Planet Stronghold 2

I've played quite a lot of Winterwolves games and can say that a lot of effort went into this one! Great job! Compared to other games from this developer PS2 feels more mature, robust, more detailed. If you played the first part, you'll clearly see the evolution. The plot is more serious, humor is more strategically placed, characters feel more flashed out. Especially the old cast! Gotta say, I didn't expect to like Rebecca so much with her hot chick stereotype. I'm still angry at her though - she got all the hot guys before me! Avae being the exception and that's only because he lived in a cave all his life... lol I've played all the male romances and several endings and I mostly liked them all. Damien still being my favourite (even Tom looked nice. I'm against smoking in real life, but his "camp talk" picture looked sexy with the cigarette). I guess the old romances finally blossomed in part 2 so they feel more complete compared to new ones. But Milo and Avae just look so cute... On the side note, I was pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack! The level up screen totally rocked xD The CG art was gorgeous! Both explicit and "modest" in my opinion. I like the anime\cartoon blend artstyle here. Hope you're reading this, Jack! Thumbs up!

I love this game, it's been an absolute joy to read from start to finish. So I'll do my best to leave a detailed review for those who want more information than "It's great just buy it already". (But for those of you who don't want detail, JUST BUY THE GAME IT'S GREAT!) Below I'll list some things I noticed as I played, both good and bad: I just recently finished my first run of the game as Joshua romancing Milo and I honestly just loved it. There were a couple moments that made me go "oh woah, okay, oh my god!" but that was mostly due to me downloading the optional DLC that makes things more risque, so I asked for it, and how could I possibly complain! (It was great) The PROS: - The romances are not rushed, they take time to develop and feel more natural that way. - I didn't expect to enjoy the grid based world exploration or even the combat system, I bought the game primarily to read the story, but as I progressed I found myself actually LOVING the combat. And the grid based exploration is a good way of displaying a larger world in a very simple way. - I played on normal difficulty, and I found myself actively seeking new combat encounters simply because I thought they were really fun. I grouped up my MC (a Psionic) with Damien, Tom, and Milo and it was an incredibly fun combat experience the whole way through. - The Romance is very fun, but the combat and world building of the storytelling are just as great if not better. - Less of a pro/con but more of a recommendation: Character levels and especially GEAR levels makes a HUGE difference in this game even on normal difficulty. If you want to go through this without insane difficulty in combat you need to upgrade your gear, and make sure to engage every enemy you can to gain experience. Unless of course you're playing on easy mode, but I highly recommend normal as the bare minimum for your first play through. - I can't attest to the other romance "lock-in" scenes yet (no spoilers) but Milos was hilarious and adorable. He says a bunch of meta stuff while playing a "dating holodisc game" by Galactic Wolf or something like that, and references things that the Winter Wolves Dev has experienced or gone through. I thought it was really silly and enjoyed it a lot. CONS (mostly just critiques that you can take or leave): - I'm not sure if this is a bug or something on my end but through a vast majority of the game I couldn't scroll up to review the chat log of the conversation I was in. There were times that I was able to so I know it's implemented, but more times than not I was unable to and it became frustrating. Sometimes I read super fast and click without really thinking and then realize during the next panel of dialog that I don't remember what they said to me 10 seconds ago, and I'd appreciate being able to scroll up to see it at any given time. - There are times that in order to gain approval with one of your companions you HAVE to flirt with them. The other dialog option makes you sound rude, and you lose approval with them. I'm primarily reminded of dialog with both Rumi and Rebecca where if I wanted to increase their approval of me I HAD to be flirty. Now not a big deal obviously if you play a Joshua that's into women, but the plan for my Joshua was for him to be into men, so him flirting with Rumi/Rebecca just felt really weird. But I wanted high approval with every one of my teammates so it felt necessary. I'd really have liked a neutral option like... Heeey, yeah you're beautiful and everything but uh, I like dudes. - Playing as female Nelson (Lisa) after my first playthrough as male Nelson (Joshua), I couldn't help but wonder why she has NO muscle definition at all... Joshua is freaking RIPPED! Yet Lisa, who has the same level of training, looks soft and squishy. I get it, that's the normal female body that people find attractive, but it just felt really unrealistic. A military commander should be VERY STRONG no matter their gender. I'd have loved a more defined muscle tone on Lisa and even Rebecca seeing as her shtick is that she is constantly working out. -There's no way to "lock" items in your inventory so you don't accidentally sell them/salvage them. Not a big deal, but I'd have liked it at later points in the game especially. - There are some minor grammar issues, they occasionally took me out of the moment a little especially in dialog between me and Milo (the one I was romancing on my first playthrough) but nothing game breaking. - I found most of the female voices to be very annoying as they are all kind of high pitched and overly stereotypical "girly" sounding. That being said, I am a woman and perhaps I just don't like the overly girly sounding voices, and you don't hear characters voices all THAT often so take this with a grain of salt. But every single woman in this game has a high pitched girly-girl voice except for Shiler, so it got a little old. SO there you have it, if you read this all than I hope it helped, but in all honesty you shouldn't even debate about getting the game or not. It's so great, just get it and enjoy it. My expectations were blown out of the water. Thank you Dev for creating such great stories, your visual novels are by far my favorite of any I've seen.

