Star Rift Saga
On a distant planet, rifts in space are opening, threatening to release planet-devouring monsters into the galaxy. Close the rifts and save the galaxy in this exploration-based action-platformer with light RPG elements.
Explore a vast and connected planet with secrets around every corner including alternate routes, vitality sparks, power sparks, rocket upgrades, rifts, and more. Unlock new areas as your abilities increase, allowing you to traverse new routes.
Fight a variety of enemies and bosses across multiple biomes by using every weapon and skill at your disposal. You’ll have to master platforming, dashes, flight, a grapple hook, and more advanced techniques if you want to succeed. Quickly switching between your customizable weapons is essential to keeping your offense going.
Find items and tools to use in the middle of the action to be ready for any situation. Wield the power of over 130 unique skill chips to customize your loadout with new abilities, buffs for every situation, and tweaking your arsenal to match your playstyle.
Upgrade every part of your arsenal! Equip skill chips and find new permanent upgrades throughout the world.
Your character isn’t the only thing that grows over the course of your adventure either! Rescue colonists to gain new benefits and services at the outpost with each one doing something different. Some will give you new gear or upgrade what you have, some will teach you new moves, while others will offer new goods and services or advice. Sell items at the shop to upgrade their inventory and rebuild the outpost.
Features
- Explore a vast, interconnected planet with secrets around every corner.
- Fight a variety of enemies and bosses in real-time platforming combat using weapons and items on the fly.
- Collect items and skill chips to help you in tight situations. No need to stop the action or navigate a menu to use one, your inventory is always right at your fingertips!
- Customize your playstyle using over 100 skill chips. Boost your stats, gain new abilities, or change entire weapons by equipping chips in the puzzle-based skill grid.
- Upgrade your arsenal. You’ll find new equipment and weapons to reach new areas, increase the selection at your local items shop, and even rescue colonists to gain new benefits at the outpost.
Game Discussion
Steam User 4
Definitely not a AAA title, but holy moly, this is peak Metroidvania right here. Takes a short amount of time to get going, but once it does, it is an absolute blast. Very polished, smooth movement, fun and unique upgrades, secrets galore, various systems that all work harmoniously. Excellent, excellent, game. Hats off to the developers.
Steam User 1
Bloody great new metroidvania that's perfect for kids! (but still interesting and fun enough for adults)! Features a mild story about freeing citizens from a rift while being chased by baddies. Level-ups & equipment/weapon upgrades are constant, it never feels boring. Simple controls, very user-friendly, good variety & mix of combat & platform.
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Steam User 1
If you’re reading reviews for Star Rift Saga, you’re already half way there since the other 10 people who check the r/metroidvania subreddit already discovered this game. It’s a niche entry but it checks out.
The graphics aren’t anything special but they are serviceable. The story is fun but pretty simple. Why give this a recommendation?
To me, a good metroidvania tackles familiar game mechanics like exploration and ability progression in such a way that despite having played other entries into the genre I never get tired of unlocking the double jump or the hook shot (or whatever, you get the idea) because the game has piqued your interest in what secrets you’ll uncover once you have that new ability.
That said, it’s also impressive when the developer mixes it up with some more unique abilities/weapons (I feel Supraland is the gold standard with this one).
Star Rift manages to do both of these and also includes a nice chip system for unique weapon builds (like a much much more complex version of the Hollow Knight build system) which levels up so you can play Tetris with the chips you unlock on a bigger and bigger board. This means grinding is an option if you feel underpowered but not necessary if you’re doing fine. By the end game you have a ton of build styles and despite not having a super focused build I was melting enemies pretty easily on hard difficulty. This didn’t convince me to try the hardest mode since I’m too old to have a bad time willingly; the difficulty was just challenging enough for me. There were about 2-3 optional platforming/combat sections that took me a while to complete.
If you’re a sweaty try hard who splits your time between doing hitless Silksong runs and commenting “I never once had to look up a guide for the secret ESA sections” in the applicable forums then you probably won’t have a tough time completing this on the hardest difficulty.
My point is that this is a solid game by a dedicated dev and if you enjoy a good metroidvania you owe it a shot because that’s exactly what this is. Also it runs great on the Deck, in case that matters.
Steam User 0
Star Rift Saga is a wonderful metroid style game, the music is fantastic, the pixel art is great to look at, the story is nice.
The gameplay is really where things shine, it starts off slow, but eventually by around the middle of the game, things open up some more and damage you can deal makes most enemies feel less of a hazard and more of a speed bump, which is nice to be given that kind of power.
The skill chip system allows for focus into different weapons and leads to build variety which is great for experimentation and replayability
exploring the world is enjoyable, my only major complaint is for some rooms separated by one-way platforms leading to a long walk back around if you accidentally go past them, but otherwise the level design, layout, and environments are all good and fun to explore.
At time of writing I have 59/60 achievements, the last one I need is completing the compendium (item list), I appear to be missing an entire type of item based on how the compendium is laid out which I find puzzling since I've reached the end of the game. Item drop rate could use a bit of a boost I feel.
Definitely worth picking up at any price for fans of Metroid and metroidvanias
Steam User 1
Solid indie metroidvania. A few minor bugs (eg can crash if you try buying out a chip vendor).
There is a little too much inertia imo, but overall solid platforming mechanics and shooting mechanics. The chip system allows for customized builds and you get to save a few different quick presets.
Not too long (most players will probably finish in around 10ish hrs). Story is okay! Font choice isn't super readable. Also the markings I made on my map didn't get saved - but late in the game you can unlock an in-game map feature that marks power up locations.
Steam User 1
Really enjoyed Star Rift Saga, responsive (X-Box) controls and refreshing gameplay. As always, I did not care for the story but that is just me. A fun time for a reasonable price. The way is open for a sequel....hopefully.
Steam User 1
I don't play Metroidvanias all too often, and the only ones I have found significant enjoyment in have been Hollow Knight and now, thankfully, Start Rift Saga. There are a few features that I really like:
1. The slight homing mechanic on the plasma gun makes a simple aiming system feel much less tedioius
2. The chip improvement system not only gives a lot of different builds and replay-ability, but gives a strong incentive to continue to kill enemies even late into the game. That is something that other Metroidvanias struggle to do, but this one does very well.
3. Although the inspiration from Hollow Knight is clear, a lot of the abilities, enemies, and gameplay is unique and refreshing.
Overall, this has been a fantastic game to play so far, and I am pumped to keep playing more.