Wander Stars

While I'm always down for a tribute to 90's anime and a unique concept for an RPG, this didn't stick with me as much as I wish it did. The story gets kinda lame and it's hard to stick with; and the combat becomes rather dull. But is spiced up nicely with a SPIRIT JUSTICE or ATOMIC BLAST. There are some bugs where you'll end up skipping a turn or the cursor doesn't scroll and you end up checking out something not visible, but this is a small project so I'm more willing to look past that. This game definitely isn't anyone's first choice, but worth checking out regardless.

Likeable characters, solid writing, great music, wonderful art, and a battle system that is as unique as it is approachable. A little early for a review, but I have a feeling I'm only going to like this game more the more I play it, and the episodic structure makes me think that I'm probably not going to burn out on this like I tend to do with even my favorite roguelites. If I had to scrounge for a complaint I would only have one, and would only share it reluctantly: it would be nice if there was voice acting. That's it, that's my one complaint, but I also find it's not diminishing my enjoyment in the slightest, and it's also worth noting that at this price point it doesn't make sense to expect voice acting, especially with such a story heavy game. And speaking of price point, at the pace this playthrough is going it seems like a lot of bang for the buck, especially because I know I'm going to go back and do a challenge run (which is not something I usually bother with). I've never called something a 10/10 game, not even my favorites of all time, but so far this game seems to perfectly deliver on its highly entertaining promise. I'm sure there's some turn-based RPG expert who can explain how the battle system is easily cheesable or something, and in that case fine, sure, I'll say 9.5/10. But until then...

[b][u]O JOGO[/u][/b] Wander Stars é um RPG desenvolvido pela Paper Castle Games e distribuído pela Fellow Traveller. Acompanhamos a história de Ringo, uma jovem praticante de Kiai, uma arte marcial conhecida por todos no universo. Quando Ringo é enviada até a mercearia pela sua avó, ela acaba avistando uma moto espacial caindo na praia. E é assim que ela conhece Wolfe, um malandro que está em busca de fragmentos de um mapa que, coincidentemente, Ringo também possui. Após serem confrontados por um antigo parceiro de Wolfe, a avó de Ringo pede para que ela una forças com seu novo aliado e procurem os fragmentos de mapa pelo universo. E assim, Ringo entra em uma aventura para, também, achar seu irmão. [b][u]MINHAS IMPRESSÕES[/u][/b] Desde que tomei conhecimento de Wander Stars, fiquei muito curioso em como esse jogo funcionaria. Usar palavras para montar seus golpes é algo bem criativo por si só, o que já me deixaria animado. Obviamente que não podemos achar que teremos infinitas palavras e uma liberdade irrestrita para formar golpes, mas 200 palavras me servem bem, obrigado. Entre palavras de golpe, efeito e utilidade, é crucial entender como atacar seus oponentes, tentando descobrir suas fraquezas e resistências. Ainda que você possa nocautear os inimigos, o estilo de luta Kiai preza pela honra, que aqui se traduz em deixar seu oponente no limite para ser nocauteado, de guarda baixa, te dando a opção de "paz", que encerra a luta. Você é recompensado ao fazer isso, ganhando Pep Ups, que eu não consegui achar uma tradução boa para isso, mas são algumas melhorias que você pode equipar, ajudando em suas batalhas e fora delas também. Quase como um episódio de anime, você assiste as interações dos personagens, que são bem expressivos e animados. O jogo não está em Português-Brasil, o que é uma pena, pois muitas pessoas não falantes da língua inglesa vão acabar perdendo o interesse na história. E então você joga num tipo de tabuleiro, onde cada casa vai te oferecer alguma ação, sejam batalhas, itens ou até mesmo uma interação de personagens. Confesso que não esperava que o jogo fosse usar esse tipo de jogabilidade, o que inicialmente não me empolgou, mas logo me acostumei. Você monta seu arsenal de palavras do jeito que achar melhor, com o que for adquirindo com sua aventura ou adaptando para vencer mais facilmente seus inimigos. A jogabilidade é simples, mas exige que você pense sua ações com calma, pois você deve gerir bem seus recursos. Por último, mas com certeza não menos importante, temos a belíssima arte de Wander Stars. Personagens bem desenhados, com muito carisma e personalidade, parecendo que saíram direto de um anime dos anos 90 e vieram parar no seu jogo. Unindo a arte impecável com uma jogabilidade interessante, fica difícil não querer experimentar um pouco do que Wander Stars tem para oferecer. [b][u]CONQUISTAS[/u][/b] As conquistas de Wander Stars consistem em, basicamente, completar cada episódio, de um total de dez. Em paralelo, você deve conquistas três estrelas em cada um deles, para conseguir as conquistas restantes. Para finalizar, adquirir todas as palavras, completar um episódio explorando todo o mapa e não nocautear ninguém, vão te garantir todas as conquistas. Podemos dizer que é uma boa dose de desafio. [i]Review completo:[/i] https://www.pressattack.com.br/post/review-wander-stars

