Cosmic Star Heroine

Buy it. --- [Story] ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Shakespeare Weakest part of the game on purpose. Emulates JP storytelling with hastily introduced characters, little backstories, very shallow sidequests, and leaving behind hints (but never elaborating) to parody other JRPGs. It doesn't take itself seriously, which serves its purpose. [Gameplay] ☑ Excellent ☐ Good ☐ Average ☐ Meh ☐ Boring Battle system is fantastic. Easy to learn and plenty of experimentation available. [Difficulty] ☐ Click to win ☐ Easy ☐ Average ☑ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls 4 difficulty settings. Hard difficulty recommended for most. My score was for nightmare. Can change your difficulties at any time with no penalty. [Grind] ☐ None ☑ Optional ☐ Average ☐ Too much ☐ Torture Only grind if you want to beat the bonus dungeon and superboss. They reward only more EXP and money. No grinding for main story needed even on nightmare difficulty. [Graphics] ☐ Reality-like ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad Chrono Trigger design aesthetic. [Audio] ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad [PC Requirements] ☐ Cardboard ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi [Bugs] ☐ None ☑ Minor ☐ Can get annoying ☐ CP2077 ☐ Big Rigs [Game Time] ☐ Coffee break ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ End of time Hard is about 20 hours. Nightmare was 40 hours for me when I looked for everything. No GOG achievements either to worry about either. [Audience] ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☐ Adults ☑ All [Price] ☐ Free! ☑ Worth it ☐ On sale ☐ Deep discount ☐ Don't consider Few text bugs. Can get stuck in a couple places - just save and reload.

This game was fun to play, but for some reason not quite as fun as Chrono Trigger. Cosmic Star Heroine features a lot of innovative mechanics that are definitely worth the investment to check out. The story is okay, pretty straightforward though, and while definitely all original, I don't feel the characters have as much depth to them than the characters of Chrono Trigger. Also, the world isn't as immersive, which is possibly related to the fact that you don't really revisit places and it just feels like you're running from place to place to advance the story. That much having been said, this is still a good game that you should check out. The battle themes are especially catchy and I'm having a hard time getting them out of my head.

Visually, CSH is pretty good. The graphics and general gameplay are like a slightly low-budget version of Chrono Trigger, and look pretty appealing, if a bit generic. There are some obvious homages to Chrono Trigger and other RPGs of that era, but they're done well and are nice to notice, rather than distracting. The combat system is a creative change from the typical formula, with a variety of different attacks and items you can switch out, some of which are only usable once per battle or once before being recharged (by blocking for a turn), some of which can be reused. Each character has very different skillsets, and there's tons of room for strategy... indeed, on the hardest difficulty setting, the game almost becomes a puzzle where you have to use the exact right skills in the right combinations to survive. During battle you build up a meter that you can use to unleash extra-powerful attacks, making timing important. Meanwhile, all characters level up at the same rate regardless of who is in your party and the party heals fully after each combat, eliminating tedious busywork. Where it all falls apart is the writing and pacing. In this case the game is more like Chrono Cross- way too many characters and not enough development. Even though some characters have unique side missions, you'll learn very little about who they are, how they relate to each other and what their motivation is... even the main character is hardly filled out beyond "elite spy commando". The plot is uninspired and predictable from the moment you finish the first mission, and does little to keep you engaged- I was more interested in winning games at the festival than advancing the plot, and in fact couldn't force myself to finish the game because it just didn't hold my interest. Classics like FF6 or Chrono Trigger were great not just because of the graphics or gameplay, but because they made you feel for the characters and become immersed in the world. CSH seems to have forgotten that.

Cosmic Star Heroine presents itself as a Japanese role-playing game inspired by Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star. Indeed, it is a mechanically sound 16-bit game, with unique mechanics. Each of your party members (four at a time) has up to seven abilities, which generally can only be used once each, as well as a means of refreshing your abilities. There are also items (one use per battle) and "programs" (essentially, single use abilities). Your health recovers automatically once battles are done, so no need to carry potions or things like that around. These mechanics take some getting used to, but in the end they provide a very flexible system that - when managed correctly -- can basically break the game. The fact that there are no "random" battles, and every battle is telegraphed beforehand, helps keep things flowing. There's no need to grind. If you're ready to continue the story, you can go. The homages to other games, both those produced by Zeboyd and by other companies, are a nice touch if you like hunting for secrets. Really, it's well worth the ten or so hours it takes to finish the campaign. The only reason I'm giving Cosmic Star Heroine four stars instead of five is the story. It flows logically, without many interruptions, but there are a number of cliches that are likely to make you shake your head as you play. Given that this game is in the JRPG style, that is a major shortcoming.

Well, the title gives it away allready. This is a hard one to rate. The developpers did an incredible job on so many levels for the game, but unfortunately they fail in other crucial (at least for me) parts. The Big Pros: - besides from the short cinematic clips which won't be for everyone (I for one found them rather funny, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons) the visuals are superb, this is oldschool at its best - the battle system with its mechanics has a fresh unique taste, unfortunately it can get a bit tidious after some time but he, which one doesn't? - the skill system with the combinations of herobind skills + item skills is a nice thing The Big Cons: - still no option to change controls after months... for real? One might say that this is no big deal but since I don't own a controller this really buggles the experience. Why you ask? Well, for starters I need to use the "Z" instead of the "Y".... sure, I can switch my keyboard settings outside of the game or use some third party tool to rebind my keys but this is not really acceptable, espacially if it is that easy to solve and still not fixed - like mentioned in the pro-part, so many skills and variations.... but unfortunately most of them are canceled out due to the mainstats of the items (higher versions of the same Item would fix this issue in no time and would allow the players more combinations) - the story, oh my... to be totally clear on this one, the 5 star review said it "isn't incredible deep".... this is an understatement if I ever heard one. Besides form the rather cliche plot there are WTF-moments characterwisewhich are just not tolerable. Won't spoiler for you but just get the hint, that more than a few times I just felt like there was 5 pages character development cut out. It really bothers me but I can't give more than three stars for this. RPGs, espacially the retro-ones, live or die by their characters and story. Still, feel free to ty it for yourself but be aware of these points.