Sailor Moon Another Story

I was surfing around the web bored until I discovered that there was a Sailor Moon RPG. I'm not a fan of the anime, but just the fact that there is a RPG of the anime intrigued me so I decided to get it. Overall it's a decent game, but it definitely has some issues when it comes to gameplay. This game has formation alignments like in the FF games, but there are four of them in this game, but it's not really clear what their purposes are. You have one formation that could have you dealing 500 damage the next while also taking a lot of damage and you have another in which you and the enemy could be inflicting one point of damage to each other every turn. Unlike the FF games you can't change them mid battle, which would be useful because I found that I lost a couple of boss fights due to not being in the right formation.

Leveling seems a bit weird in here as well. You could go from taking a ton of damage from one level to only taking one point of damage each by gaining just about five extra levels and this is not due to formation. Some encounters or boss fights drag on too long to the point where I just sped up my emulator to max get through with it.

The story is very typically cliche, but it's what I expected anyway. The beginning intro drags and I think it's unskippable? I haven't completed it yet, but it's definitely grown on me.

A few screenshots.

http://i.imgur.com/9lyrlxr.png

http://i.imgur.com/XXIkBSf.png
Esper Terra makes a cameo here.

http://i.imgur.com/TtviM1h.png

I was able to skip past the opening just fine. Space Bar if I'm remembering right.

I first discovered the game years ago and loved it. I reviewed it last year in honor of the 20th Anniversary and it was just as fun that time around as it was the first. I like the character development we see with the Senshi and the way the old villains are brought back. I don't know the sources, but pretty much every Sailor Moon fan I talk to that follows these things closely have told me the game is considered canon in the universe, taking place between S and Super S, so that's interesting.

It still kills me that the Outer Sols do less damage in the beginning than the rest. Sailor Saturn has a weapon that could destroy the entire planet.

+1 damage.

I have been meaning to play through this game, I just haven't had the time. Once I finish going through classic MegaTen I plan on playing through this game and Tenchi Muyo! SRPG.

I've played it as a kid. Got owned by some bosses. It seemed ridiculously hard at that point. But I had to play it as a diehard Sailor Moon fan.

I finally finished the game about a day ago.

All in all I found this game to be pretty mediocre. The story is bad, the gameplay is subpar and some enemies and bosses are frustrating. One boss took so long to beat because his defense and HP were so high that it was ridiculous. The game requires a little bit of too much grinding and forces you to use the worst part member in a JRPG since I've played Final Fantasy IV. Edward had some use with his ability to consistently inflict status ailments on bosses. Chibi Moon has low ATK and DEF. Her dual techs are pointless when others deal more damage and you have items that heal more. I just ended up having her just defend throughout most of the game. There is next to no exploration, and the music recycles the same four songs throughout the game. You don't even have boss themes. Bosses have the same music as regular encounters. You don't get a boss theme until you fight the final boss.

The game overall feels like a dumbed down Chrono Trigger with no redeeming qualities unless you're a fan of the anime which I wasn't. I really can't recommend this to anyone. It's average til the end.

5/10.