Post by aquariusviarainbow on Feb 17, 2023 17:52:58 GMT -8
Maybe we should put Reviews in one Thread, what do you think?
The following review was first written on VNDB w6089, and was influenced by watching incompetent let's-plays and reading what people are talking about on Steam Community, so expect some "venting". It's styled mostly as a "wake up call" to people who give thumbs-down on Steam for stupid reasons.
I replaced spoilers with red text, because here spoilers break lines, beware:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subjectively: 9/10
"Objectively": 8/10
Critically: 7/10
There will be spoilers later, but for starters, let's talk about the things that make me mad at players/reviewers:
1. Against "GAME TOO HARD, CAN'T PLAY!" opinions:
If you're think the battles are too difficult, it's probably because:
1. You're don't understand what "inertial movement" means, can't see neither the "Drift" (bottom-left) nor "Take back" (top-right) buttons, and waste energy first accelerating and than decelerating his units (so your just doing the same as the "stupid" AI, lol). It's your fault, not a design flaw.
2. You have no idea how to optimally upgrade your units, use their abilities, and/or use Orders (bottomest-leftest). Again, your fault, not bad game. [Do you at least know that missiles and torpedoes always hit if not shot down?]
3. You didn't even check what lies behind "CUSTOMIZE" in difficulty selection, jet whine on Steam "Where can I find cheats to make this game easier?". Your own fault... although:
I'm willing to agree they didn't really make those extra options obvious, so if you don't have a habit of clicking everything that is clickable you will miss them. But what kind of gamer doesn't click everything that's clickable?
CUSTOM OPTIONS: [that you maybe didn't even knew existed]
That's what they meant by: "Extensive difficulty options are available to suit players of all skill levels".
Bonuses: Reduced HP enemies; HP regeneration; Additional money; Unlimited ammo; Unarmored enemies; Big Maray Laser [faux-Vanguard probably? I didn't test it]; More CMD Points; Aimbot; Increase move speed [makes Temple levels very easy]; Free repairs; Maray invincible; No ryder death cost.
Modifications:
No move take backs [yes, that's normally a thing, the button with an arrow on top-right battle screen isn't just for decoration]
Weapon Recoil [for kinetics I guess]
No momentum [perfect pick for the inertially-deficient]
Challanges: [for pr0 gamers]
Iron man Mode [perma-death for units!]
Instakill Torpedoes [but I don't know if it work both ways]
Space Whale Preservation Tax [AKA, less money]
Deathly collisions [so now it's instant death, not EN penalty]
BTW, if you finished on New Game+, and think battles are too easy, grats, maybe try some of those custom challenge options now.
* The "oh, so f#@ng hard" exploration parts can be easily solved with "Increase move speed" mod, and/or a guide, so it's not really a Con even if you're bad at TBS games.
* Battles can be breezed through with lowest difficulty and all asist mods. Not a Con.
* If you still can't beat the game, just watch some gameplay and stop wasting your time. Not a Con tho.
INTERFACE:
The devs obviously bent over backwards to make this highly readable battle interface. Moving let's you know how many energy you'll be left with, combined with a tooltip about actions possible with that remaining energy. Movement radius is clearly indicated, so I don't know how people can "not know" where they can and can't fly. Even ammo count is obviously visible, and yet somehow people whine about not seeing it anywhere.
Armor values are clearly stated on pointing your mouse at units, and vaguely indicated with white lines at a glance. While it's different than before, in that armor doesn't permanently go down to % of remaining HP, imho it's better this way, and the removal of token minimum of 1 DMG per hit is also a good change.
If you waste your weak shots at armored sides of the enemy it's your fault, not bad game design.
And another thing, firing arcs are now a thing, and for some reason players are blind and don't get that those red circles/circle-slices showed when clicking on an action are possible aim direction indicators.
It's another thing that we still don't have CG Gallery or Hide GUI functions, but I expect that to be patched later. They already patched-in a speed-up for battle animations, so I bet that's gonna make some people happy.
