Nice character designs, but they won't hide the poor voice acting, constant level-grinding, and repetitive gameplay.
The story for Stella Deus is your typical fare - young boy and his friends fight against a nasty warlord guy and try to save the world. That's really about all there is to it. I won't comment much on the graphics - they're attractively retro, but nobody is going to be singing their praises.
The characters are generally pretty formulaic, but interesting enough. The voice acting for them is also among the first among many noticeable problems with the game. Without fail, each voice actor fumbles through their lines in an awkward monotone, full of underacting and a lack of tone inflection. I even found myself wondering whether the developers responsible for the U.S. port had done the job themselves rather than hiring actors. It's serviceable, in the way that anyone speaking English can communicate, but not particularly enjoyable to listen to.
The gameplay does little to provide a better impression. The world map acts as the main menu for the game, allowing you to transmute items, move from town-to-town, or fight in the Catacombs. As you move from town to town, you'll fight monsters or troops from the opposing army. You'd better like those troops a lot too, because you'll be fighting the exact same ones for the rest of the game. They get stronger as you move further ahead, so you'll also have to fight the exact same enemies within the Catacombs. This is really just a name for "level grinding area," except it has no scenery beyond a plain grid, no boss characters, and more enemies than most of the regular battles. Movement tends to eat up a lot of your alloted AP, so battles generally consist of moving a couple squares from your starting point, allowing the enemies to come to you, then mindlessly pounding on them until you win. If you don't win, it means you probably need more time in the Catacombs.
You can also recruit mercenaries along the way, usually picked up from the various towns you visit. You're never allowed more than 6 characters in a battle though, so you never use them. If you're scared that you'll need them at some point, you can always level them up in the Catacombs after taking care of your main characters.
On the upside, the game does sport a fairly robust system for transmuting items and equipment, allowing you to turn your old gear into some shiny new goodies. You'll be doing this a lot too, because the ever-increasing strength of your enemies forces you to buy new gear constantly, which gets expensive. It's a good thing you also earn money in the Catacombs.
If you're detecting sarcasm here, you would be right. I say that this game suckered me with its character designs because, after plonking $30 down on it, I feel like I total sucker. This doesn't just fail to meet up to my Ogre Battle memories, it fails to even stand up as a fun game. If you're after an SRPG, RPG, or really any game at all, your money is better spent elsewhere.