Pier Solar and the Great Architects Reviews

THIS GAME IS AMAZING, Seriously, If you've ever played the Megadrive release you'd know that, I'm playing this baby on my Arch Linux system. Who says us linux users don't love games? It's a great RPG with witty dialogue and a great story. I've been playing this release so far and am loving the updated music (Which was available on the megadrive release if you had the CD addon) and the updated Graphics. They definitely add to the game, the combat system is tried-but-true with updated features, what else can I say about this game? BUY IT RIGHT NOW, BUY THE DREAMCAST RELEASE. BUY IT. 10/10 would buy again.

Reminds me a lot of Lunar: Silver Star Story, if you love old school JRPGs you will love this one for sure. oh the battle system here is turn based and it is random encounters. hope i helped, enjoy.

Always wished there were more RPGs on the Genesis. I'm glad the guys at WaterMelon shared that opinion so strongly that they made their own. While the game suffered through development hell (the original Genesis version from my understanding... as well as this HD version which I feel like I waited a year after the scheduled release date to check out), it finally came. It managed to captivate me in the way RPGs did in my youth. I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it that much. A few notes: - Battles are reminiscent of Lunar both in the way of style and challenge. Areas can seem gimmicky and lack variety in fights up until a boss or change of region, however. - Sound is wonderful and fitting of the game's environments and mood. Perfectly done in Genesis style. The HD music is even better. - The options to swap between original graphics and HD, as well as original and HD sound are nice. - Without listing all the reasons, I feel the game has some replay value (I can see 1 or 2 more playthoughs in the future for mehself). Obviously I'm not looking at it with nostalgia goggles either. - The characters are likeable, which is good due to the fact you'll be spending quite a few hours with them. Overall, I'd give it an 8 out of 10. There's not too many great RPGs on the Genesis, so this game is welcomed by me. I'd even go as far as to place it at my number three spot of favorite Genesis RPGs, falling short of only Phantasy Star IV and Shining Force II. If you're a fan of those titles and also Lunar, then definitely try to pick it up if ya see it on sale, and give it a shot. Happy Gaming, friends!!

I love classic games and JRPGs in general. I had been looking forward to playing Pier Solar ever since I first heard about the game, so I was glad to see a digital version available for purchase on Steam. The music and art are both excellent, but everything else about this game is horrible. It's not a matter of taste or me just not liking the style---I'll give anything the benefit of the doubt and I would continue to do so for Pier Solar, but I just can't go on. Here's what's wrong with the game: 1. The game freezes often. 2. There are input problems when playing with a controller. The developer suggested fix did nothing to help. 3. The combat system is awful and battle times can be measured in minutes (usually 2 or 3 for every battle). 4. The design of the maps is terrible. Everything--including the towns--is like a maze. 5. Often, there are concealed paths or platforms behind what is visible to you on the screen. 6. The story moves at such a glacial pace that at 6 hours in, I still don't know what it is about. 7. Nothing in the game seems to fit together stylistically. There is a real lack of cohesion and everything feels off. I didn't believe the negative reviews when I read them, because most of the points sounded minor on paper. They really aren't. Please learn from my mistake and avoid wasting your money on this game. It is both frustrating and lifeless. If you want to play a good classic game on the Sega Genesis (which is what Pier Solar was originally designed for), check out Phantasy Star IV. If you want a unique JRPG that is a bit more modern, try The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.

This game's a pretty decent old-school RPG. Characters are fun, environments are pretty, the new music is good (some of the old stuff is pretty rough, as are some of the sound effects). A few UI choices are a little wonky (like how you cast healing spells), but you get used to them pretty quick, though I did keep noticing my little gripes. All and all, pretty fun, I enjoy it. If it's on sale, give it a shot. Though there is a timing/platforming section at the magic school which I hate, hate, hate. For that infurating section alone, this game might end up burning in video game hell. You'll get past it after a stressful hour or two, though.

