Falling Stars
In Falling Stars, players take on the role of Luna, a young girl living in Dazzleon, who longs to be something more. One day, her uncle, Matt visits and discovers a mine that seems to possess odd powers. He becomes so intrigued that he decides to stay in Dazzleon and investigate. Soon, to the horror of Luna and her neighbors, he becomes obsessed with the mine as it starts to possess him. He begins to experiment on his pets and eventually turns them into evil monsters. Because it is her uncle, Lu
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Review by Feelah the tigress for Falling Stars
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Let me tell you, I am not afraid to play a “children’s” game. Some automatically avoid certain RPGs because they look “kid-ish” but that isn’t me. I realize that sometimes a child-friendly game can still be enjoyable even if it is simpler. So, I give such games a chance. However, game companies also seem to realize that calling something a “child’s game” can be an excuse to get lazy and cut corners. I’ve played great so-called children’s games, but unfortunately, Falling Stars falls into the latter category. It’s just so obvious that the creators got lazy.
Graphics (score 7/10): Now, this is the high point of the review. The graphics are bright and colorful, though not quite up to what the PS2 is really capable of. The character models, while adequate, are a bit basic; the faces especially are lacking in detail. The whole world in Falling Stars, though, is vibrant and beautiful; possessing a bit of a whimsical quality.
Music (score 4/10): This game gets a “4/10″ merely for possessing music. The music itself is the very definition of generic bland RPG music. I feel like they bought some cd called “Generic RPG tunes” and selected a couple tracks off of it to use. I mean it’s just that boring. None of the tracks are irritating or grating on the ears, but there are only about 5 or 6 tracks in the entire game, and it gets repetitive. I actually muted my TV while playing, put on my headphones, and listened to some of my own mp3s. A game should never have music so boring it forces me to do this. There is no voice acting, which is good, since it would probably suck as much as the music.
Characters (score 2/10): The characters are pretty shallow. This is due in part to poor dialogue. There is no subtlety in this game. For example, I take Luna (main character) and talk to a girl who’s got a rather bad attitude. Instead of making me feel that she doesn’t like my character through dialogue hints, she come right out and says she doesn’t like me because she doesn’t like my outfit! Instead of saying “because I don’t like your outfit” she should’ve said something snippy like “because some people have no fashion sense”. The latter may not be the best dialogue, but it’s still a bit better than the original. Anyway, Luna herself doesn’t seem to have much personality other than being a goody-goody helpful person. Beyond that, nothing. Even the villain (Uncle Matt; this isn’t a spoiler it says so on the back of the box) is rather one-dimensional.
Story (score 2/10): This is one of the most embarrassing storylines I’ve ever seen. A spirit was sent down to reside in and control the body of a young girl (Luna) in order to put an end to her evil Uncle Matt’s schemes for power and save the town of Dazzleon. It wouldn’t have been so bad except for the unbelievable parts. For example, there is actually a point in which Luna has to ask her uncle Matt for PERMISSION to train her monster to beat his. If he was so evil, and the goal is to stop him, then why would you need to ask his permission to beat him?! Apparently, familial respect trumps saving the town of Dazzleon from certain doom. That made no sense to me at all. Furthermore, the game never instills a sense of danger in the player. You don’t really feel that Matt’s actions are dangerous, and thus you don’t feel any real need to stop him to save the town.
Battle System (score 1/10): Laughably bad. I can’t think of a better way to describe this. You control a little monster in battle called Komi. Luna does no direct fighting herself, but can heal Komi by using a potion when her time bar is full, which you can fill by rotating the right analog stick clockwise. The battle system itself works somewhat like rock/paper/scissors. There are three colored attacks: yellow, red, and white, which vary in strength. If you go first, you must guess which color the enemy is defending against, and use a different color. If the enemy goes first, you need to guess which attack they will use, and then defend against that color. Although enemies tend to have attack/defense patterns, this all really just amounts to a guessing game. This really isn’t a fun, satisfying battle mechanic. I felt myself pining for a standard menu with “attack”, “defend”, “magic” and “item” commands.
Gameplay (score 4/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. Let’s see, the game itself is very easy, that’s what kept me playing. At least it’s easy, so you can coast through. Unfortunately, the big kicker here is the load times. There’s a load screen before everything! 30 second load screens before each battle, before entering new areas, and before playing minigames are all abundant. It kind of made me want to tear my hair out. Another thing I’d like to mention is the stupidity of the menu system. You can’t even see the name of an item unless you let your cursor rest idly over the item’s picture for about 10 seconds. This was a needless frustration. Another point to note is that the entire game takes place in Dazzleon–there is no RPG-esque traveling from town to town with wilderness in between. So, that’s kind of dull. One more complaint is that Luna walks very slowly. You can run by holding down R2, but only until you’re stamina meter runs down. Then you have to walk until it refills over time (or there are potions you can use to refill it). This is really an unnecessary hindrance considering this is a playstation 2 game. Game developers have already abandoned this archaic movement mechanic in favor of either having your character move quickly all the time, or having an option of changing the default from walk to run in the menu. There’s no reason Falling Stars couldn’t have allowed Luna to “run” all the time. I suspect this decision was a cheap way to increase the playing time of the game.
Overall (score 4/10): NOTE this score is not an average, it’s my subjective overall score. You might be wondering why this game gets a “4″ instead of a “1″ overall. It’s because I actually garnered some enjoyment out of it for some reason. I couldn’t precisely tell you why, but I was mildly interested while playing. Go figure. Objectively though, this game stinks. If you’re looking for a good RPG that’s lighthearted and kid-friendly, I can easily recommend Guardian’s Crusade over this game. If Falling Stars hadn’t had such insane loading times, it might have been a fairly enjoyable, albeit simplistic, RPG. It’s really too bad that the developers didn’t put more time and effort into this game. It’s really games like this that dissuade children from enjoying RPGs rather than encouraging it.
Review by Pamela Gittlitz for Falling Stars
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I’m not sure what drew me to order this game, maybe it was the graphics? Or maybe it was the fact that it’s a RPG for girls? Who knows? Anyway, when I first got this, I found out relaxed it made me feel. It’s not exactly slow, per se, but it’s not fast either. There are no rushes on the quests, and it’s not a really hard game. Some of the mini-games are quite challenging! Like the Water Lillie one.
Positives: Good use of the controller, never played a game before that used the PS2 controller as effectively as this one.
Ability to play in different languages every time you start the game up: I can switch from English to Italian, Spanish, German, French, and Russian (?).
The monsters disappear from the screen after defeated, until Luna leaves the area, that is.
Speaking of monsters, you are not overwhelmed with them. You can see them, and you can avoid them, as long as you run.
Negatives: Many, many loading screens. They show up every time Luna goes to a new area, or does a new game. It gets a bit annoying, but can be got used to.
Some of the mini-games are difficult because of how the controller is used. This may not be a negative to some people, it just is to me.
No voices, it’s a lot of reading. This is only bad if you’re looking for voice actors in this game. The positive to this is that you can play the game in different languages (see above).
The battles with Komi and the other monsters are a bit drawn out when you first play them. However, as you get used to it, and level Komi up, they get easier and more fun.
Well, I think that’s it! Hope I’m not the only person on Amazon.com to buy this. It’s really fun and a great kid’s game!!