To be fair, I haven't been playing a lot of the story. This did take a lot of time though.

The story seems to be OK, but filled with a bit too many stock plot "twists" to be really interesting. For a cheapish game, I can live with it. Dialogs are simple and rather... dull. You are presented with a block of text, follwed by another block of text and so on. Once the talking is done, you're presented with a few options (which you can repeat untill you hit the magic "stop talking" button). So far, I've found very few real dialog options.

Dialog does affect relationships from time to time, but just like too many other "RPGs" you often have no idea what the effects will be; when allowing my party to drink while gathering information, my relations with the super soldier party's alcohols is reduced.

The combat is typical for it's genre -- your party goes in order and get a few options to attack the enemy. The enemy then goes in order in the same style, untill either side is defeated. XP appears to rewarded on a kill basis -- when a party member finishes an enemy that person gets all the XP from the enemy.

Combat difficulty appears to scale much faster than your characters do. So far, I've gotten 1 level on my main character (by manageing damage so he could get more kills). In the meantime the enemies have gone from doing about 5 damage per attack to about 20 damage per attack and hit points have gone from 40ish to 300ish.

If you want to have level your main character fast, go for scout -- accuracy is the most important thing when dealing damage and scouts, at equal skill level, will be significantly better at hitting enemies, while doing roughly equal damage (that is, more damage) than soldiers or guardians.

On top of the poor combat and the bad writing, the game's performance is appauling. On a 2.8 GHz CPU the UI is sluggish, animations choppy and picking dialog options have delays. Combat is equally slow. The only part of the game which does not have extremly bad perfomance is text rendering, which is a big help, since you'll be skipping most of it anyway.

Overall, I cannot recommend this game. The balance of the game is really poor and the story simply doesn't make up for the rubbish combat.

Quite an enjoyable RPG with a good mix of story, party and skill management, and exploration. If you like the look of the screenshots, I think you will like this game.

+Main character customization including gender and class/skill specialties
+Variety of characters to include in your party, customize all their skills on leveling
+Choose and upgrade weapons, armor, and items for all party members
+Story and side quests are well done, rewards for exploring
+Battles are fun and some challenging, requring varying tactics, psionics add more depth
+Events allow options for completing tasks/quests based on skills
+Save/load anywhere, at any time

-No voiced dialogue outside battles
-Not a wide range of available weapons/armor for most the game
-Save anywhere makes it all too easy to avoid any negative outcomes for choices
-All skills are known (but not developed) for all characters, no new skills appear with levels
-Combat/non-psionic classes don't have their own special skills

I picked up this game after playing "Loren-The Amazon Princess," which is by the same company. I liked "Loren" a lot (except there was a ton of purple prose when it came to the in-game romances and a few of the romances felt creepy/abusive) for the mixture of story and very oldschool game mechanics.

The difference between "Loren" and "Planet Stronghold" is pretty much they emphasized different things. "Loren" developed the relationships and romances to a huge degree - the romances didn't just happen, the player had to seek them out, but had minimal game mechanics.... "Planet Stronghold" has minimal romances and an implausible story (put the cadet in charge of a war because he has a familiar last name?) and really good (though oldschool) game mechanics.

The aggro system in "Planet Stronghold" is AWESOME. You can instantly tell which one of your group is pissing off the mobs the most by glancing down at their meter, and comparing it to the other group members. Best system for aggro control I've ever played, in any game.

This is a solid game to play if you're bored and if it's on sale. I did almost 19 hours on it.

The music is quite good. The art is good enough. That's all.

The story is not bad by itself. But the writing is terrible for a visual novel. Careless, full of inconsistencies, too conceited on the player. Absolutely below average. And I'm a sucker for visual novels.

The RPG part is a bit dull. The normal difficulty is adjusted to force you into grind every map, and can get a bit over the line sometimes. With the DLC you get an enormeus variety of weapons with random names, making them even harder to compare and choose. Being most of them not better than the ones you get through history, they mostly add clutter.

