{"id":40028,"date":"2018-08-13T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/cosmic_star_heroine"},"modified":"2018-08-13T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T23:00:00","slug":"review-cosmic-star-heroine-switch-eshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/08\/13\/review-cosmic-star-heroine-switch-eshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Cosmic Star Heroine (Switch eShop)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/cosmic_star_heroine\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/cosmic_star_heroine\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91408\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91408\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Agent Alyssa L&#8217;Salle is the kind of peppy, grown up, consummately capable protagonist we so rarely seem to get in JRPGs these days. She&#8217;s not the type to wallow in melancholy or self-doubt, or even to stick around in one place for too long. In fact, she&#8217;s the perfect front for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/cosmic_star_heroine\">Cosmic Star Heroine<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; a game that pays a sizeable tribute to JRPGs of the past without getting bogged down in the grind and repetition.<\/p>\n<p>At its best, Cosmic Star Heroine plays like how you remember your favourite 16-bit JRPG to be, rather than how it actually plays. All of that boring drudgery and dull scene-setting has been excised to produce a pacy highlights package of a role-playing game. This brisk hyperactivity is also where the game may ultimately come unstuck for fans of the source material, however, as it can feel a little lightweight and shallow.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91409\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91409\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Aiding Cosmic Star Heroine&#8217;s sense of freshness no end is its futuristic setting. Developer Zeboyd Games has bypassed the usual fantasy trappings in favour of a bright sci-fi universe filled with stomping mechs, alien cats and laser blasters. There are shades of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/phantasy_star\">Phantasy Star<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/chrono_trigger\">Chrono Trigger<\/a><\/strong> in here, which is a very good thing indeed.<\/p>\n<p>L&#8217;Salle leads a crack team of special agents working for the Agency for Peace and Intelligence &#8211; an elite police force bound to secure the galaxy against a pervasive rebel threat. It&#8217;s not long until you start to question whether the API is <em>truly<\/em> the force for good that it purports to be. Fortunately, this is all just an excuse to send you on a streamlined interplanetary romp. The writing here is suitably bright and breezy given the classic period it&#8217;s trying to evoke. It&#8217;s one long breathless rush towards the next encounter, with an emphasis on grand gestures and general bonhomie over emotional nuance.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91411\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91411\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>This briskness pervades the game, resulting in an experience that we suspect will hold a lot of appeal to the lapsed JRPG fans among you. It&#8217;s full of design decisions that serve to lessen the perceived annoyances of the genre. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the game&#8217;s battle system. There are no random encounters here, with the enemies you face presented clearly within the world. When you do engage by stepping into their territory, there&#8217;s no lengthy cut away to a distinct battle screen &#8211; all of the combatants simply shuffle into formation and the fight starts. And once you finish that fight, your team will be fully healed up for the next encounter.<\/p>\n<p>The fights themselves, whilst fairly traditional in their turn-based nature, are relatively brief affairs. They can generally be polished off in a minute or two &#8211; at least on the low-to-medium difficulty settings (which can be adjusted at any time). It also helps that each character in your four-person party has a wide range of completely unique moves to choose from, covering elemental attacks, computer hacks, defensive and healing moves and the like.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Each of these seems to fit in with the character&#8217;s unique personality and role within the team, and you&#8217;ll soon find yourself experimenting with powerful combination attacks. Having such a plan of attack is especially important as most moves can only be used once in a fight, unless you opt to sacrifice a move to recharge. This forces you to explore each character&#8217;s full repertoire rather than spamming the same preferred attacks.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91406\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91406\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Hardened JRPG fans may find Cosmic Star Heroine&#8217;s prescribed character roles a little too restrictive and hand-holdy, but it is at least possible to customise each character&#8217;s move-set with fresh equipment. You&#8217;ll find new items by exploring the world and though spending credits in shops. The game isn&#8217;t scared to chop and change your team line-up on your behalf, which again is something that hardcore RPG fans might take issue with. Indeed, there&#8217;s a general sense of linearity to Cosmic Star Heroine. You&#8217;re essentially being funnelled from one set piece encounter to the next with little scope to control the pace, which detracts a little from the sense of exploration and of truly inhabiting a role.<\/p>\n<p>The look of the game is spot-on in its evocation of the golden era of JRPGs, mind you, with distinctive sprite work and a deft willingness to play with scale. The view zooms out when you&#8217;re exploring a seedy neighbourhood, for example, or to show a titanic face-off between a mech and a monster. Cosmic Star Heroine&#8217;s sparing use of animated cutscenes is also well handled, lending flavour to the game without dragging on unnecessarily. Even better is the synth-driven soundtrack, which moves between quirky little ditties to something that approaches the airy wonder of Vangelis&#8217;s <strong>Blade Runner<\/strong> work.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91407\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/91407\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmic Star Heroine Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It&#8217;s another in a long list of reference points that Cosmic Star Heroine skims through at a rate of knots. This is a game that doesn&#8217;t so much copy the classics as sample the best bits and assemble them into a joyous collage. The result is a colourful, pacy and enjoyable &#8211; if slightly abrupt and insubstantial &#8211; homage to some of the more out-there &#8217;90s JRPGs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>This is a homage to the classic sci-fi RPGs of the &#8217;90s that successfully takes out many of the annoying bits but boasts a fair amount of the depth and consistency. Cosmic Star Heroine is a JRPG for those who long ago grew bored of JRPGs, but committed fans might find it just a little too slight an offering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Agent Alyssa L&#8217;Salle is the kind of peppy, grown up, consummately capable protagonist we so rarely seem to get in JRPGs these days. She&#8217;s not the type to wallow in melancholy or self-doubt, or even to stick around in one place for too long. In fact, she&#8217;s the perfect front for Cosmic Star Heroine &#8211; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}