Cosmic Star Heroine

If this was released in 1998 it would have been a classic. We'd be talking about it like we talk about Chrono Trigger and FFIV. This game is amazing and has so many weakness of old turn based RPGs fixed up in clever systems. The style system encourages ramp up, while the refresh system forced variety. The ability system gives an easy opportunity to try new builds.
It isn't perfect. There's a lot of little UX problems like knowing what buffs and debuffs you or your enemies currently have, but the UX is still wildly better than the old RPGs i used to play :p

Pros
- Pretty solid story. Not much down time or obvious side quests (tho there are some). The story keeps ticking and making you want to progress.
- Some nice odes to other games/franchises.
- Great humor. Like...some real funny lines and references.
- Can save anywhere, any time (while not in battle). But no autosaves, so save frequently...
- Good in-between battle upkeep. Dead characters still get xp, and all characters refill HP after a battle.
- Music is pretty great for the most part.
- Lots of flexibility in builds for all characters. Finding/buying upgrades isn't burdensome either. You should easily get all options available for gear and abilities. Some low lvl shields are too good, tho, and means you'll have low defense if you wanna stick w/ them.
- Combat mechanics are interesting. I really like them, but can see some ppl not. The way you need to time your rotations and cooldowns is neat. The Burst mechanic is cool, especially w/ some buff combos. But it also seems like some abilities are either useless or just impossible to time to combo off properly (i.e. a buff for when all partymates are max health. Well...that is pretty much never except for opening attack, but the person who does it has low initiative so can't get it off right away)
Cons
- Minor tooltip inconstencies on possible definitions (using "droid/drone", "restore/heal", etc, inconsistent use of caps, says "Character 100% Style" which doesn't mean GAIN 100% Style but get set to 100% Style. FYI, Style can go over 100%) and some character stats don't seem to change/math properly when changing equipment.
- Related to point above, also seems some things dont work properly or are just bugged? I've seen plenty of +Def and +Dmg abilities not seem to really give +def or +dmg. And one ability says "next move deals double damage", but it kept doubling the damage of all the subsequent moves of an auto-attack. Maybe b/c it was an auto-attack (i.e. same "move")?
- Menus can be better in shops. Like a lot better. Shop menus do not show your inventory, so when you purchase new weapons/gear, you can't compare stats of what you already have equipped. ...or even KNOW what you have equipped.
- Sound inconsistency. Some sfx are extremely loud, some are really quiet.
- Softlocked on me once during a side quest battle.
- Mecha-Dragon (mandatory boss that forces you to have a certain team comp/build to beat).
Neutral
- Partymates mention their sidequest once and then it's up to you to remember what they said and go do the side quest. And some of this one-time dialog you aren't even aware is a sidequest, but just some idle chatter/suggestion about a place (like one character wondering if he can outdance someone on some planet). But others are pretty obvious. But again, they say it once, so pay attention if you care about side quests.
- Characters aren't super fleshed out, but they have some personality and are distinguishable enough from each other in the short time the game is.
- AoE damage is distributed equally, even if the different enemy targets have different armor/resists. Not sure if bug or some sort of intended damage calculation mechanic.
Overall, a pretty solid JRPG that'll take you about 12-15 hrs to beat. Is lacking in some areas, but a decent experience nonetheless.

Cosmic Star Heroine is, without a doubt, a great RPG reminiscent of the classic JRPGs I used to play as a kid, and it still manages to feel fresh in its own way, with a great cast of characters and many interesting locations.
The story is set in the Zevanii system, a planetary system in the far distant future, in which the different planets maintain a relative peace. You start playing as Alyssa L'Salle, an agent for the Agency of Peace and Intelligence (API), from the human planet of Araenu. After what seems to be an ordinary mission against the terrorist organization known as Astraea, you and your friends discover a conspiracy that threatens the whole system, and it's up to Alyssa and her team to stop it.
As the story progresses, you'll get to travel to other two planets from the system. The first of them, Rhomu, suffered a heavy bombardent of biological weapons long ago, making the surface inhospitable for humans, who built cities in the underground; however, the Scimerex, friendly bug-like creatures, thrived on the surface, building their Hive on it. Then there's Nuluup, a planet of human-like creatures, who after their first death, live on in robotic suits controlled by their souls.
The gameplay is turn-based; you get to build a team of four characters, with Alyssa always being the leader, and one support character. Each character has their own abilities, though you can also use items you find, and programs, which depend on your character's shield. As with any JRPG, you get to buy new weapons and shields from stores found in the different planets.
The art style reminds me of classic 16-bit games, even though it manages to feel fresh and modern on its own way. All main characters (and several side charactersdtra) are recognizable from each other, and the interactions you can have are pretty good; from simple lines of funny dialogues, to sidequests that can give you great rewards. The soundtrack is another great point, full of catchy tunes, and while there is practically no spoken dialogue throughout the game, Laura Shigihara provides the vocals for Lauren's song (Lauren being one of the characters that joins you in your quest); a great song I might add.
Personally, I had a lot of fun with this game, and I can easily recommend it.

