Cosmic Star Heroine

This game would be considered a classic during the SNES era. The story isn't incredibly deep but it's light fun and carries the overall tone of the game well, much like how Chrono Trigger did. The battle system and exploration also take many notes from Chrono Trigger, although combat is more unique. Battles can get pretty complicated because of the deceptively strategic nature of it-most abilities can only be used once unless they are recharged, enemies get stronger as the battle advances, and there are turns where your abilities do more damage than normal, so you have to plan for them-but it's quite different from the norm and you can still adjust character abilities in a myriad of ways. Gear grants new abilities, many of which don't unlock until your stats get higher which gives you plenty of incentive to mix and match gear across all the characters. The game even takes cues from Suikoden with all the secondary characters you can recruit and the base you build. Presentation wise, the game is top notch. Music is great. Graphics are a perfect match for the game's tone. My only gripes are with how buggy the game was at release, although it has been patched and continues to receive new patches, and the fact there doesn't seem to be a way to upgrade old armour. A lot of powerful abilities are locked within older pieces of gear, but their stats are so low it becomes a huge trade-off. Overall, though, this game is much better than the average retro RPG out there, and even some of the good ones.

Cosmic Star Heroine is a good, but not great game. It draws from many inspirations, mainly the Japanese RPGs of the 16 bit era. The story - a space opera, as the developers like to call it - has a nice outline, but has only very shallow character development or story. Just like the original games! Completion time for the game is around 15 hours. But the gameplay - a very modern, great to play interpretation of the classic turn-based battle systems - is easily one of the highlights, as is the awesome soundtrack and pixel art. Really, the music alone is worth the money! I really recommend this game to everybody who loves classic JRPGs.

Yes, the graphics looks like one of the good old JRPG's from the Mega CD area. But thats it. There is not enough flesh on the bone for a real masteriece or even a remarkable game. The story is very straight. Next to nothing with extras like sidequests, hidden areas or even grinding for levels or money, no respawning enemies. And the fighting? Yes, you have your skills and programs. Most can only be used once and than you must recharge (aka wait a turn doing nothing). You can chose your 8 skills...but no skilltree the skills are gained with leveling. Add that you autoheal after each fight and that most of them are not very hard (if you check your skills. The few sidequests are boring....one small dungeon each or guessing which character you need in your party to recruit a support member. At no time in the game I was interested about the party members (almost none exicting background) or the main character. Oh, and its a short journey. If you don't dawdle you can see everything in less than 8 hours. Meeeh, there are better and longer RPG-Maker games around for less money.

This game looks and plays like Phantasy Star 4: End of the millenium or Barver Battle Saga, with some annoying mechanics gone and some fresh features added. Thats what I wanted to get. + 16-bit JRPG art style + no grind and random battles + nice combat system - easy to beat - a lot of characters are useless and can be easily deleted 8 / 10 for those, who love JRPG - worth buying