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Pier Solar |OT| this jRPG has Blast Processing

R.I.P

Member
So...last night I bought this game on PS4 having heard vaguely about it in the past (Genesis sytle RPG harkening back to Lunar-ish days? HELL YES). I loved it, played about an hour and a half. This whole time, I'm wondering how to save the game. The option ring has a Load and a Quit option but no save. I slept at the inn hoping for a prompt and got none. I went to the overworld and nothing was different there. Did a forest dungeon and some of a cave and still nothing.

I then went online to find out HOW to save (seriously how is this not explained or blatantly obvious in the game - and is there even a manual? I didn't see one anywhere on PS4 but may have missed it?) From the scarce details I could find people had said you can pretty much save anywhere and something about saving when you left a screen so I thought...OK...maybe it's auto-saving or when I choose Quit it will make a save. I chose Quit.

Back to title screen. NO SAVE GAMES. So, I get to replay everything I did now and try to figure out how to save the damn game. I see above someone said there is a statue or something in town??? I must have walked by it 1000 times last night. Could someone tell me where in town it is or what it looks like? Are these the only way to save the game? Otherwise I loved the game but this is some class A bullshit and it boggles my mind as to why it's so obtuse for such a basic function!

Every town has a golden circle that acts as a save point, in the first town I think it's close to the main character's home . The auto-save is not turned on automatically so you need to go into the in-game options to set it on, after that the game auto-saves every time you transition from one screen to another.

Have to agree that the lack of a digital manual is pretty annoying, as the in-game menus are kinda lacking. There are no proper status screens for the characters where you could check out their spells and special attacks, and there are no descriptions for their effects. For example, there is a spell called 'heaven blow' and from the name I expected it to be an attack spell but it's actually a healing one. According to a steam achievement there should be tutorials somewhere in the game, but I haven't found any and I'm over 5 hours in.
 

daveo42

Banned
Every town has a golden circle that acts as a save point, in the first town I think it's close to the main character's home . The auto-save is not turned on automatically so you need to go into the in-game options to set it on, after that the game auto-saves every time you transition from one screen to another.

Have to agree that the lack of a digital manual is pretty annoying, as the in-game menus are kinda lacking. There are no proper status screens for the characters where you could check out their spells and special attacks, and there are no descriptions for their effects. For example, there is a spell called 'heaven blow' and from the name I expected it to be an attack spell but it's actually a healing one. According to a steam achievement there should be tutorials somewhere in the game, but I haven't found any and I'm over 5 hours in.

I've found a total of two in the opening town, but kind of lucked into them after going back into one of the buildings that is initially "closed" when you first go in. It did help in explaining the Gather function as I wasn't sure initially if it meant gathering resources during combat. I mean I figured that out on my own, but the tutorial early on would have been great to cover that mechanic specifically.

I've got one last run in the initial cave and then I guess it is on to the next section. Having fun so far since it definitely doesn't hold your hand and the combat seems okay starting out with a bit of depth coming in from the Gather function. It's not all that useful now outside of a single ability, but I can see where it will eventually become a powerful component in battle.

I do agree that some sort of manual would be fantastic.
 

R.I.P

Member
I've found a total of two in the opening town, but kind of lucked into them after going back into one of the buildings that is initially "closed" when you first go in. It did help in explaining the Gather function as I wasn't sure initially if it meant gathering resources during combat. I mean I figured that out on my own, but the tutorial early on would have been great to cover that mechanic specifically.

I've got one last run in the initial cave and then I guess it is on to the next section. Having fun so far since it definitely doesn't hold your hand and the combat seems okay starting out with a bit of depth coming in from the Gather function. It's not all that useful now outside of a single ability, but I can see where it will eventually become a powerful component in battle.

I do agree that some sort of manual would be fantastic.

Ah, I did suspect that the tutorials would be in the first town but I didn't notice that some of the initially closed doors had been opened :p
 

Sojiro

Member
Why do all the characters have their eyes closed in the character portraits?

Because they are so happy! Lol I honestly have no idea why they are smiling so much though. Game is looking good to scratch an old school jrpg itch, holding out for the Wii U version, but who knows when that will be.
 

daveo42

Banned
Ah, I did suspect that the tutorials would be in the first town but I didn't notice that some of the initially closed doors had been opened :p

It was actually in one of the originally opened places, but the only guy in there said "We aren't open yet." or something to that effect if you go in before entering the forest. I haven't seen any of the other buildings open up, but that might be the case after certain events happen? Like with seeing some of the hidden or side rooms that are there but you can't access early on or something.
 

