Cosmic Star Heroine

Cosmic Star Heroine is a sci-fi themed, old school JRPG, heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger. On paper, the game is a goldmine of brilliant ideas, but in practice it lacks that je ne sais quoi, that ooph, that pizazz that makes a game special. The characters and story are forgettable. The game is hampered by minor, but annoying bugs (allies not following at the same pace causing battles to be delayed, side quests not triggering properly, etc). And to be frank, the game is simply not that fun to play after the first two hours.

You play as Alyssa L'Salle, a star agent of the Agency of Peace & Intelligence (API). After thwarting an attempt to blow up an office tower, Alyssa is tasked with investigating a terrorist organization named Astrea on the planet Rhomu. While roaming on the planet, she discovers a lab that is researching a mind control device. She takes it with her and to her surprise the head of the API, snatches the device with a desire to use it to bring peace to the galaxy. Alyssa and her friends rebel against the API and join Astrea in hopes of finding a way to counter the mind control device’s effects.

The best thing I can praise about Cosmic Star Heroine is that the developers at Zeboyd Games know how to craft a solid turn based battle system. Combat is strategic and not about spamming the most powerful moves. Most abilities can be used once and are refreshed after defending. There is a Hyper Mode which lets a character do double damage once every two to four turns. There is also a Style mechanic which encourages players to build up their Style to deal more damage or use a Burst ability which trades all of a character’s Style for an extra powerful ability. The battles have a nice ebb and flow, where the general strategy is to build up Style until a character’s Hyper Mode and then unleash Abilities to deal massive damage.

Inventory is smartly designed. Both weapons and armor grant passive effects, such as dealing more damage to robot enemies or improving the success rate of a stun effect. The armor known as Shields in Cosmic Star Heroine, also grants Programs which are one-time use special abilities. In fact, I found some early-game Shields so useful that I had them equipped for some late-game battles at the risk of getting easily KO'ed. There are also Items, which are shared amongst the party and function similarly to Programs.

The game respects the player's time and avoids common JRPG filler pitfalls. There are no random encounters. All characters are fully healed after battle. All treasure chests are useful, with most of them providing unique equipment and items. In fact, the chests will explain who the new equipment is for and its passive abilities. All characters receive the same amount of experience, regardless of who is in the active party or if they are felled in combat. The difficulty can be adjusted at any time in the menu. There are no special save points and the game can be saved at any time.

There are 12 playable characters including Alyssa, each with their own unique abilities and range from a Disco Robot to a Spectral Detective. Unfortunately these characters are recruited at such a rapid pace that there is barely enough time to be acquainted with one character’s abilities before another character is recruited. Other than Alyssa, there is no character development. The only way to learn more about, let’s say the Disco Robot, is to trigger an optional quest by talking with him at a specific time. The problem is that the game never makes it very clear when these optional quests are available.

Cosmic Star Heroine lost my interest quickly. The writing is witty, but the jokes get old fast. The story starts off strong, but then the plot becomes a wild goose chase and forgets about the main villain until the final act of the game. Even the excellent battle system gets stale as regular enemies start taking longer and longer to defeat. Cosmic Star Heroine is like a well done hamburger without any sides or condiments. It’s perfectly edible, but gets boring to eat after a few bites.