In the end, I can not recommend the game. There are plethora of other VN much better than this one, and many are free. I also find the RPG part too weak, too, or at least not satisfying enough to justify a recommendation.

You may have seen the "hours played" counter and think it is too low. I got the game in a bundle and played the DRM version. Seeing the game has trading cards I may try to get the alternate arc and romance option I didn't care about the first time I played.

10/10 Would get steam cards again.

I can't say I really enjoyed playing this game. It seemed good at first, but the more I played, the more mind numbing, tedious and boring it became. I thought it was going to be good because it added a social element to a typical RPG. However, this game is nowhere near as good as the likes of Persona or Fire Emblem: Awakening. The social aspect is limited to making simple choices between two options which either impress or irritate the other characters in the game. Additionally, a lot of the choices look as though you're going to irritate the person you're talking to either way, which I personally don't like.

Yet, this isn't the only problem I found with the game. The equipment you have is fairly simple and there are only two ways to obtain more. Recycle your old gear for scrap metal and build new equipment with it or find it on quests. To find new equipment on quests is not efficient as you have several crew members who all need their own equipment and the quests yield nowhere near the amount needed. As for the recycling method, the amount of scrap metal needed is far too great (from my experience).

Finally, I find the combat to be very repetitive. A lot of the enemies are extremely powerful and take a lot of effort to take down. This results in you needing to go through long battles on a regular basis doing the exact same moves and praying luck is in your favour, since you really need a lot of luck in this game. It wouldn't be so bad if there were ways to grind against some weaker enemies, but as of yet, I have not found a single place where I can grind against waves of weaker enemies to train my team up.

All in all, it's not enjoyable for me. Especially since I feel the need to rest to restore my HP/PP at the end of every single battle. It makes me feel cheap for doing so but I know that if I don't, I'll end up dying in the next one. If you do decide to play this game, I have only one bit of advice for you. Save often. The autosave feature is buggy. I know I've lost some good progress just because the autosave deleted my save files out of nowhere.

Standard Role Playing Game with a bit of Visual Novel thrown into the mix.

This is probably the most difficult negative review I've had to write so far, but there are just enough large (but not game-breaking flaws) to overlook.

(--) The level up/skill-point system is broken. Basically, they fall into 3 categories: combat skills, non-combat skills, and psionic (magic) skills. Most of the combat skills are divided into weapon skills, of which you should only put levels into one of them, which is based on your class selection. Every 20 points in a weapon skill, it raises damage with that weapon type by 1 per shot. This means that weapons that get 4 shots in one round get 4x more improvement than weapons with 1 shot - this is silly. The other combat skills: armor, accuracy, and evasion actually all do work alright, and are tempting to level even when they're not a class specific skill. Leveling individual psionics skills is absolutely broken, however. There is a singular root psionics skill which improves ALL the subskills in such a way that leveling individual skills is completely pointless. The non-combat skills are 'okay'. All they do is influence the RNG in various plot events that occur throughout the story, and a few give some mild combat perks.
(-) Psionics is not a very well balanced skill set. The one class that is dedicated to the use of it, it works pretty well, and a majority of the spells will see some use from it. Unfortunately, the 3 other classes in the game, while they're meant to have varying aptitudes with psionics, they're effectively bad enough with it that just attacking is the right answer.
(-) The inventory/equipment UI could be a lot better. It's a non-trivial matter (when it ought to be) of comparing the values of weapons.
(-) The characters are pretty shallow, although I'm mostly giving this one a pass due to the nature of the game.

(+/-) There isn't just attacking. There's 3 different attack types which have varying levels of shots fired per round, hit %, crit chance, and aggro drawn. The first 3 of those parameters are pretty boring - with some time spent with calculations, you can find out which attack type gives you the most damage for the weapon you're using. However, the level of aggro drawn is an interesting mechanic that I'll cover later.
(+/-) Lots of RNG. Can lead to some frustration, can also lead to some exciting down to the line fights.

