Star Renegades

The fact that I keep coming back to trying another, harder run every few months is a testament how much I like how Star Renegades plays, looks and sounds. Finishing a run is insanely fulfilling. It's just really hard to justify investing time because the formula barely changes but runs take 4–6 hours and could end after the second bad decision.
Dialog is astonishingly cringe sadly. I hope no developer ever believes that it's a good idea to put this marvel-ass-shit in a game again.

I finally 100% this game yesterday and realised I have yet to write a review for it.
Star Renegades is a turn based rogue like with heavy emphasis on party building and planing out your turns.
The game is VERY unforgiving, especially on the higher difficulties, and a single bad turn can end your entire run, which can be 3-5 hours on the higher difficulties.
This is a game that expects you to learn its systems and use the information it offers you to carefully plan out your moves, however the system does bug out some times and doesn't give you the full picture, especially with the last unlock-able character. Thankfully, anyone that HAS managed to unlock that final character will be 100 hours plus into the game by that point and will know the game well enough to deal with those consistences.
I adore the pixel art styles, the music hits just right and I actually like characters, story and the dry humour that makes up the non combat parts of the experience.
If you're looking for a turn based combat game with HEAVY empathise on the combat and don't mind a challenge then this could be just the game that your looking for.
If you're after an engaging story with memorable characters you're probably better off looking elsewhere.

Logged 300+ hours into this game on Xbox, absolutely fantastic game! Decided to buy on PC for the bit of DLC that isn't available on xbox.
Artwork and soundtrack are very engaging and create an epic experience. Not many roguelikes keep me entertained for more than 20 hours so this game is truly solid!
Character dialogues and banter have a cynical humor to them, which fits the theme of a never-ending quest to stop the interdimensional swarm.
Only three things I wish were different:
1. that the progeny were a bit more unique compared to there progenitors in stats and abilities
2. the planets and their respective behemoths could be fought in varying order rather than only fighting specific enemies/behemoths at planets 1, 2, and 3.
3. more things to spend meta-currency on!
Entropy IV and V were the real challenge and found I could only beat them with specific team setups.
Overall great game with massive replayability. The devs truly made this game with passion!
Highly recommend!!!!

most turn-based rpgs are way too easy and one-dimensional. in those games, the game loop: no defense. only attack. if ice monster? fire attack. if low hp? use potion. NOT this game. you have to prep properly and you have to fight properly. however, this makes the game way too unforgiving. you can lose half an hour to hours of progress because of a single mistake. there should be checkpoints every 30 minutes at the very least. because of that, it's not for me, but it's still a great game. i have yet to play a turn-based rpg like this, and i could see myself coming back for more.

Honestly, I tried to make a pros and cons list multiple times for this game, like I usually do for my other game reviews. Every time, I'd end up deleting what I wrote. There are some really good and fun things about Star Renegades, the turn based combat, pixelated graphics and the core loop of the game are among the top of my list for positives. But there are some things I didn't like, and I felt those reasons hindered my ability to enjoy the game.
The number one thing in my mind was just how confusing the combat can get. The UI is absurdly bad, it's very difficult to figure who is doing what, and what kind of damage, buffs and debuffs everyone is doing. The UI doesn't do a very good job of explaining what each attack or defensive ability does, it turns into a game of confusion instead of a game of fun. I want to mention it's quite possible that the information is there but I can't figure out where that information is easily without getting annoyed. If it's happening to me, I can guarantee others are feeling the same way.
So, that means Star Renegades has been out for over 4 years and they have not simplified combat yet. I think we know that will never happen at this point. All I want potential buyers to know is that, it can get very frustrating but none the less I have enjoyed the game. Which means, I'm going to recommend it. After 9 hours, despite it's issues, I still want to play it. I have to give it a thumbs up.

Very fun and challenging combat system. It's a fun interplay between deciding whether to push damage through on enemies or stun them until the next turn where they are likely to go before you unless you plan accordingly. The metaprogression is more about unlocking play patterns and minor stat improvements than steadily advancing towards an inevitable win.

It's not a rogue-lite in the way you "DO MORE RUNS!" because the game itself is too slow for that. It's more of a "Oh, I get these new things that make it interesting if I decide to try again" game. Give it a whirl if you like low-end tactics games that introduce a small amount of rogue-lite stuff thrown in
Update at nearly 50hrs:
I really like the combat of this game. The one minute bar and trying to eek out more seconds so you can stagger enemies is awesome. I haven't used all the classes, but I feel they offer a solid mix of the trinity of tank, healer, and dps so that runs are unique, but familiar. It's a solid game.
I just wish it wasn't so slow. Everything takes way too long. One game, for me at least, take HOURS to complete and I feel that you need to dedicate too much time for minor rewards. I want to unlock every progeny, but I can't fathom how long I'd have to grind out relationships to do that. Even with a "fast-forward" aspect to the combat you're slogging through each encounter. I feel that this game could've been an awesome Tactics RPG, even if it has a paper-thin story, because you have a solid foundation for each system. However, the "rogue-lite" loop breaks these systems in a way that makes it feel too grindy.
I still recommend this game because I think it's rewarding overcoming your first playthrough, but after that.... I don't think it works well enough to want to see everything it has to offer.