Cosmic Star Heroine

I thought this game would be similar to my days of RPGs back on my old Sega and the game looks good, unfortunately it is totally unplayable for me due to the very poor choice of control keys and the fact that you cannot rebind them! You HAVE to use the keyboard arrow keys for movement, which is impossible for me since I can only use my left hand on the keyboard. The other control keys used in this game are just as awkward to use and all in all, I wish that fact was included in the writeup so that I didn't waste my money buying this game!

This is a self-indulgent throwback to Phantasy Star IV but without any substance or artistry. It's an indie JRPG that is half-hearted about everything except its combat. Its combat is admittedly fairly robust, but even then nothing too special. A sci-fi story about some rogue secret agency trying to take over the world through mind control, and their star agent being the one to have to stop it, the game doesn't place much emphasis on narrative. This is meant to be a fun romp; a quick diversion. If it were actually quick, I'd like it more. Cosmic Star feels overlong despite being less than twenty hours. Halfway through the game it opens up and gives the player more freedom, and this is to its detriment. Nothing about it is interesting enough to make one want to engage with it on any meaningful level. When it is railroaded, it at least has a brisk enough pacing. The music is serviceable and the writing is forgettable. The characters are one note placeholders. There are dialogue bugs and at least one misspelling. The presentation is amateurish with it being a pain to get basic information while in combat or preparing for combat. The game also looks quite ugly. The pixel art looks low budget and utterly tacky. The most fun I had was taking on the optional bosses in the game. Like I said, the combat system is fairly robust. Outside of that, this was a slog to get through.

If you do not mind games that are open about the inspiration they drew from other games than Cosmic Star Heroine might be unable to disappoint you. Its story is fine, it is pretty involved although it does not take itself too seriously. The spritework is great. Level design is not perfect but the battle system might as well be the best one I have ever experienced. A total 5/5 for me.

When I first heard about this game back when it was in development that I was shocked people still cared about this aesthetic that has long since passed. I can see that some of these new generation of teenagers have grown to have appreciation for the past which puts a smile on my face. This game as it is described does indeed capture the retro feel, but with some modern advancements such as the type of music, advanced spriting details, and while still capturing the past at the same time. Sometimes it is good to mix retro with modern techniques if done correctly which this game successfully done. The story itself is very linear, but with some side-content sprinkled here and there. The one letdown I had with this game was the lack of endgame content, but from my understanding there was update that included new dungeons which I didn't get a chance to tackle and endgame content I was about to give a bump down, so now I must give 5 stars to reflect the new changes to this game. The Battle System is probably one of the hardest I've played due to the way you have to chain your attack patterns for maximum damage. On lower difficulties this isn't too much of a challenge, but on higher settings that one wrong move can end your party. In a way this works because most monsters once defeated never re-spawn unless you use that one program for training purposes, so this can be very rewarding for some people. The only real cons with this game is that the Character Portraits could use a bit of polish, and WHY ISN'T THERE A DAMN SEQUEL? This World the devs created has potential!

It's not possible to remap keyboard controls. Default settings are less than optimal.