(+) While it's nothing too special, I did like the flow of the plot and the setting. Based on other users' negative reviews, I guess your mileage may very significantly here.
(+) Games often have to sacrifice in order to provide a gamepath that isn't on tracks.
(++) Aggro management. Different actions will raise the probability that the enemy will target that particular character on their turn (and thus lower the probability of attacking the other 3 characters). This mechanic right here is significantly responsible for tactical decisions, and despite all the other flaws of the game, actually leaves combat kinda fun. It's an intricate balance between shaping as much aggro on your characters with the best resistances to the enemy attacks, but also still spreading enough damage to other characters, since even your characters with the best resistances can get overwhelmed by 2 consecutive rounds of the enemy focusing on him. Enemy will have enough mana to use an ability that will block a character from using normal attacks for a couple turns? Better ramp up the aggro on your Psionic.

In summary, I believe a broken leveling system (and its subsequent damage on the magic system) has wrecked an otherwise mediocre title that would earn a $10-15 pricetag.

This game it's not worth the 18,99€ it costs. It's not even worth half that price. The story is bland, the combat gameplay is bland and the interface is very uninviting and unappealing. Surely, lots of effort were put into the game, but it doesn't hold up well. The fourth wall is broken too many times and it breaks any kind of immersion. The characters and kinda cringy and the art is average, as well as the soundtrack. Personally, I would not recommend it, but RPG fans should check it out.

I don't know how the sequel is, but on it's own this game is boring. The combat's uninteresting, the romance feel like the developers forced it in, and the story's too simple. Fairly early on you have to decide whether to support a revolution or follow the current emperor (not a spoiler since there are achievements for each choice). I thought this was a morally gray choice where both would have negative consequences, but it turns out the only downside to supporting the revolt is peace among the various alien races (how horrible!) and a slightly ominous ending.

If you want a sci-fi rpg look pretty much anywhere else, if you want a visual novel get World End Economica, if you want romance play Katawa Shojo or Analouge: A Hate Story, and if you just want a good story get To The Moon.

Nice game, overall rating ot 7/10.
For me, the battle system in a style somewhat reminiscent of old GBA Pokemon games. The romance sub-plots are reasonably engaging, though they could certainly have added more interaction post the romance scene.

I always play the female character in RPGs and take the yuri/lesbian relationship option(s) if available; character development isn't lacking, but I'd prefer it to be better fleshed out.

Hope to see this, and the return of the characters (esp. Michelle, Lisa's love~) in the sequel, if there's one in the works.

It's basically an indie Mass Effect, except with turn-based RPG combat instead of a shooter. It definitely lacks polish, but I loved the hours I spent on this game. Fun!

There are game genres wherein terrible writing is acceptable. Pure RPGs, which thrive on story at the expense of almost all else, are not among them. While the combat gameplay is passable, the writing is beyond bad, heaping contrivance upon awkward shoe-in on top of nigh-endless obsequeious player-praising that would make an Elder Scrolls writer blush. Everyone is a dramatic charicature of a person, /everyone/. This is not the grand arena, you are not the chosen one, there is no evil empire, and this game most definitely does not smell like incense. Give it a pass at anything even remotely like full purchase price.

To be quite honest, this isn't one of WinterWolves' better games. I enjoyed it, but I also was increasingly frustrated by it.

It's an older-style RPG, like another of their games, Loren, but with a bit of the mindless dungeon-crawler aspect. As much as I enjoy dungeon-crawlers, this game managed to drag through some of them. You're supposed to search through the desert to "find" specific items needed to continue with the plot, but your searches can turn up random items or monsters, which you can flee (when possible), or fight.

Sometimes, however, the battles seemed overpowered, and there isn't as much that grinding to help. You get most of your items from the supply room on the ship, so you don't get to fight and earn money to purchase your own supplies. Most of the higher items come as you fight and raise up, which I found more difficult to do than in their other games.

While this game does have its otome/visual novel elements, they do take a large back-seat to the game. It doesn't have as large of a choice pool for potential partners, if that's your cup of tea, and I found the scenes to be more amusing (if often shorter) in Loren than I did in PS.

