Stardust Valkyries Reviews

I got this game because I thought it looked alright mechanically, and let me tell you this game is a blast. This game is like Super Smash Brothers Melee except everyone has Fox or Falco's shine as a down b. The combo trials are great at teaching you what the game's mechanics are capable of and teach you about L-canceling and jump-canceling mid combo. The combo trials reset your position after it detects that you failed, but I wish that there was a brief second where the game didn't take your inputs after failing a combo. I find myself always moving out of position when it resets me because of this. Either that or have a longer pause after detecting fail state but whatever. I got the game one sale for a buck, but the full price is still worth it, especially if you have a friend or two to play with. The online is great, I haven't had much trouble finding matches yet, but your millage may very. The music is pretty solid, the character designs are alright, models are a bit rough up close but in gameplay I don't mind. It took me a little bit to get the hang of, mostly because the movement is very different. There is no walking (unless you count the weird crouch walk thing) Dash dancing is very common for me because you can't mess it up. Wall jumps are important in recovery. The ledge is grabable like Melee. The last thing I have to say about this game if you buy it is this: Know what it is you are giving your money too, this is just a single developer on this game here. I went in with medium to low expectations and was pleasantly surprised to find deep combat and unique fighters (while there are obvious connections to other plat fighter moves on some characters the differences outweigh the similarities).

The game is great. It has a lot of characters. Has a cool aesthetic. Has a lot little things to seek your teeth into like character personalities. Sure, there's some jank in there but the dev clearly cares and wants the game to grow. They do that by giving updates to graphics, getting rid of some of the obnoxious competitive stuff and just adding tools to characters. The only problem is really single player stuff. There is an arcade mode but nothing else for casual people to enjoy. I do wish in the future that stuff could be in there to help the game seem more appealing. But i get it. Its only one person operating everything. I cant wish for ONE person to do all of that. Maybe if..... When... we get a Stardust Valkyries 2. Or maybe some new help could help it. But if you just want a cool platform fighter to have matches with friends.... then you'll love this one a cool 8/10 for me

03/14/22: i put the date because this game has improved a ton in the newest update, so hopefully this review wll be outdated the characters and gameplay have some unique ideas that i think are cool. the movesets feel new and there are a lot of interesting specials in this game. i love the backgrounds, effects, and the overall aesthetics. i do think the characters could use some more touching up artwise, especially the faces. some like minkata, zeniah, vesper look really good, but tycho, cassia, ayrie, and castor's nose could use some work. replacing roll with essentially wavedash out of shield by just moving the stick is fun, and everyone having a shine is awesome. i think the base gameplay should continue to be hashed out however. i would suggest focusing on making the game feel smooth, more than anything. everything feels incredibly stiff. -landing lag should be removed when you empty hop, as you can't even jump in the air without having to pause upon landing. in every other platformer, platform fighter, or fighter, you would immediately be able to move. -having to double tap down to fall beneath a platform you're standing on makes them feel really sticky, should just fall on the first push -running off the ledge should maintain your momentum. it kinda seems like it does, but with castor it at least feels like he slows down -because the animations aren't as fluid, the screen shake/zoom on each hit makes the game feel jankier than it really is. It's more of an issue when you are both close together anad the screen is zoomed in, like if you're in the middle of the stage. notice how if you're both on the top platform, the zoom isn't that bad at all. -having fullhop be the same height regardless of how long the button is held doesn't feel great either -this may be out of scope with the creators vision, but i think a walk animation would help the game feel smoother, though i understand if that's not in the vision -buffer could be a little more lenient. it feels sticky when you land with an aerial and press jump and you're stuck still standing there -if you could take away the black bars on the screen whenever someone dies, it would be awesome -moving in the air doesn't feel the best, don't know how to articulate it -in general, good animation can really sell fluidity. i'd assume its the most expensive and difficult part of making a game, but I do think more attention to them can really help out in the long run. Some of the stiffness may feel amplified cause i play castor. moves like his fair feel really unsatisfying when it kills all your momentum, though I get that its the point. I think his forward attack animation could be smoothed out more instead of being such an abrubt 1-2. his bair is amazing, and i think more of a transition animation during the startup into his regular attack would make it feel/appear even better. I generally like the music, and I'm no music expert at all, but I do think the opening theme, at least the beginning before the drums kick in, doesn't give the best first impression. I think cause it seems like its in minor key (like i sad i'm no expert) and because of how harsh it kind of starts. Especially because the main menu just pops in with no transition or fade in, it kinda slaps you with that first note lol. i wonder what it would sound like with the intro being a bit slower with a piano or strings at the beginning, and maybe that only plays on loops until you select a game mode, then it fades in/transitions into the normal song with drums kicking in (feel free to ignore this part lol). Overall I'd say give the game a shot, I'll still be sticking around so I can join tournaments and see what fully becomes of stardust valkyries! Game has a lot of potential.

