The Death of Realism - A Star Stable Online Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Hello everyone, it's Kitti! thank you for watching my first documentary! :) I am planning to release more in the future, all with varying topics in regards to Star Stable.
I hope this documentary will start a conversation, I am interested in hearing everyone's opinion and as well things I might have missed. ♡
all credit to the owners of the original videos used!! :)
♡ If you want to be featured in my next documentary, email me your 2012-2017 SSO videos and pictures at kittispiderweb@gmail.com !!
thank you all for watching and listening, until next time... ☆ 、
This is so well made! I’m sick of most players saying, “the only reason you miss old sso is because of nostalgia.” This is completely false. I love SSO’s old style of graphics and all the fun interactive parts of the game. I miss the challenge, and the story dream aspect that they have now completely ruined.
yeah me too !!! i love the old graphics, it seems so colorful and happy in its own simplicity :( i dont like the new one that much
Thank you so much for your comment!! ♡ And I totally agree, it's very tiring hearing people assume that I have just grown out of the game when that is not the case at all. I still play the game every day, but Star Stable as a company has lost their original motive for this game. It seems like they have shut out their audience and would rather listen to greedy people who only care about how much money the game makes D:
so true! i can't really remember when i first started playing sso because i was quite young, but i can remember galloping around moorland on my jorvik warmblood with the nostalgic music playing. the old graphics are so comforting to look at because it reminds me of starting to play sso. the new graphics aren't bad, and i'm not complaining, but it's so different from sso's original style. thinking about it, the only places with the old graphics are some of epona, jarlaheim +jorvik stables, dino valley and cape west. that's not much and when you look back at the old graphics, it's such a difference.
i love the way the old style of sso was original, stood out from the other few horse games we had at the time, the edges were sharp and "edgy" but they neutralized it with the bright colors in game. Now sso is like any other game, barely worth mentioning.
So many people have called me names and a troll for saying old sso was better, even to burn alive for liking old sso more than current sso:(
I miss the mystery and the dark undertones, it used to feel like it had a direction but now they seem to change the plot regularly
I know right! You especially see what they were going for when you play Starshine Legacy, that game is incredibly mysterious and dark. I miss when they still had a great attachment to those games, it made SSO super unique. ♡ I'm tired of the current inconsistency of the plot, especially seeing as I used to love making fan theories back then. Thank you so much for your comment. ♡
Exactly!! Now it’s all “happy” toned and kind of too childish? I hope you get what I mean but it was wayyy better before all the graphics updates (ESPECIALLY the horses😭😭 I miss my old starter😭😭) I also miss the tense racing music
Yes true
@@helIokitti I'm super late to answer this, but I think I've reae somewhere that most people who used to work on/were in charge of most concepts for the game have left the company after SSO wasn't making enough money. The remaining ppl and the new ones did not have the knowledge about all the plans that were made for the game and ultimately just had to freestyle all this 😓 Though, I'm not 100% sure!
Awesome video, by the way 🎉❤
Star Stable's graphics were so eerie! The acidic grass, the snowy mountaintops, the hazy tint, the fog... It left me like, "What's behind that door? What's in that cave? What's behind the Icengate? Where will this adventure take me next?"
it was slightly eerie with the spooky caves and attics and fog but in a way the world looked as a kid all mysterious that made you want to explore and figure out all the worlds secrets
kinda like liminal space
There was a wonderful eerie nature to the old SSO. There was something about the colours, the music and the story that created this mystical mood and atmosphere. Many players now say that nostalgia blinds us, but the old SSO was very different, sometimes it feels like a totally different game. While I’ve been supportive of many changes to the game over the past ten years, the removal of so many features has made the game feel soulless and less immersive. Like many players, the storyline is what kept me playing, and since rescuing Anne from pandoria I feel like the story has declined in quality. The darker aspects of the story seem to have been removed, and it’s moving at such an excruciatingly slow pace I never remember the quests that occurred before. Im usually quite forgiving of SSO and their choices, but after the last couple story quests I’ve just been left so disappointed. I love the new horses SSO releases as well as the clothes, but that seems to be the only thing they’re putting any effort into. I’m glad more people are conversing about this now, great documentary
yes, the eerie feeling! i remember the game having this uncertain aura that made me want to explore more and ride around and just keep playing. this mystical energy is just not present today.
Wow, took the words right out of my mouth. You are so right, the eeriness and sense of mystery and almost creepiness is what gave this game character. In 2014 when I was introducing this game to my friends in school, they took it at face value that it was just a kid's horse game. And yes, it was, but also I feel like it could've passed as a thriller. The first time I heard Linda crying in the castle at night it gave me chills.
I can relate to the questline bit... When was saving Anne? 2019? It's the last I remember of the questline, in all honesty. It's really sad because whenever they do add new story quests, it gives some people ammunition to say "They're giving us quests! Be grateful!" yes, but it is not the same. They're not putting the same effort that they did in the early days, and have admitted to it too! I personally have given up on the questline, which is so depressing because I was so invested in it as a kid. Making theories and writing stories, researching the lore on Starshine Legacy, etc..
Thank you so much for words, it seems so many people also agree with you. You should be proud of this comment. ♡
It did good things to my child brain
@@m4tta The Unfortunate Dew's farm was prolly the most eerie place in sso it was so unsettling
and idk just scary for no reason
Yes, oh my god. I was trying to find a way to put my thoughts into words and you did just that. I was very young when I began playing SSO, 7-8 years old in 2013. It was such a mysterious game. I don’t remember the year, but when I got really into the game I used to always just stand in that forest (can’t remember the name) where Starshine would occasionally walk by (I’m not sure if this still happens in game) and just the aura around that… god I miss it. I haven’t played in a few years so I haven’t seen much of the downfall myself.
Edit: And sorry about the forest tangent lol idk where I was going with that. Just loved that as a kid. But yeah as you were saying, some areas has such eerie feels while others were bright and amazing and the contrast was just wonderful. From what I see now, the game just isn’t like that anymore.
As a player since 2013, this really gave me so much comfort. There was something about SSO then which made every tedious reputation quest or challenge passable because I invested in the game immensely and loved it. Even little things like fixing the bridge to the harvest counties or making it into golden hills. It felt magical and it definitely upsets me to see the game lose its spark in my opinion. Thank you so much for making this video! 🤍🥰
Oh I'm so delighted to hear that this video gave you a sense of comfort! ♡ Thank you for your comment, I totally agree as well... There was something about looking at a broken bridge or a mysterious golden, autumn-y land closed off by this giant gate that made me so determined to finally unlock and experience those areas. The game had so much character, and as you said - spark, in that sense.
@@helIokitti Absolutely and I think a huge misconception is that people say "It's because you're older or because you're nostalgic" which in my opinion is false. I do think the game has changed in ways which have benefited us such as updated horses which look amazing. However it has aged poorly and definitely lost a lot of OG players around 2017-2019.
Same, I am a an og 2013 player as well. I really agree with this comment a lot!
The game is so good because the OG team invested so much into Jorvik and did so much with it. They did a damn good job. The game did so well cause of it, I think. But unfortunately nowadays Jorvik seems like its on the backburner, due to all these updates. And thats exactly why the game lost its spark. We are in need of new storylines- Questing, characters (NPCs), regions/territory is literally what makes SSO. Horses are a main aspect of the game but the heart isnt soul riding or horses- its Jorvik itself. If they dont focus on Jorvik anytime soon or at least after the big character update, this game really is a goner. The spark will never come back. 💔
Completely agree here… I too was a player in 2013-2016 and it basically defined my switch from child to being a teenager. It started off as a game about horses and some lore but dude, the relationships I created with people shaped my social skills tremendously.
Those were crazily good times. MMORPGs just have something about them. Creating lots of comfort when real social life is kinda challenging.
And yes, the game indeed lost its touch, at least in my pov. The magic from 2013 can’t be topped
The thing that hurt me the most was finding out they removed the pink rift and old soul rider training. I didn’t know that. It’s tragic because those quests and grinds are somehow the most memorable quests I ever did in the game.
I used to think I’d like to get another account and play through again but as time goes on it seems like it’s not worth it anymore, with all of the charm and scary dark quests being removed. I liked this game as a kid partly because it was sometimes dark.
I try now and then to return to star stable, and I always thought it’s because I’m an adult now, but I feel nothing when I log on. It’s just to buy the newest pretty lifeless robot horse that’s added, and then log off for several months again.
UGHHH Ikr D: We worked so hard on those rifts and the soulrider training. I don't regret doing them at all but I at least wish newer players could experience it too, because it is arguably their strongest plotline. Coming from someone who has replayed the story at least 20 times on new accounts .. I can't say it's worth it nowadays with all that they have removed. My latest account creation was last summer and I barely got to level 13 because I was so bored with the story due to all the changes.
I can also relate, my distance from Star Stable is partially because I am older now and don't find things like roleplaying as horses that appealing anymore .. but also just obviously that the first generation of players is clearly not their target audience anymore. Thank you for your comment. ♡
i quit the game in 2016 and so much changed, I couldn't even recognize anything anymore. i don't mind the new graphics or new horses but why did they literally changed the whole places like steve's farm or the town next to it. It doesn't even look like the original game anymore. even the tiniest things like the fact they removed horses stamina is so sad. Those things really feel like robots now.
@@annkyun00 right? I started around the time SSO came out and I was so upset when I saw Steves and Silverglade. Fir and Vale were fine, its nothing big, but I couldnt even wrap my head around how to get through the new silverglade. I wanted to have some old nostalgia from like 2012 but not even the music was the same..
They also removed the rune-stone grind as well :3333 the game i grew up with is no logner here
I used to come to SSO for my daily horse riding fix before RDR2 came out. Now, with Red Dead Online slowly being drowned in a bag thrown in the river by Rockstar, I ended up coming back to SSO.
The main thing that dissappointed me was that the game's story barely developed in that - what, like 1 year? - I was away. Its a shame, beacuse its story used to be so much fun, I remember going crazy when there was an actual boss fight in it, I was laughing all the way through it, even if it was quite simplistic.
But no, no story development, but like 10 new horses to buy. Gee, thanks. Am I supposed to be engaged in the gameplay of doing the same races over and over again on different horses?
No thank you.
Bring back the magic stuff. You have such an extensive lore there to explore and build on. So do it.
I remember the ancient SSO being a comfort, I never could take horse riding lessons ( don't judge me, I'm poor, ok?) so being able to do it even virtually somehow bring happiness to me. I know that the graphics weren't at the level of the big MMORPGs I was used to, yet the ambiance, the story, the whole eeriness and cozy feeling was worth it. Recently it lost all these aspects, it's a plastic world without any soul. The ones who keep saying that it's just nostalgia probably can't understand that it was these little differences which made us happy, not having a ton of horses or pink ponies. But I can't blame them, it's hard to grasp when you never felt it. I guess now it's something which will be lost forever, logging to SSO is more a chore than anything these last years.
I totally get what you are saying, when I was younger I became OBSESSED with horses but unfortunately couldn't afford riding lessons either. I think what separates SSO from a lot of other roleplaying video games is that SSO, for me personally, filled a void when I was younger. I couldn't ride a horse irl so they gave me a horse in game, I also wanted red hair really badly but of course couldn't when I was a kid so I got red hair in the game LOL .. Also struggled a lot socially irl but I made so many lifelong friends through SSO.
I also completely agree, SSO felt niche and it was like they weren't trying to fit in with the other MMORPGs. It had it's own charm and uniqueness, its own art style and like you said... eeriness. Now they have turned it into a challenge-less, convenient, plastic world trying to appeal to little kids and shareholders in the interest of money. Thank you for your comment though, it really got me thinking!! ♡♡ :)
@@helIokitti Thanks for that video, it helps to live this game again ^^
My reason was really similar too, I remember I had been searching for a game like SSO and when I’d eventually found it I was so happy. I could do horse riding even though it was virtually and that made me so happy. I do lessons now, I don’t have my own horse, but I couldn’t afford a pony club stables much longer but I go to horse riding for the disabled (I’m autistic and etc etc etc) and it’s cheaper to go to and gets me out of the house every Tuesday, and I love it. And they love me there too because of my previous lessons at the other stables I’m a decent rider. They let me ride a newer horse who’s not completely broken in that’s usually not allowed to be ridden by most riders there if they’re not experienced enough. His name is noggin and oh my gosh I love him like he’s my own horse even if he’s not mine!