Bladenic

Member
Every town has a golden circle that acts as a save point, in the first town I think it's close to the main character's home . The auto-save is not turned on automatically so you need to go into the in-game options to set it on, after that the game auto-saves every time you transition from one screen to another.

Have to agree that the lack of a digital manual is pretty annoying, as the in-game menus are kinda lacking. There are no proper status screens for the characters where you could check out their spells and special attacks, and there are no descriptions for their effects. For example, there is a spell called 'heaven blow' and from the name I expected it to be an attack spell but it's actually a healing one. According to a steam achievement there should be tutorials somewhere in the game, but I haven't found any and I'm over 5 hours in.

Okay that sounds absolutely atrocious for an RPG.
 

Mudo

Member
Thanks for all the responses. I knew I wasn't crazy! I gold circle on the ground? I can not WAIT to see this after work because I have no recollection of it. Of course, I would have never been looking for something like that (as a save point especially!) so there's that... Hopefully tonight I can get back in and at least get back to where I was last night.
 
10590443_762220217178991_3398962293347762583_n.jpg


Watermelon
Pier Solar. PS Vita. Cross buy.
Coming Soon
y
.

Via watermelon's fb
 

JPS Kai

Member
I'm putting this in spoiler tags and not embedding just in case it's spoilers for the party members you get later on.

Sent a pic of this up to one of the guys at Watermelon, but I can get the game to effectively crash there every single time (if I mash triangle, I can get to the load menu and reload my autosave)
 

Yuterald

Member
Hmm, I sort of regret buying this on impulse the other night. First impressions haven't been too hot. I've known about this game for awhile and I've always wanted to check it out, but it's not exactly doing much for me. While games like Lunar and Grandia are classics and are most definitely RPGs I can return to and enjoy, this game just feels like it's missing something. Something that's hard to describe. I'm still very early on, but between the first town and some of the mapping decisions, I'm really quite turned off by it all, actually. I find it difficult to read the dialogue too (and it's not because of the font-size/type). It's not like it's written poorly or anything like that, it just feels so juvenile and amateur, I guess.

I just like don't give a shit about these characters either. Starting off your game by having to go to a cave for some herbs for your sick father doesn't bode too well for me either. I get that it's a "classic" or "nostalgic" scenario/thing to do, but it's like RPG Maker 101-kind-of-stuff. I don't know, I'm probably in the minority here with my thoughts on this so far. I do like some of the battle system quirks (gathering seems interesting and I like how guard also acts as a built-in cover command). The high/low enemy types and the differentiating weapon/command types is cool too. Yo, but the Auto AI option is SO retarded! One of my guys took a bit of damage and the Auto AI chose to heal that person when they CLEARLY didn't need it yet. Seems totally out of whack...

I'll play more this weekend to see how competent the main dungeons are, but I may just end up dropping this for now...
 

hongcha

Member
Hmm, I sort of regret buying this on impulse the other night. First impressions haven't been too hot. I've known about this game for awhile and I've always wanted to check it out, but it's not exactly doing much for me. While games like Lunar and Grandia are classics and are most definitely RPGs I can return to and enjoy, this game just feels like it's missing something. Something that's hard to describe. I'm still very early on, but between the first town and some of the mapping decisions, I'm really quite turned off by it all, actually. I find it difficult to read the dialogue too (and it's not because of the font-size/type). It's not like it's written poorly or anything like that, it just feels so juvenile and amateur, I guess.

I just like don't give a shit about these characters either. Starting off your game by having to go to a cave for some herbs for your sick father doesn't bode too well for me either. I get that it's a "classic" or "nostalgic" scenario/thing to do, but it's like RPG Maker 101-kind-of-stuff. I don't know, I'm probably in the minority here with my thoughts on this so far. I do like some of the battle system quirks (gathering seems interesting and I like how guard also acts as a built-in cover command). The high/low enemy types and the differentiating weapon/command types is cool too. Yo, but the Auto AI option is SO retarded! One of my guys took a bit of damage and the Auto AI chose to heal that person when they CLEARLY didn't need it yet. Seems totally out of whack...

I've been reading a lot of impressions like this. Sounds like the game has a lot of issues. I think I'll pass on it.
 
OK, so I went overboard and got me a US psn card so I could get this as the European release is a bit foggy.
I played it for a bit yesterday, basically the first quest + boss and I must say that I am really enjoying it so far. So far nothing new on the horizon, but it does the job getting me all nostalgic.
The only down point so far is that the HD backgrounds are sometime a bit too dark. I had to change it to 16-bit sometimes to find my way around some of the areas.
Will be playing more this weekend!
 

