Wander Stars

7/10 - I'm recommending this game but I am warning you that, in my opinion, it is very possible that you will run out of the desire to keep playing this game by chapter 3 or 4. All games are repetitive but some are better at masking this than others and other times I couldn't tell you why one game made me want to keep playing despite how repetitive it felt while another I got to the point of "Well that was fun, but I'm done with this" within a few hours.
While it is possible it won't be that for many people, it turned out to be that for me but the thing is, I don't regret purchasing this game. There are games where I got over 80 hours of actual game time in them (my times are often inflated due to my bad habit of leaving a game on while I'm gone for a week) and I genuinely regretted the time I put into them.
So what lowered my motivation to continue in this game? I can't be sure because I don't really understand game design but if I had to guess, it was (while the concept was very interesting and me like turnbased here) it was too limiting. Finding a bunch of words but being able to only use a small fraction of them made me not enjoy finding new words. The game is obviously meant to be replayed and it is good that you can replay a level without beating the whole game first but I kind of didn't want to replay chapters since it isn't like the story changes.
The game, rather than being challenging, started to feel increasingly "unfair" for lack of a better word. And, although I put time into it to try to become stronger, I didn't really feel like I was stronger although technically I was. It's difficult to explain.
Again, no regrets with this game. I liked the concept and wonder if it would be even better if this style combat was combined with aspects of that found in Claire Obscur. So my recommendation is try the game out. The dev cared about their work and the art style is pretty cool. The story also isn't bad and the dialogue can be pretty funny.

I don't really write reviews since I don't think I'm very good at them, but I genuinely wanted to try to help up this game. I had it in my wishlist for a while, however I never tried the demo, so I didn't knew anything coming in
I just finished episode 2, and wow I'm so happy with it! The artstyle is so charming, and the characters are so fun! I was a bit afraid of the gameplay at first, but it opens up quite a bit, and is so unique! There's so many interesting ways to combo offensively, or even defensively! I'm really liking the depth so far!
As for the story, I'm already pretty hooked! (It kinda reminds me a bit of Treasure Planet with the map, and everything)
So yeah.. I really hope this game does well, and people try it! Because.. in my opinion, it really deserves it. It's just so cool!
(A bit off topic, so I hope is okay, but I'm also playing Trails of Sky FC remake, and Ringo & Wolfe kinda remind me of Estelle & Joshua with how they play off each other with their dynamics, which is always fun for me, so I really like it aswell)

This is seriously such a clever game. The battle mechanics are unlike anything I've ever seen before and they're REALLY fun. The story is super gripping and I'm always super excited to play the next episode. And the music is honestly crazy good, like, holy crap. Very good game so far, definitely recommend it!!

Expect a very by the numbers story going into this. It is trying to be a 90's anime adventure and stumbles on the same tropes you get from it. Characters have plenty of charm and I grew to like them. But they are very much archetypes of other characters from classic anime.

And not to spoil the ending directly. Leaving the story on a cliffhanger was a boneheaded move . We have no idea how well this game will sell, so having the story not wrap up in a conclusive way feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥. The whole third arc has really weird pacing and feels like it struggles to simply end.


So story aside...

I find the combat to be really enjoyable. Mixing different words to transform moves always felt fun and interesting. It was incredibly satisfying to stack a bunch of attributes to your attacks. Exploiting enemy weaknesses to give you an extra word to slot in. It was easily the best part of the game.

I did manage to stumble upon some bugs which wasn't completely game breaking but made the overall product feel unpolished. There was plenty of time where menus wouldn't update properly with the debuffs. Just overall a bit glitchy.

So I would recommend this game for the overall gameplay.
But just be prepared for a quite shallow end game.Expect a very by the numbers story going into this. It is trying to be a 90's anime adventure and stumbles on the same tropes you get from it. Characters have plenty of charm and I grew to like them. But they are very much archetypes of other characters from classic anime.

And not to spoil the ending directly. Leaving the story on a cliffhanger was a boneheaded move . We have no idea how well this game will sell, so having the story not wrap up in a conclusive way feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥. The whole third arc has really weird pacing and feels like it struggles to simply end.


So story aside...

I find the combat to be really enjoyable. Mixing different words to transform moves always felt fun and interesting. It was incredibly satisfying to stack a bunch of attributes to your attacks. Exploiting enemy weaknesses to give you an extra word to slot in. It was easily the best part of the game.

I did manage to stumble upon some bugs which wasn't completely game breaking but made the overall product feel unpolished. There was plenty of time where menus wouldn't update properly with the debuffs. Just overall a bit glitchy.

So I would recommend this game for the overall gameplay.
There's a demo to try out.
But just be prepared for a quite shallow end game.

Fun game, it oozes it's inspiration in all the details, and has an absolutely amazing soundtrack.
10/10: Would accidentally 1 shot the chapter 3 boss again.
This is a hybrid of a rouge-like "card" battler with a small dab of Undertale's morality system that is adjacent to the old Paper Mario games. Collect and combine words to perform different and effective combo's while trying not to K.O your opponents for extra experience and power ups (Called Pep Ups. Think Badge system from Paper Mario.). There is a meta progression to level up your character, but the start and side events of the chapter gets randomized so you can't easily fall back to the same strategy from chapter to chapter which let's the game naturally give you different tools to work with and weaknesses to cover.
Story wise it's been a lot of fun. I am biased here as I grew up and love the the 80's & 90's anime scene. The art for this game is just as top notch as the soundtrack.
The Soundtrack, oh yea, oh YEA. Turn that sound from modern to classic and just vibe the whole time while playing. My only regret is I accidentally one shot the chapter 3 boss and didn't get to listen to the theme for that long.

I'm only three hours in the game, but Wander Stars is a marvelous Anime-styled adventure. I never watched much Dragon Ball, but I can tell it takes heavy influence from it.
The only downside is the absence of fully voiced dialogue.

This game is an absolutely BRILLIANT homage to classic anime, combined with one of the most original combat systems I've seen in a long time. I'm also deeply attached to the main cast, and I desperately want to see a sequel/continuation at some point (maybe in a truly party-based iteration?). Anyway, Paper Castle has made someone who doesn't usually like roguelikes/roguelites a lifelong fan.