Can't say enough about Stella Deus!!

Goodness gracious, I had lost all hope in Atlus with the latest string of mediocre titles going all the way the hell back to hoshigami (yes i know they both mean the same thing in different languages).

If you're any sort of fan of strategy rpgs, and serious ones at that (as opposed to the lighthearded disgaea and LaPucelle Tactics), you should put this at the top of your play list. Atlus manages to switch up the battle system just a little bit every game, but this one truly adds a new sense of strategy to it.

Everything that made me fall in love with strat-rpgs when playing Final Fantasy Tactics the first time is all coming back to me. Great characters, mideival-ish settings, complex situations that require well thought out decisions by the main characters, and so much more.

All the main playable story characters are very well designed and for the most part all likeable. The difficulty is offset by a multistoried dungeon that can be used to level up if the story gets too tough at any time. Each character is a set job class, but can upgrade that one job class continually upwards (sword user upgrades to a better sword user). The whole turn of events takes place much like Final Fantasy Tactics, where the user who's AP fills up to 100 first gets the next move. Another perk is that it uses a combo system similar to one in disgaea.

The graphics are flawless for the type of game that it is, and the composer is the same person who did the tracks for Final Fantasy Tactics! (Quite possibly my favorite game soundtrack).

The only real con i can think of is the horrid voice acting, which thankfully can be turned off.

Overall, from the 25-30% I'm into it, I'd give it a 9/10

[quote name='weimerwanger']The only real con i can think of is the horrid voice acting, which thankfully can be turned off.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you, except Adara. So far her voice acting seems pretty good, but I've really just started playing it.

Overall I agree. It is a good game, but the battle system is slower than La Pucelle/Disgaea. Much more moving around to get to your enemies. I like the NIS games better because of this.

I found that the voice acting killed the serious tone of everything that was going on, after turning it off it was much more to my liking. The movement cost does make it a pain to do a lot in a short amount of time, but I think it makes up by making it more strategic.

Not too shabby of a review. Quite informative. i really should get back into the game but the voice acting was really bad so after 5 hours I sort of put down the game. Also, I do agree taht it is a lot slower. I really enjoyed La Pucelle and Disgaea though so I wouldn't say that Atlus has been having mediocre titles lately, especially with SMT: N coming out last year.

Disgaea -> LaPucelle -> Phantom Brave

I admit they were fun, but they felt so cheap, everything was so similar to the other games, down to every sound effect.

Voice acting for the game is alright, there's just two or three characters with voices that don't naturally fit them. I'm loving the game though.