In conclusion, if you think the game is too hard or doesn't tell you what's happening, I can only tell you: "you're the skill issue" and "git gud" ;P [no offence casuals].
In the meantime Pr0 gamers whine that New Game+ on Space Whale is too easy...
And they're right in a way, because enemies waste EN first accelerating and than decelerating to fight at close range, instead of using lasers. For that reason the most challenging enemies are those that have lasers as their only weapons, because this forces them to use laser attacks.
Now this kinda is a design flaw, but I expect it to be a patched at least a little bit later. Probably only New Game+ will get AI updated tho, gotta think about the poor casuals that struggle even now...
TRIVIA:
Now you don't have to kill enemies to get bounties for them. You can just go for the Objectives and be done.
Dominator's Repair Drones or Refit Order negates Repair Costs, so you can maximize income this way.
Save at the very end of the final battle against the "helper Prototypes" at the end, you can't save later when picking an "ending" scene.
The game is made in Gamemaker 2, and doesn't work well with integrated graphics hardware. Please don't spread misinformation that it's made in Ren'Py. (As if it was supposed to be a bad thing, lol)
2. THE STORY:
I'd like to start with a cheesy statement that: "dwelling on what-ifs is pointless", which also is a major plot line in this game. And I agree, author is god here, don't tell him how to do his job just because you'd like it more if done differently.
As for the story, I liked it. That's it. It Sunrider, just part 4. If you read the rest, you know what to expect, and I'd say it delivers a quite Sunrider-y experience.
Now let's talk about some "flaws":
a. Time skip unrealistically long:
I agree, but I guess they wanted it to be close to IRL time since Liberation Day, so whatever. The author is god here, let him decide and just deal with it.
b. Lack of contact between Kayto/Sola and the others.
It's necessary for Kayto to become a drunkard devoid of hope during his time on Tydaria [which is necessary for other things...], so let's just "suspension-of-disbelief" it and move on.
c. Lack of plot choices [except for one, maybe]
While I understand what you mean, railroading the plot is not that big of a deal for me. And it's even backed up by some weird "chaos theory" philosophy later on, so this one is too subjective to base a review around.
Making choices from earlier titles inconsequential is also both subject of controversy and backed in-game, so it's the same as above.
Again, author can do what he wants with his work, so whatever...
d. Forcing the Villain role on Fontana.
I didn't yet see anyone talk about it, but he was a "good guy" up to the point when he killed Chigara. While the "anime drama" of him and Shields becoming enemies because of that is understandable to get into their thick heads a bit too much, it's also pointless.
If Chigara didn't die then, she'd probably die later anyway, without a Q-Jammer to cut her off. And it was a "good thing" that she died, as far as we know, even if the Mindstream went all "Sakura-face meek waifu" transitioning into "The Horror" because of this. (and remember, this is what the author wanted to happen)
So why Shields didn't join forces with Fontana, repelled the Alliance, and joined the liberal part of PACT?
He could made sure that the new power and influence wouldn't get into Fontana's head (like apparently it did), and made PACT better.
We know that people like Kuushana are "good", and the real villain inside PACT is the corruption inherent to a newly established communist government. People either remaining from former New Empire elites or newly uplifted plebeians who (after a life of getting by on scraps) only think about enjoying their new position in the only way they know of, splurging in corruption and seeking personal gain rather than the common good.
Fontana seems to think that getting rid of currency could be a solution. It is harder to steal material things than intangible numbers on a bank account, but we'll see how it goes I guess...
The point is, Shield and Fontana don't have any real reason to go into "anime rivals drama" territory (other than author's decision, which I want to respect), and it kinda disappointed me when Shield repeated his silly declaration of "Best Enemies Forever" in Chapter 8.
e. Possible ret-con of Claude
LD made it seem that she's "just" a Time Traveler, but here she's depicted as more of a literal deity. This might be a ret-con, but maybe the Time Traveler part wasn't the full truth. Claude Ending in RE:run gets confusing in that case...
