others will despise it.
More likely than not, your own appreciation of this title will come down to your
fanaticism regarding the genre. While it is a deeply flawed title, there’s still
plenty of game here for the right type of person.