Cosmic Star Heroine Reviews

Only 13 minutes in, I finished the tutorial If you're like me, you bought this game after playing the Cthulhu games the same company has made and this game is 100x more impressive I bought this game in the 2025 Steam Summer Sale, where it was discounted for $2.24 and I def think I got my money's worth Battles here are on-screen, like real-time, so no more awful battle counters from "Cthulhu Saves Xmas", and the battles here play out in the area you are physically at, so this game got rid of "field battles" like you see in games like Final Fantasy 7 Battle system here is more akin to Chrono Trigger but has several twists that might be difficult to master, such as the tutorial explaining that you can actually survive having your HP be less than 0 but it has specific requirements, so it isn't probably easy to understand that concept What I don't like is equipping items, because you have to remember to equip them to use them, kinda like the original Kingdom Hearts 1 I'd rather have a menu of items I've already collected that I can just go through, like standard JRPGs The story in this game is high sci-fi where everything is centered around futuristic tech and bases, which I don't like stories like that in JRPGs, but the story of this game within the first 13 minutes is hooking me in I really want to know more about this world and setting

An enjoyable modern RPG that tries to freshen up some of the staler aspects of the genre. Cool characters, good music, setpieces and an appropriately over-the-top story.

I support the effort. I wanted to like it. But: -The sci-fi/futuristic/cyberpunk visuals had bad aesthetics. Color palettes often looked gross. The glowing greens/blues looked bad alongside everything else. Character portraits with sci-fi gimmicks on eyes looked bad. -Environments looked bad, in my opinion. I've played 2D RPGs where sewers looked beautiful while still looking like sewers. In Cosmic Star Heroine I didn't want to look at the environments or be in them. -Some of the non-pixel-art looked a bit like random clip art. It didn't have cohesive palettes, and the style looked worse than a good SNES game. -Writing wasn't interesting. That's fatal for a textbox-based game. -The feel, art, animation, programming in battles felt cheap rather than good. I don't think i'ts a budget issue because I've played 2D games from 35 years ago that felt great. The trailer had moments that made me think the devs had good scenario/scene ideas, but unfortunately the actual game (rather than trailer highlights) didn't feel that way.

Introduction Cosmic Star Heroine, is a love letter to classic 16-bit JRPGs like Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star. It blends stylish, fast-paced combat with an energetic sci-fi storyline that keeps players invested from start to finish. But while the game shines in many areas, one particular technical issue undermines the overall experience—especially for those who aren’t saving constantly. Gameplay & Combat The gameplay is a standout feature. Battles are turn-based but strategically rich, with a system that rewards planning over grinding. Each character has a limited number of abilities they can use before needing to recharge, making every action meaningful. You also build a party of charming and diverse heroes, each with unique skillsets that interact well together in combat. There's no random battles; encounters are hand-placed, which encourages exploration without feeling punishing. Outside of combat, the game offers light puzzle-solving, item collecting, and exploration across various futuristic cities and alien environments. The pacing is tight, and the overall length feels just right—not bloated, but substantial. Story & Presentation The narrative is equally entertaining, blending of classic space opera tropes with witty dialogue and a vibrant cast. The pixel art style is beautifully crafted, and the synth-heavy soundtrack complements the retro-futuristic atmosphere perfectly. Major Frustration: The Movement Bug & Save System Unfortunately, Cosmic Star Heroine suffers from a serious bug where characters can suddenly become stuck and unable to move—effectively freezing progress. This bug is especially punishing because the game lacks an auto-save feature. If you haven't manually saved recently (which the game does not frequently remind you to do), you may be forced to redo hours of gameplay. This issue severely impacts an otherwise great experience. For a game that encourages exploration and immersion, being yanked out of that experience due to a technical flaw is frustrating, especially when it results in lost progress. While saving often is good RPG practice, modern players expect some degree of safeguard against unexpected crashes or bugs. Conclusion Cosmic Star Heroine is a delightful retro RPG with exciting combat, a charismatic story, and stylish presentation. It’s a must-play for fans of classic JRPGs—but with one caveat: save early, save often. Until the movement bug is patched or an auto-save system is added, players should be wary of the risk of losing significant progress. Despite this, if you're willing to stay vigilant with your saves, the journey is well worth taking. Rating: 6/10 An excellent game held back by a preventable frustration.

Before playing I saw someone sum up Cosmic Star Heroine as a classic Phantasy Star game with a light touch of Chrono Trigger and honestly that is a pretty perfect descriptor. Though of course it is not on the level of those classics, it does find an identity of its own, especially with very brisk pacing, a unique yet simple to get into battle system and four different difficulty options that you can swap around any time. I would actually say that this is a good way to ease people into some classic JRPGs due to that and with how the first two thirds of the game are relatively railroaded. I never got lost or confused which is something that happens to me constantly in the titles that inspired this game. The soundtrack is particularly fantastic. Clearly the intention was to replicate the feeling of SEGA CD or TurboGrafx CD era RPGs and they absolutely nailed it. Each planet has a unique feel, most characters have a solid introductory theme and the more common tracks like the main battle theme never overstayed their welcome. Do yourself a favor and buy the soundtrack with the game, especially if you are getting this on a discount. The background art is wonderful across the board, but the character and sparse cutscene graphics were sometimes a bit unpleasant to me personally. The low fidelity look of the space flight segments were very charming though and really nailed the aesthetic of the early 90s CD based RPGs. My core issue with Cosmic Star Heroine is that the writing is extremely flat and dry. The game constantly introduces new characters and for the most part it just felt like the devs wanted to put every idea they had in without using that time to make any of them more interesting. Most of the cast has special optional segments you can tackle near the end of the game, but I feel like if they maybe halved the amount of major characters that time could have been used to really make the cast and universe feel special. This all really stands out to me because there was a major reveal from someone later on in the game and I legitimately forgot they even existed before then. If story is the most important aspect of JRPGs to you I would say maybe avoid this game outright because of that. Upon initial boot on Steam Deck the resolution needs to be adjusted, but after that point I had no issues. The game lets you save after every encounter and barely uses battery power at all so I found it to be an excellent portable game that was fun to chip away at.