Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth

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Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth

Developer(s)	MaxFive
Publisher(s)	Atlus
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release date	^JPN May 31, 2001 ^NA August 3, 2001
Genre(s)	Tactical RPG
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media	1 CD-ROM

Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth is a tactical role-playing game developed by MaxFive and published by Atlus in 2001. The game was never released in Europe or Australia. The game was remade as Hoshigami Remix for the Nintendo DS in 2007 by Arc System Works.^[1]

1 Story
- 1.1 Characters
- 1.2 Plot
2 Gameplay
3 Reception
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Story

[edit] Characters

Fazz: A naive young man. He is a mercenary alongside Leimrey and is the main character of the story.

Leimrey: A mercenary who uses a spear. He is a loner, but has been taken by Fazz as an older brother figure. Leimrey sees little reason for his fellow humans to exist.

Tinn: Fazz's childhood friend and secret admirer. She was a spoiled child, and now expects to get her way.

Elena: A mysterious woman Fazz meets on his journey.

Reuperl: The leader of Nightweld's Royal Guards. He hires Fazz and Leimrey to fight Valaim.

Alveen: A knight of the Valaimian Empire who fights to restore his family's name.

Gomes: This former mercenary managed to cut out Reuperl's eye. Now he's a merchant who live with the Tuchi Tribe.

Blackthorn: The commander of the Imperial Army that attacked Fazz's hometown. Emperor Fernandez knows nothing about Blackthorn's identity nor his ambitions. Even when he is defeated he is seemingly uninjured.

Silphatos: A priest that has his own motives for joining Fazz. He knows a lot more about the history of Mardias than he lets on.

Villa: The Priest of Earth serves as the personal adviser of Emperor Fernandez. His name matches one of the ancient Hoshigami.

Fernandez: While he appears to be the absolute dictator of Valaim, most of his decisions are influenced by the Priest of Earth.

Jacqueline: The leader of a bandit clan that resides in Gerauld. The bandits look up to her as a big sister, much to her chagrin, and she punishes them when they show their weakness to the enemy.

[edit] Plot

Fazz and Leimrey, two mercenaries who live together, get separated when Valaim attacks Fazz's homeland. Determined to stop the war and to find his friend, Fazz goes on an adventure to find his friend and teacher. Valaim seems to be focusing on attacking certain towers and ruins of the prehistoric Ixian Civilization, such as the Tower of Wind. Fazz soon learns that Fernandez, the ruler of Valaim, is being used by the Priest of Earth and Blackthorn. By causing a war, the people of the continent will use Coinfeigms, medallions that house the magical properties of the elemental spirits. When people use these powers, they are consuming the spirit energy of the land, which, if unchecked, will eventually destroy it. Fazz then becomes involved in stopping this from happening.

Unfortunately, among the priests that Fazz meets, two of them are planning the predicted calamity brought to Mardias. One of them is the Priest of Earth and the other one is a member of Fazz's group. Fazz finds that even though they are cruel and manipulative, their actions are justifiable and the Priest of Earth is even pitiable.

[edit] Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to other TRPGs, such as Fire Emblem. The player must raise a small army of mercenaries and story characters (Fazz, Leimrey, etc) by fighting in tactical battles. Game flow involves selecting places on the world map, watching story characters interact, and then a battle. While on the story map, the player can equip items and teach party members skills, as well as train the party.

Battles take place on a standard TRPG grid, complete with various terrains to hinder and aid the party and enemies. Quicker characters can move first, and when the characters' turn is over, they can spend RAP points to control when they will go next.

[edit] Combat Features

Coinfeigm

Like many classic role-playing games, Hoshigami features an extensive magic system that includes multiple classical elements including fire, wind, ice, etc. According to the mythology of the in-game universe, the power of the elements originally belonged to the many spirits of nature that lived in harmony with humans. Over time, however, the spirits' power was sealed into an ore called Manatite. As the ore is usually found in disk-like shards, people began to refer to them as "coins."

Throughout the plot, players can collect and use these coins in battle in the same way that white and black magic is used in other games. Each coin has its own statistics, including how much power is stored in it and how much energy it takes to cast a spell. Coinfeigm can only be used if the coin has enough energy (CP) stored in it--the CP of a coin starts at the maximum at the start of each battle and replenishes itself as battle continues.