10/10 My only complaint was the lack of voice acting.

Although I recommend Wander Stars, it has one specific, tragic issue that made me struggle with whether I should actually give it a thumbs up. But let's start with the best parts: The beginning of the adventure story is great, especially thanks to the awesome combat. While it is technically a normal turn-based RPG, the presentation makes a huge impact. Instead of just picking an attack with buffs, you combine multiple words to create your moves, which is incredibly cool. The approach is like: "I want a claw attack... no, a sharp claw... no, a super sharp claw... no, a super radical strong sharp wind claw!!!" This is the game's biggest strength—it captures that anime vibe where characters shout their actions out loud. Additionally, the option to "spare" opponents for pep-ups/upgrades provides a nice challenge, even with weaker enemies. My only complaint regarding the gameplay would be the strict word-slot limitations, which felt a bit restrictive when trying to fit in new, useful words. Also, while the animations are great, there aren't quite enough of them to fully sell the "playable anime" immersion. However, for an indie title, this limited quantity is understandable. And I honestly wish the game had ended right there after chapter six because, unfortunately, there were still chapters missing even if it starts to run out of steam: Once you’ve unlocked all upgrades and bought your most important words, there is no real incentive to gain extra points or tackle the harder "high risk, high reward" mission variants. Every encounter starts to feel unnecessary and unrewarding. To reach the ending, I had to force myself through the remaining missions with almost no motivation. Making matters worse, the story goes downhill, shifting from a clear goal into a confusing mix of genres and abstract psycho nonsense. I suspect this is why less than 10% of players have reached the ending. It’s sad to see the second half of Wander Stars undermine itself like this. If you like the word-based combat idea, you should give it a try—just be prepared for the grind and a bit of boredom on the way to the final chapter.

Style/Vibe 10/10

Muy divertido juego de estrategia por tablero y cartas, la tematica de la historia es de shonen muy al estilo de dragon ball clasico

Le jeu est simple mais terriblement efficace. La DA est jolie, les combats sont funs avec de vrais possibilités de combos, l'histoire est touchante et la durée de vie est vraiment bonne, avec possibilité de rejouer les épisodes avec plus de difficulté si c'est votre truc. En bref, une joli pépite que je recommande fortement à tous ceux qui auraient grandi avec Dragon Ball et souhaiterait retrouver cette sensation. Le seul bémol que j'ai pu rencontrer sont quelques petits bugs de UI, mais rien qui ne ruine vraiment l'expérience

It was a positive experience (dare I say great) all the way until you get to the last boss fight. Good job devs; you ruined your game with that fight. The boss has an extremely annoying mechanic where he reverts all damage taken and he has 1k hp. The boss feels bugged, on rewinds I keep losing words and random words from my inventory get added, also they only show three ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thresholds for his hp bar that stop at 800ish hp. He attacks at full hp or the first threshold of 900-920, anything below 900 triggers the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rewind. They made ONE word (spirit) be his weakness but then my CD refreshing words are all bugged and do nothing (this was happening throughout the level btw, randomly) the other word that Nashi gave me did not appear in my inventory so I don't even know what it is. I do not see a way to do this unless you one shot him and unless that other word your buggy ass game failed to gave me is like a X7-x10 short-medium word where my 100+ dmg attack can one shot him by being multiplied, that's a wrap. You cannot have such a frustrating, looping mechanic in a game that has you redo entire sections when you reload and has bugs constantly towards the end where words do nothing or disappear. I'm sure I could reload until i get BOTH of Nashi's words since I'm sure they are cruicial, but nah--it has been enough. Eat this negative review.... 0/10

If you have a soft spot for 90s shounen anime but also you like women and gay people, you'll enjoy the story and characters. If you like combining things to make number go up, you'll enjoy the gameplay.