Cosmic Star Heroine has a good pedigree, being from the talented minds at Zeboyd games. Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII are fun, reference-heavy homages to older RPGs, and I expected a great experience from CSH. I have seen many comparisons to Chrono Trigger. The only comparison I can draw is that enemies on the over world transition into a battle if you collide with them. The protagonist, Alyssa, can get equipment that allows her to do a combination skill with another party member, but it's not like the dual-tech system. If anything, I would compare CSH to Breath of Fire 2, in that you get a large cast of characters pretty quickly, many of whom get some bearing on the story and their own little story beats, but otherwise join your party just because. The battle system focuses pretty heavily on status buffs for your characters and status afflictions for your enemies. It uses a conditional turn-based battle system, similar to that of Final Fantasy X. Higher difficulties give enemies higher stats if you feel that the general game-play is too easy. As they level, characters will gain new skills, of which you can equip 8 at a time. And while there are 8 battle item slots, you are only ever allowed to carry 4. (A UI flaw.) The story has an odd-pacing, tied in with characters often joining your party for purposes of that specific act. Some segments are frenetic, while others are going through mini-dungeon areas to get to the next plot dungeon. There are several optional-side quests that give your characters special equipment, which is where they get much of their characterization. The game does have a tendency to glitch in several ways. Occasionally the game will lock up when you trigger a battle, or a quest will pretend you have a required item when you don't. Save often. Overall, the game is a fun romp, but I feel a step down from other Zeboyd games. But, just for Robert Boyd: I enjoyed this game more than I enjoyed Tecmo's Secret of the Stars.
