Fantastic retro game

This was my first foray into Zeboyd Games' rpgs, though I played their text-based adventures 'Molly the Werezompire' and 'Epiphany in Space' a while ago. A friend once described Cosmic Star Heroine to me as Phantasy Star crossed with Chrono Trigger, for its futuristic setting and being able to see enemies on the map instead of having random encounters. I was hooked from that description alone because while I haven't played Phantasy Star myself, I did love Chrono Trigger.

The story of this game moves at a brisk pace, with all sorts of cool setpieces such as the Chapter 5 and 6 finales. However, one thing I value in rpgs is how much I enjoy the character writing, and while I thought the characters were decent enough in their introductions, I feel the game could have afforded to slow down a bit to let us get to know them more. An opportunity for this was presented near the end of the game, with a good number of character-focused sidequests opening up similar to Chrono Trigger. Unfortunately I don't think Cosmic Star Heroine's sidequests developed its characters quite as much as Chrono Trigger's did, leaving the cast a bit more shallow than those in other rpgs I've played.

What ultimately kept me hooked on Cosmic Star Heroine was its battle system. Most abilities and items are one-time use, which made me think more carefully about what to use when. You're not out of luck if you run out of ability uses because you can use a defend command to replenish them, and items are always restored after each fight so there's no need to hoard! This system pairs well with the hyper mechanic, which gives characters increased damage output and status proc chances every few turns. Saving a big move until the user lands on their hyper turn is so satisfying and can yield huge damage.

No surprises that buffs also help you do more damage in this type of game! But this leads to one nitpick I have with the game. You are told in skill descriptions how long they last, but I would have appreciated having an indicator in the battle UI somewhere. Debuffs have useful icons like a broken shield for the vulnerable status, but because no such indicators exist for buffs, I would sometimes forget in the moment when one was about to wear off. A reminder would have made things a bit more convenient.

I played this game on the Heroine mode, which I feel provided the right level of challenge throughout. This was especially the case in the second half where it seemed like the enemy stats went up by a considerable amount. Combine that with another feature of this game, enemies becoming stronger the longer the fight goes on, and it seems like the devs were encouraging players to be proactive in finding ways to do the most damage possible before the situation gets out of hand, which I quite like!

In the end, I thought Cosmic Star Heroine was a great time overall and I'm glad I took on my friend's recommendation. While I didn't think the story and characters were anything too spectacular, they were still entertaining enough, and I enjoyed the gameplay quite a lot. I got the game on sale but I honestly think it's worth its full price tag as well!

非常简陋的技术水平，别扭的按键设置和UI设计，感觉像高中生用RPG maker拼出来的。第一关没玩完就被劝退了