Another Star

<SIGH> It is a real shame, b/c the game has a lot of good ideas, and it's only a few decisions that really screw it up; but I have to give it a thumbs down. The problem really comes once you get your 2nd party member, & realize that the action choice is for the ENTIRE party. As is item & magic. That's right... each turn of combat is picking ONE thing the ENTIRE party does, you literally can make ONE decision per turn. Also, the fight action for both you and the enemy is un-directed, attacks from ea. character/enemy tries to hit every opponent in the combat. Both of these choices combine to throw almost all tactical depth out the window. This is the first RPG game I have ever played where getting a 2nd character became a liability... b/c instead of that character giving you an additional tactical choice each turn, they essentially just become an extra fight attack. An extra attack with its own, lower health bar that you have to waste time with defend/item action to keep alive, sacrificing the attack that could have come for your other, full health hero. The simple additions of letting you choose an action for each character, and requiring players to choose which enemy/group of enemies to attack, would have made the experience so much better. As it is the grind is REALLY noticeable, and tactical choice is restricted to knowing to cast the element the enemy is weak to a lot. I have an inkling that they were trying to mainly imitate the original Dragon Quest... without taking into account that in the original DQ you didn't have a party, and you fought only a single enemy at a time. Later DQ games, with more player characters, you got to do multiple actions per turn, and you had to decide what enemy you hit with an attack command. In addition to royally screwing up the battle mechanics, they game cheaps out on having towns you can actually explore. most cases you walk over a town and just get a menu to rest/shop/etc. I'm just really, really disapointed. The game runs well, they got the aesthetic spot on, the world & story are interesting... & if they had just put the time in to flesh out mechanics instead of taking shortcuts, ESPECIALLY with the combat, this would be a positive review. And the changes to the battle mechanics are not, to put it bluntly, rocket science. We're talking basic features present in some of the oldest genre games.

A very good retro-revisit of the old NES-style RPGs. Quality work. Nice battle mechanics, including a magic system that makes you think. The game world is huge, in an ever-sprawling world, and there is a very good story-line that ties everything together. This is not a sarcastic parody like so many other retro titles. This developer spent a lot of time and painstaking effort making this a balanced and interesting game that stands up to other games of the genre. One interesting game design aspect is how the game asks you how much old-school grinding that you would enjoy, at the start of the adventure. I chose a medium level, and I found the gameplay suited to my tastes. I have spent so much time playing Another Star recently. Check out the game demo on the dev website, because the gameplay has been consistently good throughout. The map exploration, narrative story, character upgrades, and especially the fight mechanics have been smart and challenging. This is one of those game that is an extremely great value purchase and a great quality purchase, but only if you are interested in this quirky style of gameplay. Played this on an old ubuntu machine with radeon mesa graphic drivers. The game speed is solid, even on minimum specs. The game was made using .NET and Mono to port it. I could not get the xbox type gamepad to work correctly with Steam's "controller support" turned on, and the keyboard controls are clunky, but configurable through a textfile. The game install size is 150MB, and the chiptune music is available in the local directories in vorbis file format. A higher quality MP3 version of the songs is also available. I would recommend this game for people who can appreciate this 8-bit gameplay style, otherwise folks might get annoyed with the somewhat slower combat.

Great retro game ruined by horrible combat: No secondary ressources (mana / stamina), no individual targeting (you attack all enemies at once) and no individual actions for your characters.

Как будто встретил старого друга, который стал только лучше. Та же душа, те же теплые чувства, но совершенно новый уровень глубины. Думал, будет приятная встреча, а оказалось самое яркое событие года. 10/10

I am 32 years old. My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old. When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing. Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side. With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay. After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like. Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends. Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together. Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that. Thank you.