That said, I enjoyed the game more or less, but I don't believe I'll be replaying it, and I'm glad I got it for 50% off. I'd recommend it, I suppose, if you enjoy old-style RPGs, and have some time to kill, but otherwise, it's probably not for you.

Pros : Large battle party with customizeable stats that effect battles and event scenarios (ex- using a science stat to fix an item or lockpicking to open a chest, etc.) Diverse classes, multiple endings, lots of choices, nice sense of adventure when exploring caves and having the chance to succeed or fail at quests and events. Fast-paced game, and can offer a surprisingly high level of challenge on higher difficulties. Story is interesting with a mature and likeable cast of characters.

Cons : The menu design is archaic, clunky, and needs a complete redesign from the ground up. This aspect isn't a dealbreaker (not a ton of involved management) but there is a lot of room for improvement and polish. Playing as male or female only has a few differences in dialogue/events.

This is a nicely balanced blend of traditional turn-based RPG and sci-fi/adventure/romance visual novel- though it feels more like a traditional choose-your-own-adventure novel with the nature of choices you make. I'd say about 70% of the game is exploring combat areas (caves, battlegrounds) and doing the usual RPG stuff (leveling up characters, collecting/creating equipment, fulfilling quests and beating bosses) but having the interesting supplement of visual novel themes like choosing different ways to approach scenarios illustrated in the cut-scenes (such as whether to ambush enemies, sneak past them, reason with them, utilize particular skills to acquire items or create more favorable battle conditions, etc) and befriending or romancing characters via interactions.

The character designs are quite nice and expressive, the resolution options are disappointing but easy to forget about after playing for a while. The music is fitting but not extraordinary. The greatest qualities of this game are the huge amount of choices, especially early on and how divergent the main two paths of the story are. For that reason I highly recommend playing blindly for the first playthrough, and taking a more guided approach for subsequent playthroughs to have a better chance at nabbing the huge amount of endings. The ability to save anywhere at anytime is excellent. The large number of romanceable characters regardless of gender is quite a unique feature. The choices are not shoehorned in either, they fit into the particular narrative for that character.

Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who can stomach the very dated interface and are even remotely interested in the concept of mixing RPG and visual novel as both aspects are a rarity, and competently handled here.

I tried to like this game I really did. It seems like there is a dynamic skill and character development at your first glance but it quickly wears off as you can save at literally any time during both conversations and battle. This means you cans save for random dice roll percentile skill checks (given like 22% chance of success) and you can bump each party member in 1 skill and since you have your entire huge party available for most tasks you always succed. Talking to your party hurts me physically as most of the other party members (soldiers) in the game have high school kid conversations. I ended up nearly maxxing charisma to only use it two or three times the entire game. The game appears and plays to be a high class flash game from a website not so much a game worth $20.

I am a big fan of games like Planescape Torment, Fallout, Shadowrun and Age of Decadence so story really matters to me, and with a game which has combat in which you can just click through you need meaningful conversations to happen.

The weak dialogue and character interactions really disappoint because the plot was quite interesting albeit extremely short but the immersion is too easily broken with your character stammering and getting embarrassed like a kid about to have sex for the first time all the while everyone praising your magnificent efforts.

Worse part is I'm likely gonna finish the game just so my character can get laid by sexy female character with the last name "Fox". Also the females have a permanent blush tone to their face and with the character writing it seems like a dating simulator with RPG combat elements to advance the storyline.

5.5/10 on completion.

This game is a very good mix between RPG and Visual Novel as there is a friendship system in play which effects others and the choices you make will effect this, it also blends everything together very well, the difficulties offer a harder or easier experience and in the Deluxe DLC you have the option of an even harder difficulty that requires allot of thought during later battles. There is also a chat system where you can scroll back through text to see what someone has said or to even change a choice incase you are trying to play a certain way. The story is pretty good and quite understandable and has some interesting twists and turns. The characters and scenery are done extremely well. The gameplay is pretty much your average turn based Final Fantasy but with a few added features to it which does offer a unique-ish feel to it as you can choose how you want them to attack which will effect how many times they can attack and the chance of critical hit. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes reading as there is allot of it and the story is really interesting with allot of choices and dialog.

