Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity
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| Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity | |
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| Developer(s) | Pinegrow |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus 505 Games |
| Release date(s) |  October 28, 2004 April 26, 2005 March 17, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Media | DVD-ROM |
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity is a game for PlayStation 2 published in North America by Atlus USA and in Europe by 505 Games. It is a Tactical RPG genre game with highly stylized artwork and animated cutscenes.
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[edit] Premise
Stella Deus takes place in a world called Solum, which is slowly being swallowed by "Miasma," a mist-like substance that destroys all life it touches. Against this creeping apocalypse, several groups have developed responses. The Aeque Church, led by High Priestess Lumena, believes that the Miasma is God's will, sent to bring the world to an end, not with a bang, but a whimper. A warlord, Dignus, has taken to ravaging the countryside with his armies, imposing the law of the jungle: he who will not fight for his life does not to deserve to live. And finally, an alchemist named Viser is using Dignus's patronage to hunt the world's Spirits (polygonal creatures whose nature is unknown), draining their life-force to fuel his alchemic inventions, which he is sure will save the world. His friend and deputy, Spero, is the game's protagonist. Spero must make his way through this muddy political situation and see if he can save Solum.
[edit] Plot
Spero's two best friends and companions in the hunt for Spirits are Adara, a woman who lost her arm and had it replaced by an alchemic limb, an "argyrion," and Grey, a free-wheeling jokester who rags on Adara constantly. Early in the game, they meet Linea, a member of the nearly-extinct Anima culture, and a shaman: she can talk to Spirits. She informs them that the constant death of Spirits is what is bringing on the Miasma, and that the only way to save Solum is to open the "Gate of Eternity," which will bring a fresh crop of Spirits in and push the Miasma back. Spero agrees to help her with her quest, which involves securing the aid of four elemental Summon Spirits before opening the actual Gate.
Their primary resistance comes from Lord Dignus and his lieutenants (including Viser), but allies also arrive in the form of Avis, the last heir of a kingdom Dignus destroyed, and Lumena's lover; he leads the official resistance against Dignus, along with Linea's Anima clan, and eventually brings Lumena's Meridies faction into the fold. However, the Nox faction of the Aeque becomes a major thorn in Spero's side, as its leader, Nebula, is dedicated to bringing about Solum's destruction by summoning God himself: Dies Irae, the God of Destruction. Spero must stop Nebula and Dignus both to cement the victory begun with the opening of the Gate.
[edit] Gameplay
Stella Deus, marketed as a spiritual sequel to Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, plays the same as most T/RPGs. The player is presented with a grid-based map, shaped to resemble a specific physical location (a corner of a town, the courtyard of a temple, a single enormous sand dune) and can deploy up to six characters with which to defeat all comers. Characters move across the grid and attack foes; outmaneuvering the enemy is as viable an option as simply overpowering them. Outside of battle, the player is given the option to manage and customize the characters' equipment, passive skills (like "move farther" or "dodge better"), active abilities ("barrage of sword slashes," "healing magic," "steal the target's purse") and even, to some extent, their statistics.
Stella Deus and Hoshigami take steps away from traditional T/RPGs by their use of the AP Gauge, which limits movement and attack. In most T/RPGs, a character moves when their Count gauge has reached 100, can move a specific number of squares per turn, and can attack or use some other ability once per turn. In Stella Deus each character takes their turn when they have 100 Action Points in their gauge, and depletes it by moving, attacking or using abilities. The amount of depletion depends on the weapon or spell, or on the character's Move stat (a complex equation factoring the Weight of the character's equipment, their Strength statistic and their Evasion statistic). The AP Gauge allows immense freedom of action; on one gauge (and with a Move stat of 20), Spero can run five squares forward, or run three squares forward and attack once, or run one square forward and attack twice, or even stand still and attack three times. Any unused AP simply hastens the onset of Spero's next turn. The AP Gauge also imposes limits on each character's equipment, as "modern" equipment weighs more and inflates the Move stat; the player must choose between mobile, lightly-armored characters and slow-moving, impregnable tanks. Thankfully, increases in Strength and Evasion make the character able to shoulder more Weight, allowing them to "grow into" the latest gear; then the game releases new equipment, and the characters must be rebalanced again.
Finally, Stella Deus adds "Zone Effects" to its characters. Each character has a predetermined zone around them; they can exert influence on anyone within that radius. What Effect the Zone has depends on the player's choices; a few notable examples of Zone Effects are Spero's "Evade Up," Gallant's "Restore Magic Points," and Lumena's "Move Cost +20 AP." Negative effects do not affect allies, and positive effects do not benefit enemies, but these bonuses still encourage players to place characters carefully. Zones also play into the "Team Attack" system, which replaces Hoshigami's billiards-like "Session" system. Any character may initiate or participate in a Team Attack; the only requirement is that the enemy target be within each participant's Effect Zone. Lining up all six characters for one Team Attack can be tricky, as one must factor in each character's differently-shaped Zone, but the results are worth it. As an added bonus, when certain characters participate in a Team Attack alone, they invoke a special character-based combination attack (Avis and Lumena, for instance, use "Burning Hearts"), which does more damage than a conventional Team Attack.
[edit] Characters
Stella Deus has a total of 21 recruitable characters, of which eight are mandatory, four are hidden, and nine are named versions of generic enemy characters. Each has their own skill sets, armament and abilities, and can be sent through a "Rank Up" process to raise stats, change class (along a linear progression) and unlock new abilities.
