Back in the glory days of the Xbox 360, Microsoft had their Indie Games program where talented (and sometimes not so talented) amateur developers could create their own games using the XNA platform and make them available for others to enjoy. Two of the best and most popular games on the service were Breath of Death VII, and Cthulhu Saves the World, from Zeboyd Games (aka Robert Boyd). These were classic 16-bit style RPG's with a very strong sense of humour and plenty of fun gameplay. Eventually, Zeboyd were handed the reigns to the Penny Arcade RPG series and make the third and fourth entries, which I thought were a big improvement over the first two. Then, in 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for Cosmic Star Heroine, which would be developed in Unity and released initially on PC and PS4. Since it was released the game has been well received by the sales haven't exactly set the world on fire, unfortunately. The game is just about to be released for the Nintendo Switch, however, so hopefully it will get into the hands of more people. I think it really does deserve to do better, so let's get into the reasons why...
Plot & Character: 8 out of 10
Cosmic Star Heroine puts in you in the shoes of Alyssa L'Salle, a talented super spy in a futuristic science fiction universe. The first mission of the game sees her rescuing hostages and defusing a bomb in a skyscraper with the help of her friends, the "gunmancer" Chahn and hacker, Dave. Rather than being the sort of spy who keeps their identity a secret from all, though, Alyssa is famous across the entire system of planets and has plenty of fans. This fame comes at a price though, and after discovering something that may threaten the safety of everyone, Alyssa finds herself in the crosshairs of would-be assassins, chased by bounty hunters and double crossed by her own agency. From there it's up to her to conduct her own investigation, gather a rag tag bunch of allies and take down the evil that's threatening the universe.
The game has a lot of characters that you will recruit over the course of the roughly 12 hour long campaign, 10 not including Alyssa herself in fact. All of them are interesting and have their own part of play in the story, but I found that I didn't really use the later ones very much. Not only was I near the end of the game by the time they came along, I was also quite used to my set up of Chahn, Sue and Psybee (an insectoid alien guy). This is partially down to me though - more adventurous types would probably revel in experimenting with various power combinations, and it certainly is possible to come up with some creative and powerful attacks if you play around a bit.
On the whole I enjoyed the story, it moved along at a brisk pace, and the writing was very good with plenty of jokes as well as more serious moments when required.
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| There are plenty of pop culture references that you may recognise. |
Graphics: 8 out of 10
The visuals of Cosmic Star Heroine definitely evokes the look and feel of a PlayStation RPG, such as something by Working Designs, except in full widescreen to make the most of modern TV's, of course. The environments are nice and colourful with plenty of different types of location to explore, from swamps to space ships, and tropical planets. The character sprites are nicely defined and animate well, and there are also nicely drawn character portraits whenever someone speaks. Also, during key scenes there are animated sequences, and quite a lot of work has gone into these. A particular highlight was the concert where you meet Lauren, and she performs an entire song. There is definitely a high amount of care and polish that has gone into the graphics which I really appreciate.
Sound & Music: 9 out of 10
While there is no voice acting at all in Cosmic Star Heroine, I really don't feel that the game needs it. What it does have instead is an absolutely fantastic soundtrack thanks to Hyperduck Soundworks. Highlights here include both the regular battle music and the boss music, and the song from Lauren's concert once again which does include vocals. I've used each of these pieces of music in the background to my review, so I hope Zeboyd / Hyperduck don't mind!
The other component here are the sound effects, which are also very well done. Each ability, such as Dave's Zap or Chahn's Purification Torch have their own sound associated with them which are well crafted and sound suitably sci fi.
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| Here's Chahn in her introductory cut scene. |
Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
In battle, Cosmic Star Heroine adopts the Chrono Trigger style of encounters where enemies can be seen wandering the map and you actively engage with them, rather than the classic random battles. Then, the characters and the enemies take turns biffing each other depending on their speed statistic. Alyssa and friends have up to eight abilities that they can choose from at a time, most of which can only be used once before you have to defend and recharge them. Some of these abilities will be purely offensive such as Alyssa thwacking something with her bo staff or Dave zapping something with electricity, others could be buffs to boost defense or offense, and others still can have some interesting effects.
Take Clarke for example, the disco dancing robot who joins your ranks roughly half way through the story. He has an ability called Mortify, which means that the rest of the party does more damage while he's dead. You activate it, then on Clarke's next turn you either choose an ability that kills him and heals the rest of the party, or kills him and does massive damage to all the enemies. He's dead for the rest of the battle but everyone else is now stronger. This is probably something you want to save towards the end of a boss battle, but it's an interesting mechanic.
Equipping new weapons and shields can also give you access to new "programs" in battle which are additional abilities that can be used. The battles themselves always move along at a brisk pace, with animations playing out smoothly and responsively which is very much appreciated. Those who have experienced the terrible PlayStation versions of various Final Fantasy games will attest to just how annoying it can be when it takes ages for a simple animation to load, but there's none of that here thankfully.
For roughly the first half of the campaign, your party is preset but different characters will be swapping in and out as the story dictates, which means that you will have to learn and adapt to new skill sets quite frequently. This keeps things interesting. Eventually though the game will open up and you will have free reign over who you bring with you. You also get your own spaceship and can travel back and forth between the three planets in the game at will, though the main story does remain linear - this just allows you to go off and do some optional quests for your various party members should you wish to.
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| Cosmic Star Heroine features a large and diverse cast of recruitable characters. |
Value & Replaybility: 7 out of 10
While Cosmic Star Heroine is hardly the longest RPG, I do feel that you get your money's worth. If you just focus on the critical path then it will probably take you around 12 hours to complete on the standard difficulty setting, which is a decent amount of time. There are some extra challenges that can be sought out though, such as boss battles with Dem Bones from Breath of Death VII or Cthulhu himself. These are likely to require a bit of grinding before you will be able to take them on.
There are also four separate difficult options, ranging from Tourist for people who want the game to be a cakewalk, up to Heroine for those who want a steeper challenge. I found that the normal difficulty was about right for me - it was a perhaps a little on the easy side for most of the game as long as I didn't avoid too many fights, though I did still die a few times during some of the boss battles. This was usually a case of me either trying to rush through the fight too quickly or not knowing the best strategy, and usually a simple change in tactics or a more patient approach would see me through.
The game isn't terribly replayable really - the story is going to play out the same way regardless of what you do, though you could start over on a higher difficulty. It is well written and entertaining enough that I could see myself coming back to it again after a while, I guess. This gets less likely the bigger my backlog gets, unfortunately.
Innovation & Cleverness: 6 out of 10
While the plot and setting are not terribly original, Cosmic Star Heroine deserves some points in this category because of it's well thought out battle system. Each character has their own palette of abilities that have been very well thought out and often work in conjunction with the abilities of the other characters in interesting ways. Limiting the palettes to eight active slots and giving out new abilities as you level up really forces the player to think hard about what they will leave out. It is quite easy to quickly swap out a party member or an ability depending on the type of enemy you're likely to face in a given area, however. Very smart stuff indeed.
Overall: 8 out of 10
I had a lot of fun playing through Cosmic Star Heroine - so much so in fact that when I finally did start playing, it only took me a few play sessions to reach the end because I didn't want to stop. The writing, graphics, music and compelling battle system all combine to deliver an extremely solid RPG that will keep the majority of players amused for a minimum of 12 hours, potentially longer if they decide to increase the difficulty or seek out all of the optional challenges that the game has to offer. If you own a Switch and you enjoy a good RPG then do seriously think about picking this up - it would work very well in handheld mode. I look forward to seeing what Zeboyd Games does next!