Honestly this game does so many little things wrong and yet I did actually enjoy it and want to finish it. Firstly, the music is fantastic, the combat music will play in your head for a while after playing and that's good because you're going to hear it ALOT. Which is good because the plot and characters are just plain stale, there's a few good bits here and there but overall underdeveloped characters are the norm here. Still though the combat will keep you coming back, it has two great gimmicks that work well together. Being only able to use abilities once and having to recharge them by defending when you decide; and having special/critical attacks on a predictable timer makes for some good puzzle like combat trying to get everything timed up for the perfect attack.
TL;DR recommended for the combat and music, not for the plot and characters.

Cute game with some fun in-game jokes. After a little while it felt repetitive but I finished it. Some of the game mechanics were handled in a fun & unique way, like player classes. No set healer or tank. Characters were usually a blend of two/three. Story was fairly stock but engaging. Nice homage to classic 90's JRPGs.

Great game.
Graphically, it's basically Chrono Trigger, but more scifi leaning, and the plot is interleaved with animated cutscenes. The music is pretty catchy, too. There are 11 party members to choose from, and each has its own distinct personality, and a decent amount of backstory for a 13 hour game.
The thing I liked most about it was the combat system. There is no mana, and your party starts every combat with full health. Each character has 7 attack slots and a defend slot. There are some weak moves that can be used over and over, but most abilities can only be used once, and are only refreshed when a character uses their defend. This means that if you're playing on an appropriate difficulty, every single fight, even the trash packs, becomes something you have to think about. You're not just mashing attack, you have to work out a skill rotation to maximize damage and healing. Furthermore, there are hyper bars and style points that change up combat significantly, so you won't just be using the same rotation every combat.
There are no random battles. You can see all the enemies on the map, and once they're dead, they stay dead. While this means no slogging through fights you'd rather avoid, it also means that you can't grind if you feel a fight is too hard, and all you can do is temporarily turn down the difficulty. I had to do that a few times, but not that often.
All in all, definitely worth a buy.

I enjoyed what little I played of one of Zeboyd's previous titles, Cthulhu Saves the World, so when I saw this on the Co-Optional Podcast a few years ago, it had my interest. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and just now had the pleasure of trying out the first hour and a half, ish:
+ great pixel art, very much invokes the genre classics--albeit with art direction that's more in line with the Deus Ex series and its brand of cyberpunk. nice cutscenes as well,
+ GORGEOUS soundtrack, holy hell. it's incredibly dynamic--sometimes it's more jazzy, other times it's more ambient and haunting. dependent on the level. what's more, the sound effects (something I fail to mention too often in these casual user reviews I do) are satisfying and well done.
+ an interesting battle system thus far, seems unique to me from my experience with RPG's in this vein.
+ the game rewards exploration with items, cash, etc. hidden out of plain sight--but not so hidden that it's obtuse.
+ strong writing--and being Zeboyd, they bring a dash of their usual sense of humor into things. but this is more serious than CSTW (and probably Breath of Death, but I haven't played that yet), so it tends to ease you out of the jokes so that you don't get tonal whiplash when it's, for instance, trying to elicit tension than laughter. so far, I'm interested in the story and enjoy the characters.
all in all, this is a very strong RPG from what I've gotten into, and I'd definitely recommend it if you're into these kinds of old school RPG's that the mainstream has more or less forgotten about (aside from Octopath Traveler, etc.).