Kissed By A Star

THIS WAS INSANE. This was insane. This game moved me a whole lot. It's such good writing. So, to preface this review, I'll start with the bad: -This is a solo effort. There are typos here and there. There are shortcomings here and there. Despite this, my playthrough was remarkably bug-free and smooth. -Despite calling itself a turn based RPG, I wouldn't call it an RPG at all - battles swiftly become secondary to the plot and there's nothing in the way of progression OR roleplaying mechanics. With this being said. This is a DAMN GOOD story. I played it straight for 3 days nonstop til I beat it. Couldn't shut my eyes. I cried SEVERAL times playing it. The characters have much more depth to them than it first appears, and the story is LONG. But it also never meanders! There's a point to everything. So many interesting themes are explored. And the author manages to wrap around such a massive cast of characters. Foreshadow events. Connect the web of intersubjectivities in such fascinating ways. This is a stellar experience, one whom I won't be forgetting, and the characters I met through this journey will stick with me for a long time. One particular character's experience through the latter half of Act I - first half of Act II in particular resonates a lot with me and made me cry a lot. The game is heavy. The themes are heavy. It spares no gut punches. But it is good. It's beautiful. I'm surprised. Also, the score is great, and was all penned by the author as well as the graphics AND the writing and the gameplay etc. This truly is a powerful solo effort and it's impressive. But, as mentioned, it has the drawback of being an indie game with zero budget so it can get rough around the edges. Overall, it's a game with a clear vision that, barring the gameplay which is interesting but in my opinion falls flat (would be fine for a shorter game), is a masterful success. And there are several chapters with no gameplay anyway. Buy this game not if you're craving turn based RPG, but if you're craving a GREAT, thoughtfully and artfully written story, crafted from the heart, from an author that clearly has mature and sensitive eyes to what it means to be human. Was stellar. Totally.

The story was pretty decent, I felt some connection to some of the characters. Art seems pretty custom for the most part or maybe for all of it. Gameplay was almost nonexistent, super linear battles are very basic. Pricepoint is probably a little high, but overall I recommend the game. Full Review Here: https://youtu.be/HFIbzkvdOqM

I was originally waiting to finish the game before writing a review but it is longer than I expected, oops haha. Kissed by a Star is the latest game from zDS. If you don't know, zDS is a single RPG Maker developer that makes games with his own story, graphics, music, game mechanics, etc. He has previously released games for free and commercial on steam. I will probably edit this review to something more refined when I finish the game. • Can't help but be impressed by the amount of landscapes, full frame cinematic drawings, and the chipset variety. Definitely zDS' most ambitious game graphically. • The music is very good. The only zDS game I haven't played is the TGS remake on steam (A Ghostly Rose) so I can almost fully confirm it's his best music as well. • I really wasn't sure about the story at first, it was a bit overwhelming you have a bunch of characters and places names thrown at you, but I got waaay more invested in the story than I expected. It's very good so far but it absolutely is zDS' game with the most text/dialog, it is part VN. It's a bit depressive for sure, the writing and characters is good for now though I am undecided about the whole cast, I may update later. • The battles are very good. If you've played Ghostly Rose/Cope Island you will feel the same vibe. It doesn't have the "perfect battle" gameplay (where you manage to not lose hp in the combat) of some combats in cope island and ghostly roses but you fully heal after every combat. You definitely refine your strategy over time with a sepcific party and become better with them. If I had a complaint the battles are easier than in his other games but at the same time, since the game is very story based it's nice to not be interrupted by a bunch of game overs. Things you might like less: • It is also probably zDS' most linear game. Not a lot of exploration, you follow a path, there are dialogs and you fight battles. It works for me, it annoyed me more in FFXIII, but for this game being somewhat "on-rails" is nice as far as narrative go, the story is never interrupted by getting lost or missing an entrance that should've been obvious for a player character. • There are three things in this game: dialogs, battles and being able to move around. You can only save when you can open your menu (when you move around) there are times in the game where some cinematics are long, or you have cinematics → battle → cinematics chains that make it hard to save. I was always able to save before something critical, but when I want to stop playing sometimes I have to either keep going for a bit until I can save or accept that I will re play something I've already seen next time I play. I haven't had this problem for longer than 10-15 minutes though. • Some bugs and typos lingering but I have been documenting them and I am sure a lot of that will be fixed in patches soon. Nothing that impaired gameplay in any way. Recommend! I was surprised at the price tag based on cope island but now I get it.

