Cosmic Star Heroine is a great game. I never beat it and I don't plan on double dipping until a nice sale... but you're all in for a treat.
I need to say that I haven't started playing these Arcade Archives titles in High Score mode until the super-awesome 'Ninja-Kid'.
'Star Force' is currently sitting in the number 1 position of my all-time favorite shmup games.
It has fueled my interest in the caravan shooting variant of the genre, and this Summer, a PC-Engine is together with Switch my most played system, because I'm digging in the amazing shooting catalogue of this console, that it's full of games influenced by the design principles of 'Star Force'.
I think that the basis to define 'Star Force' respect to the rest of its contemporaries, is that in this game is very easy to survive, but very hard to score. Because there are a lot of subtle details in its placement of elements to create complex scoring strategies.
My current high score in the normal mode is 458,800 points.
Here you have a very well explained guide, which each trick to get bonus points. It will increase your enjoyment of the game. And you will be amazed with some of its clever design decisions.
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Star_Force
And if you want a great text about shmup design, in which 'Star Force' and many other classics are covered, I recommend this equivalent of a Bible of the shmup design: an interview with yosshin, the creator of one of the greatest shmups in video game history, 'ChoRenSha68k'.
http://shmuplations.com/chorensha68k/
Talking about high scores, I'm very proud of my first million score in 'SubaraCity'.
It's sad that this game doesn't include leaderboards. With leaderbords, this can be easily one of my most played games this Summer. But without leaderbords, I will probably abandon the game as soon as 'Cosmic Star Heroine' is unlocked.
And regarding the Arcade Archives series, I'm doubting between getting 'Traverse USA' as my next game. I see this game as a precursor of the infinite-score racing games in the vein of 'Race the Sun'. Also thinking in getting 'Crazy Climber' or 'Terra Cresta'. So many great games for my limited budget and time!
Thank you both! Exactly the nudge I was looking for - I'm going to try this one out. I'll post my impressions once I spend some time with it.
Great insight, question what's the recommended difficulty for first playthrough for a jrpg fanOk, 'Cosmic Star Heroine' is a fucking masterpiece.
FINALLY, and indie game that brings to the traditional Japanese RPG layout the same revolution that 'Super Meat Boy' did in the platforming genre.
Basically, 'Super Meat Boy' took 'Super Mario Bros' as its main inspiration in a respectful way with a tradition, like the use of a run button and a construction of the levels relying in mastering the momentum and physics, sharing a lot of familiar elements and resources used in past Japanese classics.
But with this layout, it broke all the stablished conventions. Like introducing short levels. In these shorts levels, it raised the difficulty to the infinite. But because they were very short and without a penalization for your deaths, and by eliminating the obsolete concept of lives, you never get exhausted. And thanks to this, it was able to experiment with crazy design ideas coming from a romhack tradition of 'Super Mario Bros' games, with masterful designs in each pattern.
'Cosmic Star Heroine' does basically this same thing, but with a JRPG layout.
The game resembles Japanese classics. The pixel art seems taken from a SNES era Square game BUT adapted to an high resolution screen. The artistic design looks to the PC-Engine Super CD-ROM games, and even the soundtrack seems taken from all of these crazy CD JRPGs released for the Mega-CD and PC-Engine back in the 90s, by companies like Working Designs.
But with this familiar layout full of nostalgia, it completely revolutionizes the combat system and structure, by breaking each single fucking rule, in the same way as the early indie platforming classics such as 'Super Meat Boy' and 'N++'.
Played in the maximum difficulty, the Super Spy level, even the first combat has taken me tens of attempts. Simply, you need to create a perfect strategy, or you will die. And every move of the enemy, ability, the number of turns and how the special moves are refilled, all have been carefully balanced to make of each single combat the same thing that the smart designed levels in 'Super Meat Boy' did, pushing you to your limits.
And if you die, it doesn't matter... a dialogue box will appear asking you if you want to retry this combat.
At the end, is one of the greatest love letters to the turn-based systems in classics JRPGs.
In which they have elevated old concepts to new peaks and in a brilliant new way, only possible by discarding the long old stablished rules, like consumable items, grinding of levels or persistent health points through combats.
