After what seemed like an agonising wait for release, Cosmic Star Heroine finally arrived and it was, is, fantastic!

What really sells this game, other than the nostalgia trip, is the combination of gorgeous pixel art and magnificent soundtrack - both are absolutely top notch. The visuals harken back to the Super Nintendo days with the likes of Chrono Trigger (which the game is only too happy to take inspiration from) with detailed well-animated sprites, gorgeous backdrops, and expansive maps for exploration, all backed by a magnificent soundtrack by the Hyperduck Soundworks team. The soundtrack oozes 80s style with lashings of sax and character, especially the character specific themes and battle scores ^_^ Another great aspect is the battle system, which tries a new spin on classic turn-based combat by shaking up the way you fight, no more relying on simply mashing "attack" but by introducing an indepth strategic skill system that makes you change up the way you fight during your encounters. The aesthetics and gameplay style take a lot from the aforementioned Chrono Trigger, indeed I'd go as far as to say this captured the magic of CT far better than other titles like I Am Setsuna --- it certainly had a better soundtrack and more tactical battle system, that's for sure. The piano-only soundtrack to Setsuna was lovely to listen to, but grew increasingly tiring as the game went on, whereas the soundtrack in CSH never stopped being incredible. Another lovely aspect are the animated cutscene snippets interspersed throughout the game, reminiscent of classic Sega CD animations, that also bring to mind games like Flashback and Another World.

Sadly the story isn't exactly going to blow anyone away because, while it was serviceable, it didn't really seem to have any gravitas or sense of importance. The Big Bad never feels menacing or especially dangerous, and the story moves along at a pace that could be kindly labeled as brisk at best and outright supersonic at worst, with some characters that unfortunately don't seem to get fleshed out as much as you'd like. You're shuffled from scene to scene at breakneck speeds, with events happening at a rapid pace, leaving you feeling - at the end of it all - like you could be missing half the plot. There are several sidequests in the game but there's no in-game logbook or way of keeping track, and many of the sidequests you don't even *know* are sidequests, not to mention the fact that they don't trigger until much later in the game, so it all has an unfortunate feeling of being a slightly incohesive experience.

There is one bugbear though and, depending on whether you bought the game at launch or several weeks later, could either be a serious deal breaker or a complete non-issue; bugs. It's a sad truth that the game launched in a very strange state with numerous bugs, glitches, and quality of life issues rife throughout. I had this preordered for years and played it to death immediately on launch, I encountered *very* few issues - other than a sequence breaking glitch at the start - but reading the forum shows a significant number of people encountering problems. Luckily the developers, of the two-man team at Zeboyd, have been fantastic at listening to feedback and busting their backs as they worked to fix it. All the major, and minor, issues you see reported on the forum have seemingly been dealt with - going by patch logs - and they're still going! Still working, still listening to feedback and implementing changes. Zeboyd are incredible at that, really engaging with their fans and working to fix issues while other AAA studios ignore and deflect, and often leave their titles unfixed for weeks or months on end.

So yeah, there are issues with the game, but those issue are - in my opinion - outweighed by the pros. The stellar soundtrack, the gorgeous pixel art and mapping, enjoyable tactical challenging combat, and the overall wonderful trip down nostalgia lane that takes inspiration from classics but never comes across as insulting or cheap. Made by a two man team, two more for the soundtrack, and has a full on budget price tag yet goes toe to toe with other, larger, RPGs of the same style. If you ever enjoyed classic 16bit jRPGs, you cannot go wrong with this, and while there is the feeling that it could have maybe done with slightly longer in the oven - and a larger budget - it really is a great game worth playing :)

...... and hey, if Zeboyd ever decide to go back and make a "Cosmic Star Heroine Redux", with a more fleshed out story, more areas, more fights, more more more, I'd be up for that! \o/