Pier Solar and the Great Architect is an entirely new Japanese style RPG currently in development for the Sega Genesis by Watermelon Development, a group who is dedicated to breathing some new life into the long dead console by releasing some new and original content.



Pier Solar is the story of Hoston, a botanist, who's father has taken ill. While he and his mother await the return of the doctor his father's condition continues to worsen, and fearing the worst Hoston offers to go to a nearby cave to fetch the herbs his mother would need to make the medicine for his father. His mother forbids Hoston to go, but along with his friends Alina and Edessot, he journeys to the cave to find the herbs and save his father's life.

The basic gameplay for Pier Solar is fairly standard for a turn based J-RPG, your characters walk around the field, and when they aren't in a town, you can expect some random encounters. Battles are also fairly standard turn based fair, with your typical options of Attack, Defend, Magic, ect. However, unique to Pier Solar's combat system are being able to have your characters Gather or do a standard or jump attack, when you're fighting against a flying monster, using a Jump attack is the only way your characters are going to be able to connect with their attacks, the exception to this is Alina who uses a Bow and Arrow. Gather also you to store power to do double damage on your next turn, you can also gather up to four turns in a row which will allow you to do five times your normal damage, however if you get hit after using Gather you will lose all of the power you've stored up and will have to start the process over again.

The visuals for Pier Solar are also great, everything you see in the game is a testament to the amount of time and effort that Watermelon Development has put into this game, the maps are well designed and all of the tilesets look good and fit well with the areas they are supposed to represent. The sprites and designs of the characters are also quite good, and the player is treated to a full drawing of both Alina and Edesson when Hoston first meets them, the drawings look very good and are a great way to show the players what the sprites they're looking are supposed to represent.

The music is Pier Solar is also quite good, especially for a Genesis game, a console that wasn't know for having a lot of great music. The demo features a range of music from your standard town and overworld themes to a couple of different battle themes that are used from standard battles and boss battles respectively. A nice feature that the creators are featuring in the final game, is the ability to insert a sound CD, which will be packaged with the game, into a Sega CD that is connected to your Genesis, doing this will allow you to have enhanced audio while you play the game, this is a nice touch and a very good way to make up for the Genesis' weak sound card.

Pier Solar is currently shaping up to be a great entry to the Gensis library, the prospect of a new RPG on the console for the first time in nearly thirteen years is certainly a promising one, and Pier Solar should deliver. The game is currently scheduled to release in the first half of 2009, for information or if you're interested in trying out the demo for yourself, head over to the Pier Solar website (www.PierSolar.com) and expect a full review from me after the game's release later this year.

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