Spoiler Warning: characters are listed according to their order in the game's Party menu, regardless of when and how they are recruited.
[edit] Plot-Critical
- Spero: the main character; dual-wields katanas. Though his world-view is not especially complex, it is he who leads the quest to open the Gate of Eternity, as each of the other characters in the party is loyal primarily to him, and is generally busy keeping everyone motivated and calming hostilities. His two swords, ability to strike three times in one turn (most characters can only manage two), high dodging ability and high mobility make him an extremely gifted front-line fighter. His Japanese name was Sfida.
- Linea: the other main character; a shaman who fights with a bow and offensive magic. Though a fairly stereotypical "let's save the world!" RPG leading lady, she shows great fortitude and is never kidnapped by bad guys (thus avoiding the equally common damsel in distress stereotype). Her attack range, striking power and variety of spells make her, arguably, the single most useful character in the game. The game's ending suggests a budding romance between her and Spero.
- Avis: prince and heir-apparent to the kingdom of Fortuna. Wears long blonde hair and a blue dress. Dignus destroyed Fortuna, and Avis has sworn revenge. His other great obsession is Lumena, whom he loves dearly (but is not above manipulating when he needs her to do something distasteful, such as entering the war). Wields a longsword, but pales in comparison to Spero.
- Lumena: the High Priestess of the Aeque (their Pope, in other words); wears a voluminous robe and a skin-tight suit. Though pacifistic and highly spiritual, she is an implacable foe when roused, and owns one of the best offensive magic spells in the game ("Glimmering Shaft"), as well as an array of healing magics and a staff for corporeal punishment.
- Grey: flippant and prone to speaking before he thinks, he is nonetheless one of Spero's closest friends. On the battlefield, Grey's passive abilities allow him to walk farther in one turn than most other characters, and his spear allows him to strike two enemies at the same time. Oddly enough, his hair and clothing are blue.
- Adara: an alchemist who lost an arm in an experiment by the wicked alchemist Malkar, getting a mechanical replacement from Viser; she uses it as her weapon in battle. She possesses a wide range of both offensive and defensive magics, and, unusually for an RPG, does just as much damage with them as Spero and Grey do with their conventional weapons. She and Linea are the only magic-users in the cast with any sort of emphasis on attack spells. Outside of battle, Adara is kind-hearted and upbeat, but ashamed of her prosthetic arm.
- Gallant: an axe-wielder and the first character in the game to deliver truly outstanding damage, Gallant is a taciturn man of dark skin and pale hair. He is later revealed to be an Anima, the people Linea hails from. Though an extremely heavy hitter, he suffers from an understandable deficiency in accuracy; due to a quirk of gameplay design, his high strength can lead to extraordinary mobility at higher levels, outstripping even Grey.
- Prier: an eleven-year-old girl and Lumena's most faithful attendant, she is sent along with the party early in the game; Spero eventually teaches her not to passively wait for a peaceful end. Essentially a smaller version of Lumena, she uses a staff and many of the same spells.
[edit] Hidden and Secret Characters
- Tia: a cat-girl who makes her presence known from the very beginning of the game by sending Spero helpful tutorials in the mail. She was rescued from starvation by Viser and spends a good part of the game trying to get the two of them to be friends again. Tia fights with "gloves" (brass knuckles or gauntlets) and is second only to Gallant in striking power. However, because she joins the party so late in the game, her skill set is somewhat bare.
- Jade: a mercenary/thief who is introduced to the party as a boss character persecuting Gallant. Though he causes trouble for the party several times, it isn't personal, and after faking his own death in Chapter 3 he can be recruited at the very end of the game. He combines Spero's agility with Grey's mobility, but his knives lack the attacking flexibility of either. His skill set is also pretty thin.
- Echidna: a buxom woman and one of Dignus's primary lieutenants. She takes Spero's father's sword from him at the beginning of the game. Upon arriving at end-game, the player has a choice of whether to defeat her directly, or to undertake a sidequest first. Doing the sidequest allows Spero to recruit Echidna instead of mortally wounding her during the battle. She uses a single katana in the iaido (quick-draw) style, and otherwise is rather similar to Spero, except for the reduced skill set.
- Viser: the master alchemist himself is by far the most difficult character to recruit, requiring the player to fulfill a special condition in five or more specific boss battles. He wields a roster of spells similar to Adara's, as well as a lightsaber-like sword for enhanced physical attacks.
[edit] Bosses and Nemeses
- Viper: a mad axe-man and one of Dignus's lieutenants, he kills for the joy of it and shows no remorse. His cackling retorts and inner monologues are an unexpected touch of humor in a game that, for the most part, takes itself very seriously. Fought and defeated in Chapter 1.
- Croire: an archer with wide-reaching magical attacks that can often catch the entire party in one blast... But are notoriously expensive, relegating him to three uses or less per battle. Fixated on becoming the best and greatest of Dignus's lieutenants. Fought in Chapter 2, defeated in Chapter 5.
- Nebula: uses Lumena's spells but a two-range whip, as well as a number of status-affliction spells. The head of the Nox faction of the Aeque Church, which is dedicated to bringing the world to an end—peaceful, messy or otherwise. First encountered in Chapter 3; killed in Chapter 4 and again in Chapter 5.
- Dignus: the warlord himself, who has brought chaos, blood and life to the impoverished masses of Solum. By refusing to kill any foe who is actually challenging to fight, he gained the allegiance (or at least fear) of his three main lieutenants. Fought and defeated in Chapter 5.
