Cosmic Star Heroine

The combat's pretty solid and the worldbuilding isn't bad, but those two things just barely hold the game together.

The art's so-so, the music's painfully forgettable and repetitive, and the pacing and structure are hurt by the plot's lack of gravitas and the fact your only gameplay activity is constant fighting - which becomes a larger issue in the context of most battles demanding your attention.
This makes the game feel very long and plodding despite being relatively short.
On top of this, there's a startling lack of polish: some of your characters are disturbingly ineffective in combat, you get no prompts for overwriting saves, there are no footstep sounds, et cetera.

I'm giving it a recommendation because the pro of 'pretty good combat system' is a good pro to have, but I don't think you should pick this up at full price unless you are absolutely FIENDING for a turn-based, combat-oriented JRPG experience.

A great and short indie turn-based RPG! Played it entirely on Steam deck with no problems. Really cheap and well worth your time.
(+) Amazing turn-based combat! The biggest highlight of the game for me.
(+) Great sprite art
(+) Good OST! It surprised me.
(+) Great length. Quite short but at the same time the correct length.
(+) Amazing Easter eggs everywhere. It constantly put a smile on my face.
(+) Good side quests, wish there were more.
(0) Story is ok, not bad but not great. Serviceable.
(0) Difficulty is all over the place. The standard difficulty is quite easy and the most difficult one can be a pain.
(-) Too many characters that barely get any attention
(-) UI could be better, several things I just had to power through

Been enjoying the story so far and the combat system is quite unique and makes the game very interesting.
A lot of love has been put in the art work and it shows.

It's a really fantastic game. Wonderfully retro and atmospheric adventure with great turn based combat. I do recommend you play on "heroine" difficulty as soon as you feel ready, because this difficulty forces you to understand all the tricks that make the combat great.
However, I, personally think it needs a dedicated training/ tutorial mode to explain the combat system. And I would like more information available on screen during combat about weapon and damage stats and stun chance etc.
I would love a DLC or sequel.
This is a gem. Please try it!!!

First indy rpg I've ever played and still one of the best. This aged like fine wine.

Cosmic Star Heroine
OVERALL - Decent attempt to try and relive the snes RPG era.

STORY - 2/5
I was not impressed with the story overall. It just didn’t grab me early on and I did not really feel much attachment for the characters. I don’t think it was terrible, but I didn’t think it was it stood out or was very gripping

GRAPHICS/ART - 3/5
I grew up in the snes era, so I do have a fondness for this style of sprints, but overall I felt the sprites lacked emotion and character. And even though I don’t mind this amount of pixels, I do prefer higher pixel sprites

GAMEPLAY - 3/5
The battle system was an interesting take on turn based mechanics. The turn system reminded me of how FFX was presented, but I don’t believe any moves took longer than another. The recharge system was a good way to force you to use different moves. Overall I thought the base system was decent, but I am still left feeling it could use more refinement.

UI - 2/5
Overall the UI seemed ok. But I felt it missed a lot of places where it could have been improved to provide more information. There were also some inconsistencies where sometimes it listed the duration of moves/effects and other times it did not.

Other Notes
I ran the game on my TV at 4k and experienced some weird screen stuttering when running around. I did not seem to have this issue on my laptop at 1080p


Games I would Recommend if you like this one.
Chrono Trigger

• 6.5/10
• Main story completed.
• It feels like the designers were very mechanical heavy in their design and story was very weak. Attacks and interplay between party members was great but story was missing for me. Characters were very one dimensional.
• Combat was super fun, old school turn based RPG where you can see the enemies and decide if you want to engage some of the time.
• The combat system included:
○ Character customization which was both fun and easy. You could upgrade weapons, select which moves you want to use, pick the items you want.
○ Party members joined you and you could choose who made up your party most of the time.
• Story wasn’t good or compelling and was severely lacking in comparison to how developed and fun the combat was.
• Main character was just used to push along the plot and had no personality despite being extremely good in combat
Some logistical oddities i.e. loot drops were in the chest, being at "home base" you couldn’t really equip items on your characters until you left the ship.

Simple and glitchy. It was entertaining.

For a game that, I'm hoping, was just remastered for PS4, it was incredibly short. Honestly, I know games from the 80's that have better graphics and more replay-ability than this...still, it wasn't too bad. Not a horribly complex or compelling story line, missions could be hard to follow if you forget where you left off. No mission journal really to speak of.
Honestly, not worth buying unless you want to feel yourself die a little inside, kind of like being hooked up to the machine in The Princess Bride...

A quick, tight, and enjoyable RPG. I played on it's most casual setting. The story keeps a good pace and the character's are charming hamfisted tropes. It was a good weekend or very long flight.

That was a pretty fun JRPG. I had some laughs and had fun with the combat. A few complaints are I wish there where some more details or a better log, I can't remember everything after-all, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I beat the game on difficulty 2, I probably could have done the third difficulty, but I know some JRPGs can get really grindy, this was not the case.

A great turn-based RPG with a well-designed combat system that feels like a puzzle on hard mode. Overall, a love letter to classic rpgs, while introducing modern features like a visible turn timeline, diffilcuty options, autoheal after battles, and no random encounters.

nice game and fun very qunic combat sistem and items

I'm really, really liking this game. I knew I would, because I love RPGs and I really enjoyed Zeboyd Games' earlier projects.

