We analyze Star Renegades, a roguelite-style dimensional strategy and RPG game, based on tactical turns and accompanied by a fight to survive.
This role-playing game debuted on September 8 for PC on the Steam platform, and later it has expanded to other platforms such as Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and the last one a few days ago on PlayStation 4. Developed by Massive Damage and edited by Raw Fury, Star Renegades is that video game that arouses a lot of interest, but you really need to fully immerse yourself in order to know all its essence. It combines elements of all kinds, from that RPG genre and roguelite with the specialty of establishing a turn-based tactical strategy and graphics that stand out at a glance. It will propose you to start a race towards the end, where your victories will depend on your strength and where your failure will ruin a good experience, until that moment. And it is that we are facing a roguelite where to fail and repeat again and again will be within our plans and, thanks to this, we will ensure that the game shows continuous development and a very good strategic gameplay where each game will be unique and captivating.
A meager and filling story
If what we want is to focus on the story, this is quite short, with little information and ends up being filler without having any importance. As soon as the game starts, it welcomes us with a short cinematic in which we can see how our protagonist, a young Wynn Syphex, escapes from a galaxy that is under attack. After several years, he has prepared himself and is about to face off in what will be an ongoing struggle for survival. In a very futuristic world where temporal changes come into play, a service robot called J5T-1N has arrived in our dimension to warn us that a huge force, known as the Imperium, is about to destroy everything and particularly the navy of the Star Union. The surviving starfighters will try to regroup despite being pursued by relentless squadrons of enemies, so the fight to survive will be essential.
Our campaign will be based on emergent missions that are generated in a procedural way, that is, it will grant that our experience in each game is totally different. However, we will have to create our army of heroes to stop the Imperium and in this way never lose hope of returning to normality. As soon as we get going we will have to send J5T-1N all the information that we are recruiting so that, with everything learned, it can help a new group of heroes. To all this, we ourselves will also have access to the Imperium, which will be a kind of throne room, where we can consult information about the hierarchy of the Imperium and the leaders, in addition to marking those adversaries that we already know. From time to time they will take us there to witness events such as deaths, promotions and presentations of more members of the Imperium as it happens with the adversaries. These are elite soldiers, stronger and tougher than the others and will have unique skills and traits, as well as different personalities.
Rebuild a much stronger army
Despite the fact that the strong point of the game is the fighting and the mechanics of these, our own characters will achieve a considerable role. At the beginning of our game we will have the possibility of going to the combats with a trio of heroes, better known as the Forsaken, and throughout our adventure we will be able to recruit more and they will even allow us to join the combat up to a number of six, creating in this way a squad. All of them will be different from each other, with complementary abilities and unique movements belonging to their respective class. On our journey we will move in a group around the world map, we will fight, we will level up and equip ourselves with weapons and armor, but we have to bear in mind that we are facing a roguelite, so all the progress we achieve will be restarted when we return to the base of the Forsaken and jump to a new dimension, that is, to a new game.
To level up it will be through a component called DNA. When we have enough we can use it on our hero to make him stronger, although we will have to decide who we want to level up. Leveling up will increase health, damage, and may grant a new power or camp card. But what is this about the camp? Well, this trip around the world will be composed of a three-day countdown and, between day and day, we can rest, heal, get benefits and increase the relationships of the members of the squad through our own camp. Each hero will have their own set of cards, which they can use on themselves or on other heroes, and each card will have a different cost of action points. Thanks to this, we will be able to increase the affection between several heroes, relationships will be strengthened and in this way we will unlock conversations and bonuses, such as combos powers and even new heroes. However, training, equipment or inventory will be the most important options to consider for our squad to get even stronger.
