![]() My final issue is one that’s very debatable, because it’s something that could be a big draw for somebody else and that’s how LA2 panders to the player. Unfortunately it really does seem like LA2 is the exact opposite with performances that vary from passable to grating and I really just could not stand to listen to most of the characters speak and after playing for three hours I decided to just mute the voices. One of the things I’ve always praised Stella Glow on is its english dub as I think it made the characters feel so much more alive than they would have if they’d instead opted to keep voice acting to a minimum like other games that use the visual novel method of storytelling. Stella Glow also dabbled with tropes for its cast, it usually introduced them as fairly tropey, but gave them hints of being a little more than that to get you interested and as you progressed through the game you’d slowly learn more about them and really begin to care about them. On top of not being very appealing to look at LA2’s characters aren’t making up for it by having interesting personalities and instead they stick to their tropes and the worst offender of this is probably Althea because she’s the enthusiastic girl who really wants to become the Mage Queen/Hokage and while it does give her more of motivation than the protagonist it also makes her feel very one note. I think the best way to drive home just how much better Stella Glow looks is to compare Alto and Roland or Hilda and Fatima, because they’re essentially redesigns, but with the shift in aesthetic they become a lot asker on the eyes. Stella Glow also somewhat shares the issue of a very anime aesthetic, but it differs just enough to where it can still stand out on top of a pretty vibrant colour pallet that really just makes it nice too look at. One of the things that immediately stood out to me about LA2 was how uninteresting the character designs were, because they have a very bland anime art style that really does nothing to set them apart from other games and in the case of character like Steven and Gaston they stick out because on top of looking unappealing they also look like they’re from another game entirely. Attempts to hide the fact that I’m a filthy casual who can’t finish games aside, LA2 and Stella Glow are both fairly similar SRPGs made by Imageepoch and I thought it’d be interesting to compare them as I have very different feelings about both of them. So I just want to preface this by saying that I did not finish Luminous Arc 2 (going to abbreviate that to LA2), mainly because of the issues I had with it, so please let me know if there’s anything that improves as the game goes on, because I went into this game really wanting to like it and it just really hurt to see how it failed to meet any of my expectations. Stella Glow succeeds where Luminous Arc 2 fails ![]()
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