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Game Description
Another Star is a console-style RPG with a fast-paced battle system and a world that encourages players to explore and discover hidden areas as they lead their party on a journey across a fantasy world. While clearly influenced by the style and gameplay of the past, the game also implements innovations and ideas from the present. Secrets are hidden everywhere, and you never know what you might find on the next screen.Our story begins with Tachi, the prince of Clan Minas, eager to prove himself as a warrior. Under his father's orders, Tachi is sent on a mission to retrieve a fallen star in the hopes that it will bring power and glory to his clan. But before long, Tachi's quest spirals out of control with clans betraying each other in the hope of getting the star's power for themselves. Thus begins a chain of events that will set Tachi on a journey across the entire planet, eventually learning the true nature of the fallen star he had once hoped to harness.
FEATURES
- Approximately 20 hours of gameplay for the main storyline.
- Secret areas are hidden everywhere. Those who explore are sure to be well rewarded.
- Over a dozen dungeons to delve into and conquer, some hidden off the beaten path.
- Optional CRT filter, originally developed for console emulators, that can be enabled and disabled at any time.
- Over 30 original music tracks composed using actual samples from the Yamaha YM2413 FM chip.
- Five difficulty levels, giving each player a chance to beat the game on their own terms.
- Four levels of character growth speed, including an "Old School" setting for those who love to grind for EXP.
- Both the game difficulty and character growth can be customized at any time from the options menu.
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No. of Reviews: 21
Review 1
Purchased!
bad game
Review 2
Purchased!
What a fantastic game. I just beat it for the second time and this game never fails to be fun. This game is worth every penny you spend, and is honestly worth even more than it's listed for. Please support its creator!
Review 3
Purchased!
Perfectly fine generic RPG with a couple interesting mechanics.
Review 4
Purchased!
First impressions? +Influences from Zelda, Dragon Quest, Ultima, Lunar, and more. +Fast-paced combat with a somewhat fresh approach and good balance. +Lots of difficulty options. +A very detailed, (mostly) open world with a ton of secrets. +Impressive worldbuilding for a game with such simple graphics. +Not made in RPG Maker. -Interface graphics are painfully retro. You might have to sit an extra foot or so back from your monitor or you could strain your eyes. No widescreen. Overall, a seemingly lengthy, enjoyable retro JRPG. Recommended.
Review 5
Purchased!
Another Star delivers old school fun like no other.I am well pleased with this rpg masterpiece and anyone who loved the way it used to be on retro televisions and such will love this.Packed with secrets and action packed adventure I cant imagine anything more you could want.Soundtrack,gameplay,storyline,level grinding goodness,yep it is all there.Worth every penny of ten dollars and I hope to see more of this style of games.Great work from this developer,I give it all my thumbs up.Thank you for making me happy to game on.
Review 6
Purchased!
I should probably write mroe reviews for the Steam games I play, but I haven't. This game defintiely deserves one, however. I went into this game expecting a retro experience with maybe just a bare minimum of a game, like most retro games out there. I liked the premise, but the battle system seemed simplistic, and I was skeptical when I read that the game was ~20 hours. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when the mediocre impression I had before firing up the game proved completely wrong. This game is definitely old-school in that it will be hard, even on the regular setting, but it rewards you for exploring everywhere all the time. Even up to the final endgame portion of Another Star there was more stuff to find and more of the games world and lore to learn about. And to that point, the plot is actually pretty darn good as far as retro games go. It's very Star Ocean/Phantasy Star-esque, which is what drew me to the game in the first place. Yet, unlike a lot of games that go down this route, Another Star doesn't fall into the trap of doing too much with it's plot and fully explores the gameworld without feeling like there's too much extraneous padding. I can say without a doubt it's a very satisfying and good plot, even if some of the running gags got a little old by the end. My only complaint is that the difficulty balance seems planned around the "High" growth rate. For most of the game, the battle system is surprisingly deep, with a wide variety of enemy strategies employed throughout the game, and much more thought involved than you might initially think! However, I played ~2/3 of the game with the "Standard" growth rate, and a number of brutal encounters, but around that point it's almost unwinnable without large level gains for their HP increases. Enemy magic is also brutal--elemental resistance equipment is worth its weight in gold. So much so I would advise everyone playing this to keep those Waterproof Ponchos on hand the second you can get them early, because they were useful essentially until the last stages of the game. TL;DR: Buy this game if you like older, turn-based RPGs! It will be worth your cash and time, for sure!
Review 7
Purchased!
