Star Renegades
Star Renegades is a dimension spanning rogue-lite strategy RPG. Outsmart uniquely generated adversaries, forge bonds between heroes and end the cycle! A service robot named J5T-1N has arrived in your dimension to warn of impending doom from an overwhelming force known as the Imperium. Fight for survival across a procedurally generated and emergent mission-based campaign through reactive, tactical turn-based battle system that emphasizes interrupts and counters. Standing in your way is an intelligent Adversary system with enemy officers that evolve and move up in the ranks. As your band of heroes fall in the fight against invading Imperium and hope is all but lost, J5T-1N must be sent to the next dimension with everything you’ve learned to give the next group of heroes a chance to prevail. Each dimension, and each playthrough is unique, challenging, and never the same.
Steam User 26
I was looking for a long while to find a roguelike(ish) turn-based RPG, and I have finally found a relatively enjoyable one. Do I recommend it?
... Yes, but with some moderate asterisks.
This game really spins the the turn-based in a new way. You can stagger enemies and delay them by entire rounds (HOWEVER, the enemies can do the same to you). It really turns into a very tactical and chess-like gameplay loop where you are moving things around on the 60s round timeline to find the best outcomes. I am enthralled by this. And it is with such a unique and potential loop that I am sad to cover this game's MANY problems.
- The game has a few bugs and some are borderline gameplay-impacting. Certain buffs don't work how they're worded and sometimes certain buffs just don't work at all. An enemy once had the overwatch buff and I was able to whack it without it proccing for some reason. Sometimes, the game will show me a Killshot and parsing the round the enemy doesn't die. That is really bad for scenarios when you are counting on that enemy dying so that yours doesn't.
- Game doesn't play nice with gamepad. when you're map panning, the movement joystick will break your avatar, disabling all other game interaction except the squad menu which thankfully resets.
- I'm pretty sure the game confuses dialogue for the Imperium elites. On a map with an Anthropologist and a Dimension Supremacist, the latter clearly stated a line that was meant to be said by the former. Whether it is an issue of camera panning or mistrigger, I don't know.
- On Dagan, gamepad breaks the game if you use the movement analog (again) while in merchant menu.
Now, onto to my gripes about the game design:
- It is somewhat disappointing that loot in this game have scarce gameplay altering mechanics. Peacekeeper Implant is one of a couple exceptions, but the rest are just stat buffs. It would be really cool to see actual mechanic changes on Legendaries only or something.
- The planets get stale after a while. Every run is the Same Behemoth, the same side dungeons, etc. More stuff needed.
- Character meta is present. On higher difficulties, stagger priority and efficient damage are a must, and some characters suffer as a result, namely Paragon and Archon. These characters just don't cut it sometimes so the runs turn more towards RNG rather than skill -- in that these characters have to be propped by items to save the run. Empath has an underwhelming kit. Outside of granting another character an extra action which is restricted by Fury, she really struggles to pull her weight.
- this could be just my playstyle talking, but runs take a while.
- No procedural generation for maps is a bit of an oof.
Regardless of these problems, Star Renegades is still insanely fun game embodying another cool morphing
of roguelikes and RPGS.
TL;DR Really cool game, with various bugs and stuff.
Steam User 25
Just barely recommended. The timing-based combat system (character timing, not player timing - it's turn based) is very well thought out, and the different party members have genuinely different abilities, requiring new strategies for each party composition.
The Adversary system with each being assigned a random personality and stats is interesting, but can be *too* random when combined with the item drops - enemy officers can be resistant or vulnerable to all the damage types you have, or all normal attacks, etc., making it very RNG dependent.
But the chief problem is that a big selling point in the ads was the meta-progression from run to run, with characters developing relationships and having offspring and everything. The relationship perks (developed at campfires with cute little dialogues) are indeed interesting, but they reset every time. More problematic is that each run takes a *long* time (3-5h for one reviewer below; 25-30 hours for me.) So 55h in and starting my third run, I have yet to make any progress on the "multiverse relationship chart" and I still have no idea how "progeny" work (no tutorials/instructions for it.)
Conclusion: combat is fun but there's really no sense of progress over time - you just defeat the same few sets of enemies over and over. It's more like the singleplayer-tournament mode of an arcade game like Street Fighter or SoulCalibur than a proper roguelike RPG in my book.
Steam User 28
An absolute banger of an indie title, wish I could 100% the thing all over again, up there with Hades in my humble opinion of roguelites. Build diversity is good and you have lots of options to progress, not sure what some of the negative reviews are on about. Get it, you won't regret it.
Steam User 22
A fantastic game in many ways, but nearly annilihated by an antediluvian save system. It's supposed to add to the difficulty but will just annoy you to death in the end.
Steam User 15
Star Renegades is very fun but very flawed and mislabeled. This is no roguelike, procedural generation is no where to be seen. it's a weird running RPG battle with dating sim elements. The character variation and equipment selection have a deep influence on the strategy for each run.
Steam User 21
I love this game, but it's very far from perfect. When you think roguelike, it's pretty natural to think of hades. This is the antithesis of hades. What made hades so great were the likable characters, the insane amount of dialogue, nonstop action, and a tight, smart story woven into the game. Star Renegades doesn't have a story, at least not really. The animation that plays once you open the game is beautiful and intriguing, and nothing else in the game is even remotely similar to it. From the "start game" button to the final boss, there isn't really a story other than "An evil alternate dimension is invading yours". Every scrap of dialogue is a joke, and the hit to miss ratio is squarely 90% miss. This game's strength is its replayability, it's a roguelike and it is literally designed around replaying it over and over, and yet there's enough dialogue for you to get sick of it by your 5th go. There is barely any dialogue in there. The character bios are interesting at a glance, but don't connect to each other or the story even remotely. The character interactions are again, all pithy humor. Without the gameplay, there is zero substance.
That being said, the gameplay is incredible. I realize I was very harsh just now, but I truly do love this game. It just frustrates me, because if you pair this top quality gameplay with a more engaging story, this goes from a fun 7/10 to a 10/10. It just doesn't have that. Each character is interesting and seems pretty balanced, and it really encourages you through gameplay mechanics to try different team comps. The enemies are hard, but rarely unfair. The final two bosses (you have to fight them one after the other immediately) are so cool and so well designed, and honestly it makes for such a fun and satisfying final fight. The difficulty however, is not to be understated, this thing is really f*cking hard. Insanely hard. Bordering impossible for the new player hard. But once you get the swing of things and you get some lucky runs, the rubber really starts to meet the road.
This is a game that I very much enjoy and plan on continuing to play. Just skip all the dialogue and maybe listen to your own music, or watch something in the background while you play it. Definitively 7/10.
Steam User 9
Absolute blast. This game has all the things I like. It has silly dialogue, sci fi theme, strategic gameplay, and cyberpunk music.
Played 100 hours and enjoyed them all.