Pier Solar is a throwback JRPG that manages to embrace almost all the annoying parts of old JRPGs without much of the stuff that made them fun. I'm not going to go into super detail because I tapped out somewhat early in the game, but quite frankly I think I saw what there was to see. As a love letter to old JRPGs it embraces some of their most terrible features, which would be somewhat tolerable if it was 1996 but not tolerable anytime after 2010. Some quick bullets: 1. Annoying and terrible dungeon design that hides chests behind invisible passageways occluded by a pixel layer. Gotta go grid hunting to find the hidden invisible passage to lead to a chest that half the time contains an antidote or something similarly useless. 2. No separated item and equipment menu, making gearing your characters a huge chore and hassle. Having to hunt down the new sword you found and unintuitively equip it is a pain in the ass. 3. The battle system isn't super complex but everything takes *forever*. A typical random battle takes multiple minutes to resolve due to individual basic attacks taking tens of seconds. The auto option, which would otherwise make this more tolerable, for some reason has the characters burning consumables, which is intolerable. 4. Mysterious story flag points that don't flow together and are nonsensical. Almost at no point in my playtime did I figure out why I should care about anything that was happening. 5. Old school grind requirements that, coupled with the takes-forever-and-a-day battle system, means the total playtime of the game is horrendously padded. If I was 12 and this was all I could rent for two weeks from blockbuster, I'd probably push through it a bit more, but as it stands I just don't really have the patience to grind through a filler JRPG when there are plenty of other more interesting titles I could play.

I've seen a few reviews on here that were a bit too critical. "I don't like the way the heal spell looks" is one of them, which is obviously just nitpicking. Anyway, I absolutely love and recommend this game if you like JRPG type games. I've listed what I liked and disliked, and will update as I get further into the game. Good features: + Stylish graphics, switch between HD or classic 16 bit look + Great music, also able to switch to Sega Genesis sound + Quick to get you into the game, very fun upbeat story + Compatible with many controllers, even my SNES one! + Adjustable encounter rate: fight more or no enemies at all + Adjustable combat speed: great for when you're just training Unappealing features: - Steam overlay is bugged. Will move/select when typing. - The controls can be strange. Not game breaking.* * Holding a directional key seems to disable the use/talk button in the middle of dialog. When using a heal spell out of combat, there is a strange quirk where I have to hit the up button to scroll left, but the right button to scroll to the right. This is incredibly minor. ALSO if you do have controller issues, right click the game on steam, go to properties, set launch options, and write dxjoy. This might make your controller more compatible. Be sure to map buttons once ingame of course. I'd like to add that games of this nature are very rare. The HD graphics have incredible, well-detailed environments with some classic 16 bit sprites mixed in. It's a timeless work of art; these visuals don't age and are very pleasant to look at. Give the demo a try if you are interested, and take into account that the bad reviews are only from a handful of people. If more people decided to try this game out, the ratings would likely go way up. In an oversaturated indie market, where some of the most lazy looking, blocky games are highly praised, I find it hard to accept that Pier Solar gets hardly any attention; it provides beautiful visuals, great music, a lovely story and classic RPG mechanics that are both intuitive and pretty satisfying. - Sarah