The fun diverse roster, speedy gameplay, makes this game an adrenaline rush of fun That Sol Badguy lookin mf can go die tho playing against him is aids lmao

This game gave me a wide smile and it made me feel like the first time I played platform fighters back in the early '00s. It's responsive, has a sizeable cast, very cool gimmicks (the black hole character!) and -honestly- for the price it is right now (90% discount at the time of writing) it's simply a steal. Unfortunately I'm pretty bad with remembering character names, but my favorite was the sword character with triple jump and the setup orb as her neutral special. She was so much fun to play in Arcade mode! I'm a casual player when it comes to platform fighters, but this struck all the right chords! Kudos to the small development team (maybe just one person?) that put together this hidden gem of a game!

This game is better than a lot of platform fighters: Slap city nickelodeon 3d all stars multiversus brawlout It is legitimately worth a shot if your willing to put up with the hilarious jank and learn some of the fundamentals. with a larger player base this game would be incredibly fun

(REVIEW EDITED BASED ON NEW UPDATES THAT ADDRESSed MY MAIN ISSUES) Very barebones game, but the training mode is solid and the character designs are genuinely unique and interesting. The netcode is decent, on-par or better than Rivals of Aether's, at least. Combo trials are a pretty neat feature that I wish other platfighters had. Training mode is pretty solid, too. Some design choices are weird, like how the game registers your tech inputs and L-Cancelling having a tighter window than in Melee, but the L-Cancel thing doesn't matter *too* much due it being a less necessary mechanic overall. Stardust Valkyries *is* pretty much just an online mode and a training mode, but most fighting games are like that nowadays, which more so speaks about the industry overall. Good game now, you should try it if you think it looks cool.