TheFatMan

Member
Bought this today and played about 4 hours tonight after work.

Pretty much what I'd expect from an "old school" JRPG style game. The music is really good and aside from some menu and navigation irritation (I played 2 hours before I realized I could turn off the annoying "push my character around corners" option hah!) I've loved every minute of it.

I'd say my only TRUE gripe with the game is the fact that sometimes the battles (which are completely random, much like FF6 battles) sometimes start you with an "Ambushed" status. This basically allows the monsters to take a free turn beating on you and has almost lead to a wipe for me a few times. Not a big deal, but I feel it's kind of cheap that I have no control over this happening to me or not.
 

Yuterald

Member
Cleared the first dungeon & boss. I don't know what to make of this yet. I'm obsessed with analyzing RPG dungeons and the first cave area wasn't giving me much confidence for the rest of the game. Just curious from those who've played this already. Does the dungeon design get any more interesting? Any sort of puzzles or environmental obstacles, etc? It was more or less a path with a few dead-end treasure chest rooms. I understand it's the first major area, but still. I REALLY don't like the mapping in this game either. It's clustered as fuck! So much shit that looks like you can walk over, but you can't and vice-versa. Ugh.
 

TheFatMan

Member
Cleared the first dungeon & boss. I don't know what to make of this yet. I'm obsessed with analyzing RPG dungeons and the first cave area wasn't giving me much confidence for the rest of the game. Just curious from those who've played this already. Does the dungeon design get any more interesting? Any sort of puzzles or environmental obstacles, etc? It was more or less a path with a few dead-end treasure chest rooms. I understand it's the first major area, but still. I REALLY don't like the mapping in this game either. It's clustered as fuck! So much shit that looks like you can walk over, but you can't and vice-versa. Ugh.

The second dungeon I found had a lot more navigating trying to figure out how to get all of the chests in the area. Almost to the point of being ridiculous. But yeah the "can I walk over that or not" feeling never seems to go away.
 

aett

Member
I was out of town for a few days and just got back to see that the PS4 version (at least) had an update file for this game. Anyone know what it did?
 

Tohsaka

Member
I was out of town for a few days and just got back to see that the PS4 version (at least) had an update file for this game. Anyone know what it did?

I haven't downloaded the game yet, but you can check what the update did by hitting the options button when selecting the game in the PS4 UI and clicking "update history."
 

aett

Member
I haven't downloaded the game yet, but you can check what the update did by hitting the options button when selecting the game in the PS4 UI and clicking "update history."

Thanks! Now to wait for my son to finish his movie.
 

flowsnake

Member
Played the Steam demo. Seems pretty good, HD graphics were terribly confusing though (very poor contrast so I couldn't see where I could walk in the dungeon) and I had to turn them off.

Does anyone know how/if your progress transfers to the main game? It's not a big issue since it was so short, but...
 
Finally put in a bit of time and am really enjoying this game! it really started to click right after the first boss fight. I'm playing on PS4 w/ the 16-bit backgrounds but the Sega CD soundtrack.

The only gripe i have is the annoying menu beep that happens when advancing characters dialogue, there's no way to disable that is there? i'm hoping i'm blind and just didn't notice an option for it.
 

zakujanai

Member
Gave up waiting for the UK release and bought on my US account. Only just past the first boss but I'm a bit disappointed that the dungeons are unplayable in HD due to the terrible contrast. It looks great even in 16bit mode but it'd be nice to have the choice between the two.
 

Fou-Lu

Member
I'm blind or lost. In the sanctuary, with all the switches. Pretty sure I hit them all, yet I get to a place I can't go any further. There is one switch that requires a key I can't find. Help?

I am stuck at this point. I found a gold key but it doesn't work on the switch.
 
Is there any update to the EU / AU PSN release? Once again, waiting for something that's already released in an english speaking country, despite living in an english speaking country.
 
Hey guys check this out!
http://youtu.be/wUTrwNaUQE8

An error has occurred for the following application. (CE-34878-0). we didn't program an ending because we didn't think anyone would've played this game long enough.
patch notes v1.2: added ending --

Good Night, enjoy.
 
Is there anything after the credits? This has seriously been running for about 20 minutes now. I just want to close it out, I am afraid I will miss something though.
 

JP

Member
Just started playing the PS4 version and got absolutely massacred by the first boss. I even struggled a bit just getting to the boss!! Any hints for somebody who is clearly out of his depth here?
 

RexNovis

Banned
Necrobump but I just picked this game up on the PSN sale. This game is FANTASTIC. I absolutely love it so far. If anybody is itching for a good old school JRPG definitely check this out. It definitely scratches that itch.
 
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