Also, Rance (?) allusion: What if the world is the dream of a space whale? Than Claude is that space whale, lol.
f. Taking the signature Love In Space "turning tropes on their head and making them break-dance" too far?
The auto-irony towards harem in space anime-ish under-dog adventure medium is possibly taken too far sometimes, especially in Chapter 8. I guess some coomer weebs that came here only in hope of H-scenes might feel "offended" by those sudden "real talk" parts.
Well, deal with it. That's how they do it, and imho it's part of the charm of their VNs. That's what made SSStarnova a work of art, even when it's about "fkn" idols.
3.WAIFUS CHARACTERS:
TL;DR: Seems that the Sunrider Academy cast reigns supreme.
Kayto Shields:
Rating: PR0TAG0N15T
Emotionally vulnerable, like we all are. Makes his own decisions (disclamer: actually arbitrarily dictated by the whims of Sam Yang, the writer, obviously), and is not some cardboard self-insert who will hate Chigara just because you do.
The long wait on Tydaria made him into a bit of a "loser", which might be triggering to people who came here seeking to distract themselves from their "insert a negative adjective" lives with stress free waifu game.
Other than that, he's more mature as a person and I respect that. Now if only he stopped making Fontana believe he's living only on hate towards him...
Asaga di Ryuvia:
Rating: MAIN GIRL
The Actionest Action Girl of the Action Girls squad! The Sharres of the Sharrs! Themost least royal of the royals!
Asaga is a great example of an action girl that's not a tomboy, but not coomer-bait semi-nude warrior either.
She's both already in love with the "dashing space captain" who bride-carried her out-of an arranged marriage, and needs a husband to be Ryuvia's Emperor. It's pretty obvious she's the main girl, and the "canon" (or Canon, *wink, wink*) ending will be with them (re)building the Holy RyuvianEmpire Alliance together as a couple.
(I don't really imagine who else she would marry if not the Captain)
Lynn:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL
After becoming a fan-favorite (?) when she appeared in Sunrider Academy (which also made sure we know Chigara definitely is an artificial human), she didn't do much in LA, and only served some role in the later added ending.
Now that she's her own individual, she's very cute (calls herself a "magical girl", seemingly unironically), and really shows how a genius-girl is better with some more temperament than the bland, meek Chigara.
[Well, not so meek now anymore, he he, lol]
Her "real-talk", "I-call-BS" attitude is a fresh addition into the mix of crew personality, and I really like when she calls out tropes from harem romance and space opera.
As a pussy-ible con, her scene with Claude indicates she's anal-adverse... XD
She's one of the girls that "need" the Captain in their lives, at least more than others. I declare her a Semi-Main Girl.
(I don't really imagine what would she do without the Captain. I mean, she already has remnant feelings towards him from Chigara, and nobody else would probably want her anyway)
Sola di Ryuvia:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL
After getting all into "newlyweds alone time" mood with Shields and getting disappointed by his alcoholism and lack off hope for the future, Sola is finally at ease after fully accepting her role as a Sharr.
She starts to act less "emotionless" at the end, and I hope she starts asking for headpats (pafu-pafus) or getting "cultured" ideas (like catgirl-maid outfit), but maybe that's just my Mika (otaku-chuuni-hikikomori from SSStarnova) addiction talking.
She's one of the girls that "need" the Captain in their lives, at least more than others. I declare her a Semi-Main Girl.
(I don't really imagine what would she do without the Captain, especially after they already had their "first fight" crisis resolved, and she declared him her "distant prince")
Cosette Cosmos (Terror of the Stars):
Rating: EXTRA GIRL! (special route?)
Still half scary, half funny. (Scunny? LOL)
While we still can't formally recruit her, she does come to duel or help from time to time, and I think her route would be a special case, because she's an anti-hero at best, even if we wanted to pretend she's not a bloody pirate boss. At least she's on "friendly" terms now.
I can't imagine her love life is too lively, so maybe Shield is her only realistic choice for a romance. We'll see...
