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Cosmic Star Heroine |OT| Alyssa's Chrono Phantasy

Cornbread78

Cornbread78

Member
slash000 said:
Some Q and As:

-When is the Vita version?
As soon as we can direct our focus back onto it, start testing the whole thing there and fixing anything that might need fixing (like the file size), and learning any new ropes on the back-end for Vita which itself takes time. But at the very least our game and engine runs super great on it.

-Potential for a Switch port?
We've been in touch with Nintendo so the possibility is there, but we can't even think about adding more platforms at the moment until we take care of the ones we've already promised.


-Limited Run Games physical edition when?
Once the PS4 and Vita versions have been out for a bit, and if there've been any patching to fix weird quirks along the way, that would be the time, given that doing a physical run we'd want any tweaks/updates to go along with the Disc/Card.
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Thanks, I added this to the OP since it's been asked 100x already, lol.
 
B

Brashnir

Member
Burt said:
Thanks!

Well, long story short, it's excellent. I think it's fair to say it's essentially everything you would hope for with the pitch of ”Two devs with a modern take on a Chrono Trigger-style JRPG in 2017"

First and foremost, I cannot overstate how much I like the combat system. I don't want to misalign expectations too terribly, so I'll preface things by saying that I'm much more partial to the strategic/tactical aspects of RPG combat than the flashing of huge numbers and intricate spell effects.
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Good! this definitely makes your impressions more meaningful to me, as that is also my preference.

With that in mind, I can't think of a JRPG battle system I've liked better. Maybe a few that I like to an indistinguishably similar degree (Grandia 1 and 2 spring to mind), but I really can't think of any I liked more, and CSH's is so different from my other favorites that it's hard to imagine a comparison as anything better than apples to oranges.

You're not going to be able to mash your way through the CSH's combat, at least not on Heroine difficulty. But that's okay! Encounter pacing and variety is fantastic, and there are no respawns (unless you want them). Instead, with the way combat works, you have to consciously decide what you're going to do, and getting there is basically a great optimization puzzle of attacks, defenses, buffs, debuffs, turn order, and Hyper. It sounds like a lot, but it boils down to, ”This enemy has that weakness, so what's the best way to get Party Member X to do Attack Y on Turn Z?" -- applied across however many enemies and and party members are in battle. It's a refreshing change from the mundanity of typical regular encounter combat, and has about as much depth as any system I've seen without any of the extraneous or superfluous bloat that's present in so many other JRPGs.
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OK, I'm not sure this sounds so much like my stylistic preference, but it still sounds like it's well done, and certainly preferable to just mashing the attack button to get through most encounters.

Speaking of party members, they're all pretty fantastic as well. Each has their own distinct combat niche and support capabilities, which means that regardless of your party, everyone's always able to find a use, particularly as your gear and ability options expand. Characters you initially think are terrible become world-breakers with the right skill or piece of equipment if you can figure out how to work them in the right way - which you'll have ample opportunity to do, because the game isn't afraid to lock a specific character or two into your party at regular intervals. There isn't an overabundance of it or anything, just a bit more than you see in most JRPGs, but whereas in most others it feels like you're having garbage thrust upon your party, because everyone's so versatile and viable here it feels more like a well-timed curveball to keep you from settling in too deep on one set group of characters.
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Do characters level up when they aren't in the party, or do you have to go through a slog every time you swap someone out? I'm guessing that the Chrono Trigger connection and your positive appraisal of the system means the guys at Zeboyd were smart enough to have them level up outside the party.

The writing in the game - the characters, the story, the dialogue, the little quips you get about each enemy as you target them, and so on and so forth - is good. It's not going to change how you look at JRPG writing, but the game has a rock-solid understanding of its tone and delivers on it very well. I liked all the characters (/disliked the ones I was supposed to dislike), chuckled a bunch, laughed out loud a few times, and the serious side of the story was well done in that JRPG/anime-y way. I think it's easily the most well-written out of any of Zeboyd's games -- although I'm sure a part of that is just them being able to scale back on Penny Arcade's constant need to be Penny Arcade.