This was my thing exactly! Couldn't ride horses, but I'd been obsessed with them since I was a toddler
EXACTLY. Horse riding is not a cheap sport and my parents also couldn't afford lessons when I was a kid. StarStable let me experience something I couldn't in real life. It's sad to see it fall from its grace
THE BUS omg i really miss it i made so many friends waiting for it and i used to chase it now it just feels empty
I started playing star stable when I was 9 and I was OBSESSED, I remember begging my mom everyday to let me play it at my grandma's house. I'm 18 now and I can't explain how much I miss it. Yes, it is nostalgic but I also miss the graphics, the small things like Loretta having a crush on Justin, even when raptor used to perform at the mall every Thursday afternoon.
Especially the main quests and the lore?! It used to be so interesting! I adored it to the point where I played all the previous games (the spring/summer/autumn/winter rider, star academy & starshine legacy), it was quite dark for a horse game. But it breaks my heart that sso changed it, it's almost like a whole new game for me.
Another thing that kind of annoys me is how fast you play through the game, like i started a new account and after just 12 days i was at level 16?? When i played on my first account it literally took me at least 1.5 years to reach that level.
To be completely honest this is one of the best video I've ever seen in a long while and I'm glad I watched it
OHMYGOD I FORGOT ABOUT RAPTOR i miss him so much. the og lisa peterson LMAO
I used to carry around a giant laptop case everywhere I went irl just so I could play SSO ... it was a genuine obsession and I totally miss being that passionate about something LOL
I LOVE all of the examples you used, it made me think... the people of Moorland, just by themselves have SO much character .. they are the first faction you meet and already just by everyone's personality it made me so engaged. Now they all are just a bit... watered down, compared to what they used to be.
The involvement of Raptor was amazing... I played Star Academy after SSO and seeing him in SA just made me so appreciative of the old SSO, and how they were trying to include some of their history from their old games into the new SSO. It seems like they're trying to erase that history now .. I mean, they did a Raptor music video challenge in late 2016!! It's going to be hard to erase that.
That's genuinely terrifying how fast you can level in SSO now ... A year after I joined the game I wasn't even at the max level for the time yet, and I did quests/dailies almost every day?? Now I walk around SSO and it seems like everyone is level 20+. D: Thank you so much for your kind words though, you are definitely my motivation to continue making documentaries. ♡
I think part of the reason why leveling is so quick now is because there's a lot more content, and back then you'd get "stuck" at a level for a while because SSO hadn't released new quests and main quests yet. There never actually *was* that much content in Star Stable, but it felt like it was stretched out a lot more because you had to wait for new quests.
@@lonewasp I totally agree but they have also removed a lot of the reputation related quests. For example, I vividly remember having to do druid training everyday for almost 2 months after doing the quest about healing the pandoric cracks in Silverglade village, until i got to continue the story line.
I did a speed run through the game and i'm currently on lvl 18 and i haven't done that specific quest?
@@OhhItzKitty I believe that reputation quest being removed was mentioned in the video. I genuinely feel like that quest was a slog and it shouldn't have been a reputation grind, however, they should have at least kept it for consistency sake, and made it a normal quest instead of a reputation one. Don't get me wrong, Star Stable removing content is definitely a thing. I don't have the privilege of replaying the game, but I have noticed missing races and differing experiences questing that newer players have compared to what I remember.
It is definitely a shame that all of this old content is being lost to time. I will miss what this game was. The old CD Star Stable games are more familiar to me now than modern Star Stable.
man i remember friday and saturday nights as a kid spending hours in the disco dancing with different players, it felt like i was at an actual party and as bedtime was closing in me and my friends went on a calming ride away from the disco along the shore to say goodnight and plan our next day…
THISSSSSSSS I felt this so much!! I think the main thing I miss about the old days was the hype around the disco... I have so many memories from those friday and saturday nights, now every time I go to the disco it seems to be nearly abandoned with the exception of one club dancing together. I hope we can bring the disco hype back :) ♡ Thank you so much for your lovely comment, it made me feel so warm. ♡
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been playing this game since 2014ish, and I feel like I’ve just been watching the game become more and more decrepit, especially in the past couple of years. I’m just sitting here, watching SSO remove all the realism and novelties that make the game itself, and replace it with some watered-down version for ease of comfort. I mean, now how am I going to explain why I spam the W key when racing, since our horses apparently have endless energy! It’s sad, since the more they remove, the more I myself feel removed, and it’s a whole different gaming experience now than it was 5 years ago. I feel like SSO has been doing some things right, like adding snow back, but at the same time, that’s equivalent to a drop of water in the ocean.
But yea, don’t mind me ranting, really good point, and very well said, definitely glad I stumbled upon your channel :)
You made such great points with this comment, the analogies that you used were so accurate and I could not agree more with what you said! i'm so glad you found my channel as well, because this comment certainly gave me a sense of validation to what i have been feeling about this game.. from one SSO veteran to another haha! This made my day :)
The horses always had endless energy
@@montanamountaingarden476 They didn't. You had to keep pressing W to keep your horses moving, otherwise they would slow down, and they would get tired as you rode them. Their needs would decay, and you'd need to feed, brush, water and/or pick their hooves as the day went on.
the habit of spamming W won't ever leave me-
I totally agree with everything except the spamming W. That was removed for accessibility reasons and honestly, I'm glad it was. It seriously messed with my OCD and made playing the game stressful sometimes. They should have made it so you could turn it on or off in the settings.
You nailed this. Star stable has completely erased the challenge. I recently played the game again on a new account and it’s safe to say you can finish the main quests within 3 months. (That’s if you do every quest every day).
Areas unlock almost instantly and they’ve removed some of the “wait a day” blockers but haven’t changed the quest dialogue. So sometimes an npc will ask you to come back tomorrow, but you can immediately continue the questline.
Making the game accessible for kids is one thing, but most of these features weren’t THAT difficult. At the end of the day, they’re were simple enough for us to understand as kids. By removing the challenge, they lose their quirks and selling points as a game and of course, players feel less satisfied because they didn’t have to work hard for a reward.
I completely agree with you on this. Back then you had to train or do reputation quests to unlock certain quests or features or horses. Remember how long it took to get the Fjord horses with the reputation quests with the Kallters? Or the Sun circle and Lighting circle? To achieve the new main story quests with visiting Dark core again you had to reach level popular and to do the new main story quests with Alex's mom and spying on Dark core you had to be admired with the Lighting circle. We put so much work to get all of this and sometimes I did get tired but ultimately it teached me an important lesson of life is that you don't get everything handed on a silver plate for free but have to work for it and by removing these features like training, daily work, difficult challenges in quests and realistic stuff sso took away the realism and hard work for awards. What also made sso the game it was was the background music from 2011-2018. It made gameplay and riding around Jorvik so fun and it fits the game's landscape and story. The new music feels to fake and forced. The quests themselves were also much more dark and the story felt like a more adult focussed theme. And a lot of other features mentioned in the video above made it my childhood game.
This is amazing and so underrated, as an OG it's changed so much that it just doesn't feel the same. I could go on for hours about this topic.
Thank you so much for your comment! ♡ I totally agree, this topic is also something that I could spend hours talking about haha.
As someone who has played sso for a loooong time i have never stopped carrying my important items, my bus pass, treehouse key, fishing rod, pickaxe, circus ticket, that weird vacuum thing, the piece of aideen’s light. I just can’t let go of them, i miss how star stable felt back then :(
i do too.. it's like i feel like i will need them and although I know i won't, i want it to feel that way again
Same 😢
Same...
Same!
One thing I don't think a lot of people pay mind to is the art style. I'm not talking about the upgraded graphics here -- but rather the colors chosen when upgrading said graphics.
If you look at older videos, you'll see the grass and nature around you was much more yellowish in tint compared to now. This mimicked the idyllic Swedish summer landscape (which Jorvik was largely based of off), a moment of endless summer and fun. It also provided that realism you are speaking off. Colors -- and in extension: sounds -- do so much to provide the player with a feeling. Looking at these old clips, I truly realize just how much I miss that bright green grass. It brought happiness and "easygoingness" whereas the new blue-tinted grass brings mystery... which I suppose is on brand for what Starstable is focusing on more these days.
Funny isn't it? How Starstable's journey from a challenging, realistic, comforting game to a mystical, magical, dreamy sort of deal can be summarized by just looking at the color of the grass.
Here's hoping Astride will bring me back to that endless summer of our childhood.
I just heard you spoke some of the colors, apologies cx
Anyway, there are my thoughts on it as well.
I feel this so much! I feel like Star Stable lacks in the environment department now. Why did they remove most of the ambient sounds? Why did they make the grass, dirt, everything, so dark and blueish now? The old night sky was way darker and full of stars, the old lightning during the dawn and dusk...the new graphics are prettier, yes, but they lack harmony and life.
You're literally so right, it's crazy to see how different the color scheme was back then .. to how it is now. You made a great point on how the second largest aspect of the graphics (the grass, next to the largest aspect .. the sky!) really set the tone for the game. I love your observation on how the devs drew from their own landscape in Sweden and implemented it into the game. This makes the game truly unique, I always loved how they included elements from their heritage. Like Midsummer! ♡ Thank you so much for this informative comment. :)
I wouldn't agree that the new sso is magical or mysterious (it USED to be) but you're right about the grass. The thing that bothers me SO much is that the grass is the same color everywhere. I remember how in one place it was light green, in one yellowish, and in one dark, now it's all the same everywhere
This is the biggest thing I dislike about the current SSO. Of course the details of the buildings, trees, hills, and other features are more fine and detailed, but I really, really miss the more yellow and spring-green tones. Looking at vistas from hill- and mountaintops was so, so pretty originally, and actually kind of looked more realistic because of the blurred outlines of distance views.
I miss it so much. I remember spamming the barn doors to try and get on the game.. the game actually had its scary moments, the easter events, the Halloween ghost haunt, the pacman game lol. No matter what people will say sso became a money hungry company who mass produces expensive horses and tack and adapted the game for little kids, leaving behind its original community. Yes every game needs upgrades and yes every company needs money but there’s so many things they left behind, the graphics were amazing for its time and now it just looks like a mediocre game.. there’s nothing special about it anymore. Before I wanted to spend money on the game I’d beg and beg my parents but now I’d rather spend on other games
Oh I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone lol I also spammed those barn doors during looong update downloads. I truly miss the game's creepiness, because they didn't just confine themselves to "We're a kid's horse game so we need to make the game kid-friendly" they actually stepped outside that comfort zone and made the game extremely eery in some cases, and it especially showed in the main storyline.
I can't help but agree with you, I can't say I didn't see this coming because every company is kind of corrupt in one way or another .. but there was something about being apart of the community back then and watching SSO's growth from a small company funded by several other companies, to them finally becoming Star Stable Entertainment and owning all of the rights to the game. It felt like we were apart of their growth, and they actually listened to us. We helped them reach that milestone, and they rewarded us in many different ways ... the main one being they made us feel included. Thank you so much for your comment. ♡
A big part for me personally is the soundtrack. Sometimes I just put the og soundtracks to play from spotify and often it gets me and a few of my friends teary-eyed.
Any older graphics are somehow so cute and innocent...
I'm also scared of the avatar change in SSO theyre preparing :((
also the bloom effect is really cool! I wish i could play w/ it
I remember spamming the w key so my horse wouldn’t slow down 😂
Oh me too... I still do it during champs and races!! It's literal muscle memory that will never be erased LOL Thank you for commenting ♡
I spam my W key all the time AND use the scroll and the same time.
I thought I was imagining things, I knew that was a thing, like if you didn’t press w you’d slow down it was almost like a true riding experience
me too. i still do it. i hate that they took that away lol
One of the things I miss most is the old trailering system when they were separated by counties and could only go to corresponding colours. It made sense that a trailering service wouldn't take you clear across the map, and it also made you utilize the ferry system to go between counties. Now any trailer can go to any location, which yes is more convenient but it's less fun. Nowadays I purposefully don't trailer at all or practice the old county limits; it forces me to run, explore, and appreciate the map again. A lot of players started to complain about the map feeling small, and I think that was larely due to the trailering system change.