I was keeping my eyes on Pier Solar ever since it was known under the "Tavern RPG" codename, as many of fellow JRPG genre fans. Unfortunately, due to many reasons I missed the opportunity to play original Sega Genesis release (as many of us too, I believe) and was pretty excited to hear that Pier Solar will be coming to more platforms, including PC, and even with enhanced graphics and CD-quality soundtrack! "Now, that's pretty awesome chance to finally get to play this game", I thought, and when it hit the Steam — the game was bought without a second thinking. Now, when the game is cleared, it is a good time to sum up my experience with it. First of all, Pier Solar is a good game. I will not be original here, but if titles like Lunar Silver Star Story, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV-VI make echoes of nostalgic tremble in your hearth, then you should get Pier Solar. It has many qualities of a great game - wonderful characters, beautiful graphics and soundtrack, interesting story and an old-school JRPG charm. You will be getting many random encounters with enemies (sometimes too many, he-he :D), looking for a treasure chests, crawl dungeons and oppose bosses. There's a bunch of fun dialogs out there, so keep talking with NPCs. Be aware that some of them have two and even three versions of replies to you, and sometimes it is necessary to talk with them three times to get an item or trigger some event. Now for the part that is not so good with Pier Solar. There's a few flaws in the game that may poison your experience - nothing too major, but still the game would be definitely better without them. Sometimes you will get stuck. First of all, the environment design sometime will get you wondering where you should go. Yes, maze-like maps is classic for a JRPG, but there's more than that to well-designed map. I often caught myself missing the path to the next location or route to another area of current map just because it was looking like there's nothing interesting (dead end). Be prepared that if you feel that you got stuck and there's nowhere to go next - you should look more carefully for a path. Oh, and there's hidden paths inside the walls. Sometimes. Somewhere. Second, the directions from the storytelling could be better. When you finish your quest in current location and should move to the next area, there was times for me when it was not so clear from the dialogs where should I go and what to do next. Most of the times you should just go to the next area, but there's few exceptions from this rule. Maybe I'm just getting too old... Third, the Sanctuary and the damned platform behind the pillar. Seriously, I will be making a small spoiler here, but when you will get stuck at this point in Sanctuary (couple of hours from the start of the game), look for a moving platform that is hiding behind the pillar near the room entrance ladder. I do not understand what was the point of making such design decision, but I'm taking it as a bad idea. In general, "getting stuck" was the most annoying thing that happened to me with Pier Solar. When you wander from corner to corner of the map and face endless random encounters, getting ambushed often and the game is not so quick in its battle system - it is not long when you will get bored from it. My advice is such — don't hesitate to look for a guide or ask a question in forums, you will get much more pleasuring experience from this game actually progressing through the story, and not from lurking in forest or dungeon. Well, that's about it. I can recommend this game to any fan of JRPG genre. [b]Some tips for the game that may be useful:[/b] [list][*] There's a detailed walkthrough by Tim Maurer at GameFAQs for this game. As was mentioned above, I advise to everyone who got stuck to take a peek on it (just in case :D). [*] If you played Pier Solar on Sega Genesis you may notice minor differences with this version. Same goes for the Tim Maurer's walkthrough — it was written for Genesis version of Pier Solar and contain very minor differences with PC version (you should get the Beaver in the forest). [*] There's nothing inside the regular barrels and crates (apart from very few hidden items in some special places), do not waste your time on them. [*] Some walls can have hidden paths, look at the radar and to edges of the screen - if there's some graphics "in the middle of nowhere", most likely you can walk behind the wall to get there. [*] Sell unnecessary items (primary weapon and armor). The inventory system is very basic and you don't need a mess there. [*] Metal and Gold Coins, blocks, etc. is money. Do not look for them in your inventory, after finding something like this in a treasure chest it will just add to your wallet. [*] You will get new spells at higher levels. Some spells can be learned only from the books. [*] Look for the accessories that can halve elemental damage, they're very useful. [*] Have fun and enjoy this game! :) [/list]