Planet Stronghold 2, как нетрудно догадаться по двойке в названии, - прямое продолжение гибрида визуальной новеллы и РПГ, Planet Stronghold. Первая часть отличилась залипательным геймплеем, невероятно инфантильным сценарием и ламповой атмосферой первых телевизионных космоопер. Чем же готова удивить нас вторая? Давайте попробуем выяснить. [u]Мир и сюжет[/u] По сравнению с PS1, мир PS2 сильно прибавил в объеме и чуть менее - в глубине. Как и положено ламповой космоопере, инопланетяне и всякие андроиды здесь - это просто хорошо (или не очень) загримированные люди, так что не стоит ожидать от них реализации какого-то интересного виденья что одних, что других. Впрочем, они неплохо справляются со своей функцией привнесения красочного разнообразия в окружающую основных персонажей обстановку. Также нельзя не заметить, что PS явно опирается на архетипы, воплощенные в Звездных Войнах. Тут у нас своя могущественная межгалактическая Империя, свой Таркин (aka Каллен), свои борцуны-повстанцы (которые прямо так и зовутся - Rebel Alliance), своя бунтующая Принцесса - то есть, простите, Принц - в общем, моя мысль понятна. При этом то, что отлично визуализировали в ЗВ, порой вызывает искреннее недоумение в PS. Почему Империей управляет король? Зачем он столько лет тусуется на какой-то задрипанной планете, из которой выкачали все, что только могли? Почему всей людской армией на этой планете командует какой-то несчастный Капитан? Как Адмирал может быть следующим по "рангу" после короля, если в Империи есть парламент? Создается впечатление, что автор сценария ну о-о-очень плохо себе представляет, как работает система государственного управления, армия, а также политика в целом. Хотя частично возникающее недоумение объясняет то, что приоритетной сюжетной веткой игры явно были Повстанцы, а не Империя (что лично меня сильно печалит). Тем не менее, даже с выбором стороны Повстанцев при создании персонажа повествованию ощутимо не хватает отражения социальной динамики, общей реакции на происходящее. Что я имею в виду? Да, в каких-то моментах (особенно в первой и второй главах) автор честно старался изобразить негодование отдельных личностей действующей властью (что Империей, что Повстанцами) - и это удавалось довольно неплохо. Но! Общество в целом, к примеру, ну совсем никак не реагирует на кардинальнейшие изменения во власти в начале третьей главы (спойлеры-спойлеры) - и это серьезно подрывает погружение в политические интриги, которыми так пестрит дальнейший сюжет. Если обобщать проблемы истории PS2, то я бы сказала, что суть их заключается в неравномерности качества сценария. В один момент нам раскрывают увлекательные взрослые темы, демонстрируют серую мораль и все такое, в другой - повествование скатывается в наивность и инфантилизм, которые достигают своего апогея в некоторых из 11 концовок. Из-за этого главный герой то вызывает искреннюю симпатию как лидер, оказавшийся в тяжелой ситуации, то провоцирует не менее искреннее раздражение как тупенький подросток, чье самомнение ударило ему в голову. Впрочем, возвращаясь непосредственно к миру игры, не могу не выразить свое восхищение, поскольку и повествовательно, и геймплейно исследовать планету Крепость невероятно интересно: каждая локация наполнена маленькими сюжетиками, неожиданными противниками и создает чувство первооткрывательства - а в целом прохождение воспринимается классическим приключением с кучей преодоленных опасностей, найденных сокровищ и раскрытых тайн. Однако все это было бы невозможно, если бы не... [u]Персонажи[/u] Вот где PS2 по-настоящему блистает. Причем в первую очередь я имею в виду боевую команду ГГ, состоящую из 8 человек. Они разные, они живые, у каждого из них по любому вопросу есть свое мнение, у каждого за плечами своя история, и они просто обожают препираться между собой. Благодаря им игра и ощущается увлекательным приключением, прожитым вместе с разношерстной компанией друзей. Конечно, ничто не идеально, и кого-то из сопартийцев можно было бы раскрыть получше, но того, что есть в игре, вполне хватает, чтобы их полюбить, на мой взгляд. (В особенности саркастичного мизантропа Филиппа - он просто лучший.) Что же касается любовных линий, то, как и сценарий в целом, они весьма... неровные. Например, есть Том, роман которого в первых главах начался за здравие, а затем превратился в какую-то "Комнату" Томми Вайсо под конец (и ОМГ, какая же Лиза су-у-у...ровая женщина в его романтической арке!). А есть Дэмиен, который не только продемонстрировал правдоподобный и восхищающий рост характера, кое-как показанного в первой части, но и умудрился восприниматься преданным и близким Лизе человеком даже без романа. В любом случае, я твердо убеждена, что персонажи - главная причина, по которой стоит рассматривать идею прохождения PS2. Правда, есть еще... [u]Боевая система[/u] Первые несколько уровней, играя на нормале, я ее НЕНАВИДЕЛА. Почему? Потому что враги в начальных миссиях и локациях как минимум того же уровня, что и пати ГГ, - то есть примерно 2-3-го. При этом, естественно, ваша пати первые несколько раз идет в бой с дефолтным оружием, поскольку вам банально неоткуда взять другое (денег нет, но вы держитесь), а дефолтное оружие наносит ТАК мало урона, что стартовые бои вызывают чувство неподдельного отчаяния. Ко всему прочему, в квестах, где можно было бы обойтись без боев и, собственно, прокачаться, действует итальянский рандом (который намертво лочится то ли при смене игрового дня, то ли при выходе на глобальную карту после смены игрового дня), когда ваши "мирные" навыки не факт, что прокнут - что, опять же, может привести к бою. Поэтому геймплейное начало игры - это боль. Но! Если пережить этот кошмар, перед вами откроется дивный мир комплексной и затягивающей боевки PS2, которая радует разнообразием вооружения, способностей и врагов. Надо только придерживаться простых правил: прокачивайте оружие в лаборатории, иначе оно будет абсолютно бесполезно, а также стремитесь как можно скорее разжиться "эпическими" вещами - оружием и броней - и качать их (для поиска такого снаряжения идеально подходит Черный рынок). А в завершении хотелось бы сказать, что Planet Stronghold 2 - это неидеальная, но очень душевная авторская индюшка, способная подарить кучу приятных впечатлений любителям партийных приключенческих РПГ и космоопер прошлого века. Однозначно рекомендую.