Icari Isidolde:
Rating: SIDE GIRL-
Sadly for her fans, her role is limited to tsundere antics, simping for Kryska and giving some social commentary about Solar Alliance bad sides and PACT's good sides. At least at the end she gets Kryska to form a business together with her.
Hopefully a threesome route will be introduced in another release.
Claude Trilleo:
Rating: MEME GIRL?
Warning: inappropriate innuendos plentiful.
She's not normal, and I'm sure if she ever gets a "route", it'll be vastly different from all others. It'd probably be a meme route anyway, but it'll surely be there for the crazy pervert enjoyers.
NOTE: If you liked her before Sunrider 4, you'll probably still like her. If you hated her after LD, you probably won't start to like her now.
Ava Crescentia:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL-? / SIDE GIRL+?
Sadly (?) after she ruined her opportunity to rekindle her romance with Kayto after running away from Legion in MA, out of desire to be professional and being used to hiding her feelings, things aren't looking good for the good old Ava.
While she serves the role of a reliable confidante and advisor, she seems set up to become Cera's Prime Minister at the end of the story (even now busy working with the Resistance), and rekindling the old flame seems less of a necessity for her life, especially when Shields spends more time "flirting" with the "(Semi-)Main Girls".
[IMHO] With a heavy heart, I realize she started loosing her "Semi-main Girl" status already during LA, and might not get it fully back. At least she had her own RE:turn route...
Kryska Stares:
Rating: SIDE GIRL-
She doesn't do anything of note when it comes to the Captain.
Her role in the story could just as well be performed by NPC, so her only hope is a threesome route together with Icari. Sadly, Icari still refuses to openly say how gay she is for her.
Emil Kuushana:
Rating: PACT ROUTE?
She and Shields could depose Fontana and rule PACT together.
I'd marry her just for her Vanguard Cannon, lol.
Jem'hyre:
Rating: Has Pervert Eyes
"Kuushana's Ava", maybe they're (just a little) gay?
Omega:
Rating: "BAD END" incarnate
I hope her ending will be appropriately creepy and depressing.
Alpha:
Rating: Good Girl
I'm still convinced Alpha is a good girl, after all it was Alice who decided to kill their parents after she was to be "replaced".
BTW: I really want Jem'hyre to lewd her.
"Secret" Ending from New Game+:
4. OTHER:
CGs are of Starnova quality, which means good by VN standards.
There are no new H-CGs. (go draw your own if you can't wait...)
Music is mostly the same, so some free tracks they gathered that make sense. Mostly kept because they were used in previous games, as Starnova shown they are capable of making original music for their games.
Some will like that, some won't.
5. SUMMARY:
I think that while there is a lot to complain about, I wouldn't want to mess with Sam's "Creative Vision", so let's just let him do what does best, create unorthodox western VNs.
The battle part is actually easy once you take your head out of your ass, "puzzle levels" are very easily doable with minimal "cheating" from options and/or guides.
The story is good, at least if you rid yourself of any expectations, because Sam's not here to give you what you think you want (your sick-pervert expectations that he parodies later in the story), he's here to give you what you need (brilliantly done VN that knows how to laught it's own tropes in the face, while at the same time still following them in an interesting and original way).
Subjectively I rate it 9/10. But I'm supposed to be objective here.
For a production made basically by just two guys, a writer and a graphic, funded on Patreon, I rate it 8/10.
It'd go down to 7/10 if they were a bigger team and didn't manage to make it better, but in this circumstances I think they deserve to be acknowledged for their effort. Please support their Patreon if you can.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So yeah, I like it.
BTW, I fakd up, and accidentally provoked a vndb mod to delete Sunrider 4 entry because "not enough story vs battles".
You could help bring it back at this discussion.
Cool, thx Nem
.
The following review was first written on VNDB w6089, and was influenced by watching incompetent let's-plays and reading what people are talking about on Steam Community, so expect some "venting". It's styled mostly as a "wake up call" to people who give thumbs-down on Steam for stupid reasons.
