This review was written by PN contributor, Heath M Shusterman-Zimmerman

 

Did you like dot to dot puzzles as a kid? Did you ever think the finished product could tell a story? Would you like to be judged on how fast or how accurate you can connect the dots? Do you ever enjoy playing a game to just pass the time? If you answered yes to those questions then Mysterious Stars 3D: Road To Idol might be for you.

The game begins with The Star God explaining, that you have the magic to connect the stars. Doing so brings a real life object a person needs into life. Kurumi is that person in need because she wants to be a pop idol but her high school doesn’t have the program.  With the secret help of the player and the Star God, you can help make her dream a reality.

Each stage consists of 3 substages normal, rich, and rare. Each substage also has a timed one. The good thing about the substage is once you finish normal you do not have to complete the rich or rare to unlock the next. However, there is a two-hour wait period before you go to the next main stage. When connecting the dots you’re judged on how accurate the line is ranging from fifty points for bad, one hundred points for good, and two hundred points for great.  Completing a stage or substage will give you between zero to three koneito candies depending on how many points are earned from connecting the dots. Koneito candies are used to alter the wait time between each stage. Each color affects the wait time differently: yellow candies reduce time by 15 mins, red reduces 30 mins, and blue slows things down about 10 mins. The two-hour wait time gives me the feel of a freemium app which to me is too long of a waiting period to wait to play the next stage, which just seems to hinder the game rather than add anything to it.

There is also a decorate mode where you can decorate the room the story takes place in by adjusting where the object is in the room – only one object per stage is available in the room at a time.  For instance, if you complete all three substages of the first stage you can choose to decorate the room with one of the following: light from the normal substage, stand light from the rich substage, and oriental lamp from rare sub stage.  The koneito candies also come in handy here if you save them rather than use them to speed time along as you can unlock different room patterns.

The game is rather lacking as far as gameplay goes. I was hoping the storyline would make the game interesting to play. However, it was dull and leaves it feeling uneventful and kind of confusing at times. I also noticed there were occasional grammar errors which sometimes led to a misunderstanding in the story; not a huge issue, but worth mentioning. The lack of an interesting story allows the game to fall flat. Unless you are looking to play casually I wouldn’t recommend this game. Now buying the Mysterious Stars 3D: Fairy Tale will unlock a bonus stage. However, I would just rather it shorten the length of time in-between stages. The interesting thing about the bonus stage is that it does connect to the other Mysterious Stars title (Fairy Tale), but with a rather oddly placed concluding dialog.  There was also a recurring glitch in the game that caused it to close and the console to restart. Lucky It auto saves before, stopping from any sort of data loss.