Pier Solar: Coming Soon to... Sega Genesis
While I was scouring through gaming forums I stumbled across a topic like "New Sega Genesis Game". Being a retrophile, I felt urged to investigate. I eventually came to the home page of Pier Solar (http://www.piersolar.com). I downloaded the demo ROM and loaded it into my emulator.
I haven't played any home brew games for any of the classic consoles before. It's a game movement that exists on the periphery of my general attention. It is, however, something I've been hoping would be done well for a long time. The ability for game makers to create their story without obstacles like localization, commercial viability, and second hand translations, seemed to have the potential to create a uniquely personal game.
It appears that the crew on Pier Solar learned from the lessons of the Japanese RPG genre and tried to perfect the recipe. The sprites and graphics in the game remind me of the late SNES-era Square RPGS. The story starts off as most do, you must go on a search for an herb in a cave; accompanied by two of your friends from the village. Classic character archetypes along with some shoulder nudging innuendo make this game seem like something familiar before you even get started.
The battle system is also reminiscent of the classic Final Fantasy games. The command system is very simple. The side view of the battle screen, baddies on the left and heroes on the right, looks really good and the heroes are a lot more animated than in other similar RPGs.
The demo left me wanting more. The work in progress status naturally leaves out some of the finer details like talking to the townsfolk and side quests. The foundation does look promising for its eventual release in December. So instead of playing the rest of Pier Solar, I'll play Phantasy Star 4 for the 10th or so time.

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