I could spend a very long time talking about how much effort was put into this massive story, but for the sake of not giving too much away, I will post what I think is most important about Kissed By A Star. First off, the amount of characters in this game is ridiculous. There are so many different lives to learn about and most of them are intertwined to a degree that you do not see in most games. Every character has a purpose and the more you learn about them, the more you hope things will go well for them. But the world presented in Kissed By A Star is unforgiving, terrifying and just downright horrifying. The countless characters are always up against seemingly impossible odds. To me, that is what made everything so compelling. Many chapters you will feel like a character has no chance, then some insane miracle will happen and give them hope to continue on. Now don't let that scare you gameplay wise. The battles are very fast paced and never too hard. The world may be bleak, but you will never be stuck to move on and see what happens. And if you even just want to see what happens and not have any trouble, the dev has even added a story mode. I enjoyed encountering the bizarre enemies and foes throughout the game. They are full of imagination and always surprise you with how crazy they are. The bosses are always incredibly disturbing and a blast to take down. The fights are always varied with a big difference in weapon types and fighting style each character has. Some have guns. Some have swords. And some have weapons you'd never expect. It was always fun learning what weapon a certain character specializes in. Now onto one of my favorite parts of the game. THE MUSIC! There was so much time and effort put into the massive variety each area, scene and battle has. I could go on for ages talking about it. All completely crafted with songs that set the mood of this world so well that I was either nervous or pumped up due to the situation. You find out very fast with the flashy title screen, then shortly after your first boss kicks in with a fantastic theme that will get stuck in your head for a long time. You can really tell the dev put everything into the OST with a length almost crazy for a one man team. A full, super long RPG OST that never gets old. The idea of the game is very unique to me. You rarely see a role playing game with the storytelling of an epic TV series with multiple seasons. That's what this feels like. An RPG realized fully with no breaks. It’s all there to complete and ready to be immersed in. Because you will surely feel something for the characters you get attached to and the darkness you want them to defeat. A high recommend for me and something I hope more people will take a chance with.

[h2]Full review essay linked below[/h2] https://rpgmaker.net/games/12953/reviews/10320/ [h1]TL;DR: 5/10[/h1] [h3]BUT would vary a lot based on the individual![/h3] As in: [list] [*]Do you really enjoy YA novels? Do you like to read about teenage girl depression and heartbreak, for hours on end? [*]Do you really miss that thing GRRM did with making every chapter start with the POV character name? [*]Do you enjoy it when something is unabashedly political? As in, [b]actually[/b] full of barely-veiled references to both the US national politics and geopolitics? As well as LONG and earnest discussions of religion? [*]Do you really, [b]really[/b] like the way Earthbound LOOKS and sounds, and not so much the way it played? [*]...To the point you don't particularly care if every level is completely linear, without even any secrets to find? [*]...Because the game has no XP/equipment/consumables, progression tied to once-in-a-blue moon Act breaks? [*]Do you think it's fine when the combat so "unintrusive" that healing is indefinite and downed characters are auto-revived in a few turns? And that you can disable all of it anyway? [*]Do you think it's fine for guns to feel consistently worse than melee...until it's time for a cutscene? [*] Do you have only a cursory interest in modern warfare, and are going to ignore whole classes of weaponry being mysteriously absent in alt-2020s? [*]Do you have zero interest in logistics? In what it takes to feed, equip and train people? [/list] If so, this is a [b]definite[/b] recommend. Otherwise, not so much. P.S. Don't pay too much attention to hours on record. I bought Day 1, approached it the way a playtester would and often took breaks during its text cutscenes, so a normal playtime would be half of mine, if not less.

From the start the setting, premise, and mystery hooked me hard. Story wise I think this is going to be really good. I'm a couple of hours in and I can't stop playing. The combat is simple but with enough depth that it doesn't seem like it will get boring. The graphics, while also smile, are charming as hell. I'm enjoying the heck out of it and recommend it with ease.

Kissed by a Star is a visual novel made by an rpg junkie. I think it's important to know this beforehand so the expectations are set for a wordy game with light rpg elements. With that said, it does very well exactly what you would expect it to do. The game has a very compelling and intriguing story, with interesting characters (a glossary to boot to help refresh memory when needed) and the best character of all: the setting/world. The game is structured by (many) short chapters each with a different PoV, so you will be frequently racing across the game world with these characters while looking forward to the next PoV of your favorite char. This gives that "one more chapter" urge while playing and the game ends up having quite a few harrowing/gut-punching moments as these character's stories progress. All this is accompanied by a light turn based rpg system that is very interesting to play and each character has a unique feel to it. When I say light system, I mean no exp, level ups or random encounters. Every battle is tailored to the characters at hand. Even if you're not an rpg fan, you can just disable to lowest difficulty to experience the story, and I think the story is the reason to play this game.