I replaced spoilers with red text, because here spoilers break lines, beware:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subjectively: 9/10
"Objectively": 8/10
Critically: 7/10
There will be spoilers later, but for starters, let's talk about the things that make me mad at players/reviewers:
1. Against "GAME TOO HARD, CAN'T PLAY!" opinions:
If you're think the battles are too difficult, it's probably because:
1. You're don't understand what "inertial movement" means, can't see neither the "Drift" (bottom-left) nor "Take back" (top-right) buttons, and waste energy first accelerating and than decelerating his units (so your just doing the same as the "stupid" AI, lol). It's your fault, not a design flaw.
2. You have no idea how to optimally upgrade your units, use their abilities, and/or use Orders (bottomest-leftest). Again, your fault, not bad game. [Do you at least know that missiles and torpedoes always hit if not shot down?]
3. You didn't even check what lies behind "CUSTOMIZE" in difficulty selection, jet whine on Steam "Where can I find cheats to make this game easier?". Your own fault... although:
I'm willing to agree they didn't really make those extra options obvious, so if you don't have a habit of clicking everything that is clickable you will miss them. But what kind of gamer doesn't click everything that's clickable?
CUSTOM OPTIONS: [that you maybe didn't even knew existed]
That's what they meant by: "Extensive difficulty options are available to suit players of all skill levels".
Bonuses: Reduced HP enemies; HP regeneration; Additional money; Unlimited ammo; Unarmored enemies; Big Maray Laser [faux-Vanguard probably? I didn't test it]; More CMD Points; Aimbot; Increase move speed [makes Temple levels very easy]; Free repairs; Maray invincible; No ryder death cost.
Modifications:
No move take backs [yes, that's normally a thing, the button with an arrow on top-right battle screen isn't just for decoration]
Weapon Recoil [for kinetics I guess]
No momentum [perfect pick for the inertially-deficient]
Challanges: [for pr0 gamers]
Iron man Mode [perma-death for units!]
Instakill Torpedoes [but I don't know if it work both ways]
Space Whale Preservation Tax [AKA, less money]
Deathly collisions [so now it's instant death, not EN penalty]
BTW, if you finished on New Game+, and think battles are too easy, grats, maybe try some of those custom challenge options now.
* The "oh, so f#@ng hard" exploration parts can be easily solved with "Increase move speed" mod, and/or a guide, so it's not really a Con even if you're bad at TBS games.
* Battles can be breezed through with lowest difficulty and all asist mods. Not a Con.
* If you still can't beat the game, just watch some gameplay and stop wasting your time. Not a Con tho.
INTERFACE:
The devs obviously bent over backwards to make this highly readable battle interface. Moving let's you know how many energy you'll be left with, combined with a tooltip about actions possible with that remaining energy. Movement radius is clearly indicated, so I don't know how people can "not know" where they can and can't fly. Even ammo count is obviously visible, and yet somehow people whine about not seeing it anywhere.
Armor values are clearly stated on pointing your mouse at units, and vaguely indicated with white lines at a glance. While it's different than before, in that armor doesn't permanently go down to % of remaining HP, imho it's better this way, and the removal of token minimum of 1 DMG per hit is also a good change.
If you waste your weak shots at armored sides of the enemy it's your fault, not bad game design.
And another thing, firing arcs are now a thing, and for some reason players are blind and don't get that those red circles/circle-slices showed when clicking on an action are possible aim direction indicators.
It's another thing that we still don't have CG Gallery or Hide GUI functions, but I expect that to be patched later. They already patched-in a speed-up for battle animations, so I bet that's gonna make some people happy.
In conclusion, if you think the game is too hard or doesn't tell you what's happening, I can only tell you: "you're the skill issue" and "git gud" ;P [no offence casuals].
In the meantime Pr0 gamers whine that New Game+ on Space Whale is too easy...