Back in the day, I played Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World on Xbox 360 arcade and thought they were fun, humorous little RPGs. My only criticism would be that they are too short

So it's nice to see what Zeboyd has done with a larger budget and a more fleshed out game. The combat system is real nice, with a wide range of playable characters that each have their own distinct playstyle. Party freedom really opens up after the first 3-5 hrs

Last thing I want to mention is the soundtrack. I'm used to hearing good music in games, but this might be the best I've heard in a long time. There are so many catchy tracks, especially the main battle theme

For anyone who enjoys games like Chrono Trigger, FF 1-6, Phantasy Star I-IV, etc you will love this game

Short review after 100% the game on mostly second hardest difficulty (heroine): An awesome indie JRPG set in a futuristic sci-fi setting with a plot ripe with political intrigue, powerhungry individuals, good old adventuring and a quest to save worlds/galaxy?

Pros:
- Great futuristic setting and atmosphere (you got it all, abandoned laboratories, sewers, cities, swamps, alien ship, futuristic bases, etc.)
- Decent music and ambient sound with 2 highlights being the "jazz theme" and Lauren singing
- Cliche though still okay storyline elevated by great retro cutscenes and good story and enviroment pacing
- 11 unique characters with good personalities and different and unique combat abilities
- Chrono trigger style turnbased combat with great possiblities beacuse of so many characters with many skills (you cant spam same skill/need to recharge skills so combat is more tactical, main heroine has a different ultimate ability with each other character, no random encounters, triggering strong abilities at right time when hyper or have a high style rewards you with more dmg or higher chance to debuff)
- Great amount of sidequests, side/super bosses and optional areas with loot

Cons:
- Superbosses are sponges, on higher difficulties you need to grind and overlv a lot
- Limited usage of items in combat, items do replenish after each battle (i only had 4 uses of items without any item related buffs who have a chance not to consume items)
- Some of the later characters that join arent fleshed out as much as others or have no sidequests of their own (no indication of avaiable sidequest means after each chapter/major event you need to talk to most people to get them)

A must buy for any JRPG fan and in my opinion Zeybods greatest work that they achieved, showing that indie rpgs even made in rpgmaker can compete with the best.

an underrated gem that i feel so privilaged to have been told about and now experienced.
fun story, phenomenal art direction and animation, likeable characters and great mechanics. intuitive UI and a fairly small list of options creates interesting and creative builds that only get better the more you progress and discover synergies between different characters, never feeling lacking nor overwhelming.
the fact that items that would usually be consumables work as a once per battle ability instead of a single use for each means that this is one of the few games where they're not only useful, but fun!

it is unfortunate that sometimes your party members move at a third of your speed, leading to situations where you initiate a battle and have to wait up to 30 seconds for them to catch up to you from half a screen away before the battle starts, but that's probably my only nitpick. go buy it!

Pretty fun for a quick game. Not very long. Not very deep. But still manages to make you attached to it.

Feels very Chrono ish.

Picked up other titles by dev to support (and enjoy, eventually).

It's easily one of the best indie JRPG! I absolutely loved it.

I was going to write a well thought out review, but steam blanked out the text box when I switched between no and yes. on the review dialogue box that pops up when trying to write a review for a game. Since I couldn't write a review through the web interface on the store page for some reason.

1. Gear progression is annoying. I don't care about any of the effects they offer.
2. The limited use abilities are terrible. You also only get a limited amount of them to equip at once. Gear-provided abilities are also limited.
3. Items are limited, but aren't consumed from the inventory on use, they recharge after battle.
4. No need to worry about party members being dead after battle and whatnot, but everything else outweighs this nicety.
5. Half the time, weaknesses mean nothing, you don't do enough damage for it to matter.
6. Most gimmicks hinder you more than they help you, like the robot guy later on who has to kill himself to do some abilities. I know he gets an ability that wastes a turn that allows his next death ability to not kill him, but it's still wasting a turn. Similarly, the drone ability lady will sometimes whiff drone abilities if you kill an enemy before her drone ability goes off, since drone abilities target all enemies, wasting the drone ability and her turn.

Great game with in depth systems that are pretty customizable so that you can get the team you want. One of my favorite games from this studio.

Even in the modern age, good video game fundamentals count. This game is def retro, reminiscent of 90s SNES RPGs, but it has story that moves, and solid turn-based mechanics. You have a party and abilities/equipment that you customize throughout to fight hordes of things like robots, alligators, etc. as you level up.

It is no Baldur's Gate 3, but if you like the party-based turn-based combat of said game, this is like an ancient archetype of it albeit made more recently, and quite satisfying. Get on sale for only a handful of dollars, and have a fun few days of adventuring with the Heroine.

Overall: 8.5/10

So far I've enjoyed every game these guys have put out and I have to say I'm really enjoying this one 5/5

Good game

I found Cosmic Star Heroine to be a very enjoyable retro RPG. Not too challenging, lots of weapons, abilities, and accessories to collect and play around with, great vibes in terms of art and music, and great pacing. And you can save anywhere, except for in battles!! What a concept!!

I did not feel like I was getting bored or wanted the game to end - can recommend this to anyone who's into retro RPG's.

Great story, but the gameplay leaves a bit to be desired...feels like I'm stumbling through everything even on the 2nd hardest difficulty. Not to say it's bad but it's not as great as I thought it'd be. But i'd still say it's worth it for the fantastic world.

Cosmic Star Heroine is a solid JRPG game which goes for that Chrono Trigger feel.
Unfortunately story and the characters do not have the depth they wish they had.
Still a very well done indie game with well paced combat.
6/10

Dope as shit