Another Star es un juego de rol con combate por turnos muy a la vieja usanza, al estilo de mediados de los años 80. La historia es simple pero efectiva, la cosa va de que una estrella cae en la tierra, y dicha estrella contiene una fuerza que rompería el balance de poder en el planeta, y a partir de esta base comenzamos con nuestras aventuras. La jugabilidad es bastante simple, como lo eran los RPG de las épocas dichas anteriormente: tenemos a nuestro personaje que tiene que subir de nivel, más adelante podemos conseguir compañeros que se unan al grupo, tenemos slimes, encuentros aleatorios con enemigos y un gran mundo y mazmorras que explorar. Los enemigos son slimes, árboles, humanos y toda clase de monstruos típicos de los RPG clásicos. El mapa es bastante grande y la exploración compensa tanto en el mundo abierto como en las mazmorras, donde vamos a encontrarnos armaduras, armas, cofres con oro... lo de siempre. El sistema de combate por turnos es muy pero que muy vieja escuela, ya que nuestro turno será compartido con nuestro grupo en caso de tenerlo, además de que la acción que elijamos será la misma, es decir que si por ejemplo elegimos atacar, todo nuestro grupo atacará, no podemos elegir acciones distintas para cada personaje del grupo. Lo mismo se aplica a los enemigos, aparte de que cuando atacamos afecta a todos los enemigos a la vez. Muchos se quejaron de este sistema de combate, pero gente, ustedes no tocaron un RPG en su vida. Para ustedes los RPG empiezan y terminan con Final Fantasy, y seguro los jugaron por puro postureo, si es que siquiera lo hicieron. Este tipo de sistema de combate sin posibilidad de elección era el pan de cada día a principios de los 80, y sin ir más lejos, el primer Dragon Quest se juega de esta forma, así que a llorar a la iglesia. Un aspecto que quiero destacar es que se puede elegir la dificultad (que afecta a daños y salud básicamente) y también la cantidad de experiencia que se gana. Por ejemplo, si queremos enfocarnos en la historia o simplemente tenemos poco tiempo para jugar, podemos poner dificultad fácil y experiencia ganada alta, y así el proceso será mucho más rápido. Yo personalmente lo jugué en difícil y con experiencia ganada en el modo "vieja escuela", porque disfruto mucho del proceso de farmear XP. Estos ajustes se pueden cambiar en todo momento, es decir durante la partida, así que si cambias de opinión con respecto a alguno de ellos, se puede dar marcha atrás. Ya para cerrar, quiero declarar mi odio hacia los filtros de suavizado y curvatura que simulan televisores de antaño, por suerte se pueden desactivar, sino pedía un reembolso. En conclusión, me gustó mucho este juego, y lo recomendaría a alguien que le gustan los RPG viejitos, de los años 80 o incluso de fines de los 70. No lo recomiendo para nada para un nuevo jugador de RPG. Por cierto, me olvidé de hablar de la banda sonora y me da pereza editar lo ya escrito, así que lo digo acá: es la leche en vinagre, sencillamente me gustó muchísimo. Dicho esto, le otorgo a Another Star una puntuación de 80/100 ♥ Si esta reseña te pareció útil, divertida y buscás más reseñas por el estilo, por favor, considerá seguirme como mentor: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43250695/

One of my favorite indie JRPGs for a decade now. It doesn't have the most depth, the prettiest art, or the best story, but something about it just clicks for me and feels incredibly authentic to the era it calls back to. I love the little gameplay features that give it an identity of its own, like the optional battle system, though I can understand why selecting combat options for only a single party member is a deal-breaker for some. Never bothered me though, I still love this game.

Not bad old-school jRPG. Retro visual effects can be disabled and that's nice. The gameplay is very simplified compared to another games of this genre. Therefore I can spot few interesting ideas in the overall game design. Some of them are really neat, other can spoil the experience (you'll understand what I mean after a couple of fights). So I can recommend this game after all considering you can grab it with a very generous discount.

The Dark Souls of DragonQuest-likes

Perfectly fine generic RPG with a couple interesting mechanics.