Conclusion

This is a really well done visual novel fighting game and offers a very fun and challenging experience to all. I do recommend picking up this game. Rating: 8.5/10.

This was terrible beyond the threshold of standard bad for a westernime visual novel/RPG, rushing it right past ''terrible but nevertheless enjoyable and I have brought shame upon my house for even thinking as such and may never feel clean again'' territory and into just plain bad territory. The battle mechanics would be interesting were the whole aspect of battling/etc not a complete grind set out to artificially inflate the length of an otherwise abruptly short game. Add that to a substandard story and irritatingly shallow and flip-floppy protagonist templates and it equals the chore this game is to get through.

I got this game in the humblebundle a month or so ago, and honestly it's one of the greatest VN style games I've ever played. I heavily enjoyed the gameplay and plot, even if the characters can be a bit forced at times into the roles they were designed to fill, it's a great game regardless. Good combat system, good story, good dialogue, and in general a fun way to spend an evening or more if you're looking to get all the achievements.

Glad this game got launched on steam, and I can't wait for Planet Stronghold 2 :)

A glorified browser game where the combat SUCKS. As I write this, the game sells for $19, but I think it is barely worth $3. In combat, I didn't really feel like I had much room to maneuver. The only real strategy is to decide which enemy to attack first. I didn't even get to name my character. I have played free adult games that were funner than this.... And free.

I had this before the Steam release, and I've played more than what Steam has recorded. Planet Stronghold is a mix between RPG and Visual Novel. It's RPG mechanics are okay, and it's storyline can grab your attention quite quickly in this game if your the type to prefer story over gameplay.

The RPG mechanics are fairly basic. As you go through the game, new gear will be offered for free basically at the Armory, and that's where you upgrade your equipment. You can find a lot of better stuff by exploring the world and researching it(also basic), but the Armory stuff is enough to get you by.

It's not just "read story" and "battle enemies". There's other skills you can level such as charisma, survival, explosives, repair, science, sneak, and some others. These do not have too much use outside of combat, except for a few, but there are various events that happen, as well as side quests, that these skills can be used to change events, whether it be weakening an enemy, completing the objective/goal without fighting, getting new items, or other interesting things, theses skills are used to change how the encounter plays out. There 8 characters that you have traveling with you, and while you can only have 4 max in combat, and sometimes a character isn't with you due to story, but these characters level alongside you, and you can just have each character invest in 1, or preferably 2 of these "event" skills, and you'll rarely have trouble passing these skill checks. I still found them a great way to spice up various encounters.

Combat itself is standard RPG affair. One thing to notice is that every weapon does a type of damage, and that every enemy has different resistances to the damage types. It's very important to carry at least one of each damage type, and that every character should have at least 2 weapons with separate damage types, else they can be rendered useless outside of healing since they won't be able to do much damage against the enemy. However, they game gives you basic equipment to counter the enemies, since this is still a story driven game and doesn't want the player stuck on enemies, so there's no reason you should end up unprepared for a fight, other than your own negligence.

The story itself is okay. It won't win any awards in my opinion, but it's a good story.
Conclusion: The price point for this game is very high in my opinion(I got it in a bundle). While I think it's a good game, I wouldn't say it's worth $20. Unless your a very big fan of visual novels, I'd recommend waiting until a large sale. If I recall correctly, this game is free on android, though the Deluxe edition has extras. Try that if you can. There's also a free demo on their site.

I didn't play much beyond the introduction. The writing felt incredibly cliche from the very beginning, characters had little nuance, backstory and lore were introduced in the most heavy handed way possible, and I had little idea what was motivating either myself or other characters. The gameplay elements seemed fine and the art isn't offensive but that's about all I can say in Planet Stronghold's favor.