Sigma Star Saga DX

Trailer gives the impression that there is remastered soundtrack. It does just seem to be that one song, which is a bummer. No autofire options, my arm was sore after 1h of gameplay. Not a fan of dialogue changes "Sorry, it had to be a lethal dose" changed into "Sorry, it had to be a powerful dose" just doesn't feel the same.

[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote] [quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - Seriously Flawed ★★☆☆☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] I don't have previous experience with Sigma Star Saga DX (SSS), which was originally released in 2005. The idea of a SHMUP with RPG elements sounded interesting, if not a bit odd. Despite not being called a remix or remaster, the store page indicates they've made some changes, such as adding more save points. This sounds like the best version of the game I could try out, and that's what worries me. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Most of the time, you have a third-person, overhead view. You're either onboard one of the krill ships, advancing the story, or completing mission objectives on a planet. Starting off with just a firearm, you'll kill enemies, but there's no benefit from fighting in these sections. As your reputation with the krill improves, they'll provide you with more equipment, allowing you to interact with a wider range of items, such as red panels and stone pillars. When you play the SHMUP sections, 95% of the time it's a random encounter. In SSS, being teleported into a short SHMUP segment is the equivalent to fighting monsters in a normal RPG. These battles are worth fighting because you'll level up, but there's no way to avoid them. The other time these occur is after finishing a key objective, where you're then prepped to fly a ship for a plot relevant reason. Compared to the random encounters, these sections are considerably longer, and culminate with a boss battle. If this version reduced the encounter rate, I can only imagine how debilitating it was originally, because I thought it was egregious enough in this iteration. On that matter, I don't understand why they don't have significantly more SHMUP arrangements on each planet. Knowing you were going to make players do the same thing so often, you didn't bother putting in more than a handful of basic patterns? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3703849638 [h1]Controls[/h1] Despite my other complaints, I didn't have much issue with the game's controls. Figuring out how to navigate the menus initially confused me, but that doesn't have an impact on the gameplay. Plus, after a while, you get used to the odd inputs they chose. [h1]Story[/h1] What surprises me most about SSS' story is that someone didn't write it in the current year. Your only method to convey vital, top-secret information as a double agent is using the enemy's technology and devices to make the equivalent of a long-distance phone call, “Couldn't you have sprung for a covert communicator of some kind?” The enemy isn't much better, because despite having an invasive parasite forced on me, it can't rat me out for being the mole? Watching a stilted relationship form between Recker and Psyme also made me roll my eyes, as it seemed so unnatural and forced. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3703848701 [h1]Visuals[/h1] Many 2D titles utilize layering of the foreground and background to create an illusion of depth, so seeing enemies move through solid walls doesn't bother me. I would assume that because I can't see the Z-axis, they're meant to be some distance away from the background, not an incorporeal object phasing through walls. However, with enemies able to do this, while any brush with a wall blows up my ship and respawns it, it begs the question of what perspective I'm supposed to see this from. If I'm able to fire on these ships, why is there a different set of rules for how we interact with the environment? No wonder I can't tell what's a real wall or merely decoration. Seemingly the developers wanted players to contend with tight spaces that wouldn't instant-kill them, yet not have to worry about enemy patterns taking the background into account. It's such an odd issue I've not seen in other SHMUPs before. Although not as bad, the slopes and hills in the overworld throw off my sense of depth as well. [h1]Sound Design[/h1] Due to the volume of firing your projectile, most of the time you won't be able to hear the background music. Even when you can, there's only one song per general area. For instance, even though you can visually tell the difference between vessels, they all play the same tune while you're stationed there. You aren't stuck on any given planet for too long, so the music doesn't become obnoxious while there, but there is another factor that will get on your nerves. From all the times you're summoned against your will, you will come to hate the cue that plays when a ship abducts you, “Stop calling me each time 10 little enemies spook you!” https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3703849168 [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 You can rewind gameplay in order to avoid simple mistakes. If you ever have to stop during the game, bring up the overlay so you don't waste your rewind bar on the pause screen. 🌟 Some areas can be oddly hard, but the game feels easy overall. When exploring the planets, enemies barely dent your large health bar. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ Everything in the game has incredibly strict spawn points. On planets, enemies always appear in the exact same place, and the SHMUP sections only have a few patterns. ❌ Merely trying to explore is kind of hard because you get interrupted by SHMUP sections so often. They also don't feel worthwhile due to being so short. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 There's not much reason to scour the first few planets, because you need equipment from later on to go everywhere available. 🔍 Once you get the scanner, walk everywhere with it equipped. You never know where gun data might be hidden. 🔍 After finding a good bullet pattern or effect, there's little reason to switch it. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] It surprises me how others haven't taken the idea of grafting another type of game onto a SHMUP. After all, there's not much you can do to make it last without requiring players to repeat the same levels numerous times. Although I maintain this is a good idea, much about SSS was remarkably clumsy. The writing doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny, a high encounter rate with so little variance is confounding, some bullet patterns seem useless, and constant interruptions to exploration made me want to scream. Sadly, I'm taken aback by such significant problems with this game's design. Did nobody ever raise a complaint or criticism about so many of these aspects that clearly suck? From what I know of SSS, this isn't a messed-up version of a beloved classic, they merely chose to remake a game with several flaws. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]The game ran without incident on default settings. 💖 - SSS is healthy [/td] [/tr] [/table]