It is a real shame, b/c the game has a lot of good ideas, and it's only a few decisions that really screw it up; but I have to give it a thumbs down. The problem really comes once you get your 2nd party member, & realize that the action choice is for the ENTIRE party. As is item & magic. That's right... each turn of combat is picking ONE thing the ENTIRE party does, you literally can make ONE decision per turn. Also, the fight action for both you and the enemy is un-directed, attacks from ea. character/enemy tries to hit every opponent in the combat. Both of these choices combine to throw almost all tactical depth out the window. This is the first RPG game I have ever played where getting a 2nd character became a liability... b/c instead of that character giving you an additional tactical choice each turn, they essentially just become an extra fight attack. An extra attack with its own, lower health bar that you have to waste time with defend/item action to keep alive, sacrificing the attack that could have come for your other, full health hero. The simple additions of letting you choose an action for each character, and requiring players to choose which enemy/group of enemies to attack, would have made the experience so much better. As it is the grind is REALLY noticeable, and tactical choice is restricted to knowing to cast the element the enemy is weak to a lot. I have an inkling that they were trying to mainly imitate the original Dragon Quest... without taking into account that in the original DQ you didn't have a party, and you fought only a single enemy at a time. Later DQ games, with more player characters, you got to do multiple actions per turn, and you had to decide what enemy you hit with an attack command. In addition to royally screwing up the battle mechanics, they game cheaps out on having towns you can actually explore. most cases you walk over a town and just get a menu to rest/shop/etc. I'm just really, really disapointed. The game runs well, they got the aesthetic spot on, the world & story are interesting... & if they had just put the time in to flesh out mechanics instead of taking shortcuts, ESPECIALLY with the combat, this would be a positive review. And the changes to the battle mechanics are not, to put it bluntly, rocket science. We're talking basic features present in some of the oldest genre games.
Review 8
Purchased!
At first I looked at it and went meh, I'm so burned out on retro-console-style games. Everyone with some half baked story thinks they can make the next Final Fantasy using RPGMaker. But then I looked closer. IT WASNT MADE IN RPGMAKER. Cool! Just like One Way Heroics, a console-looking but really unique game (also not made in RPGMaker) that I love. So I picked it up. Ive played literally thousands of RPGs. I remember the 8bit and 16bit eras. I remember when RPGMaker first came out,. For the most part, its games were donation-only, and teams worked to make great (but limited by RPGMaker itself) games. I'm so burned out on console style turn based RPGs, that to be interested in one got to have a compelling well written story, decent balance, and something that sets it apart from the herd. Another Star has all that. If youre a fan of console RPGS, this one is way better than paying who-knows-what for another RPGMaker yawnfest. Even if youre burned out, its worth picking up. It is set so you dont have to grind if you dont want to. Always a plus, as grinding just to progress is one of those things that should be left in the past. You can also get rid of that annoying "CRT scanlines and convex screen" effect in the options. Its cute, but thats another thing that should be left in the past. Overall, its well done. Keeps the good parts of retro console RPGs and dumps the annoying parts. EDIT: I would like to point out that the overworld music is seriously the most awesome retro-rpg music ever!
Review 9
Purchased!
I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet: This game is fantastic! The clan-based story is interesting, the writing is good, and the combat - which does away with targeting and simply applies attacks across all party members - is extremely fast (especially if you hold the X button on the gamepad to speed up the text). The latter part makes a huge difference when you need to grind out a level or two here or there. The visuals and audio feel like they are straight out of my childhood, which was spent playing many different RPGs on my NES, TG-16, and SNES consoles. If I could change one thing, it'd be the font, which I find isn't the easiest for reading, and the aspect ratio (I just prefer 16:9 on my TV). Okay, so that's two things, but I'd change them both if I could. The rest of the game is pretty much perfect as-is.
Review 10
Purchased!
I'm don't normally write reviews or recommendations, but I truly enjoyed Another Star. It was a throwback to classic style RPG games, but can be played at a much faster pace. I enjoyed the retro sprite graphics and the music was overall fitting and catchy (like an earworm, but enjoyable). Random Battles are not an issue since you have the option to skip them. Leveling does not have that significant grind-y feel and fights can be fairly quick since all characters in your team attack together (no micromanaging turns) and if you take the time to explore learn magics and exploit enemy weaknesses most enemies fall within 1-2 turns (except bosses of course). It is easy to near the end max out your characters and feel very overpowered, but it was an earned feeling. The game itself can be difficult or hard depending on how much time you'd like to put into exploring the very vast overworld. There are secrets in almost every map, so it encourages you to check out every nook and cranny (and revisit some areas later on). My main complaint was the limited inventory space. I would frequently have to throw away items, to make room for new ones, which can be an issue when you don't know what they do. Near the end, I felt scrolls were the most useless once you learned all the basic element spells for each character. Anyway, if you'd like an enjoyable short 10 hr rpg experience that satisfies the old-school turn based itch. This one does it.