Simply, it has the most brilliant combat design, systems and mechanics that I have seen since 'Infinite Space', other game trying to break every stablished rule and convention.
In comparison, not even the Atlus games have reached this perfection in the combat design.
And well, every other aspect in the game is polished. The sound design is perfect, and only by listening to the most subtle sound effect, you can see how this team have studied and played every major classic. And how they have interiorized every aspect that made of these games remarkable classics.
The animations, the suggestive 16 bits look adapted to the modern conventions of LCD displays, the incredible detail in the animations...
They nail every aspect.
I don't know if the story will be good, if the writing will be interesting, and honestly, I don't care. Because Zeboyd games shows a perfect understanding of the things that have sculpted the JRPG genre: things like the importance of combats, the dungeon design, the ambience making you feel absorbed in the universe of the game.
Congratulations to werezompire and his team.
What a time to be alive, in which western indie developers have been able to master and refine every major Japanese genre, and most importantly, they have done this in a respectful way with a past tradition.
The only sad note is that people playing in the easy difficulty levels will never be able to appreciate how brilliantly designed is this game.
Great insight, question what's the recommended difficulty for first playthrough for a jrpg fan
Great insight, question what's the recommended difficulty for first playthrough for a jrpg fan
That designer definitely knows his shooters! Have you ever played that before? I found a nice set of links for the windows shareware version.
http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/download.html
Buy it tonight for that 10% discount, play it later.interested in Cosmic Star Heroine but def gonna wait until Im done with Octopath which may be a while.
Great write-up. CSH is just finishing to downlod on my Switch.Ok, 'Cosmic Star Heroine' is a fucking masterpiece.
FINALLY, and indie game that brings to the traditional Japanese RPG layout the same revolution that 'Super Meat Boy' did in the platforming genre.
Basically, 'Super Meat Boy' took 'Super Mario Bros' as its main inspiration in a respectful way with a tradition, like the use of a run button and a construction of the levels relying in mastering the momentum and physics, sharing a lot of familiar elements and resources used in past Japanese classics.
But with this layout, it broke all the stablished conventions. Like introducing short levels. In these shorts levels, it raised the difficulty to the infinite. But because they were very short and without a penalization for your deaths, and by eliminating the obsolete concept of lives, you never get exhausted. And thanks to this, it was able to experiment with crazy design ideas coming from a romhack tradition of 'Super Mario Bros' games, with masterful designs in each pattern.
'Cosmic Star Heroine' does basically this same thing, but with a JRPG layout.
The game resembles Japanese classics. The pixel art seems taken from a SNES era Square game BUT adapted to an high resolution screen. The artistic design looks to the PC-Engine Super CD-ROM games, and even the soundtrack seems taken from all of these crazy CD JRPGs released for the Mega-CD and PC-Engine back in the 90s, by companies like Working Designs.
But with this familiar layout full of nostalgia, it completely revolutionizes the combat system and structure, by breaking each single fucking rule, in the same way as the early indie platforming classics such as 'Super Meat Boy' and 'N++'.
Played in the maximum difficulty, the Super Spy level, even the first combat has taken me tens of attempts. Simply, you need to create a perfect strategy, or you will die. And every move of the enemy, ability, the number of turns and how the special moves are refilled, all have been carefully balanced to make of each single combat the same thing that the smart designed levels in 'Super Meat Boy' did, pushing you to your limits.
And if you die, it doesn't matter... a dialogue box will appear asking you if you want to retry this combat.
At the end, is one of the greatest love letters to the turn-based systems in classics JRPGs.
In which they have elevated old concepts to new peaks and in a brilliant new way, only possible by discarding the long old stablished rules, like consumable items, grinding of levels or persistent health points through combats.
Simply, it has the most brilliant combat design, systems and mechanics that I have seen since 'Infinite Space', other game trying to break every stablished rule and convention.
In comparison, not even the Atlus games have reached this perfection in the combat design.
And well, every other aspect in the game is polished. The sound design is perfect, and only by listening to the most subtle sound effect, you can see how this team have studied and played every major classic. And how they have interiorized every aspect that made of these games remarkable classics.