I miss the old SSO so much. I loved how everything looked. Now all the trees, buildings, etc, are all so cartoonish (perhaps a bit too cartoonish) and.. ah.. it just looked better before. I wish SSO could let some of us have an option or button to see the old graphics over the new ones so everyone could enjoy both worlds
i totally agree. i don’t like what they’ve done with the soul riders and the personal characters. they look so.. wrong
I LOVE THIS AH! Im so tired of people telling me: "Oh you're sick of Star stable because of the new graphics, horses, ect?" No. Im sick of it because their not listening to the players, updating things without our consent, & overall turning this into the sterotypical horse adventure game.
The progress bar is the exact same as the smilies. They just removed it for aesthetics. Dino was removed so players wouldn’t have to buy a certain breed to go fast there. I miss old Dino :(
I see! I was wondering if the actual progression was buffed or something, it's still a little confusing but I understand if it's for their new aesthetic ... I wish they kept cold tolerance but made your starter horse cold tolerant, so that players who couldn't get a fluffy horse could still enjoy Dino to its full capacity. :) Thank you for your kind comment. ♡
It's sort of ironic how they removed the cold tolerance so people "don't have to get a specific horse to go there" but in literally every other aspect of the game it's all about us buying horses, since that's all they're focusing on nowadays.
The Star Stable Company needs to see this video to understand us older players!!
wow :3 Thank you so much, this is such a genuine compliment. ♡ I really hope one day SSO can see this video too.. or at least what I spoke about gets spread around the game.
They don't worry about older players anymore. Why? they only want to attract newer, younger people so that their parents buy them star coins. It's not the children's fault of course, it's the corporation that sees nothing but money anymore.
@@D1lxrdrxgow This was so painful to read because you're right
27:16 .. ,,They made the game look like Fortnite.“ This is what I’ve been saying since the release of the new graphics. I thought i was the only one saying and realizing this. I was always complaining about new graphic and all that. Yeah, okay that’s not the point now, the point is that the feature of the game has been lost since the new graphics, it’s now copy and paste, it’s only adapting to what everyone else is doing to attract new and more players, for more money (I believe) cause that’s what the game now is about. Not gameplay, not horses and not a nice community, it’s money. As always. That breaks my heart. Especially cause this game was once a big part of my life, my whole childhood
I agree with you. I would die to log in the old crusty sso again. I wish they would listen to the sso community
All of these international servers they pay to keep up and running... It would be crazy if they would open maybe just one or two servers in a 2013 version of the game. I doubt any of the devs have the old models and source code, but seeing as they still use the same game engine... it wouldn't be impossible. ♡ Thank you for your comment. ♡
As an older player who started out in December 2014 everything you just said is accurate! When you brought up all the big and small details that I overlooked back then when I was playing every day, made my gameplay so much fun! I remember the struggles of the Sun circle daily reputation quests and how determined I was to finish them and continue the mainstory. When I was doing them I hated them personally, but now that they've removed it for new players and made continuation to new quests much easier and faster I'm actually upset considering the time it took to get to the new quests. That training learned players to be patient and earn your quests or items. The same for the lighting circle training You'd had to reach level admired in order to finish the danger of pandoria. The new soulrider training... I don't know if it's just me, but I just can't get myself to play it. I started it, but the difference with the old soulrider training is huge. It just doesn't give me the determination to finish it, because after it there won't be much to do. Then there is also indeed the textures off the game and how they nowadays feel more like a Barbie game. Back then I actually rode around with my horse for relaxation and to see new things if I could find it. It was also way for me to take a pause from the questing. The realism in it made it so special. What I also hate is how the old mainstory line has completely vanished. The older stories from Starshine legacy, star academy and the old sso games are not accurate to the current story anymore and they were much more darker and interesting. They even changed parts of the mainstory to make it more child friendly. Like the scene where Lisa returns and the darkriders try to kidnap us and our horse to Pandoria. Lisa actually fought them and had much more fun power. I can understand how unrealistic that of considering her powers are to heal and not attack, but it still gave the quests an interesting ending. They had also planned a lot of new stuff for the old storyline like Lisa's secret mission while we and Alex needed to find the starbreed that contained the new Concorde. We never heard anything about it again. Or the Kallters. When they removed them they did that through the start a possible storyline. They left Dino valley through the icengate and we heard that roar. But they never continued the questline while they did tease stuff about it for 2019. The same for the fight against GED. Darkcore wanted to have Herman within the deal of getting drakonium from GED. We still have to figure out a way to stop GED from destroying the Harvest Counties and find out what the relationship between GED and Darkcore is. And indeed shopping for new clothes at the mall or a small cosmetica store on populaire places on Jorvik is so nostalgic you actually had the chance to run around Jorvik as well. Nowadays with the online shop function on any place on Jorvik players get lazy and less motivated to go out and explore the island.
Wow, I am so impressed with this comment. You explained each and every point so thoroughly and I truly understand where you are coming from. ♡ When you said you can't bring yourself to complete the new soulrider training, I'm the exact same way. What is the benefit? The Rhiannon plot has already been abandoned. The only thing in it for us is a horse.. but this time it's free ooooh! I'm not here for it.. it doesn't make me want to spend six months grinding every day for another half baked horse, and not to mention they picked a model that's already going out of style apparently...
The Lisa quest was such a milestone for Star Stable, they had never had such intricate cutscenes or animations in any other questline before. And for them to remove the cinematics because it isn't ... "child friendly"? is so disappointing. What's even more depressing is that the people who worked on those animations probably don't even work at the company any longer, and someone just decided to erase their hard work. Saving Lisa was so memorable, it is one of those quests where whenever you see "A Meeting in The Forest" on your quest log you get butterflies because it is just that entertaining. ♡
You're so right though, Star Stable has so many plot holes that I doubt are ever going to be filled. The way they are running the main story nowadays gives me the impression that they are just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. It feels like it was written by someone who just read a brief summary of a botched idea of the questline. I know back in the day we had to wait awhile for story quests as well, we'd get maybe two full questlines for the main story and that was it but it was always memorable and worthwhile. It gave us something to think about anticipating for the next quest, I was actually excited. But after the lightning circle quest in late 2015, it seems like it all went downhill. ):
Exploring Jorvik in the first 3 years of my journey online was always so magical because SSO put so much effort into the map, with areas like the UFO, the abandoned picnic spot, the bear cave... I wish they still put in these little easter egg corners of the map with their new areas. But lately with Wildwoods and their current map expansions, it seems like they're dropping an area just to drop an area. The easter egg areas were handled with such care, at any given chance when I was hanging out with my friends I would ask "hey, want to see a secret spot?" and take them to the UFO or somewhere.
Thank you for this comment, you really explained yourself well. you should be so proud. ♡
This really made me feel that I'm finally not alone. You usually see the "big starstable" youtubers speaking about how the old game was ugly and horses were janky in comparison to the new sso etc. For me, this new graphical change is for the worst as the environments became bland, boring and forgettable. I vividly remember recording the older ghv one day before the update. Next day when I saw modern ghv, I didn't really feel anything. I wasn't woven, just disappointed. Now I can't even recall how the modern ghv looks, the memorable parts are only the old untouched ones. Also the mayor problem with these new horses is the lack of any creator's stamp. Like they are just realistic, nothing about these newer breeds makes them rememberable or iconic. (exception being jorvik wilds and pre-new Friesian horses). Quests also got boring. (Not to mention that they rewrote the whole story removing a good chunk of it.) Rather than being invested in the story I just laugh about how stupid some lines are. The problem is also modern sso takes a lot of inspiration from Harry Potter and it shows in their never quests. I remember how old star stable used to portray mystery and players theorizing and speculating about its lore or objects. I also fondly remember this gossip where if you've reached level 11 and got a quest all the clues where you had to place the items or who to talk to would disappear, making it rewarding to actually listen to the dialogue. Alas, modern sso is a poor excuse for a fun, mesmerizing game. It got very easy to play and not remotely rewarding to do any quest. Many features of old star stable (such as the logbook where you could read the quest again or retake it if failed) got removed, others that didn't suffer the same fate got terribly barebone.
In the end its very refreshing to see people share my perspective!
All of this is extremely understandable and relatable, I think the only place I actively choose to go to when I want to feel some autumn vibes in GHV is Scarecrow Hill and Pi's house .. because they are (for the most part) untouched haha. Not to be blunt ... but they really ruined the most special area in the game, Golden Hills Valley ... Might as well not even call it Golden anymore.
When you mentioned the horses lacking the creator's stamp, I literally gasped because you're so right ... That's exactly what I've been trying to say for YEARS!! The old starter model back in the day was literally just a 3D replica of their original art style, and that is SO unique!!
Wow... you bringing up the level 11 rule... It was genuinely something that I had almost forgotten, I remember it distinctly!!! Once you reached level 11, you would get a pop up that said "in an active quest, there will no longer be orange blurs telling you where the objective is" I miss that so much. And you're right!! It made you have to pay extra attention to the dialogue!
I miss when there was an option in the quest log to discard a quest, kind of off subject but I really wish they had kept it. I don't even know why they decided to remove the option in the first place.
I'm so glad you shared your perspective, you should be so proud of what you have written because it has greatly helped me wrap my head around some forgotten aspects of this game that will help me tremendously in my next writings. ♡ Thank you so so much!!
To this day, I am devastated about the loss of potential of the whole game. I started playing just when it came out and I can not believe it's development. I was so immerged in my identity as a soulrider, so excited for every new day and how the story will continue and always wondered, what would happen next. Nowadays, StarStable feels useless, worthless of my time. Not only because the story had a really weird turn since Pandoria and before but because it seems to be all about economy, not the people who enjoy playing it. We all miss old StarStable and StarStable does not seem to care at all. Old horses being removed breaks my heart and I am trying to grasp every single straw that reminds me of my childhood since as I am getting older, some of the memories start to fade and other things are more important. I feel like my only escape from reality which made me feel warm and safe gets erased. My whole childhood, all the hours I spent playing are getting erased. A part of my soul feels like being exiled into eternity and it just does not feel right. The first real shock was the removal of the Kalter. And that's when I felt a part of me dying.
It really saddens me to see how much sso is trying to delete from exsitance old stuff that made this game special, the graphics, the horses, the lore, the mechanics, and so much more. Besides fiords and older gen 1 breeds of horses that looked like startes that are deleted, now its going to be north swedish horses on 12th of april. Also im really torn apart about the character update look, because omg more costumisation and the character wont be looking so out of place, but this is the main thing that is still left from the old sso. Also im really happy that im not the only one who misses the horse get more thirsty/hungry/dirty the more you ride it, it was annoying, but made it more realistic. This was a great video, a very much needed one, nostalgia may hit me like a brick but in a good way. Thank you ❤
This video made me actually want to cry! I miss the feeling I got growing up on this game 😞
Aww.. I'm so sorry! I wish it weren't so bittersweet nowadays, I hope it won't feel empty for much longer. ♡ Thank you for your comment, I hope you have a lovely day!
I hate how bright the colors are now
I loved the calm, pale and dark colors of the trees, floor, ….
I loved it even though it was old ❤
i play sso since 2015 and played the star stable seasons and starshine legacy games as well. Music and visuals are everything when you're trying to convey a feeling, and the past 2-3 years sso have been changing visuals to be differently stylised, colored more bright and warm, as well as the music seeing a more orchestral and upbeat change. old sso has a distinct somewhat misterious vibe. The art style was akin to the comics, with exaggarated characters in an oddly proportioned landscape, full of sharp edges, dark contrasts, more common use of dull colors and rough textures and it was sometimes wacky sometimes quite realistic! Then all those visulas mixed together with music motifs that are calming but also foreboding, the game's older version had a very different sort of "direction". new sso's art style is soft, rounded and smoothened out, colors are bright and pop with all the colors of the rainbow creating an overall happy and whimsical atmosphere which is also supported by the newer soundtracks that also have more "happy harmonies". you mentioned the trailer changes which really do destroy immersion. traveling "on foot" in a game is the best way to give a sense of scale to the player. because if you have to run from one end of the map to the other your only factor isnt only the distance but also the time it takes. if you add fast travel you completely obliterate this aspect of worldbuilding! it also takes away the "novelty" of boarding a boat or missing the bus or figuring out how on earth will you fit your horse in the hot air balloon! restricted trailers didnt just give a sense of scale but also made traveling more diverse.
all n all -audiovisalwise- old SSO felt like "a place" with mysteries, beauty, intrigue and danger - and new sso feels like "a safe place" with whimsy, magic and idyllic convenience.