A different combat where every move counts
The combat that Star Renegades presents is complex and accessible at the same time. At first it is quite overwhelming, there are many statistics, basics and concepts to learn, but once we become familiar with all these elements, the combat becomes a challenge where we will achieve a very rewarding victory. It is a turn-based combat, but it is considered deterministic, where we will have to be attentive to a schedule that shows the actions of the enemies before they carry them out and, in this way, we plan our strategy to kill them. All actions appear on the schedule based on when they will be performed in the round, except snapshots. Each round will last 60 seconds. Another aspect to take into account are the status bars of our heroes: the shield, life and armor. It is important to know that the shields regenerate at the end of each combat, and the armor can only suffer damage in the event that the shield is previously removed. However, both life and armor can be repaired in the camp using cards or in the world with medkits.
Our strategy will include taking into account critics, hesitation and interruptions, essential damage and rage. The latter is considered a fourth bar, which will begin to regenerate when critics and interruptions are made to enemies, this will allow us to use it to carry out special actions or combo maneuvers and achieve devastating effects. In addition to knowing the attack of our enemy, we can also know their unit and their objective through the inspection mode, this mode will give us information on their weaknesses, strengths, resistances and immunities. Once we take all of the above into account, there will be an incentive for us to attack first and each movement is more tactical than the previous one, of course, preventing the enemy from defending itself.
Die and start over
Where many roguelite create a learning curve around the memory of our characters and the time they have developed, in Star Renegades we will learn based on all their systems and how to take advantage of them. As we mentioned earlier, once you die in a game, you return to the Forsaken base and practically almost all the progress you have made with the heroes (level, equipment, inventory) is completely lost. If we have actually managed to advance a lot in the game, our failure will be especially punishing and very frustrating, since the streaks in Star Renegades are quite long and a lot of time and energy is invested.
The essence of roguelite comes when it comes to allowing us to save resources and information that we get by eliminating enemies, and that will allow us to unlock new Forsaken, equipment, androids improvements and get to know the enemies better. It is clear that the base represents the beginning and the end of a game, but it has not been used or achieved to accommodate us being in it. There will be a canteen, which I still do not understand its function, an android laboratory to activate and get an additional mission advantage, the armory and the synchronizer, the latter will be the tool to unlock new Forsaken. Once we are prepared we can start our mission to liberate the galaxies again, we can choose those Forsaken that we want to participate with us, which can vary according to the strategy we want to use, in addition to also being able to change the difficulty.
A cool and very colorful Pixel Art with repeating music
Without a doubt, one of the most brilliant and remarkable characteristics of the video game is particularly its pixel art. It is fully detailed and adorned with RPG touches and allows us to enjoy a colorful world surrounded by small particles. We add all this to the combats, they have a very well designed visual style, with an unfocused background and an attention to the characters that ends up being liked a lot. The animations are the tip of the iceberg of the great work they have done, they manage to fill the screen with light, color and vibration with all the action that they try to demonstrate with each skill, let’s not talk about the combos. As for the sound section, it is oriented to the space and environment that Star Renegades shows, being perfect on some occasions and on others it is somewhat repetitive, in addition to missing the dialogue and the cinematics with voice, thanks to this they would have achieved a greater depth in the development of the characters or at least feel more immersed in the story.
Note: 8.3
CONCLUSION
Star Renegades is shown as the typical RPG with roguelite touches that encourages testing due to its graphic design. But make no mistake, it is a game that goes further, presenting a most original and fantastic style of combat, with a very high level of strategy that allows us to achieve a good experience in each round. However, and despite the fact that we will be severely punished if we fail and we are almost at the end, it will not matter all the hours and time that we have invested in this game, because each game will be different and will maintain its essence at all times. If what you are looking for is a strategy game with turn-based combat and that has RPG and roguelite touches, look no further because this is yours.
THE BEST
- A very original and dynamic turn-based combat.
- The system of affectionate relationships between heroes.
- A very detailed visual style with pixel art.
WORST
- A filler story without depth.
- If you have advanced a lot, the game punishes you quite a bit when you die.
- An unremarkable soundtrack