I wanted to like this game. Really I did. However, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a game than I was with Pier Solar. There is everything wrong with the game, and nearly nothing was done right. So, let's break it down. The story? One word. Convoluted. You'll go through a significant portion of the game without any real idea of your purpose, and when significant plot details do surface it is done so late into the game, that it just leaves you feeling rushed and confused, not to mention by that time you have likely long stopped caring about why you are "out here" doing any of this. Gameplay. Oh boy. Where do I start? First, let me go on a little tangent - difficulty. A game's difficulty should be based on challenging factors related to player's skill or willingness to strategize or even grind. This game however is really only difficult because it is cheap. It's a copout, the lazy way to make a game difficult. That's not to say it's impossible or I'm whining because the game is too hard. It's not. It is playable and beatable, but made annoying by the level of cheapness involved in the battles. A perfect example is player v. enemy advantages. A staple in many JRPGs, to be sure and usually designed in one of two ways: a roughly 50/50 chance to encounter either or an increased enemy advantage chance until the player levels up some predetermined stat(s) to put the chances in their favor. I believe Pier Solar was supposed to be designed in the format of the latter, but it didn't really pan out. You'll find enemies (regardless of their level and Agility compared to yours) getting significantly more advantageous encounters to you. And in a game as difficult as this, allowing the enemies to pummel you so frequently before you have a chance to retaliate is extremely frustrating and you'll eventually come to feel the game is cheating you. Design. I can describe it in one word too, labyrinthian. Good lord. Everything in this damn game is a maze. Field maps, dungeons even towns. What were they thinking? It reeks of a lazy way to artificially inflate play time and difficulty by makng players have to traverse areas longer to their utter frustrration. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the dreaded minigames. To be clear up front, I'm not a fan of minigames, but it is common to JRPGs, so their simple existence is not something I will hold against a game. However, in this game not only are they very abundant and dull, many of them are forced, tied behind story progression. Nuh-uh. That is a big no-no in any game, and I won't say it's acceptable in Pier Solar either. Minigames are meant to be fun, time-wasting diversions, or at worst a necessary evil related to sidequests, but never should be tied to story progression. Presentation. Graphics are fairly standard fair for a 16-bit era RPG that was designed specifically for the Sega Genesis. That said, the Genesis was capable of much nicer looking textures and animations than this game provides. Yes, it was made by a small indie team, but I'm not inclined to let that be used as an excuse for inferior design choices. The game isn't ugly, but it certainly ranks nowhere near the top of 16-bit inspired titles. That said, I do very much love the character portraits and cutscenes that are very much reminiscent of the Phantasy Star titles. Kudos. Now that I've got my one positive out of the way, let's talk about the HD graphical overhaul. It sucks. It looks "okay" and all, but the problem lies in the fact the game wasn't designed for an HD overhaul in mind. You'll often find the artwork and incidental foreground sprites in the HD version will obscure your ability to navigate in this game making the mazes even more of a nuisance. So if you do decide to play this game, do yourself a favor, and play in the original 16-bit option. The music isn't half bad, I will admit. There are even a few pretty good songs in there, with only a couple that will really grate on you. Also, there is the option for the FM soundtrack (basically what you would come to expect from music in a Genesis title) and the PCM music (which was released originally as an optional Sega CD add-on to the game) with higher quality music. The Steam verison allows you to choose between the two on a whim. I'm not particulary nostalgic towards the Sega Genesis, so I found the FM soundtrack to be a bit annoying at times, but if you are one of those people who enjoy the way the Genesis handled music then you'll probably love it. If not, the PCM soundtrack is very nice. Now, for what is probably the biggest cardinal sin in my book, and would have been enough to make me not recommend this game, if not for every other glaring issue... characterization. Oh my. For being a game that wants to really drive home the fact that your core group consists of three childhood friends adventuring together, the game does a pretty piss poor job of making them relatable or even seemingly all that friendly with each other. I think the designers were too busy with their utterly immature elementary humor they just throw into the game to be bothered with something as insignificant as character interaction. I could go on, but I think I've done enough ranting, and drove home my point long ago. Basically, the game is tripe. It's an insult to anyone who is a fan of classic 16-bit RPGs.

I'm not the type to really enjoy a JRPG, but there are a few that capture my attention. Pier Solar and the Great Architects is defintiely one of those games. I previously owned only on my Sega Genesis and I absolutely loved it. The visual appeal, the great music, and the immersive story. The turned-based combat is also pretty refined compared to others in it's genre. Pier Solar HD is essentially the same game but with better visuals, a remastered soundtrack, and beautiful backgrounds that bring the world to life. To cut to the chase, if you like JRPGs or are looking for an experience, check out Pier Solar HD. If you enjoyed Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or Final Fanstasy VI, you will love Pier Solar.