Review 11
Purchased!
This game is dirt-cheap, which is a fair price for it. It's not bad, but it's very quirky and kinda short. It's one of the most fairly priced RPGs on Steam. Mechanically, Another Star is a Dragon Quest style JRPG with some twists, mostly how you fight enemies. Magic could be handled better, but it's otherwise fine. You'll search for old men in caves around the world map who will teach one spell to one character. The spell levels up the more you use it. Elemental weaknesses are important in this game, and you'll often be trying to break enemies down by hitting their elemental weaknesses. Since it takes a while to learn enough spells, and get them powerful enough to use, elemental attack items are very important. In fact, all items in this game are extremely useful. Thankfully, each has a number of charges so you don't have to carry around 30 arrows. Story-wise the game is unique, but lacks depth. It's a science-fantasy story where various tribes rule the lands. A child from the heavens descends to the planet and every tribe tries to capture him. There are a lot of JRPG tropes here we've seen a hundred times before. The execution at least feels somewhat authentic, which is more than I can say for the other hobbyist RPG-maker chaffs cluttering up Steam. That said, this isn't an RPG-maker game, so it feels pretty fresh. The music, character design, and visuals are all passable. Nothing really standout aside from the main characters having some cool designs, but that's it. Again, a fairly priced, short, and unique JRPG. A buy for people who want a short and simple distraction and are fans of old-school NES JRPGs.
Review 12
Purchased!
I found a gem !!!! This game is amazing !! Retro style well done. If you like nes era, game like dragon warrior, you like this one. Only 10 box, buy it without question my friends. Thank me after :)
Review 13
Purchased!
Great retro game ruined by horrible combat: No secondary ressources (mana / stamina), no individual targeting (you attack all enemies at once) and no individual actions for your characters.
Review 14
Purchased!
This game is awesome. it is like playing Dragon Warrior for Regular Netendo (spelled wrong). The graphics, the battles everything is simular the the Classic Nes games. Thank you developers for me this game will have alot of RepPlay Value.
Review 15
Purchased!
A really solid JRPG, although I didn't finish (but that's how I am with JRPGs). Although the game looks old (retro), it is a modern game with options to greatly speed up the grinding. The battle system is different, you can only do 1 thing per turn no matter how many characters are in your party, so you have to think hard before 'wasting' it on magic that only one of your fighters will do. Once you get used to it the fights go really fast. Also, the music is just great. It's been a long time since I heard something so good in a retro game. Working fine on Linux with a controller.
Review 16
Purchased!
When you hear about steam and its massive library of games, people sometimes talk about hidden gems. I'm talking about the real hidden gems here, not the ones that are well known by now, but those games with not many reviews and which are fairly unknown. I can now say i've stumbled into one of those with 'Another Star'. This retro 8-bit console RPG insipired game is just awesome and a must have if you are into the whole retro-vibe/feel in modern games. It plays its retro card very well, for example the CRT emulation is the best i have ever seen, even in official emulators. It was just so convincing that while playing on my big TV in the living room, i sometimes forgot i was playing on a modern LED TV. The music and sound effects are all delivered through Yamaha sound chip emulation which is again spot on. An amazing effort in making the game look and feel so retro authentic. And with the feel we hit another topic that is executed to perfection. It has all the mechanics and limitations of those early JRPG console games. There is no build-in world map, there is no mission log, so keep paper and pencil ready to take lots of notes. The combat is turn based, operated through menus, that will be familiar to a lot of retro gamers. However, a lot of the frustating bit, that plague the original classics, have been left out or have been improved. Combat is very balanced, not to easy and not to difficult, you will die a lot of times (there is a battle-retry option after you die), but it is fair almost all of the time. In case it does get too difficult, it is possible to decrease the difficulty. Being an RPG, the story is important, and it is a great tale, with the usual unexpected twists and turns, funny moments, deaths of popular characters and a slew of memorable characters you start to take in as the story progresses. Excellent writing and never a dull moment as there are so many side quests and hidden secrets in the game that in my +30 hours playthrough i feel i have only discovered half of it. Isn't there anything bad to say about this game? There is one thing, they messed up the save system. It is very easy, if you're not careful, to screw up your save game and you possibly have to redo a great portion of the game. The issue is that you can 'save' at any point (which is good), but the 'exit/quit' option also saves your game! So, if you screw up and want to reload a game you cannot use 'quit' and reload, because it will overwrite your only previous good save. In short, I can't recommend this game enough, if it would have been released in 1984 instead of 2014, it would have been one for the books, one we would still be talking about today as we do of the original Final Fantasy series. It really is that good. The game works perfectly on SteamOS/Linux, i don't suspect it to be that resource heavy, so it should play well on less powerful machines. Excellently playable with the Steam controller and streams like a charm to the Steam Link for you to fully enjoy on your big TV.