The pacing of the story, and the game overall, is superb. It's propulsive, always pushing you into reaching new environments, meeting new characters, giving you a valuable equipment upgrade, getting you through a comfy Chrono Trigger-esque dungeon at just the right time, etc. And there are definitely a few moments where I did something like this. That being said, there's definitely a healthy amount of interesting side content for players who poke around as well, which I don't want to get into for spoiler reasons. But it's good, it's funny, it's referential, it's rewarding, and, occasionally, the most difficult stuff in the game.

Overall, because absolutely literally everyone loves numbers so much, the game is an easy call for the 9.0-9.5 range. There are a lot of games of all genres coming out these days that try to recapture that ‘old game' magic, but very few of them have managed to balance classic elements and modern refinements as well what you get here.

I have a save 10 hours into Trails of the Sky FC that I put on hold to play this for. I'm more inclined to play this again on Super-Spy difficulty than to go back to that.
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Sounds great. Thanks for the detailed impressions.
 
IMACOMPUTA

IMACOMPUTA

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
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I'd love to check it out. Thanks for the giveaway.
 
S

slash000

Zeboyd Games
About special effects in combat:
We purposefully aimed to have special effects quicker and shorter, rather than flashier and more epic (which is typically longer). Of course there's always a balance between "looking cool" and "is it too short/too long" but we erred on the side of keeping the pace of things up.


About party members who are not in the active battle party levelling up:
Party members not in the active battle party will still gain experience and level up, so no pointless grinding just to try out other battle strategies. In fact later battles encourage you to try out different character/party members in your 4 person team to try and take advantage of enemy weaknesses / avoid enemy strengths.
 
B

Brashnir

Member
slash000 said:
About special effects in combat:
We purposefully aimed to have special effects quicker and shorter, rather than flashier and more epic (which is typically longer). Of course there's always a balance between "looking cool" and "is it too short/too long" but we erred on the side of keeping the pace of things up.


About party members who are not in the active battle party levelling up:
Party members not in the active battle party will still gain experience and level up, so no pointless grinding just to try out other battle strategies. In fact later battles encourage you to try out different character/party members in your 4 person team to try and take advantage of enemy weaknesses / avoid enemy strengths.
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Cool, both excellent choices in my book.
 
A

Arcana Wiz

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the chance! I'm planning to buy it already, but freebies are always a godsend for a poor college student.
 
B

Burt

Member
You're welcome, everyone who quoted. I'll round up all the names and pull one out of the metaphorical hat in 3 hours, but feel free to send me harassing PMs or get a mod to give me a dumb tag if enough time passes and it seems to have slipped my mind. For the new page

Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
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Hestisdabest said:
.
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DealWithIt said:
.
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Snakethesniper said:
.
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And these were all awesome, but yeah, probably not a great idea to clog up the thread. Good thing too, that'd be a hard choice to make.


@Zeboyd -- Do you guys have any ideas about your
personal damage highs
? I'm
reloading before the 'point of no return'
to see what I can cook up, and without trying out too much I've been able to hit
a smidge over 200k at around level 50
. But,
I'm sure there's plenty more optimization to be done and would be interested in seeing how far people can push it.

None of that's really a spoiler for anyone, but hey, better safe than sorry.
 
V

VariantX

Member
Damn, some of you are making me want to play this even more than I already did. The wait for those backer codes is now becoming a lot more excruciating...
 
M

Miker

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

I'll throw my hat in!
 
F

fester

Banned
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

Very generous - thanks!
 
V

Vincent Grayson

Member
Snakethesniper said:
Thanks for the opportunity!
chrono_trigger_by_abysswolf-d6enfe8.png
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Super off-topic, but it kills me that no one is making "retro" RPGs with graphics like this. I don't know what to call that style of pixel art, but I love it.

On-topic, is this a "tomorrow" release where I can play at midnight? Or are we talking like, Steam standard 1pm tomorrow stuff?
 
V

Voror

Member
Got my email about my Steam codes. Do we get a separate email if we also had a copy backed for PS4 or would it all be under the same one?
 
