Solar tear is a semi futuristic RPG that utilizes a lot of interesting game play elements. The game has a lot of great ideas, and is fairly well constructed; but there are a few crucial things that hold this game back from greatness.

Gameplay (Low)

Hm, well the DBS runs smoothly enough; the ATB bar doesn't raise too slowly; but the early battles are just... How can I say this.

Grueling. Early enemies throw several status effects at you before you even have had the chance to get used to the game and gather a good amount of money for supplies.

A good rule of thumb to follow - keep that status effects mild early in the game, especially if you're playing as the low level starting protagonist with no starting healing abilities or items whatsoever.

The ability to choose different paths to get home early on was a nice touch; but again - the execution fails. Upon failing the (at times annoyingly) touchy sneaking minigame, you're forced to sit through the same tutorial. A simple switch would have done wonders here.

The game is just marred with these kinds of choices, and it really holds the game back.

Story (Medium)

Upon opening the game, you're treated with a fairly well written monologue. The text doesn't move at a snails pace, and it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

You see a few events and it puts you right into the protagonists control; though I feel the pacing could have used a bit of work. As it stands now, these three starting events seem randomly splotted into the intro for no apparent reason. My advice would be to spread these cutscenes out a bit to help flesh things out.

The dialog itself is adequate enough, but I didn't really get a sense for the protagonist's personality. She just seemed to reply to everything with this sort of... genericness. It's strange, because all of the other characters seem to have some personality but the main character. Even the bit intro characters had some breath of life in them.

One last little thing, though it's a bit nitpicky. Having the character say things out loud to inform the player where something is... It's just silly. A simple though parenthesis and inner monologue would work well for those parts. Try to make it sound more natural.

Graphics (High)

The highpoint of this game. The game's consistent look and atmosphere is just a labor of love, and I can tell. The battle graphics are smooth and well animated (with the exception of hero graphics). From the trash can robots to the dreary gang hangouts, the game is no slouch on graphics.

Music (Medium)

Music was good enough, though sometimes the music selection was questionable. You'll notice early on how a tense theme is used when you're first wandering the dreary streets, a bit unfitting. It's used again as you're going to meet a mysterious client. At that point the track lost all of it's impact.


Overall : 3 / 5

I won't say it's not worth a try, but I can't say that this is the best the game can be. If you're feeling patient, or if you just want to cheat your way through; I'd say it's worth at least one play through.

With a few revisions this game could be really great.