And they're right in a way, because enemies waste EN first accelerating and than decelerating to fight at close range, instead of using lasers. For that reason the most challenging enemies are those that have lasers as their only weapons, because this forces them to use laser attacks.
Now this kinda is a design flaw, but I expect it to be a patched at least a little bit later. Probably only New Game+ will get AI updated tho, gotta think about the poor casuals that struggle even now...
TRIVIA:
Now you don't have to kill enemies to get bounties for them. You can just go for the Objectives and be done.
Dominator's Repair Drones or Refit Order negates Repair Costs, so you can maximize income this way.
Save at the very end of the final battle against the "helper Prototypes" at the end, you can't save later when picking an "ending" scene.
The game is made in Gamemaker 2, and doesn't work well with integrated graphics hardware. Please don't spread misinformation that it's made in Ren'Py. (As if it was supposed to be a bad thing, lol)
2. THE STORY:
I'd like to start with a cheesy statement that: "dwelling on what-ifs is pointless", which also is a major plot line in this game. And I agree, author is god here, don't tell him how to do his job just because you'd like it more if done differently.
As for the story, I liked it. That's it. It Sunrider, just part 4. If you read the rest, you know what to expect, and I'd say it delivers a quite Sunrider-y experience.
Now let's talk about some "flaws":
a. Time skip unrealistically long:
I agree, but I guess they wanted it to be close to IRL time since Liberation Day, so whatever. The author is god here, let him decide and just deal with it.
b. Lack of contact between Kayto/Sola and the others.
It's necessary for Kayto to become a drunkard devoid of hope during his time on Tydaria [which is necessary for other things...], so let's just "suspension-of-disbelief" it and move on.
c. Lack of plot choices [except for one, maybe]
While I understand what you mean, railroading the plot is not that big of a deal for me. And it's even backed up by some weird "chaos theory" philosophy later on, so this one is too subjective to base a review around.
Making choices from earlier titles inconsequential is also both subject of controversy and backed in-game, so it's the same as above.
Again, author can do what he wants with his work, so whatever...
d. Forcing the Villain role on Fontana.
I didn't yet see anyone talk about it, but he was a "good guy" up to the point when he killed Chigara. While the "anime drama" of him and Shields becoming enemies because of that is understandable to get into their thick heads a bit too much, it's also pointless.
If Chigara didn't die then, she'd probably die later anyway, without a Q-Jammer to cut her off. And it was a "good thing" that she died, as far as we know, even if the Mindstream went all "Sakura-face meek waifu" transitioning into "The Horror" because of this. (and remember, this is what the author wanted to happen)
So why Shields didn't join forces with Fontana, repelled the Alliance, and joined the liberal part of PACT?
He could made sure that the new power and influence wouldn't get into Fontana's head (like apparently it did), and made PACT better.
We know that people like Kuushana are "good", and the real villain inside PACT is the corruption inherent to a newly established communist government. People either remaining from former New Empire elites or newly uplifted plebeians who (after a life of getting by on scraps) only think about enjoying their new position in the only way they know of, splurging in corruption and seeking personal gain rather than the common good.
Fontana seems to think that getting rid of currency could be a solution. It is harder to steal material things than intangible numbers on a bank account, but we'll see how it goes I guess...
The point is, Shield and Fontana don't have any real reason to go into "anime rivals drama" territory (other than author's decision, which I want to respect), and it kinda disappointed me when Shield repeated his silly declaration of "Best Enemies Forever" in Chapter 8.
e. Possible ret-con of Claude
LD made it seem that she's "just" a Time Traveler, but here she's depicted as more of a literal deity. This might be a ret-con, but maybe the Time Traveler part wasn't the full truth. Claude Ending in RE:run gets confusing in that case...
Also, Rance (?) allusion: What if the world is the dream of a space whale? Than Claude is that space whale, lol.
f. Taking the signature Love In Space "turning tropes on their head and making them break-dance" too far?