The animations, the suggestive 16 bits look adapted to the modern conventions of LCD displays, the incredible detail in the animations...
They nail every aspect.
I don't know if the story will be good, if the writing will be interesting, and honestly, I don't care. Because Zeboyd games shows a perfect understanding of the things that have sculpted the JRPG genre: things like the importance of combats, the dungeon design, the ambience making you feel absorbed in the universe of the game.
Congratulations to werezompire and his team.
What a time to be alive, in which western indie developers have been able to master and refine every major Japanese genre, and most importantly, they have done this in a respectful way with a past tradition.
The only sad note is that people playing in the easy difficulty levels will never be able to appreciate how brilliantly designed is this game.
Don't forget walking dead season finally for the switch comes out tomorrow
would this game support this?Great write-up. CSH is just finishing to downlod on my Switch.
Any way to transfer save data from another console?
Yes. I mean, since the previous games are based on decisions you made, I wonder if there is a way to transfer the decisions? Like through a Telltale account?
i wonder also i asked on twitter if there is a demo for switch ver. like the other systemsYes. I mean, since the previous games are based on decisions you made, I wonder if there is a way to transfer the decisions? Like through a Telltale account?
I know the answer is likely no, but I was wondering about the possibilty.
Thank you!!! Im so pumped to start, will it unlock midnight in the US?There are 4 difficulties.
Tourist - Crazy easy. For people who want to skip through combat. Basically God Mode.
Agent - Easy. It's still easy to breeze through combat but it's not quite as braindead.
Heroine - Hard. Most players who want to enjoy the combat pick this difficulty unless they want a major challenge.
Super-Star - Very Hard. You need to have a deep understanding of mechanics & a willingness to replay failed attempts.
So if you like turn-based combat, I'd go with Heroine or Super-Star. You can switch between difficulties in-game so experiment.
In my next game, I think I'll make things more straightforward. Easy, Normal, Hard, plus Custom which will let you make the game easier than Easy and harder than Hard.
Thank you!!! Im so pumped to start, will it unlock midnight in the US?
Oof, 1 pm my time. That's ok, I can't get hooked on a new game just yet.
AYE!All in favor of making this Epilexia 's new avatar, say "AYE!"
I could feel it in the prologuesSo I think I'm going to trade Octopath in. A real shame as I wanted to like it a lot, but the core gameplay loop is just so boring after about 25-30 hours.
There's so many interesting eShop games out at the moment, might sell it towards an eShop voucher. At least the value seems to be holding.
So I think I'm going to trade Octopath in. A real shame as I wanted to like it a lot, but the core gameplay loop is just so boring after about 25-30 hours.
There's so many interesting eShop games out at the moment, might sell it towards an eShop voucher. At least the value seems to be holding.
All in favor of making this Epilexia 's new avatar, say "AYE!"
I like different things about it, it's just so samey. Maybe I'll give it more of a try before I sell it, might get a second wind.I really wasn't a fan of the demo and decided not to buy the game. However a friend really raved about it so I decided to pick the full game up.
30 hours in and I'm absolutely loving it so far.
NAY, I like to think that a Ozu or Kurosawa character is making those impressions.
I always thought it was from Rashomon or somethingOh, is that who that's from? I wasn't sure if it was from an old Ishiro Honda Godzilla film. I always wondered....
World Conqueror X is extremely similar. It may not be the best of games and I put it aside after finishing the first campaign for both factions, however it's cheap and it will scratch your tactical itch for a couple of hours easy.Are there any Advance Wars type games on eshop? I know tiny metal was getting hype but IIRC reviews were lack luster.
Oh, is that who that's from? I wasn't sure if it was from an old Ishiro Honda Godzilla film. I always wondered....
I gave into impulse for nothing!
NAY, I like to think that a Ozu or Kurosawa character is making those impressions.
Oh, is that who that's from? I wasn't sure if it was from an old Ishiro Honda Godzilla film. I always wondered....
Sincerely, no idea. But it looks like a character of a old classic Japanese movie. It could be a Godzilla movie too, of course.
I could feel it in the prologues
I don't think the game made the mark a lot of people were hoping for.