I'm not the type to really enjoy a JRPG, but there are a few that capture my attention. Pier Solar and the Great Architects is defintiely one of those games. I previously owned only on my Sega Genesis and I absolutely loved it. The visual appeal, the great music, and the immersive story. The turned-based combat is also pretty refined compared to others in it's genre. Pier Solar HD is essentially the same game but with better visuals, a remastered soundtrack, and beautiful backgrounds that bring the world to life. To cut to the chase, if you like JRPGs or are looking for an experience, check out Pier Solar HD. If you enjoyed Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or Final Fanstasy VI, you will love Pier Solar.

THIS GAME IS AMAZING, Seriously, If you've ever played the Megadrive release you'd know that, I'm playing this baby on my Arch Linux system. Who says us linux users don't love games? It's a great RPG with witty dialogue and a great story. I've been playing this release so far and am loving the updated music (Which was available on the megadrive release if you had the CD addon) and the updated Graphics. They definitely add to the game, the combat system is tried-but-true with updated features, what else can I say about this game? BUY IT RIGHT NOW, BUY THE DREAMCAST RELEASE. BUY IT. 10/10 would buy again.

Reminds me a lot of Lunar: Silver Star Story, if you love old school JRPGs you will love this one for sure.
oh the battle system here is turn based and it is random encounters.

hope i helped, enjoy.

I was keeping my eyes on Pier Solar ever since it was known under the "Tavern RPG" codename, as many of fellow JRPG genre fans. Unfortunately, due to many reasons I missed the opportunity to play original Sega Genesis release (as many of us too, I believe) and was pretty excited to hear that Pier Solar will be coming to more platforms, including PC, and even with enhanced graphics and CD-quality soundtrack! "Now, that's pretty awesome chance to finally get to play this game", I thought, and when it hit the Steam — the game was bought without a second thinking. Now, when the game is cleared, it is a good time to sum up my experience with it.

First of all, Pier Solar is a good game. I will not be original here, but if titles like Lunar Silver Star Story, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV-VI make echoes of nostalgic tremble in your hearth, then you should get Pier Solar. It has many qualities of a great game - wonderful characters, beautiful graphics and soundtrack, interesting story and an old-school JRPG charm.

You will be getting many random encounters with enemies (sometimes too many, he-he :D), looking for a treasure chests, crawl dungeons and oppose bosses. There's a bunch of fun dialogs out there, so keep talking with NPCs. Be aware that some of them have two and even three versions of replies to you, and sometimes it is necessary to talk with them three times to get an item or trigger some event.

Now for the part that is not so good with Pier Solar. There's a few flaws in the game that may poison your experience - nothing too major, but still the game would be definitely better without them.

Sometimes you will get stuck.

First of all, the environment design sometime will get you wondering where you should go. Yes, maze-like maps is classic for a JRPG, but there's more than that to well-designed map. I often caught myself missing the path to the next location or route to another area of current map just because it was looking like there's nothing interesting (dead end). Be prepared that if you feel that you got stuck and there's nowhere to go next - you should look more carefully for a path. Oh, and there's hidden paths inside the walls. Sometimes. Somewhere.

Second, the directions from the storytelling could be better. When you finish your quest in current location and should move to the next area, there was times for me when it was not so clear from the dialogs where should I go and what to do next. Most of the times you should just go to the next area, but there's few exceptions from this rule. Maybe I'm just getting too old...

Third, the Sanctuary and the damned platform behind the pillar. Seriously, I will be making a small spoiler here, but when you will get stuck at this point in Sanctuary (couple of hours from the start of the game), look for a moving platform that is hiding behind the pillar near the room entrance ladder. I do not understand what was the point of making such design decision, but I'm taking it as a bad idea.

In general, "getting stuck" was the most annoying thing that happened to me with Pier Solar. When you wander from corner to corner of the map and face endless random encounters, getting ambushed often and the game is not so quick in its battle system - it is not long when you will get bored from it. My advice is such — don't hesitate to look for a guide or ask a question in forums, you will get much more pleasuring experience from this game actually progressing through the story, and not from lurking in forest or dungeon.

Well, that's about it. I can recommend this game to any fan of JRPG genre.

Some tips for the game that may be useful:

• There's a detailed walkthrough by Tim Maurer at GameFAQs for this game. As was mentioned above, I advise to everyone who got stuck to take a peek on it (just in case :D).
  
  
• If you played Pier Solar on Sega Genesis you may notice minor differences with this version. Same goes for the Tim Maurer's walkthrough — it was written for Genesis version of Pier Solar and contain very minor differences with PC version (you should get the Beaver in the forest).
  
  
• There's nothing inside the regular barrels and crates (apart from very few hidden items in some special places), do not waste your time on them.
  
  
• Some walls can have hidden paths, look at the radar and to edges of the screen - if there's some graphics "in the middle of nowhere", most likely you can walk behind the wall to get there.
  
  
• Sell unnecessary items (primary weapon and armor). The inventory system is very basic and you don't need a mess there.
  
  
• Metal and Gold Coins, blocks, etc. is money. Do not look for them in your inventory, after finding something like this in a treasure chest it will just add to your wallet.
  
  
• You will get new spells at higher levels. Some spells can be learned only from the books.
  
  
• Look for the accessories that can halve elemental damage, they're very useful.
  
  
• Have fun and enjoy this game! :)

This is a professional quality game. The amazing work of these guys at Watermelon is something everyone should be watching. In this particular piece, Hoston and his friends are set to a quest in a beautiful world with great graphics, great songs, great gameplay and awesome history. This is one that makes us find out why we love videogames. Thank you everyone involved.