I grown to like new sso too (reminds me of the art direction World of Warcraft took after the Mists of Pandaria expansion), but can't deny since about 2018, it's almost a whole different game!
I totally wish I could've read this comment while I was writing my script. You explained the two eras of SSO so well, I'm so shocked. It all makes so much sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen, and even add onto my points. You really proved that you saw eye to eye with what I was saying in the documentary, and I'm so grateful!! ♡ The comments about worldbuilding and the music comparisons, I never realized it but you're right! The new music is way most orchestral, I feel like the old music was electronic with hints of orchestra.
I don't even see GED or Dark Core as a threat anymore, Garnok isn't even real at this point. It's been 12 years and we still really haven't been faced with our biggest threat that has been building since 2005. It's so disappointing where they have taken the story, I feel like they're touching more on the "bond" and "friendship" between the keepers of Aideen and the soul riders aspect, but it all just feels lifeless. Our character is just a message man at this point, a retriever.
They have added in conversational choices lately, pieces of dialogue we can choose... But it's not enough! It doesn't make me feel immersed ): I'm glad I got to speak with you though, as you absolutely know what you are talking about and have taken the time to explore the CD games as well :) Thank you so much for this eye-opening comment. ♡
After so many years, them adding the snow all over the world again was so important for me and felt like such a breath of fresh (old) air
Yeaahh that is probably the best update they have done nowdays
@@emmmi111true
This is beautiful and so incredibly well put. I still distinctly remember growing up, waking up two hours before I had to get up for school just so I’d have extra time to play Star Stable. I would stay up into the late hours of the night, my laptop volume as low as possible, quietly hoping my parents wouldn’t realize I was awake. Nowadays, I log on a few times a month (at most) and can’t stay online for more than an hour or two. I’ve blamed nostalgia and simply maturing, but looking back and reflecting on what the game was actually like at that point proves that the environment was just.. different. As much as I hated running all over Jorvik just for one outfit, waiting for the bus, and spending hours of my time trying to unlock new areas back then, there was definitely a charm to it that simply doesn’t exist anymore. I’d take the months spent grinding for Epona over some of the tedious new quests any day 😅
Absolutely wonderful work; thank you for this little stroll down memory lane
Oh my gosh, thank you so so much!! ♡ Everything you said was relatable, I miss how much passion I had for the game!! How determined I was to do anything to stay on, etc etc... I could stay online until 6:00 AM now if I wanted to... but there is no point. There is nothing to do ):
I totally feel like this is an entirely different game now, I remember the first time when I was a non star rider and found the little houses in Nilmer's Highland. I saw the blue sparkles, clicked them and went inside! I was so excited, I miss the little things like that in SSO .. and I don't think they're impossible to achieve, if they would just put a little more care and love into the game. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, I'm so glad you could understand where I was coming from in this documentary. ♡
I started playing since November 2013 and let me tell you: Old sso was much better in every aspect. First of all the main story. Main Story in SSO back then was a continuation of Starshine Legacy, Star Academy & Star Stable CD games. The OG CEO left SSE in 2018 and that's where the entire game went downhill for good. Instead of magical land, interesting characters we get typical childish storyline with unlikeable main cast (Lisa, Linda, Anne, Alex) none of them act as they used to. They all act like some sterotypes. The writing is just painful to read, like come on! I could do a better job. But thats not all. Next we have horses. I remember back in 2014/15 new horses were really rare and exciting. NOT ANYMORE lmao. They keep throwing new horses from left to right. Some of them are polished and finished, and some aren't. They claim, they'll take our feedback, but they never do (maybe in rare cases). Back to the quests, it's not only main story that suffers from that "4 kids stories" all side quests are as bad. I quit the game in 2020 cuz I just couldn't bare it anymore. It was too much changed for kids. No more challenge, nothing. Just buy new horse simulator and if you complain, then white knights will come for you and call you ungrateful :). I look back at those old videos and miss old sso. But what can you do? Nothing really.
I love the analogies you used, they made me giggle and you're so right. ♡ It's like the entire company got flipped on its head, I wish that the management got passed down to someone who actually cared about what the original game stood for. Instead it seems like their only objective is to reel everyone into buying their newest product, whether it be a new horse or new overpriced clothes or shiny crystal cats that cost the equivalent of $14.
When SSO was originally created they used a lot (and I mean A LOT) of the assets from SSL, SA, and SS .. probably because since they were a small company owned by many other companies they had limited rights and limited budget. But it worked?? It made sense and it made the game so delightful even if the assets were hand-me-down. Now that they have creative freedom because Star Stable owns all of the rights to everything they are throwing the potential away. It's so disappointing.
I also miss when horses only came out 3 or 4 times a year, it was an actual event! It was widely celebrated for weeks, I was actually excited and willing to fork up $30 to buy the new horses. Now I literally cannot tell the Belgian Warmblood apart from the Tennessee Walker because they were released basically a week apart. Have you noticed that they've decided to drop all of the colors of the horses instead of waiting a couple of weeks, too? Soooo tiring.
Thank you for your comment, I'm so sorry that SSO pushed you to the point of quitting. It's been nearly 10 years for you too, you really deserve better. ♡
I didn’t play SSO for a while bc I got busy with school and got older but now a year ago I started playing again and I got so sad when I saw that they removed the bus and the fashion week. It used to be my favourite part that u could access and because i’m level 22 now it just bothers me that there aren’t any things like that to do with friends anymore. I got also sad when they removed the horse slowing down, the special horses for dino valley, the main missions which made the game so exciting and unique and just the old music too. Hearing the music in this video and seeing all the old clips made me so happy
This is so long sorry I could talk about SSO for hours I truly love it so much :(
Wow, that video was awesome! I've been thinking about some of those things for ages, but never managed to put them all together like that. It's a shame the game turned out as it did. I wish they would change some of it back even though they won't. Anyway, loved the video! It was so well done, and I hope you keep making more stuff like that!
I agree, I just wish sso would listen to their old players because they know the game so well and it's not just a coincidence that so many people would agree with this video and relate. If the Star stable team would just take that into concideration I feel like the game could go back at least a little bit to how it used to be.
Btw, I watch a lot of your videos you're awesome!!
WOOOWW Super super sorry for the late reply but wow when I woke up to your comment I was so happy, you have been my go to source for all Star Stable news for the past 5 years, I love your videos and it's been amazing seeing your growth!! ♡
I agree, I wish they didn't make the choices they made. I understand that everything they do is in the business' best interest but I wish they would at least try to keep parts of the game that made it stand out. It has always been a kid's horse game, but now it REALLY feels like a kid's horse game, if that makes sense haha.
Thank you for your comment, I promise I will work hard to make more documentaries for you! ♡
Just looking at the old style makes me want to cry 😭 I love it so much… part of my childhood. I miss it so much :( I wish they‘d bring it back 🙏
I hope you make more parts to this. This video brought me so much comfort, other youtubers will sometimes say that "You don't want old sso back, it's just the nostalgia" but everything you're desciribing in this video proves how it isn't just the nostalgia. It's the way we used to be excited for every single new update Star stable had to come with and now it's turned into this fear of what might happen next wednesday update. Will it be a new horse we can barely afford or will it be a new race, quest or something in the game they completely changed without warning. It's just sad seeing it all go away knowing we can't do anything about it because why would SSO listen to their old players? All we do in their eyes is complain.
Edit: I also want to say that of course nostalgia plays a huge part in this, but what I miss isn't just how it felt when playing the game. I really do miss the crusty graphics because it made SSO the game we knew and loved. I liked the creepy lore and how I used to be afraid of going to hollow woods alone at night. I miss Mistfall being the only "new graphics" place. It was so exciting all I wanted to do was spend my time there, now I wouldn't even think of taking the trailer to Dundull.
Going on Star stable no longer feels like fun new adventure, it feels like a chore. I keep buying stable care for my horses in hopes of wanting to play SSO again. I haven't been online in three weeks.
wow I'm so glad I'm not the only one who gets nervous when opening a Wednesday news article haha... I just really wish instead of erasing their past, they would honor it. I can't say I'm surprised though... seeing as nearly everyone who created the past is pretty much gone and replaced now.
All of the elements you mentioned truly were what made the game so unique, it feels like no matter where I go in the game now it's nearly unrecognizable. Except for maybe Dino Valley, every area still has the same name but it isn't the place I knew when I first joined. ): Thank you so much for your kind words, I will definitely have this comment in mind when I am writing my next documentaries. ♡
@@helIokitti Yess!! Exactly, I wish they kept some of their old stuff because it’s so unique and although it’s got the “crusty texture” it’s still beautiful, and that’s because it’s what was special about SSO.
And thank you so much for your reply! Your documentary was truly amazing and it made me feel a sort of comfort, knowing I’m not the only one thinking this way about SSO makes all the changes easier!
Have a lovely day and keep making great content!💞✨🐴
i love this video, so happy that there's still bunch of people who miss the old things and look back in time just to talk about how things used to be. :( you're getting a sub and i can tell that you're definitely gonna be one of my favorite sso creators !!
Aww, I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed this video!! ♡ Thank you so much for the comment, I am glad people like you have found my channel.. this will always be a safe place to vent out about how lovely and immersive the old game used to be! ♡ and TYSM for letting me know about the dino valley race!!!! LITERALLY MADE MY DAY I HAVE TO GO TRY IT NOW
I miss the older days when most people were also playing to meet people and make conversations and not to only buy the newer variations of horses and flex with them, I personally put my home stable in Fort Pinta because I wanted to be close to ferry's and the bus and the disco! I loved the disco because I and my friends would meet there but now since the newer updates I don't even know why I'm still there since no one comes to Fort Pinta anymore. It makes me really sad because Fort Pinta next to Moorland was the place you started the game and it felt so nostalgic it just makes me sad.
To me, the newest horse breed back then was actually special and I'd actually feel the need to get it compared to how I feel about the new horses now. I remember being so annoyed at the people who would show up to the new horse's purchase area on the new horse. -_- And then I'd accidentally do it myself LOL
I just recently moved to New Hillcrest but for about 4 years my home stable was also Fort Pinta because I absolutely love all of the features you just listed, and also the fact that it is a non star rider area that I have many many memories in from back in the day. ♡ I miss the social aspect of SSO so much, it feels like the game isn't pushing the friendship element as much anymore. Everyone just shares their Discord and maybe once in awhile log on the game together.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, every word truly made me feel a warm sense of nostalgia. ♡
This video deprogrammed me from the sso I've been indoctrinated to like, the old sso seeing it makes me want to cry. I'm remembering a lot of these features and one I miss is the horse noises. So many of these hit me like a brick. I wish I never deleted my old sso videos and pictures, it was so unthoughtful of me to do so back then. So many memories oh my god. I've used ferries all the time though, cheap skate like that lmao. God this video tore me apart in a good way. You're right, me buying a horse is filling the old void of what it felt like back then.
Oh don't even worry about it!! ♡ I also permanently deleted all of my very first SSO TH-cam videos in 2015 ): It felt right then, but now I'd do anything to see them again! All I have are the memories, whenever I hear the songs I used for them irl I get a little emotional haha.
It made me smile hearing you also use the ferries, I do it to save a little extra money but also do it for nostalgia's sake! I'm so glad you heard me out and took the time out of your day to watch this documentary. ♡ Thank you for commenting!!
I remember playing the Starshine legacy games, as well as the OG Star Stable games, so when I heard about SSO I was elated. Only to find out they didn't support Mac yet.
Then the day came and I finally could enter this world again, and revisit some of the old places and try to connect the map with what I had seen previously. Seeing familiar characters was such a plus and I was excited to see what they would bring.
I remember buying the bay Andalusian as my first horse because it was soo pretty, and then stressing to get the Westphalian horse from Ferdinand's market before the reset, not knowing it would return in 2 weeks.
I joined a club and made great friends. Until one day SSO just put us on different servers and the only way I could talk to my in-game BFF was through mail. I remember the launch of Dino valley and people being annoyed at the lvl 16 blocker, but since I had invested so much time into the game at that point, I loved that SSO made a point to reward active players.
I remember the day I unlocked Cape West, down to the song I was listening to when riding through the gates.
Then they started changing. Instead of expanding the areas we had, they released new content and new areas. What was behind the big ice gate in Dino valley? What about the ashlands in the back? What about the old castle behind Jasper's Pumpkinfarm that's now been completely removed?
Every special occation/holiday has a new currency, and last year's never draw over to this year. What am I supposed to do with all that old currency?