Review 17
Purchased!
A very good retro-revisit of the old NES-style RPGs. Quality work. Nice battle mechanics, including a magic system that makes you think. The game world is huge, in an ever-sprawling world, and there is a very good story-line that ties everything together. This is not a sarcastic parody like so many other retro titles. This developer spent a lot of time and painstaking effort making this a balanced and interesting game that stands up to other games of the genre. One interesting game design aspect is how the game asks you how much old-school grinding that you would enjoy, at the start of the adventure. I chose a medium level, and I found the gameplay suited to my tastes. I have spent so much time playing Another Star recently. Check out the game demo on the dev website, because the gameplay has been consistently good throughout. The map exploration, narrative story, character upgrades, and especially the fight mechanics have been smart and challenging. This is one of those game that is an extremely great value purchase and a great quality purchase, but only if you are interested in this quirky style of gameplay. Played this on an old ubuntu machine with radeon mesa graphic drivers. The game speed is solid, even on minimum specs. The game was made using .NET and Mono to port it. I could not get the xbox type gamepad to work correctly with Steam's "controller support" turned on, and the keyboard controls are clunky, but configurable through a textfile. The game install size is 150MB, and the chiptune music is available in the local directories in vorbis file format. A higher quality MP3 version of the songs is also available. I would recommend this game for people who can appreciate this 8-bit gameplay style, otherwise folks might get annoyed with the somewhat slower combat.
Review 18
Purchased!
Not bad old-school jRPG. Retro visual effects can be disabled and that's nice. The gameplay is very simplified compared to another games of this genre. Therefore I can spot few interesting ideas in the overall game design. Some of them are really neat, other can spoil the experience (you'll understand what I mean after a couple of fights). So I can recommend this game after all considering you can grab it with a very generous discount.
Review 19
Purchased!
*Note: CRT-style filter's "curvature" and "scanline" effects can be customized or turned off altogether. Don't let that keep you from getting the game. Some key features of this game are: * Quirky, fast-paced battle system--turnbased, but fast-paced. Tactics will vary from your typical JRPG (a good thing). * Surprisingly interesting and different story from what I expected so far. Although the dialogue/characterization isn't top notch, it's decent. If I find a certain character annoying, it's probably because that character is just an annoying person, not because he/she is annoyingly portrayed. * Random encounters can be largely skipped while exploring; a huge boon, considering the nonlinear dungeons and secrets sprinkled throughout those as well as the world map itself. * Music is mostly catchy 8-bit style chiptunes reminiscent of (but higher quality than) Dragonquest and other NES-era games. * Fullscreen or windowed mode. * Customizeable controls, via editing a text file--easy, human readable format. Support for Numeric Keypad keys is forthcoming according to the developer but not yet enabled (8/5/2015). The developer is involved in the community and personally helps with troubleshooting, takes suggestions, and generally seems a cool, likeable guy, too. =) A huge plus, for me. I highly recommend this game to anyone who remembers and enjoys 8-bit or early 16-bit era RPGs. It has some modern quality of life features mixed in with oldschool aesthetics and some quirky twists on old mechanics. It's not the biggest, baddest indie RPG on the block, but it's different, nostaligic, and just fun to play.
Review 20
Purchased!
One of the best RPG around. Impressive work !!! This game earns a complement from 25 years+ RPG veterans.
Review 21
Purchased!
Very old-school, very cool. Takes the old and tedious RPG-grind fighting and somehow makes it work! This game has a surprisingly long-lasting story, good writing and nice music (well, if you like lo-fi stuff). The developer has made many clever design choices that really makes the gameplay feel good. No rose-colored glasses needed for this retro-adventure! I look forward to playing the sequel when it comes out!
