Game Review: Cosmic Star Heroine

Developer: Zeboyd Games

Platforms: PC/PS4/Nintendo Switch

Cosmic Star Heroine is a science fiction RPG with turn-based battles and a fast paced action filled storyline. I will be touching on three areas with this review: Story, Visuals/Audio, and How it Plays.

Story

Cosmic Star Heroine has a really interesting story that is often pretty cool and really odd. Set in a science fiction future where there are multiple planets to visit and a ton of different alien races, it has a lot to bring to the table here. Like RPG games of old like Final Fantasy, it doesn’t do a ton of delving into a lot of the different elements especially if there is no side character or direct tie to the storyline. There is a surprisingly large amount of character you can keep in your team, which from a story standpoint is pretty interesting. The core story is pretty interesting, but something about it just didn’t strike me as being stand out and there are so many odd little additions that pushed it into cheese territory a few too many times. I did really like what I knew about Alyssa though. She’s the badass soldier who constantly puts herself in danger to protect others, I just wish we had gotten a little more info on her and her friendship with characters like Sue.

Audio/Visuals

This has an old school JRPG look to it and has similar music as well, both of which really works well for the game itself. I think these are some of the strongest elements in the game and really packs in the charm.

How it Plays

I picked this game up because it touts a battle system that had some elements that would basically erase the parts of turn-based RPGs that I hated, i.e. the status conditions carrying over from battle to battle and the action point depletion that also carries over. I think the fact that the AP is refreshed at the beginning of each battle and you essentially enter each encounter fresh and ready to go really helps move the pace of the story along. Turn-based RPGs have a tenancy to have incredibly lengthy battles, made longer by the constant need to run around gathering potions and the like just to make sure you’re ready to go. Cosmic doesn’t force you to do that at all. It also has a very large range of abilities throughout all the available characters, which can be overwhelming at times but definitely keeps things interesting. I found it really easy to sink a lot of time into this one, without feeling that fatigue I normally do with this genre of game.

Final Thoughts

Cosmic Star Heroine is definitely one to check out if you enjoy turn-based RPGs, especially if you like games like Chrono Trigger. It’s a lot of fun, and though it can verge on goofy at times, I think it’s a pretty strong indie title in a very populated genre.