I adore the original game, and this rerelease is a delight of QoL and convenience. The changes made to the base balance make the whole game faster, less grindy, and allow exploration to be more enjoyable as we're interrupted far less when hunting for elusive Gun Data. For those who are new to the game: it's a narrative-driven adventure with shmup random (and plot) battles. It's a peculiar mix of genres that's executed quite well through the plot device that experience is retained by the pilot, so every battle allows you to grow stronger as you would in a classic JRPG. The plot remains as engaging as it was, with an apparent straightforward infiltration affair that devolves into conspiracy and layers of doubt: the writing is simple but to the point, and characters are surprisingly developed (even if their cheesecake design might have you thinking otherwise). All in all: it may "just" be an emulator wrapper and some "fixes" that mainly adress the OG game's grindiness, but it's a convenient way to (re)discover what was a lovely experimental game back then, and as this rerelease proves : a lovable alien tha's still as fun as it was, if not moreso.

As someone who has gone through 77 playthroughs of the original GBA game trying to find all the gun data and generally enjoying the game I can definitely say that I'm enjoying the next 3 runs so far. With this being a Euroshmup/RPG hybrid, the encounters and exploration feels like it's been improved a lot with the new maps and dialogue queues, and where a lot of the early battles (looking at you fire planet) felt a bit grindy but enjoyable in the OG game, that's been reduced a fair bit here. As of now I think my only con at the moment is a few dialogue changes, and I've had weird frame drops while streaming but it hasn't made it unplayable and might just be stream related, will update this section after I get more time in. At the end of the day though, I'm already a fan and more of this or even a possible sequel or side story would be amazing. Check the game out, see if you enjoy it because I love it and I hope you will too.

Great game thus far. I missed out on this back in the day sadly. But poor marketing will do that. Game has runs smooth as silk. Only on ch2 but no issues thus far. Wayforward has a really good track record. If you like Blaster Master Zero 1-3 or The Guardian Legend for the nes, you'll like this game. Would like to see future instalments of this turning into a serise like the Shante games (also REALLY GOOD) btw. Give it a chance.

I am a simple man....i see Wayforward...Shmup...RPG...AND BUY! Joking aside, A Game Boy Advance LEGEND returns! I got to chapter 2 and the game runs and plays great! Keep in mind this is a GBA game but its still fun and holds up!! 10/10.

I have only played to about the end of the first chapter, but what I will say is this. This rerelease is a blessing for this game ngl. To start, you can finally know where to go while on planets instead of aimlessly wondering around trying to find where you're supposed to go. It's really great! Second, you may remember the other woe of having to do this in the original GBA game, the random encounters... I can confirm that they have been reduced in this and it is glorious. When traveling to the first objective after the random encounters are introduced, I only had 3 happen compared to the 6 or 7 that would have happened, and only 3 happened on the way back to the starbase. The game is so much better without constantly being stopped or not knowing where to go. Speaking of knowing where to go, the starbases still do not have a map when you go into the select screen. Instead, it seems dialogue has been added to help guide you on where to go. It's helpful but i do kinda wish an actual map was available for the bases. Now for some odd things with this version. More save points have been added around the planets for you to save and recharge your health, but because this version uses the Carbon Engine, you can easily pop open a menu at the push of a button and make a save state and load from that, which feels a bit redundant. You also have a rewind feature, which is helpful but still feels weird along with having the save states while more actual save points were added in the game. Overall, i'm glad the game has been fixed up by Wayforward to make it a better experience to play than being stuck in random encounter hell, but it just feels odd that it's basically a fixed version of the game through what's basically a GBA rom being emulated in Limited Run's engine. I would definitely recommend this version for people to play though compared to the original. Edit: I would like to mention with the save state feature, it's not multiple slots that you can save to for it. It's just a single save state slot you are able to use.

Recker:"They sure don't make them like they do back on Earth." Never took Recker to be into tentacles. Then again. Psyme is such a baddie. Would partner up with her for sure. Based Tomboy Alien!

Great fanservice (Psyme is [i]extremely[/i] hot), love the pixel art as well as shoot em up sections in space. A lot of gun combinations to find and try out that helps with replayability, On the ground, you get more varieties of equipment to further your exploration capabilities as the game goes on. But your basic gun doesn't ever get an upgrade and I eventually just resorted to using the Krill Puck that 1 shots every enemy. There's perhaps a bit too much backtracking than I would have liked, an option to fast travel between save points would have been welcome as well. Overall a solid 7.5/10