Usually I don’t write a review without going through at least most of the game, but Planet Stronghold 2 has become an exception: interesting story, original world, nice graphics and good gameplay. In addition, this is the third game in the series and a direct successor to PS 1, allowing its story to continue. Of course, there is an official "patch") Highly recommend!

My early opinion is this a solid role playing, visual novel hybrid game. The game gives you agency to customize your experience, and while you are free to enjoy it as a visual novel you would be missing out on a solid role playing experience, including thoughtful turn based combat, multiple ways to accomplish tasks (including non combative options), area exploration and a detailed gearing system. The story is compelling and riddled with twisting branches of choices that have impact. It is all packaged together with a pleasant art presentation and a fitting soundtrack. If you are a fan of Winter Wolves' prior works than I can recommend this as game for you, if you never tried any of them, then this a great game to start with despite being a continuation, it can easily be enjoyed as a stand alone game.

if you like paper RPG's with a lot of stats and management elements, Planet Stronghold 2 is filled with them. Everything is old school suited for space theme. It has decent music, characters, and a very good art style along with CG's. Honestly if it wasn't so slow to progress I would certainly fall in love. But here everything takes time, fights even on auto-play, are taking a lot of time, units tend to heal and activate defensive stances along with frequent stuns. Relations with characters are progressed with choices, but romance options are in far away chapters. It's not for everyone but you should check it, this unusual product may lure you in a blink of an eye for few hours, with all these gear options. You just need patience and a bit of love towards old styled RPG's which were based on many numbers.

i hated for the bugs, then after complaining it to the dev they fixed it within 3 hour. would recomended the game. good dev. but i still hate forced to play other character than my own. i'm here to be a hero, not babysit hitler face guy with drinking problem.