R

Ragnorok64

Member
So I preordered last June through the humble widget on Zeboyd.com. It seems it was $10 then for the regular edition. I checked my humble accounts and the purchase doesn't seem to be associated with them. How exactly should I expect to be receiving this game?
 
J

Jeffrey

Member
i have no clue if i picked pc or ps4 lol. i think i picked pc originally but might have asked robert to switch to ps4? dont remember...


hope i get the game in some form lol
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Vincent Grayson said:
Super off-topic, but it kills me that no one is making "retro" RPGs with graphics like this. I don't know what to call that style of pixel art, but I love it.

On-topic, is this a "tomorrow" release where I can play at midnight? Or are we talking like, Steam standard 1pm tomorrow stuff?
Click to expand...

The reason is that despite being 2D, that would be prohibitively expensive. Just animating an entire 20-40hour RPG with that level of visuals consistently - across town art, boss art, regular enemies - would cost millions upon millions. Even a sort of jankily animated midrange solution like Odin Sphere or something is extremely expensive given the potential audiences involved in this day and age.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

umX5FG3.jpg

(And thanks!)
 
V

Vincent Grayson

Member
Amir0x said:
The reason is that despite being 2D, that would be prohibitively expensive. Just animating an entire 20-40hour RPG with that level of visuals consistently - across town art, boss art, regular enemies - would cost millions upon millions. Even a sort of jankily animated midrange solution like Odin Sphere or something is extremely expensive given the potential audiences involved in this day and age.
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True. I wouldn't expect it from anyone but a big dev house. But more things like Odin Sphere even would be just grand. It looks so gorgeous on PS4.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Vincent Grayson said:
True. I wouldn't expect it from anyone but a big dev house. But more things like Odin Sphere even would be just grand. It looks so gorgeous on PS4.
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I agree, but consider how much content in Odin Sphere is recycled within itself. Variety of enemies, etc. Consider how much you'd need to scale to get an RPG like Chrono Trigger out. Only one of the big devs would be able to do it, or a kickstarter with 12 million in funding. And I'm not sure the audiences are there for that in this day and age... unfortunately :(

I'd be curious to know the dev costs of Cosmic Star Heroine really. I think it captures the retro look extremely well while capturing a few modern techniques in there. Would be interesting to find out.
 
A

akenatone

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

Your review moved this from wait and see to will get as soon as semester ends.
 
N

Nekobo

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

Thanks for offering! Would love to play it this on my GPD Win since the Vita version is a ways off.

I'm super hyped for CSH. I've been burned by a lot of Kickstarter projects that I backed around that time (Starlight Inception and probably Soul Saga), so I'm glad this one is actually a great game.

Phantasy.Star.II.full.1398340.jpg
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C

Cerium

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...
chrono_trigger__fire_rains____chronicles_of_time__by_lightningarts-d9rtdu2.jpg


chrono_trigger__culture_shock__chronicles_of_time__by_lightningarts-d96yiof.jpg
 
suikodan

suikodan

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this opportunity! I've been expecting this game since last E3.
 
R

Redx508

Member
Burt said:
Oh, also, I got a beta key from someone on GAF some time for some reason for free, and definitely need to support the game, so I'm giving a PC key away at midnight EST (5.5 hours from now.

You want a shot at it, quote this post.
Click to expand...

awesome!
 
F

Famassu

Member
SlasherJPC said:
Its is but no idea when... sadly.
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I wouldn't expect anytime too soon. The devs will want to have this out for some time since nothing is better QA than having the game in the hands of (tens of) thousands or even more players. They'll want to have the chance to eliminate as much of bugs & glitches as possible before releasing a physical version and even after that it can take awhile between the game being in shape for a physical release and then it going through the motions ending with actual physical copies being manufactured and being able to be sold by LRG.

Late summer I'd imagine is the absolute earliest, wouldn't be surprised if it's only in Fall or even closer to holidays. Worst case scenario is Christmas or even next year if some shit goes down (problems with Vita version or whatever)
 
graywolf323

graywolf323

Member
I went ahead and preordered on PSN so I'd have it at midnight, I'll gift my code from the Kickstarter to a friend once I get it ^_^
 
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