The auto-irony towards harem in space anime-ish under-dog adventure medium is possibly taken too far sometimes, especially in Chapter 8. I guess some coomer weebs that came here only in hope of H-scenes might feel "offended" by those sudden "real talk" parts.
Well, deal with it. That's how they do it, and imho it's part of the charm of their VNs. That's what made SSStarnova a work of art, even when it's about "fkn" idols.
3.
TL;DR: Seems that the Sunrider Academy cast reigns supreme.
Kayto Shields:
Rating: PR0TAG0N15T
Emotionally vulnerable, like we all are. Makes his own decisions (disclamer: actually arbitrarily dictated by the whims of Sam Yang, the writer, obviously), and is not some cardboard self-insert who will hate Chigara just because you do.
The long wait on Tydaria made him into a bit of a "loser", which might be triggering to people who came here seeking to distract themselves from their "insert a negative adjective" lives with stress free waifu game.
Other than that, he's more mature as a person and I respect that. Now if only he stopped making Fontana believe he's living only on hate towards him...
Asaga di Ryuvia:
Rating: MAIN GIRL
The Actionest Action Girl of the Action Girls squad! The Sharres of the Sharrs! The
Asaga is a great example of an action girl that's not a tomboy, but not coomer-bait semi-nude warrior either.
She's both already in love with the "dashing space captain" who bride-carried her out-of an arranged marriage, and needs a husband to be Ryuvia's Emperor. It's pretty obvious she's the main girl, and the "canon" (or Canon, *wink, wink*) ending will be with them (re)building the Holy Ryuvian
(I don't really imagine who else she would marry if not the Captain)
Lynn:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL
After becoming a fan-favorite (?) when she appeared in Sunrider Academy (which also made sure we know Chigara definitely is an artificial human), she didn't do much in LA, and only served some role in the later added ending.
Now that she's her own individual, she's very cute (calls herself a "magical girl", seemingly unironically), and really shows how a genius-girl is better with some more temperament than the bland, meek Chigara.
[Well, not so meek now anymore, he he, lol]
Her "real-talk", "I-call-BS" attitude is a fresh addition into the mix of crew personality, and I really like when she calls out tropes from harem romance and space opera.
As a pussy-ible con, her scene with Claude indicates she's anal-adverse... XD
She's one of the girls that "need" the Captain in their lives, at least more than others. I declare her a Semi-Main Girl.
(I don't really imagine what would she do without the Captain. I mean, she already has remnant feelings towards him from Chigara, and nobody else would probably want her anyway)
Sola di Ryuvia:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL
After getting all into "newlyweds alone time" mood with Shields and getting disappointed by his alcoholism and lack off hope for the future, Sola is finally at ease after fully accepting her role as a Sharr.
She starts to act less "emotionless" at the end, and I hope she starts asking for headpats (pafu-pafus) or getting "cultured" ideas (like catgirl-maid outfit), but maybe that's just my Mika (otaku-chuuni-hikikomori from SSStarnova) addiction talking.
She's one of the girls that "need" the Captain in their lives, at least more than others. I declare her a Semi-Main Girl.
(I don't really imagine what would she do without the Captain, especially after they already had their "first fight" crisis resolved, and she declared him her "distant prince")
Cosette Cosmos (Terror of the Stars):
Rating: EXTRA GIRL! (special route?)
Still half scary, half funny. (Scunny? LOL)
While we still can't formally recruit her, she does come to duel or help from time to time, and I think her route would be a special case, because she's an anti-hero at best, even if we wanted to pretend she's not a bloody pirate boss. At least she's on "friendly" terms now.
I can't imagine her love life is too lively, so maybe Shield is her only realistic choice for a romance. We'll see...
Icari Isidolde:
Rating: SIDE GIRL-
Sadly for her fans, her role is limited to tsundere antics, simping for Kryska and giving some social commentary about Solar Alliance bad sides and PACT's good sides. At least at the end she gets Kryska to form a business together with her.
Hopefully a threesome route will be introduced in another release.
Claude Trilleo:
Rating: MEME GIRL?