Then, there's a new horse. Or new color of a previous horse. Tack that doesn't fit anything but the newest models. The game has become a moneypit. The newest horses are always 800+ and for a currency you cannot obtain in-game, that's insane.
And you can bet your sweet nickles that I'm parked on a not-yet-max-level-horse in front of Steve's. I remember using that as my homestable because it was the most accessible and clever stable to use to save money from the horse transportation and also the different training routes to take. Leveling from 1 to 15 used to take around 5-7 days. Now I think it's 2,5. While races are a big part of the game, they've changed so many of them (all of my favorites at least) that they're no longer as enjoyable.
When they changed the graphics and areas, the game died for me. I could no longer recognize Firgrove from Autumn Riders, or Fort Pinta. I can't find my way around at Steve's anymore, and I feel like a boomer running around trying to make sense of it. The game is chronically on mute because the music and sound effects don't bring nostalgia or joy at all. Back in 2005 when the first Starshine Legacy game found it's way into my hands, the music always blew me away. It's a part of what kept me coming back to SSO throughout the years, just so I could hear that beautiful music and mumbling chat when talking. Now that they've removed it as far as I know, it's just not worth it.
They have the name, but they don't have to soul anymore
That is so amazing that you had already played the CD games before joining SSO, I have not met many people that have had that upbringing!! It's an entirely different experience, because I'm sure you recognize certain characters and assets from the CD games. I'm also deeply sorry that the game had not been ported to Mac yet -_- Many of my friends had to wait until like .. what? 2014? until they FINALLY launched it .. and then after all that waiting, the water was turquoise blue for years!!!
I love hearing you recall your greatest SSO memories, because I'm reading through some of these and I'm like I've definitely had similar experiences .. and it's so nice remembering how exciting it was buying your first Andalusian because they truly were one of the most majestic horses of their time.
I hate that you got split from your friends and club due to the wonky server move... I remember how much harder it was to move from server to server back then. Until about early 2015 when they finally made moving servers accessible anytime, but then of course servers would fill in an INSTANT.
I miss theorizing about what SSO was going to do with their unreleased areas... they hyped up all of these so much!! Icengate, Ashland, the Castle in GHV... All for them to be practically abandoned, I don't think I've ever waited for an area this long. The castle in GHV has been teased for 11 years now.
I can't bring myself to enjoy any of the new music or graphic changes at all either, I'm glad I'm not alone in this. It's nothing to do with the team or anything ... I think they did a great job because it looks so pretty, but it is not what I recognize. There is no heart in these changes, it is just made to look beautiful. The new Silverglade music actually makes me want to electrocute my ears I can't stand it I'm so serious.
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective, this was such an amazing read and really broadened my thinking of the game. Hearing about your SSO memories genuinely made me so happy because I felt a sense of familiarity in the way you described them. Thank you so much for your comment. ♡
@@helIokitti Yes, I remember my friends talking about the turquoise water when I showed some screenshots from my game. I didn't really mind it, but I don't miss it either.
The server thing is so weird for me. If I understand the server names correctly, I think I play on one of the first European servers, but I can't find it when I create a new character. I tried to look it up and first time it said that the server was full, and closed for new players, making it a very sought-after server to get onto. Now I can see that others can join fairly easily, but I still can't get my other characters onto it (even though 2 of my other characters are on the same server, so I don't believe it's about not being able to have duplicates).
They've added some fond sound effects, like the little melody that plays whenever your searching for something, but it ends there instead of expanding to the full tune. This is by far one of the most nostalgic sounds for me, making it a little upsetting that it's so short, and usually combined with a dreadful task.
Watching another video about SSO made me remember that they've said they struggle with implementing dressage, but the original Soul Rider games HAD dressage in them. It was basically the runeriding precision training, but with gait changes. So considering how much they've borrowed from the original games and concepts, they have apparently no idea how to implement such a requested feature. Even when they give dressage moves as a horse special, as well as a couple of races showing that they're able to implement it somewhat.
The reluctance to adapt to the players requests makes me so sad. I can't recall anyone asking for the graphic changes. While I do understand that to keep the game afloat, they'll need to update servers etc, and at some point old engines will be outdated, I can't wrap my head around why everything had to be changed. It's frustrating and when I look at my old SSO Instagram I get a strong sense of nostalgia because of the familiarity from that era of SSO to the other SSL and SR games. It's honestly a shame...
kitti, you are a godsend. the death of star stable isn't going to be from bad pricing, too many bugs, too many horses...its going to be from the quality of the game itself. and nothing dictates quality more than players IMMERSION!! a game can be all sorts of wonky and half-baked, but the second you lose yourself to the sounds, the colours, the stories, you wont pay attention to the finer details. I've been preaching this since the day they removed the hold tolerance feature, and since then they've been changing and removing more things for seemingly no reason. the smiley next to your horse name, horse acceleration...these are things I have never heard a single soul complain about, yet they changed them. I suspect it was to save up space in a codex that is collapsing in on itself. maybe they thought they were doing a bit of spring cleaning, but they don't seem to realize the importance that these little bits and pieces of realism bring to a game. its insane! this is why I'm convinced that they NEED to hire the proper designers and creative thinkers with experience in this stuff, not just assign creative tasks to news reporters and programmers. remember that theory that SSO doesn't have a proper questing team? these are the effects.
I will be the first to admit that it isn't fair to compare the experience of the same players in 2015 and in 2023, because these are people who have grown up. but I really don't see the kids playing SSO in 2023 enjoying the same experience that the kids of 2015 did. and while I can't measure that, I have eyes, and I know that immersion isn't just a mysterious thing that may or may not appear, it is something that has to be carefully crafted by developers. and it seems like they're blindly erasing all the efforts to immersion made by the old team. hearing people talk about this is so refreshing, so thank you kitti. and hopefully if enough people say it, SSO will eventually realize it.
the last point exactly. it’s as if with the changing of historic locations, lore and addition of locations that don’t exist in the past sso games, they’re trying to erase the past, change their playerbase and get rid of the ‚demanding‘ adolescent players. real sad
I started playing this game when I was 10 in 2015. I remember logging on every day and having so much fun riding around, all the friends I've made in the game and everytime I hear the old soundtrack I almost start to cry, because today, Startstable isn't what it used to be anymore at all. I agree with all the points you've made, it's an amazing compilation of all the reasons I have for wishing for the past to return. SSE is changing everythng about Jorvic and I wish they wouldn't because it is such an imortant part of my childhood that I don't want to have to miss.
Edit: Another thing the "added" is for non star riders to be able to jump from the get go! having Justin teach us makes so much more sense, bausause jumping is something very advanced irl. When I heard that was possible I was a bit angry to be honest becuase the ability to jump was one of the reasons I wanted to become lifetime star rider, and now it's just a basic feature (good for the new players, but hopefully its understandable where I'm coming from).
Oh absolutely, the soundtracks really are what make the game. ♡ It is something that me and my friends who quit SSO connect with, for a once independent company the music they made for the game was beyond spectacular. The music nowadays doesn't carry the same weight ): And it's so frustrating that they were and are trying to get rid of them. The music is perfect, and shouldn't be changed in my opinion. It should remain as a staple, a trophy that says "This game has been living for the better half of 12 years" which IS an accomplishment itself. But alas, they try to suck the soul out of every corner of the game.
When they first made jumping accessible for everyone (what was it like... 2018 or 2019?) I didn't know how to feel at first. In all honesty I was quite bitter because like you said, I paaaid for this feature helloooo? But as time goes on I am for the idea of making a special feature like that available to kids who can't afford star rider. :) I thought about including it in the video though, because you're SO right!!! Jumping IS something that is advanced. I used to take horse lessons and it took me a whole year before I was able to jump, it was very special.
Not to mention the quest with Justin was such a cute and immersive detail. He met us at Steve's Farm, which was in a way him passing the torch to Silverglade because we spent so long with him and his family in Moorland and now we are on to exploring the Silverglade side of the map. But he wants to give us one last gift before we go... the ability to jump :) Ah.. such a lovely questline, I'm so beyond sad that they got rid of it. They could've at least kept it and instead he could've given us jumping tips.
Thank you so much for your comment. ♡ I can tell you really listened to what I said in the video and I appreciate you seeing eye to eye with me. ♡
i had a dream a while back that a group of passionate players managed to revert the game back to a 2015 state. Some parts were broken, some didn't work, quests weren't available neither were shops, but it was the first version of the project after all.
People had to register new accounts to play, so it was just like playing star stable for the first time. The old character editor, the old intro, the low quality sounds,, it was all so familiar
anyways, I woke up feeling completely euphoric lmao. for a second I actually thought it was real.
i know there were attempts at creating an "old graphics" shader but as far as I know the project is cancelled due to files becoming corrupted or smt...
oh well, thank you for this video. as an "old" player myself, there are features and little details that I can't even remember if they were real or not which is kinda sad, but at least now I know I'm not imagining things lol
I haven't been playing for about 3-4 years now, I've completely lost interest in the game sometime after the release of Mistfall (me and my friend were absolutely thrilled about it! we got on every single day just to check if anything has changed at the building site, trying to look for possible places to glitch through the wall). It was the last time I had fun with the game, even though at one point I would've died for this game. (I resonate deeply with that section of the video where you talk about this)
I’m going into game design and development for college, and my main hobby project is gonna be to make a (single player) old star stable ‘clone’ (obvs not copied assets or anything, a new game, just with the feel of old sso)
OMG I wish you so much luck in your journey. ♡ This sounds so interesting, and I 10000% believe that you can achieve this. Let me know if you ever need to reference any of the old assets though, I have data from early 2016 SSO that I sometimes play around with in 3D Object Converter haha. ♡ Thank you for your hopeful comment :)
Uhhh, that sounds cool ❤️ I hope you are going to have success with this idea 👍
@@helIokittiI have all of those actually LOL. I’m really invested in it still (surprisingly)
If you would actually make that, I would be SO incredibly thankful 😭
This video has made me realize just how much I miss waiting for the bus or a ferry. It was pretty much a social event every time and it was so easy to meet new people. Now there isn't any reason for players to wait somewhere together. Everyone just goes from point A to B instantly and I personally find it really difficult to socialize with these changes.
the sun circle training occurred prior to the chaos in silverglade village actually. it was the lightning circle rep that started after
Oh wow I can't believe I got this video recommend on my TH-cam homepage. I feel like I haven't touched this game in AGES. The last time I played actively I was maybe 13-14 years old, by now I'm 17, I don't even have it installed anymore since I switched from Laptop to PC. I was tired of all the graphic changes, rapidly new released horses and loss of challenge over the years. Also most of my friends stopped playing and eventually I was just being lonely and bored most of the time. Considering I have been playing SSO since I was like 8 or 9 years old, it's kinda sad that it all ended for me in this way. Nowadays I'm active in other games, actually completely forgot about Star Stable and the joy it gave me when I was a little younger. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention! Even though the chance of me playing ever again is rather low, it was nice to feel this kind of nostalgia :')
I so do miss the nostalgia of the old SSO especially the music 😢💖
out of all of the aspects of old SSO that I miss, the one thing me and my friends can come together with is the music. ♡ I think it truly was the heart of the game, definitely the most recognizable and unique aspect of SSO. I miss the old Silverglade track especially. ♡ Thank you for your comment. ♡
thank you for this video. I wish they kept the old version of sso as a seperate game, not only because it changed so much in graphics, but i feel like the story changed. I cant explain what i felt when i was playing starstable as a kid. A kid, that was happy and didnt had as much problems as i do now. Old me wouldnt believe that im suffering from depression now.
I had dreams about that game, i know it might sound crazy or something, but I did. And i still remember them, after all this time. I never had star rider, i bought lifetime 3 years ago, and im kind of grateful for that. I could aprecciate all the small things, that were so big for me. im a player since 2016, but i knew sso even in 2014. I loved that game so much, it made me feel things I never will again. I wish I could go back in time and experience it again.
I can never explain the happiness I felt when i came home from school, and i logged into the game with a new uptade.
It all changed when i got starrider in 2021, maybe because I was growing up, and I lost interest in it. But i feel like its not the cause. The whole game started changing dramatically. The gratefulness, the happiness, it all disappeared.
I have new interests now, new favourite game series, but starstable will always have a special place in my heart. I wonder what would have happened if starstable never existed. Would i be the same person again?
