Cosmic Star Heroine

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Cosmic Star Heroine is a JRPG that imitates the style of the 16-bit era of the genre, with an overall presentation fit for the SNES, all in a game with a futuristic setting.

I’m gonna’ just get right to it – this game did not suck me in like I had hoped. The overall aesthetic captures the look and sound of classic RPGs, but the characters and story just seemed too formulaic for my tastes. I dunno, maybe I’m looking back at the classic games with rose-tinted glasses, but I remembered characters from that era having a bit more emotional depth than what’s on offer here, which seems best-suited for a Saturday morning cartoon.

It may be in part because this game starts in medias res and doesn’t bother explaining much about the setting or background of the characters and plot, so it’s hard to feel attached to those characters or the conflict they’re in.

At the very least, the gameplay does offer a unique approach to the genre. Characters have multiple special moves that they can use in addition to a basic attack, but rather than simply being tied to MP or something like that, each move can only be used once, and will not be available again until a character uses up a turn to rest. This does a good job of making the focus of the action on the timing of when you do certain attacks and when you rest to recharge them. It’s a nice touch that helps to distinguish this game and make it something of its own rather than just something trying to copy better games from the past.

Still, for a game that clearly wants to be thought of in the same way as classic 16-bit JRPGs, Cosmic Star Heroine doesn’t quite measure up to them. It looks decent enough and has good gameplay, but I just wasn’t feeling the characters or the story.

tl;dr – Cosmic Star Heroine is a JRPG that looks and feels like an old-school 16-bit RPG from the SNES era. It has some good gameplay, but the characters and story seemed too simple and formulaic for my tastes.

Grade: C+

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