Warning: inappropriate innuendos plentiful.
She's not normal, and I'm sure if she ever gets a "route", it'll be vastly different from all others. It'd probably be a meme route anyway, but it'll surely be there for the crazy pervert enjoyers.
NOTE: If you liked her before Sunrider 4, you'll probably still like her. If you hated her after LD, you probably won't start to like her now.
Ava Crescentia:
Rating: SEMI-MAIN GIRL-? / SIDE GIRL+?
Sadly (?) after she ruined her opportunity to rekindle her romance with Kayto after running away from Legion in MA, out of desire to be professional and being used to hiding her feelings, things aren't looking good for the good old Ava.
While she serves the role of a reliable confidante and advisor, she seems set up to become Cera's Prime Minister at the end of the story (even now busy working with the Resistance), and rekindling the old flame seems less of a necessity for her life, especially when Shields spends more time "flirting" with the "(Semi-)Main Girls".
[IMHO] With a heavy heart, I realize she started loosing her "Semi-main Girl" status already during LA, and might not get it fully back. At least she had her own RE:turn route...
Kryska Stares:
Rating: SIDE GIRL-
She doesn't do anything of note when it comes to the Captain.
Her role in the story could just as well be performed by NPC, so her only hope is a threesome route together with Icari. Sadly, Icari still refuses to openly say how gay she is for her.
Emil Kuushana:
Rating: PACT ROUTE?
She and Shields could depose Fontana and rule PACT together.
I'd marry her just for her Vanguard Cannon, lol.
Jem'hyre:
Rating: Has Pervert Eyes
"Kuushana's Ava", maybe they're (just a little) gay?
Omega:
Rating: "BAD END" incarnate
I hope her ending will be appropriately creepy and depressing.
Alpha:
Rating: Good Girl
I'm still convinced Alpha is a good girl, after all it was Alice who decided to kill their parents after she was to be "replaced".
BTW: I really want Jem'hyre to lewd her.
"Secret" Ending from New Game+:
Fontana has Alpha, and she's tied in a hardcore bondage. Creepy, look it up: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932534602.
I really hope she's a masochistic pervert that enjoys bondage, because otherwise what Fontana did with her would be too creepy to forgive... Maybe she'll become his waifu ("Please, teach me more about this thing you humans call love!"), and set him straight.
I really hope she's a masochistic pervert that enjoys bondage, because otherwise what Fontana did with her would be too creepy to forgive... Maybe she'll become his waifu ("Please, teach me more about this thing you humans call love!"), and set him straight.
4. OTHER:
CGs are of Starnova quality, which means good by VN standards.
There are no new H-CGs. (go draw your own if you can't wait...)
Music is mostly the same, so some free tracks they gathered that make sense. Mostly kept because they were used in previous games, as Starnova shown they are capable of making original music for their games.
Some will like that, some won't.
5. SUMMARY:
I think that while there is a lot to complain about, I wouldn't want to mess with Sam's "Creative Vision", so let's just let him do what does best, create unorthodox western VNs.
The battle part is actually easy once you take your head out of your ass, "puzzle levels" are very easily doable with minimal "cheating" from options and/or guides.
The story is good, at least if you rid yourself of any expectations, because Sam's not here to give you what you think you want (your sick-pervert expectations that he parodies later in the story), he's here to give you what you need (brilliantly done VN that knows how to laught it's own tropes in the face, while at the same time still following them in an interesting and original way).
Subjectively I rate it 9/10. But I'm supposed to be objective here.
For a production made basically by just two guys, a writer and a graphic, funded on Patreon, I rate it 8/10.
It'd go down to 7/10 if they were a bigger team and didn't manage to make it better, but in this circumstances I think they deserve to be acknowledged for their effort. Please support their Patreon if you can.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So yeah, I like it.
BTW, I fakd up, and accidentally provoked a vndb mod to delete Sunrider 4 entry because "not enough story vs battles".
You could help bring it back at this discussion.
Cool, thx Nem
.