I have so much more to say about starstable, but I dont really have time.
Thanks
i think one of the things i miss the most is the old ferry music, like it was a bop
Oh wow, this is such a great video. You really went in depth on what a lot of people have been feeling and saying lately. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for your comment!! ♡
What I always mean by "I miss old sso" is that i miss the little challenges it had, they we're the fun part of playing sso for me. Being so impatient to get the quest for jumping from justin, buying a North Swedish horse just so i could run around HDV, doing reputation to get my own Fjord or just waiting for the ferry and the bus. I also miss when ingame events and the horse market would take place in different places around Jorvik and they weren't glued to Moorland just so new players can access them. These little things made the game much more special and alive for me and it makes me kinda sad that the challenge is now gone.
I’ve been saying this for years now, I’m so glad someone’s covered all of these features that were removed in the name of convenience. It made the game so much more enriching, like waiting for the bus to go shopping with your friends, or waiting for the ferry so you could go to a champ on the other side of the island, now it’s just a stand around and gossip simulator, and don’t get my started at n how excited I was to get my first cold resistance horse so I could run around in Dino! Valley
sso was so unique and immersive it had such a special energy and ambiance that they killed in the name of a coat of brand new advertiser friendly gloss
i miss it so much, it was its own world, and to little kid me, a second home
Ugh that hurts sm. Honestly, it was my whole life. For years. I hate that it changed like anything else.
The music is bringing everything back. It hurts but i‘m glad I have the memories.
I have so many things to say about how much I used to love this game. It makes me so sad that everything special about it is gone. I remember I used to do roleplays so much. Now nearly all my friends have quit and everyone is so mean to “cringeness” nowadays whereas back in the day it was cringeness that brought us together. It feels like star stable has removed everything that made the game special, challenging and exciting. I unlocked dino valley after they removed the cold tolerance feature (I was lazy I’m sorry☠️) and i never got to experience the pain of riding with a slower horse. Star stable is moving so fast now and i can’t keep up:(
Oh I felt that cringeness line so hard. I was also one who enjoyed roleplays LOL I loved making Star Stable movies .. all of the biggest TH-camrs would make their own original series and it seems like it isn't as common anymore because it is labeled as cringy. ): I miss the era where we could all come together about emoticons, nyan cat and wafflez. Thank you for your lovely comment. ♡
As a late 2014/early 2015 player I am so happy that I was able to play the game before the major changes started happening. Watching this video really gave me a change to relive all those memories I had and remember how comforting the game was to little me. The game felt so surreal and magical. It still hurts to see the changes SSO is making. Yes the horses and gameplay may be better right now, but all the little details SSO has removed made it feel ''less''. This video is amazing, thank you so much!
I'm so glad the game gave you a sense of comfort when you were a kid, I can totally relate and say it was the greatest gift to me as a child. ♡ And on the opposite side, it is bittersweet to have to wake up every other Wednesday morning and see that they are erasing a gen 1 horse .. or worse. ): Thank you for watching the video, I'm so grateful. ♡
Thank you so much for this video Kitti, for expressing how I feel about everything Star Stable has taken away. I think for me the "togetherness" of the game is definately what has gone. The bus, the ferry and trailer areas all added that bit of challenge. It was fun to have to wait a bit and you had to think about your route and how to get somewhere. I too met many friends just waiting for the bus, searching for clothing items or even just getting help with quests/helping people who got stuck. I think the stable care was an good addition though, especially if you have many many horses. I think the need to care for the horse while playing should definately come back, but I fear it would get hate now.
The events we have lost too, such as chasing the rainbows for gold and the maypole that used to be in everwind field, the old potato race etc. Those quests you talked about that are now removed is just really sad, especially the druid training as they really made you feel you had earned your place as a soul rider. The Kallters were really special and the beauty of earning the Fjord was such a happy moment. The cold breed part of DV made so much sense, but now even that doesn't matter. The game is just kinda bland now and even getting a new horse is just a collecting exercise. Nothing feels earned. It has been made even worse by Discord where the majority of the time no one even communicates with each other in chat except to have arguments or insult. I love the positives of Discord for dressage etc, but there is just so little need for players to associate together now and no real collective goal or feeling. Star stable had such a unique feel, it was it's best feature and they just removed it all.
Thank you for making this! It was so incredibly accurate to how I feel and makes me feel like o haven’t just outgrown the game i truly love and have such fond memories of!
this game is literally my whole childhood, i started playing in 2013 but stopped for a while around 2019-2022 because i felt the change. and to be honest at first i thought i was the only one who felt this. i started playing again this year just because i miss it and it still gives me a little nostalgia of my childhood. i cant thank you enough for this video, i literally got goosebumps :') like i could talk hours and hours about this: the difference between the old game and the new game. yet im so sad about this, it will never be the same again. i agree with everything u said!!! sso literally made me wanna start horseriding. i remember in the beginning you could only choose from certain languages, im dutch and literally could not understand english since i was so young! my older sister helped me, i swear i miss those times. i literally log in now and no ones there, all of my online friends stopped playing. but, thank you a thousand times for this video, i miss it so much. ♡
wow, i've been trying to figure out why the new star stable feels... off? and i've just been blaming it on the new graphics and textures but the points you brought up all make sense. this video is so well made. star stable has made it harder for us to make friends, escape reality and learn responsibilties. i used to play this game everyday and i would talk to so many people (waiting for the bus, global, events like raptor at the mall etc), but now it can go months between me logging on and when im on the only thing i have to do is train my horses. i really do miss the challenge of star stable, there were so many quests where you had to think before acting and redo if you did wrong, and that made it exciting. i feel like the only thing keeping the og players are the clubs.
I started play 2014 and it was the best game ever back then, new players cant understand how cozy and funny the game was. And then the scary the main quests. But the thing i miss the most is the music. Then the feeling off opening up a new areas, the horses and the quests. This game was so many peoples childhood, and now its ruined..I miss it so much. This video is awesome! I get so much nostalgia.
I wish they just re-released an older version of SSO the one right before the quarter horse came out. I bet so many people would play that me being one of them.
It's so ironic that Star Stable made the graphics of the horses more realistic but they made the game more artificial and unreletable by removing features, soundtrack, environment, quests, etc. Really shows how they only care about players buying star coins for horses and that's it 😢
I would like old graphics, but new horses and horse equipment
You have done it! I've never touched star stable in my life, but somehow I still watched this whole video and enjoyed it!
I remember little me wanting to show my dad the Fort Pinta champ, I was too young to comprehend proper racing movement, but I wanted to show off. I failed the race and I started sobbing and started throwing a tantrum cause I just wanted to show him how cool the race was. I remember he picked me up and comforted me. I'll never forget that memory, I really miss all the emotions I went through with old sso.
Thank you for this well made documentary. I've been playing since October 2014. Even though I don't have the same motivation anymore to play sso as I did back then, due to life and also I just recently turned 23, my main motivation back then and to this day is to NEVER miss out on any opportunity to get player-xp. And I am happy about that. Hearing you saying it only took you two months to reach level 20 made my jaw drop. I remember I got to level 15 after finishing the entire game after like 6-7 months and ever since I've slowly but surely leveling up as new quests and seasonal quests has been introduced. I'm now halfway to level 25, and this is for me the only way of showing others I've been around for a long time. Even though players can reach level 21-22 within a few months, NONE of them can ever reach level 24, and soon 25 which gives me comfort in the nostalgia I sometimes get when thinking about all that you discussed. Your introduction was perfect, cause that's what we all did back then, wasn't it? I miss it honestly.
I see the need to change, and me being a young adult I of course realize this game is not created for me. But I do miss the old feelings, the old graphics. I like the new graphics and a lot of the new changes sso does. However the removal of certain features, blockers, and changing of older quests makes me a bit sad. I am glad I lived to play them before they were changed. Seeing the game progress, even though they've changed the main storyline to the unrecognizable, what makes me happy is that they finally are re-using old places in the game that were added but never used. The recent being Fort-Maria finally having a purpose, and also seeing that we will also finally enter the Devils Gap. I remember I used to glitch myself in there to see what was in there, because the name, it never opening was exciting! I remember I was on the moon when they finally connected all the trailers in the game, and to this day I still am. But the feeling of jumping into the ferry to get to the Jarlaheim competition, taking the trailer to Nimlers to go to Wolf Hell In (Nowdays it's Wolf Hall In) to get to Jarlaheim was also funny, I miss it in a sense, but at the same time not so much. The global store however, I was never a fan of it. I always LOVED to go to the different stores around in the game to get a certain clothing item or tack, or to search up the Jorvik database to find out where I could find this specific item.
All in all, I am mostly a fan of the new changes SSO does, and them also finally realizing features players have been asking for years, but if I could go back to play sso back in 2014-2015 with the same nostalgia, feelings and excitement I had back then, I 100% would.
This is the video I've been longing for someone to make for ages. Nobody could've said it better. I agree with every single word you said whole heartedly, and you covered all of these points I've been trying to make to everyone for ages. This video left me hopeful that there are many that still view the game exactly as I do, and we're not alone. These are all the most extreme problems with the game, it's no longer a game. The old atmosphere, difficulty, presence of characters with personalities and stories, art style, and actual gameplay made this game so unique and enjoyable, especially as a child eager to explore what felt like a magical world ahead of us. The old art style had such a distinctive feel and iconic features, no matter how exaggerated some features and proportions were, it was always perfect. The game was like no other, and I never wanted to take my eyes off of it. I don't care that the new horses are extremely realistic, it adds absolutely nothing to the game and personally; takes away from what used to be a fantastical wonderland. I personally feel that the old style was actually lightyears more realistic, considering the actual grass textures, cobblestone, dirt, environment, villages- they were all actually there. Every place was unique and felt like a new town, the old soul and dark riders were absolute perfection. The character design back then was everything, and here we go, another thing that was thrown away. There was actually life in the game.. The comic-book style added to this magical atmosphere and now we're playing a cartoony, shiny rendering, run from person to person mindlessly simulator. Theres 0 fun minigames as there used to be, I used to LOVE digging for gold during St. Patricks, finding golden eggs during Easter, timed quests that put me in a panic, gosh even the April Fools horses just gave me such a burst of happiness. SSO never addresses the actual issues in this game (and there's COUNTLESS amounts) that they've created themselves, but only pretend to fix things that nobody complained about. Hidden Entertainment made this game perfection, and I really wish they could've kept it. I don't care what anyone says, "oh, if we had the game like this now it would not be the same; you were little and it was different," No. This game is a dumpster fire now, and some are just scared to address it. Although some will never understand, you gave me so much happiness by knowing that some do understand, and agree with me. This game gave me such euphoria growing up, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I truly admire you and I believe you'll be my new favorite youtuber. This video seriously gave me such joy and I cant wait to see your future videos. Thank you so much for this flawless creation, made my month. 💓
(Thank you for reading as well, sorry for my rant haha)
Oh I'm so sorry for my late reply, I read this days ago and every word made me smile. ♡
I can't help but look back on old SSO videos and just sit down and immerse. It's bittersweet though, because my craving to experience old SSO cannot be quenched any longer. I just know if SSO were to release an old version of the game on an open server, they would get a lot of positive reception and also very helpful feedback.
I really dislike how realistic the horses are now .. because just look at the old starter horse, it was a perfect 3D copy of their amazing and unique art style they had been working off of since 2005. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and even to this day there is not a game that so perfectly captures the quality that old SSO had. I wish instead of making every horse as realistic as possible, they would adapt different horse breeds into their own art style. It would make the game really stand out, as it once did.
The environment/graphics were also really great for their time, I know they mostly took assets from their CD games but it was honestly perfect just the way it was. I personally didn't feel that it was outdated at all, like I look back on videos made in 2018 just before the big graphic update and think it looks fine. I'm sure the newer generation of players would agree too, I really REALLY dislike the new clouds. -_-
I miss the old events, truly .. I was just thinking about it last night, they got rid of even the mini holidays that they really took into their own and made special. Growing up irl sometimes I wouldn't get to celebrate Easter, but all I had to do was log on SSO and search for all of the golden eggs with my friends! Their decision to remove these holidays are justified in some ways, but also at the same time ... why would you? D: Especially Midsummer!
I'm so glad to hear that you really connected with this documentary, it is all that I could've wanted and more! Thank you so much for your support and kind words, you are my motivation to continue making documentaries and I really appreciate your feedback!!! ♡ Thank you.