Shoot System

This allows each character to push either an ally or enemy two squares in any direction. Pressing X during the attack gauge will bring up the Shoot Meter. You must stop the gauge within the Shoot meter to perform the Shoot attack. While Shooting an enemy does less damage than a standard attack, it can be used to push enemies off cliffs or drops, which not only causes fall damage but forces takes that enemy out of combat until they can climb back up.

R.A.P System

A screenshot from a battle in "Hoshigami" featuring the battle queue that displays the flow of battle.

Each character is allowed to move, attack, use Coinfeigm or otherwise take action when their RAP Gauge reaches 0% and the turn begins; it fills with each action taken, and the character's turn ends when the gauge reaches 100%. When attacking with weapons, it is possible to "overfill" the bar, exceeding 100% and delaying the character's next turn; it is also possible to hasten the next turn by taking fewer actions than the gauge allows.

A queue appears at the top of the screen to let players know the flow of battle--each character's portrait appears in the order in which they will act. Taking many actions will push a character to the end of the line, delaying the next turn. Once the player decides to end a character's turn, a separate RAP Gauge will come up in the middle of the screen. Players can choose to fill the gauge with extra RAP in order to affect when the character's next turn will fall. In this way, the player can plan ahead and form a strategy for defeating opponents.

Session System

Characters can be left in "Session Mode" at the end of their turns, which makes them able to participate in Hoshigami's special-attack system. If the currently-controlled character (the "Host" character) Shoots an enemy into an Ally who is in Session mode, that ally will damage the enemy upon collision and then Shoot them in whatever direction they (the ally) are facing. All six members of the party can participate in the Session if they have been properly positioned and left in Session mode. Though the proper positioning can be difficult to achieve, the damage from a six-person Session is monumental, often enough to kill an enemy or boss outright.[br]

[edit] Spirit Worship

An interesting feature of the in-game universe in Hoshigami is that all of its citizens are seemingly religious. All playable characters worship one of six principal gods that are the embodiment of the elements that make up the world. Character statistics change depending on which god is being worshipped at a given time, and each element focuses on a different aspect of combat.

Deity	Element Tied to the Deity	Weapon Type Tied to the Deity	Effect of Worship on Statistics
Amu	Fire	Sword	Balanced Stats with Increased Attack
Zeneth	Ice	Spear	Balanced Stats with Increased Luck
Kashis	Wind	Knife and Boomerang	Increased Speed and Evasion; Decreased Constitution
Ema	Earth	Ring	Increased Spirit, Confeigm Attack, and Confeigm Defense; Decreased Attack and Constitution
Gote	Thunder	Bow and Morning Star	Increased Speed and Weapon Accuracy
Sonova	Force/Explosions	Axe	Increased Attack, HP, and Constitution; Decreased Spirit and Speed
Elvilla	Light	Ring	Strong, balanced stats with an emphasis on coinfeigm using, equipment protection, and status protection.
Vugtis	Dark	Sword	Strong, balanced stats with an emphasis physical attacks, causing status ailments, and equipment breaking

[edit] Skills

During battle, characters who take action earn Devotion Points in addition to the usual Experience points, and learn a new skill for each set of 100 Dev Points collected. Learned skills differ based on which god the character is worshipping, and have many useful effects. The skills tied to each element include status-changing and status-augmenting moves, and more. A character could theoretically learn all the skills in the game, as there is nothing to stop a player from changing a character's god constantly.

Deity	Status Effect	Status Augmented	Other
Amu	Fear--The Enemy Cannot Attack	Strength	Counterattacks
Zeneth	Sleep and Confusion	Luck	Increased Bonus Money
Kashis	Immobolize--The Enemy Cannot Move	Evasion	Increased Dev Point Earnings
Ema	Poison	CF Attack and Defense	Absorbs Physical Damage Dealt as HP
Gote	Blind--Decreased Accuracy	Weapon Accuracy	Increased Exp Point Earnings
Sonova	Decoin--Magic Cannot be Cast	HP and Defense	Equipment Breaking

[edit] Reception

Hoshigami was not received well by critics, earning a combined score of 62 (of 100) at the aggregate review site Metacritic. Wide criticism was leveled at its steep learning curve and nigh-impossible battles, and the resulting emphasis on level-grinding. Character fatalities compound this problem: soldiers killed in battle are lost forever unless revived before battle's end, and can only be replaced by a newly-recruited, Level-01 party member, who may require hours of training before they are of equal level to their new teammates. The RAP, Session Attack and Coinfeigm mechanics received praise, but these innovations were not perceived as overcoming the game's faults. (Hoshigami Remix received an even lower score of 5.2.)