I may just be me, but I found the story to be slow and boring and the graphics / artwork amateur, just not my cup of tea.

I played -and loved- Planet Stronghold 1 back in the day a [i]lot[/i]. So, needless to say, I was thrilled when I found out that PS 2 was finally out after years of development. Currently, I'm about half way through - at least I do hope so, since I don't want the game to come to an end just yet. And I love pretty much every minute of it. Everyone who played PS 1 will recognize the art, characters, gameplay (for most parts) and the humour - though, I have to say, with Milo on board the "humour" spiked quite a bit. His humour is not necessarily always appropriate but he does get reprimanded for it. Something else that spikes in a weird (but already known) way is the difficulty. Especially after main events and/or venturing into new areas, it's quite possible to get your ass kicked. Especially if you either didn't buy new equipments or upgrade the current one. After that it can become VERY easy during certain fights (playing in Normal) but the old source of frustration -that is, enemies healing their allies back to health even after they got K.O.ed or having a group of enemies who all use 'Protect' on each other- is still here. Boy, did I miss that. [strike]Well, maybe not but it does make it challenging at times while still being manageable in Normal mode.[/strike] The story so far is quite intriguing, having me wonder how things would have played out if I had chosen the other starting point. That alone is incentive enough for me to go back and replay it in full length. Even though I would probably feel bad to have sided with King Oscar. A very big "problem", however, is the fact that a certain former "gangster" has stolen my heart and will quite likely be the reason for me to break up with Tom. Especially because I was reminded soon enough why I had my fair shair of trouble with that handsome white hair in PS1. [strike]I should've just chosen Damien or no one as a transfer romance looooool[/strike] VN Mode for the rescue I guess. To put it in other terms: I really like how the characters get some more backstory and their share of fleshing out in the second installment. [i]In particular[/i] Damien since he had not much screen time in PS1 and neither was he a playable part of the team. I AM worried that Avae and Lakadema will suffer a similar fate but I'll see how that goes. Tl;Dr: Just go and buy it, you won't regret this [i]if[/i] you are either a fan of VNs and/or the certain battle gameplay. And the OST is great, too. Probs worth picking that up as well along the way. Tl,DR^2: Thanks for that wonderful game, Jack. It really made my whole week to learn that it finally came out. Stay healthy, keep up the good work and I'll look forward to play Loren 2, whenever that may be.

I did a run-through of the original before playing this game, to remind myself what happened, and it took me 16 hours. One (completionist) play-through of this game took me 40 hours. In both cases, there's a whole other narrative side of things warranting at least one more play-through. In summary: it was fun! There were issues, though: there was the typical rpg problem where you're struggling at the beginning, and roflstomping everything by the end (I was 2-shotting bosses by the endgame), there were a number of bugs - all minor, like I had text from one window not clearing on moving to another once, at another point 2 characters were superimposed on top of each other, small things like that. Nothing big. Another ... not quite 'issue', but 'strangeness' was that at one point there was this whole new mechanic involving splitting the party, with a whole new interface ... and it never comes up again. At least, it didn't in the route I took. Oh, and I could access a teammate's personal quest at a point where it referred to main plot events which hadn't quite happened yet. Not a major problem, but again, just another small thing to add to the pile. Your relationships with characters move a slider between 'friendship' and 'rivalry', and I never got the impression that anything mattered in the relationship other than that bar. Maybe it does, it's just hidden, but the only thing I *noticed* being checked was the slider. Encourages a rather 'gamey' mindset, and you have to have self-discipline to not just roll-back if you made a decision which makes the slider go a way you don't want. The combat mechanics are decent - nothing too complex, but there's enough there to avoid boredom, for at least one play-through. But really, you play it for the story and characters. And they're good, but not brilliant. The characters are entertaining enough to sustain interest, but they're not particularly deep or complex (edit: actually, there was one character who had a bit of development which pleasantly surprised me, as I did not see it coming, so it's not entirely shallow). There are factions you have to deal with, but a main antagonistic faction felt rather under-developed. Maybe their background is explored more in another route? (There is a sidequest I somehow missed, so it is possible). In summary: it's not going to change your life. But if you enjoyed the first one, you should definitely enjoy this one. If you haven't played the first one, I'd start there. As I said at the beginning, it's not a particularly long game, and you can probably grab it cheap. This one has entertaining enough characters, a good enough story, and - very important to me - a satisfying ending (at least the one I got, there's a load others). At the price we pay, there's a lot of content value here. Good enough to get a 'thumbs up' from me.