@@helIokitti Once again, I agree 100%! The game was so wonderful and uniquely itself, and not outdated to me either! The old presets were perfection and they had no reason to change them. And yes, the old clouds gave me so much life D:
You deserve all of the support, so happy I could find a creator that I connect with so much! Keep your great work up :)
(No worries on the reply, I'm even later haha)
Im so glad you didn’t just say in this vid oh you only liked it more back then because you were younger. These points resonated so much with me
Ah yes, my beautiful old crusty pixelated world with a horse that has frog eyes and a moose snout. Riveting gameplay.
And to top it all off .. doing races at 20 fps. ♡ I've genuinely never felt more alive
I love watching video essays over semi-obscure video games that I have never played or heard of in my life while I clean or do other errands
i started playing in early 2017 and EVERYTHING you said just makes so much sense.
waiting for the bus, the trailers, the fjord reputation quests
it was all a challenge and took time.
nowadays everything just needs to be fast which is so sad:(
literally, they'll do whatever they can do to make it easier for people to buy the new horses. ): Thank you for your support. ♡
I've stopped actively playing the game about two years ago and only now got a bit more invested beacause of the birthday update. This video really brought back some of those middle school feelings, where I'd remember anxiously sitting in class, waiting for school to be over and being able to log on to the new wednsday update. Sure, a big part of this is nostalgia and the fact that our lives have changed since then, but it's exactly as you've said: Star Stable, as a game, has changed substantially.
I believe the aspect I miss most is the community. The ferries, the busstop, the disco: Everywhere you could feel that "bond of friendship" and "togetherness" Star Stable so strongly advertises with. Now? Only people asking me to join their club and either solitary older players or little kids, who we cannot resonate with anymore. I am truly sad that these little kids wont be able to grow up with this platform of players who you can simply bond with, who share your interests and who all want to enjoy this little save place, this little fantasy world that everyone believed in at least a little bit.
Wow- this really took me back. As an OG player, I think you did a really good job pointing out what the community misses as a whole. When you mentioned it only takes 2 months to reach lvl 20.. my jaw dropped. That's crazy. I didn't even know they removed all those quests and reputation. Just as you noted- they basically removed most of the delayed gratification (which we're seeing a lot nowadays, not just SSO) and its having a negative effect on our playing experience. I wish that SSO would take to heart more of what its community tells them. I know they have a lot of positive things planned for the next year or two, so I'm excited to see that- but I won't be getting my hopes up
I knew I recognized you!! I used to watch your videos a couple years back!! I'm so grateful you found my channel and left such kind words. ♡
Hearing your experiences and opinions on the game has really opened my eyes, and I have to agree.. my expectations tend to be low when it comes to the future. They promised us a lot of things that have not been fulfilled yet, proving that they prioritize features of the game that make them the most profit rather than what the community actually wants.
Thank you so much for leaving this comment, you totally took the words right out of my mouth and I'm so grateful that you took the time to listen to my documentary. ♡♡
@@helIokitti Wow that's so great!! A long-belated thank you for your support haha
I started playing sso in april of 2020, thanks to that I missed nearly all of the features mentioned in the video, except for cold tolerance. And i truly believe that the game was a lot better back then. I myself really wish that it would take longer to level up and make me glued to my computer like I was the half a year it took me to reach level 20. The only reason I still play is because of my club, but who knows how long that will last? I really wish I could experience the old and better sso, I miss the kalters and all of the annoying reputation quests even though I never got to see them myself, and I really hope the game will one day realise it’s mistake and make the game good again, both to keep the old players and us new ones.
This video was more entertaining to me than the game itself, and I hope sso will see that sometime. But thank you for this video, I really loved it!
It is such a great video to watch. I am now playing Star Stable Season Riders, because I need to feel what I once felt in front of other’s videos, before my parents even allowed me to play and pay me star rider.
Now, the new UI and characters made me move away. I cannot keep on logging on and being so desperate on how nothing feels nice anymore. And we keep telling people it’s not just nostalgia, but they won’t hear.
Star Stable Online didn’t change in a good way. It changed in the way the video game industry is evolving, which isn’t right for every game.
I could die just to buy the 2016 version. I would pay a lot of money to have access to those days again, in an MMO version or not. Riding around Jorvik just how it used to be is heartbreaking.
Sometimes I want to log back on, and I do, and I’m disappointed. Always. I want to love this game again. I want to accept it as it is and move on from its golden era. But I simply can’t. When I log on, I only see fancy stuff. And I can’t see spirit inside anything. The soul of the game has left. And them removing every part of what is left of its soul will not make things better.
They made a new game out of an already existing game that people loved. Slowly, like slowly boiling water and we didn’t see it right away. Now it’s there. It’s sad. We have to mourn our game and I’m gonna be honest : I really don’t want to.
im a 2013 player and almost got teary eyed after the heavy wave of nostalgia i got from this video…nothing feels the same anymore, the nightclubs are empty, the global discussion is full of people asking to do rp, no funny interactions or meetings anymore…i still play the game bcz sso has a very special place in my heart, but i miss the mystery and immersion we used to have before.
sso should bring back the challenge bcz it made us feel responsible. since we can take the trailer anywhere now im now lazy to ride from a place to another, back then i used to ride for minutes from a side of the map to another bcz i actually HAD to do it and it was challenging, but good!
too much accessibilty can make something actually boring and it takes away all the challenge.
i really hope sso staff sees this video
btw i totally forgot how steve’s farm used to look like back then, it hit me a lot when i saw it again in your video
(sorry for replying this old comment :')) The global chat part is so sad for me because it seems like players want to create a gameplay for themselves because there is no actual gameplay on the behalf of SSO :/ Like, rp is a great option, but imo it shouldn't be the player's responsibility to create content in the game (like this new medieval event ... uggh, don't even get me started...)
Thank you for making this video, as a 19 year old girl who played this game for hours on end from 2014 to 2018, i can confidently say u put all my feelings into words and i cannot begin to express the sadness i feel as sso slowly but surely dies. For all the years we’ve played and found happiness in this game i really do hope changes will be made for the better.
Never be too sad now that star stable has changed. We always have our old horses, try to buy some as they leave so you have them to look back on. Riding my fresian from 2015 always makes me feel so much better about playing sso
I don't remember how long ago it was that I started playing SSO - it was a long time ago, maybe back in 2013? 2014? Needless to say, it's been a long time. I've been sat on level 22 for a laughably long time. I sat on level 21 for even longer. And I feel pretty confident in saying that the game today is an entirely different game to the one I signed up for all those years ago. If I had to summarise the entire situation in a sentence? It's all been sanitized.
All the things that the players adored back in the day have been removed, and we're left with the husk of what used to be there. There's still the smiley, fun exterior of the game, but it's just that. An exterior. There's a smile, but the eyes are empty, so to say. It's painfully corporate, and it just seems streamlined to make money by this point. Gotta get them to the new horses faster so they can realise they don't have enough star coins for the horses we keep releasing back to back that are worth far less than we're pricing them at, so they can tab out to our website and buy more star coins! And pets the same price as a pony while they're at it!
I remember a while ago, the music in-game disappeared entirely for me, not even in just the older areas, and I even went through my settings multiple times to make sure that I hadn't accidentally changed something. It made me so sad - especially whenever I went to South Hoof. One of my favourite things to do back in the day would be to just walk around South Hoof listening to the music and keeping an eye out for the ponies, or lingering around the ancient tree and feeling like I was doing some important work for the Keepers of Aideen by being there. The music came back eventually, but those months of silence on South Hoof have left their mark. The magic never really came back.
The loss of that magic can be applied to the entire game in my eyes, in all the same ways you went over in this video. The world used to feel alive, living and breathing, and now it's just sterile. Sanitized. Everything is right where it needs to be for the quickest access, fun be damned. I miss bonding with my horses by being out riding all day, exploring and thinking up stories for the world I was in, and then making a pit stop in the nearest town to take care of my horse, thank them for the work they'd done so far that day. The removal of some of these care features feel like they honestly severed the bond between me and a lot of my horses. All of the horses I've bought after these features were removed? I feel like I know them by name and appearance only, and nothing else about them. Even horses from the same breed. My North Swedish Horse, Raven? A sweetheart of a horse, quiet, sometimes concerned seeming, but she always let you know when something was up. My Rune Runner? I know nothing about him. I know I named him Rune, and that's it. He has no personality, as far as I'm concerned.
The entire game just isn't the same anymore. It's so easy for me to imagine my character as having aged alongside me, and now looking at this island she's been trapped on with such a sense of disgrace for how things have changed. I imagine she and I both miss the years gone by now where everything seemed to genuine, and genuinely bright and happy, and it felt more like a genuine adventure than a horse collecting game.
You are absolutely right. I miss the old sso so much that it hard to breath without pain. My old horses never was "just pixel mounts"; no, they was characters themselves (same as my rider back in the days) - with unique personality and traits. I even wrote a stories, like novels, where all of my steeds was a heroes, a mighty Soul Horses, Guardians, or simply inhabitants of this beautiful island of Jorvik with own past and future. The time when the starter horse was one of a kind. Beloved. Valuable.
I woke up with thoughts about today's next adventures: "What lies ahead for me?" This game has been my life for so many years, all the time, every day. And, to be honest, it still is, but not here. Not on my PC. Somewhere there, deep inside me. It is something complex, special, important, necessary, which created me as a person long time ago. More than just a game. Complete Universe. Whole world in which I knew every bush and every stone, and all these characters, their quest lines I remember as it was yesterday. Bushes and characters BEFORE they was updated and kinda broken, erased. Before I stopped recognizing them. New Steve's farm left a huge gaping hole in my chest. New Andy, or James, Josh, Baroness, or even Soul Riders - make me feel an cold plastic abyss.
That comfort warm feeling in my heart was destroed forever, wherever my gaze falls. My senses are still locked up there, but in reality - only emptiness. As if in virtuality, in my head I am still "playing": inventing stories, cherishing memories, imagining favorite places. Literally today, I remembered that tiny boat on the Golden Leaf Island shore. It was possible to swim across to the other side and look at the entire Fisherman's Village from a height of a flying bird! The boat that is now removed. Stories that will never come; memories never to be repeated again, places now disappeared from the face of the earth. Not only this current boat, but everything else, that I adored, too.
As if my heart had been torn out. I used to think that I was just stupid, like "chill, what's the matter with you, it's just a game, there will be ten more like that", but reading all these comments, I was convinced: no, I'm not stupid, and I'm not alone. There will be no more games like this. It was one, one for all the millions of others. Otherwise, so many people would not remember it as the golden age of their lives, their childhood. It's great to find like-minded people, but at the same time sad. We are all tied to the past that has had such a strong influence on us. Like ghosts, the ones we had fun chasing around during Halloween.
The spider quest, token quest and others like it. Where never meant to be completet like most of us did. They are meant to be something you progress on while playing through other quests. Together with something that encourages you to go explore the world map. Faras workshop and the horse machine are also in the catagory of “passive quests” they are not meant to be quests you focus on exclusively. Sadly this have lead to many older players getting the wrong impression about some of these quests, since we basically started them “to late”
I’ve only been playing SSO for a month, but I used to see footage of this game all the time when I was younger, as well as starting out with SS2 a couple days prior to making my SSO account. I naively expected the game to look a lot the same as I had seen it over the years (with a few modernisations of course), but it didn’t, and instead I was hit with a world with crappy lighting and a soulless ‘Americanised’ Moorland. I also quickly discovered how mind-numbingly easy the game was, and was shocked to find that the horse wouldn’t change gaits on its own anymore when you weren’t paying attention. I’m still playing for the time being as there’s no other horse MMO RPG’s besides Alicia Online around and I want to re-live my childhood of riding horses in the country, but man I wish they would pull a RuneScape or Animal Jam and make a ‘classic’ variant of the game, because the audience for it is very much there, and I’m quite sure it’d do very well as most of today’s playerbase is seemingly older players or those in their teens or early to mid 20’s.
as a player who has been playing Star Stable for a good few years now, im quite upset about the changes that Star Stable is making. I went from playing the game everyday, riding around Jorvik with friends, joining clubs etc. to barely being able to play for a full hour. I do understand the reasoning behind all these changes and the fact that they want to remove "challenge" but challenge isnt necessarily bad like you mentioned.