We have yet another developer throwing their hat into the platfom fighter ring. After Smash Ultimate, the big boys mainly consist of the upcoming Fraymakers, alongside the brilliant Nickelodeon All Star Brawl and the... Interesting Multiversus. Now we have Stardust Valkyries by Nucko Games. An indie platform fighter starring original characters, advertised as combining platform fighters with anime fighters, and the potential is so huge for something like this! But is that reached? Gameplay: What we have here is basically a platform fighter that takes heavy inspiration from Melee. Meaning you get that game's wavedashing, that game's L canceling, air dodging, etc. Just with this new cast of characters. But there are some new mechanics, mainly being able to cancel some normals into specials. And that's really it, unlike something like Nick Brawl, this game doesn't do much to differentiate itself from Melee. And while that isn't immedietly a bad thing, there are some things that heavily drag the gameplay down. One example is that when I say it takes influence from Melee, that also includes the lack of leniancy. In modern platform fighters that have wavedashing, the effect is super noticable since it takes you far, and the game does allow for shortcuts or buffers to get quick wavedashing. This game doesn't have it, so you need to do it like Melee, meaning the game can be somewhat clunky to play. Especially to those not used to how wavedashing used to work. Another fatal flaw is that the controller support is so clumsily implemented. For one, you aren't allowed to use the trigger buttons for some reason, so if you normally use those for grab macros, you can just go to hell. But a big fatal flaw is how sensitive the game is to analogue inputs. Imagine this situation: You want to do a D-Air to spike someone, but because you moved the stick 1% to the right, you're getting a F-Air instead. That's bad, and I don't know if the sensitivity can be changed or not, but this being the default sensitivity will definitely be a bad first impression and make people not want to keep playing There's also minor stuff like how everyone has the same D-Spec, as well as some stuff that feels missing or wrong, like how there are basically no settings for arcade mode. Not even difficulty. And on top of that, you don't get any healing or life refills after a match, so you have to play arcade mode in one sweep. Jeez! But don't think I hate the gameplay. No, because there is still a fast paced game here, since it is based on Melee, which can allow for fast and fun combos that will impress your friends, and the game knows this since it includes a robust training mode with frame data and even trials. Not common for a platform fighter. It's pretty good and deserves a respectable 7/10. Graphics and Presentation: The game looks kinda ugly, I ain't gonna lie. Each character, while having good designs, are held back with super low poly counts (And not in a charming way), alongside some really stiff animations. I get the devs might not have been used to 3D games, but still, it's super noticable. Stages also look kind of boring as there isn't much going on in any of them, so really, there's not much to comment on. Speaking of the character designs though, one thing I like is that when hovering over the characters, alongside some general stats, the game also lists their pronouns, which I think is a neat addition for representation, including a non binary character, as well as other characters that use they as one of their pronouns. That is something I appreciate. Plus, you'll find some nice easter eggs, like the nb character using Potempkin Buster, which I liked a lot. Still, the stiff animations and bad models drag the game down to a 4/10 here Performance: Even though my PC can play much more graphically intense games at higher graphics options, this game is just optimized really badly. Even on some of the lowest settings, I still run into stuttering when playing, and bad stuttering too. For a game like this, this is unacceptable, and it doesn't help that the game likes to have a hard time even starting up. Yeesh! At least it's not Rushdown Revolt which has a 100% chance of crashing whenever I try to run it. But performance still gets a 2/10 Sound and Soundtrack: It felt very average. Attack sounds are your standard attack sounds, the music fit, but wasn't memorable, characters don't have voice acting, etc. It felt very... Average. So average I don't really have anything to comment on. It's just that average. This average sounding game gets an average 5/10. Online: While this game has rollback, I have yet to test it, so I won't be scoring this as of now. Final Thoughts: This game has so much potential. And in some cases, it does. Like the fast gameplay, good character designs, and representation. However, the average sounds, awful graphics, and gameplay issues hold it back HARD! It may sound like I didn't like this game overall, but I did. I wanted to make this review to help share my worries with the game so the devs know what they should focus on should they continue working on the game. I feel this is something that could get big over time, especially with that fun gameplay. However, with everything holding it back, this game gets a 6/10 with a side of a missed wavedash. I can just about recommend this game, but I understand if someone would be put off by the issues listed. Still, I want you all to give this a chance and hopefully, this game will be popular and encourage the devs to keep working.

It's cool. It's got a lot of good ideas and I hope more development time goes into it to make it feel like it has more impact and also feels more controllable. I just recommend it because it's a cool indie game at a reasonable price.

Sadly, this games cons are detrimental to the experience and outweigh the cons for me. Short version: Pros: -Incredibly interesting concept of balancing the cast around everyone having shine. -Cool character designs and expands on the existing fighting game concepts. -Good controller support (other than the issue I had explained later). -Online (idk if its good but for an indie game that's more than enough). -Good music -Cool stage designs Cons: -Not so polished animations that feel lifeless at times. -VFXs on moves are so minimal that most moves feel powerless or confusing on what is happening, -Gravity and movement feels clunky and frustrating at times, with a lack of polish. -While characters are interesting, existing global gameplay doesn't have any new features or anything that makes it stand out to other platform fighters. -While the stage designs are good, the platform layout is really strange and overall bland, and the platforms themselves act like walls sometimes which can mess up certain combos. -Graphically unimpressive and lacks real visual style. -Camera loves to not follow the stage but the player, meaning if someone dies you get some nice frames of nothing. -Infinite stalling is super easy, and there's some glitches that make characters impossible to kill. Long Version: As to say, this game suffers from being really early in development and I cant say its worth the price right now for what you're paying for. It feels like it needs way more time to cook in the oven, and purchasing this game should come with the understanding that it doesn't feel ready for a public release on steam, or as a 1.0 version. I believe this game should focus on aspects outside of making characters for the next few updates and expand upon the games existing engine, artstyle, and animations to make this game feel special and expand on those concepts they have already presented (with astrology based stages and cool concepts of characters). I want to see this game become something amazing but it needs to find itself before you pay for a game. Also, im glad I could help the dev Zwei fix a detrimental game error that made the game unplayable. Can't wait for the future.