Great read as always. I imported the GBA games in 2020 and was determined to play through.a game fully in Japanese as part of my Japanese language learning. I have a large notebook filled (almost entirely from this game) with words I didn't know before playing it. Like the tsubo (jar) or the zashou kujira 🐳 shown above. It was a really meaningful experience in my language learning. The gameplay itself in the first game was surprisingly simplistic but I've played The Legendary Starfy years ago so I know the series gets more.mechanically deep and challenging over time.
The GBA battery was busted or there was some issue with saves, so I had to keep restarting the game and probably replayed the first hour two or three times. I still really enjoyed my experience despite that. For my first game in Japanese I expected the text to be pretty brief, I guess I forgot how chatty the series is, so that was pretty surprising but definitely made for a robust (and adorable) learning experience.
Now that the series is on NSO, I might still stick with my favorite handheld form factor (DS Lite), but it's good to know there's this option if my other imported copies have similar save issues.
It's nice to have the rewind feature and save states on NSO (though I don't have the expansion that lets you play GBA games, so that's not how I played Stafy this time around), at least!
That's fun that you used Stafy to help you learn Japanese. Did you play the sequels that way, too? I know they're much darker in tone.
I remember getting the DS game having no idea of the series history, enjoyed it but I think the cartridge got messed up due to leaving it in a car pocket. I appreciate that the older games are available at all in an official capacity for us in the U.S, but it'd be nice if they weren't a downgrade from emulating with a translation patch.
Also shout out to Starfy being one of the first assist trophies in Smash Bros, with the gimmick of actually being able to be attacked back later applied as a universal rule, making him ahead of the curve.
I reviewed Legendary Starfy back in 2009 when it came out, and it was all new to me back then, as well. I've been waiting for them to actually release the rest of the bunch in some form since, and while it's nice it's happened with the first three, I'm with you. It could have been better!
Great read as always. I imported the GBA games in 2020 and was determined to play through.a game fully in Japanese as part of my Japanese language learning. I have a large notebook filled (almost entirely from this game) with words I didn't know before playing it. Like the tsubo (jar) or the zashou kujira 🐳 shown above. It was a really meaningful experience in my language learning. The gameplay itself in the first game was surprisingly simplistic but I've played The Legendary Starfy years ago so I know the series gets more.mechanically deep and challenging over time.
The GBA battery was busted or there was some issue with saves, so I had to keep restarting the game and probably replayed the first hour two or three times. I still really enjoyed my experience despite that. For my first game in Japanese I expected the text to be pretty brief, I guess I forgot how chatty the series is, so that was pretty surprising but definitely made for a robust (and adorable) learning experience.
Now that the series is on NSO, I might still stick with my favorite handheld form factor (DS Lite), but it's good to know there's this option if my other imported copies have similar save issues.
It's nice to have the rewind feature and save states on NSO (though I don't have the expansion that lets you play GBA games, so that's not how I played Stafy this time around), at least!
That's fun that you used Stafy to help you learn Japanese. Did you play the sequels that way, too? I know they're much darker in tone.
I remember getting the DS game having no idea of the series history, enjoyed it but I think the cartridge got messed up due to leaving it in a car pocket. I appreciate that the older games are available at all in an official capacity for us in the U.S, but it'd be nice if they weren't a downgrade from emulating with a translation patch.
Also shout out to Starfy being one of the first assist trophies in Smash Bros, with the gimmick of actually being able to be attacked back later applied as a universal rule, making him ahead of the curve.
I reviewed Legendary Starfy back in 2009 when it came out, and it was all new to me back then, as well. I've been waiting for them to actually release the rest of the bunch in some form since, and while it's nice it's happened with the first three, I'm with you. It could have been better!