We dont see this only happening to Star Stable but also to many other companies. People are trying to make life more simplified. Not saying that anything simplified is bad, but i miss having the challenge of doing things.
anywho, Im glad that i found this video as it gave me some sort of comfort. Thank you for speaking up about this :)
Thank you so much for your lovely comment! ♡ I'm so glad you agree, the more challenge that they remove ... the more it seems like they're just trying to sell things to us. If that makes sense.. like it feels like you don't have to work for anything!! You don't have to work so long to get into an area anymore, they offer a variation of every new horse at Fort Pinta upon the first week of release, you can buy their expensive clothes with two clicks now.. It is very soulless. It makes every accomplishment we achieved seem worthless D:
I can totally see the same thing happening with other companies, too.. Seems like the video game industry loves to sell us unfinished games lately. Locking items and bonuses behind a paywall so they make sure you feel the fomo and give in. I'm very tired of the cycle..
Hearing that this video gave you comfort made my day, I'm so glad we can share our opinions and ideas of the game because it gives me inspiration for my next documentaries. Thank you!! ♡♡
I really miss the way we had to care for out horse after running with them for a while. It was so realistic because obviously your horse becomes tired and needs water and feeding? :( I loved it and it was so cozy. When training with friends we would always stop at stables to care for our horses and then continue❤️
I absolutely love this video, you explained everything in such detail and extremely well. I am a new player, I have never been able to experience the joy of the old star stable, I wish I could've. I know younger me would've adored this game even though I barely knew anything about horses. Learning about the changes they have made has broken my heart, to see such a fun and unique graphic style completely take a 180 is really saddening. I have a friend who has been playing for a while and who will frequently make comments on the old game, every time it makes me wish I could've experienced it for myself instead of this fortnite looking game. I think though such a small change the biggest thing I hate is how they removed the smiley faces and replaced them with this weird system, those were adorable and made everyone want to take care of their horse to see that green smiley face. There was color and it made it so intriguing for kids and adults alike, it felt much more alive back then just from seeing the videos. I adore gen 1s and 2s with their special graphic and design styles, it shows how different star stable was from other games. Instead of expanding on this art style then completely changed it to a realistic style, which some of those horses are beautiful but not what star stable is. I love the cartoonish style and how unique it was to them, they made the game bland and it breaks my heart to see such an adorable game shift. And now they made updates to characters, for example; Mrs. Holdsworth she had such a distinct outfit with her red shoes, again they completely stripped that character of any personality and made her boring and just like Big Bonny who they also updated to strip her personality away. I don't understand why they are ruining this games personality and quirky style, they also completely ruined the challenge of the game. Also there comes a point in the story quests where they just become uninteresting and don't make sense, which is so annoying this game had such an amazing story that I love so much I love playing Starshine Legacy to see them completely rip apart such an intriguing storyline hurts. Anyways, I could go on and on about how upsetting all these things are, I really love this video and I completely agree with everything you stated.
i have so many sso memories as someone who actively played from 2012-2016... I remember the three different trailer systems! i was and am still confused when i log back in and suddenly the entire map is open.
them removing the horse sounds is one of the most heartbreaking things to me
definetly never forgetting the club i was in either
I can understand your frustration and grief as a gamer, when games change over 10 years. sadly the reality is that if they did not change these things, the studio would have to close due to trend shifts, inflations, war and so on. Sometimes, when we also age, we leave the target group for the game. And the target groups values change which each generation.
you’re not wrong!! but sso is actually struggling with financial issues at the moment and who would’ve guessed.. it’s because they’re losing a lot of players. and that’s because they won’t listen and do stuff everyone ends up hating on. they concentrate on earning money because they don’t have enough - players stop playing because sso gets too greedy and the game lost its vibe - sso doesn’t get enough money - sso has to get money somehow. it’s really difficult to get out of this situation, but them making big changes and developing made them lose a lot of players. i think they would make hella money if they brought out sso 2.0, where it’s the old graphics and stuff but they probably won’t have enough money nor the motivation to do that. sso’s greediness eventually will make them lose everything, while listening to what the players want would’ve made them much more interesting again. so i see your point, but change in this game seems to be so negative that it drags down the company.
plus even though the targeted group is young, the actual community is way older. maybe they should stop concentrating on who SHOULD be playing and more on who actually IS playing the game. what is their mindset behind everything? players of age will pay way more than children who can’t pay themselves and will have to ask their parents who probably won’t be too passionate about spending money on a horse game. so why are they concentrating on a relatively small group that won’t spend as much as the other one? i just don’t get it
I miss the training... the lightning and the sun circle. I miss how there was an actual animation when we used our rune wand. I miss decorating for the holidays and putting porrage out for the elves and meeting Santa. I miss being able to relax and do daily quests and actually work to achieve something. Now it feels like the rep quests for gardening are the only ones untouched, and they last forever! I miss interacting with the story and world, and not just having things pre set up for special events.
I also miss when we did get new areas, you could actually do something in them! There was a working stable, and bits of lore, and quest chains and rep building and races! We haven't got a proper city/town/village since cape west tbh. Once you finish the few quests in Epona there's really nothing to do there, and no dedicated stable besides new hilcrest. Crescent moon village doesn't have anything to do in it. And once you finish the short quests in wildwoods and mistfall, there's nothing to do but a handful of never changing daily quests. Where's the magic, mystery and exploration? Having things to discover around every corner? The way we could ride randomly and suddenly the music would go creepy if we got close to something mysterious, like hidden paths and dark core bases?
i started playing in 2018, back then i used to wake up everyday at 6 or 7 am, take care of my horse, do the daily tasks and races in moorland before i went to school. Good old times
this was such a beautifully done video, and videos like this always make me so upset. i really miss the old star stable more than words can describe and it makes me even more upset to know that i cant do anything about it but just reminisce about it. everything was just so much better back then, and while sso tries so hard to make the game realistic nowadays, they forgot that they already removed all the features that actually *did* make the game realistic (if that sentence made sense 😭) like the cold tolerance, or having to keep up your horse's gait after the icon would flash red, or the little sounds the horses and players would make when you change gait.
for me aswell, music, sound, any audio stuff is one of the most important things ever in any game. it can completely change the experience, and i'm just so sad they got rid of the little things like that like the horse sounds, and the old music. now whenever i play the game and hear racing soundtracks i feel like im watching a video about disney stars then and now.
i miss how fun the old events and quests would be, and the amount of events there were too, and how fun christmas and easter was. nobody understands how much i loved doing the pandoric cracks!! im so sad they removed that. and i forgot just how fun catching the bus or ferry was with another crowd of people :(( i genuinely do miss having regional trailers, even though it would mean that sometimes i would miss the jorvik stables championships and my opportunity to add another amazing ribbon to my collection, but i loved it. like you said, it made the world feel bigger.
its great to hear that i wasnt the only young kid getting up at 9am on the weekends to play this game, or rushing home from school as fast as i could just to ride my little horses lol
i also just generally really miss the 2000s (i started writing this comment near the beginning of the video before you mentioned this yourself, so i guess this just proves that point lol) look of the game, the old soul riders, the old outfits that players would wear (that were sometimes a bit obnoxious to look at im not gonna lie!), the fog in dino valley or that autumn sort of aura in golden hills, the graphics and the models. now the only way i can get back that bloom effect is through shaders, but its not the same.
obviously for a 2023 game it would be outdated, thats fair, but now the whole game just looks like a fortnite map (once again wrote this before i heard you mention it so proves another point!!) and i really hate it. i especially hate the new npcs and soul riders, and i'm honestly scared for the future of *our* character models.
thank you so much for making this video!! seriously, amazing job. it was really really engaging, and as an old player myself i really loved it. also my apology for the long comment, i just tend to get passionate whenever old sso is mentioned haha. keep up the great work
I wish I could like this comment 100 times because the structure? the humor? You got your point across so well, I've read this comment about 4 times now and each time it warms my heart because I feel so validated and I'm so glad that you not only found this video, but made this comment!!
No shade to any of the current composers or singers but I consciously avoid Silverglade Village nowadays because the moment I accidentally step into the region I immediately head to the salon so I can turn that mess off. The music nowdays simply can't compare, especially the racing music... the disney stars comment made me laugh so hard every time I read it I have never heard a diss that accurate LOL
what was the reason? What was the reason for getting rid of Midsummer? a literal SWEDISH holiday that players look forward to every year, there is almost no other game on the market that celebrates Midsummer and it made SSO so unique and celebrated their heritage because they are a Swedish game! I hate that basically for the past 5 years they have basically recycled the same activities but seriously? Removing it? They need to count their days...
I'm so glad that you found my regional trailers comment relatable, I totally thought I was the only one!! ♡♡
It's like... the 2000's look was really reminiscent of their own personal style. It would've been so neat if they just updated the style a little, still keeping the original charm but they took the game in a direction where they have no style! It seems like they are just trying to do whatever they can to appeal to kids instead of sticking to their original motive >:
This comment was so heartwarming, it made me laugh, it made me think, this is exactly the comment I wanted to see under my video so don't even apologize for your phenomenal words. ♡♡ irl I tend to trip over my words when it comes to any other topic, but when you ask me about SSO I will not stutter a bit. I realized that it is just passion and love for the game, and seeing someone with the same passion as I do makes me feel so great inside. ♡ Thank you so very much for your comment, I wish I could've written more because I'm so appreciative and I understand exactly where you are coming from ♡♡
@@helIokitti you are just the sweetest oh my god!! thank you so so much for your words :))
yes omg!! i honestly can't bear to go into the silverglade area anymore either haha. i'm so happy that i made you laugh with that LOLOL
no once again ur so right ??? midsummer was such an enjoyable fun festival, i have such amazing memories from that, doing funky dances around that flower pillar with my friends. even with the events that *are* still here, they're all so recycled as you said!! there's nothing new to look forward to.
and same feelings, i really hate how they are clearly trying so hard to satisfy KIDS for this game. everything is becoming so minimalist, i hate it.
your response has made my entire day, and i'm so happy to hear that my comment was enjoyable to read for you
When you said "convenience is the trade in for immersion" you hit the nail on the head. Though all the new features like the global store are super convenient, it completely makes stuff like the mall and shops around Jorvik pretty much obsolete. Also when they removed cold tolerance, I completely agree. Yes it makes it less frustrating when you forget your cold tolerant horse in the stable and you go into the valley, but it's just so unrealistic. A lean, shirt haired Arabian isn't going to be okay in the cold like an icelandic pony. And it makes the quests way faster to complete and barely challenging. It's nice, yes, but it's no longer unique
Instead of a global store they could have made a fashion catalogue where you could still make an outfit you like, but instead of being able to just buy it, it would show you the location of each piece of clothing. Sort of like transfering the Star Stable Database into the game. That way we would still have the convenience of being able to create and plan outfits, but the various shops around the map would still be used and visited.
Jesusss this really brings nostalgia! Ill never forget the old and OG star stable, begging my parents to buy me sc and roleplaying with my friends. It gave me comfort, a lot. I am so in love with horses and sadly i was never able to take real riding lesson so i found my safe space in this game. I will never forget how i literally cried out of happiness when i unlocked Epona. This game was such a huge thing for me. Thanks for this video it was amazing.
This is the best summary of star stable falls i can imagine. As i was listening i actually got so mad that had to stop the video multiple times. Couldnt agree more with what you said.
Wow, I am so glad you really listened and understood where I am coming from. It really warms my heart to see that this video has created such reaction, it is all I could've asked for. Thank you for your kind words. ♡
Wow, very good video! You made me feel so nostalgic right now and there is some stuff I completely forgot about. I also loved this game when I was a kid and I still check on it sometimes - but only for a new horse release or a quest because you know, I grew up with this game and don't really let it go completely. Good to know that others share the same opinions and thanks for the informations. Like, I didn't know that SSO deleted the pandorian cracks - part of the story. These quests were so exciting for me back then (such as the old druid training) so I really can't believe they just deleted it :(( Anyways, thanks again, well done documentary
i am a really old sso player i have been playing for over 10 years.. This video brings me so much nostalgia. From my point of view sso changed for the worse, yes i am still getting on the game from time to time but its not the same. I remeber when i was a kid i used to be so exited when my parents agreed to buy me star rider for a week, or when i was in school or at night my mom and my dad used to build the brige. Honestly now the game dosent bring as much fun, then I was playing the bad quality pixels for fun because there was always somthin to do. Now i just get on to see the new updates every few weeks. Its just not the same...