Video Game Review: Star Renegades

Star Renegades

Massive Damage, Inc.

Turn-Based RPG

Steam (PC)

Star Renegades is an 8-bit style, JRPG inspired, turn-based, strategically rich, and character-driven RPG. That is a lot of things at once. How does it balance all these aspects? The short answer is well. This is an awesome game, and though I’ve only played through it once, it seems to have a high level of replayability. This is a great strength of the game. I’m genuinely excited to play through it a second time. If that’s not a positive review, I’m not sure what is. But let’s look a little deeper into what makes Star Renegades so great.

Cut Scenes:

Say what you will about cinematic cut scenes, they may be a misrepresentation of a game’s potential in both gameplay and graphics, but for Star Renegades this isn’t an issue. Why? Because this is where the JRPG influence really is. Or maybe it’s more anime, or maybe some fusion of the two. Anyway, the cut scenes play like an episode of Gundam Wing, without the Gundams. They are beautifully rendered, perfectly cut and colored, and really draw players into the story that feels authentic and important.

Gameplay:

The gameplay itself is just spectacular. It’s one of those games that proves you don’t need cutting edge graphics in order to provide a great gaming experience. The graphics are pixel heavy, but it doesn’t matter. What matters are the deep mechanics that govern the game. Like most RPGs of the era, you can level up characters, upgrade stats, and gear, but it also has a unique relationship-building system based on cards characters get as they level up and find loot boxes. Prioritizing some relationships between characters over others dictates the way you play the game, as stronger relationships between characters A and B unlock different combo moves than strong relationships between characters B and C. It really lets the part you play feel unique and your own.

The battle system, while turn-based, also adds an innovative wrinkle to the typical turn-based RPG. At the beginning of each round, there is an “initiative” bar that shows what enemies will do that round, who they will target, and how much damage they will do. Each character the player has provides a host of options to deal with enemies, but depending on the moves you use, your characters get their “turn” sooner or later on the “initiative” bar. There are ways to stun enemies so they don’t attack in that round, block enemies, and reduce their damage. There’s a lot of strategies, but the tutorial makes the game easy to learn.

Art:

As a pixel styled, 8-bit inspired game, the art direction of Star Renegades was always important. The color pallet itself is interesting. While much of the game feels foreboding, many of the colors are warm and bright. The character designs are unique and specific from each other, without being cliches of the science fiction genre, and the monsters/robots that are the big baddies, are just. . . cool. They look like something between space marines, drones, and Cylons.

All in all, Star Renegades is familiar enough to appeal to old school RPG players and innovative enough not to feel like just another RPG.