Star Renegades

Imagine combining the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor with Darkest Dungeon's resting and exploration, Battle Chaser's combat, and Fire Emblem style relationships.
All wrapped up in a roguelike.

I'll be looking at this game from the perspective of an SRPG vet, including Fire Emblem, DD, XCOM, etc.
-VISUALS-
This game is a treat.
There really is no other way to say it, I'm not sure pixel art and pixel art animation has ever been done better. The subtle 3D effects on certain aspects just makes it all the better. The environments, both out of battle and in it, are stunning every time. The animations are overall very pleasant with some nice weight accentuated by the screen shake and camera movement.
Really no complaints here at all, there's even a speed up option by holding down space a la Monster Train.
-STORY/LORE-
It's fine, for what it is. Vague, and doesn't go too far, but certainly helps frame it and is interesting enough. Writing is fine, lots of one liners which may or may not land depending on your humor. I found them overall cheesy enough to laugh at the tongue-in-cheek nature of them, but it certainly won't be for everyone. Overall most likely the weakest aspect of the game.
-GAMEPLAY AND LOOP-
The real meat and potatoes. Star Renegade uses a timeline system, wherein you can manipulate enemy turns (up to a limit) in order to force them further and further back. The system itself is well implemented and easy to grasp thanks to a solid tutorial. If I had any complaints, it's honestly that the system is far too easily abusable depending on the composition. Balance will never be perfect in games like these, the Vestal is still a thing in Darkest Dungeon, but on my 2nd run ever I was able to lock the final boss of the game for about 8 turns in a row thanks to a combination of stuns (which are admittedly infrequent) and delays.
I'm not sure there's an easy fix, and there are 2 harder difficulties that I will be exploring which may crank up enemy stats enough to where this isn't as big of a deal, however unless the time delays are tuned in higher difficulties I doubt this will be the case as otherwise it is just raw stats. (NOTE: I wrote in an edit down below but the higher difficulties can and will kick your teeth in, this is not an easy game by any means. Do not be fooled by your first few runs.)
Being able to choose starting party composition (3/5 of your final squad) is a really nice boon, it keeps some randomness while allowing experimentation. I have not unlocked all characters at the time of writing (some require extensive relationship building, of which I've done one and am satisfied with both the system and the resulting character). The camping portion where this build up happens feels intuitive and easy to grasp, once again very Darkest Dungeon-esque with limited "points" to spend on skills. While the balance is very questionable for some of these, the overall impact was enjoyable and weighing building bonds for better passive bonuses vs. immediate camping buffs was the most enjoyable aspect.
Enemy design, visually, is incredible and the fights themselves are fun as well. Some fights are very much out of the power curve balance wise (2nd planet final boss comes to mind as a major spike that is hard to deal with, whereas the final boss just isn't enough of a threat when you bring certain strategies that I will withhold from this review to let you figure out that on your own). Overall a good time, nothing especially annoying, although enemies do tend to behave in a very similar way. Part of the learning curve for other games is prioritizing certain enemies who buff others, or debilitate you, and there is not nearly as much of that going on. Focus firing is still good, but who you focus fire more often than I would like comes down to "he hits harder so I hit him first".
Items are also mostly just okay, nothing really intriguing here but nothing offensive either. I would really enjoy seeing more specialized items that retool a character in some way, maybe towards the end showing items that are character specific that alter playstyles. Hero perks do this already somewhat, but mostly just reinforce what the character is already good at. Having an item radically alter a support class to be damage oriented in a drastic way would really help spice up runs.
-MUSIC-
I've seen some complaints about the music and I simply cannot agree, while I don't think it's a stand out in the way Darkest Dungeon is, the music is nonetheless excellent at setting the tone and does not get repetitive. Certainly not the best the genre has to offer but by no means the worst, and won't make you want to turn it off as I regularly have in many other games after some time.
-CONCLUSION-
Overall, even as a veteran of the genre, I think Star Renegades separates itself through a combination of visuals that are unique and striking, along with gameplay that has a good bit of depth to it. The ability to freely mix and match the majority of your party is a huge boon to making repeat runs interesting. Every character I've played with has been fun in their own way, and figuring out what characters synergize well is as always a joy in games like this. There are some notable flaws, namely in balancing variety of items/monsters, but those are long term, 50-100+ hour problems, not ones that will grate on you for your first, fifth, or tenth playthrough.
If you've read all this, thank you! I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do. I'll certainly be playing more and will edit my review accordingly if anything major changes.
EDIT: The higher difficulties are indeed quite hard. There's more teeth to this than I thought, definitely do not write this off as a cake walk. I really put my foot in my mouth with this one.

Video Review (3 Mins)
Written Review
Star Renegades has a great core combat system, with a variety of characters to spice up your runs.
The game is turn-based, and at the beginning of every round, you can see all your enemies' actions laid out on a timeline. Different attacks have different speeds that will determine when everyone carries out their moves. However, the game rewards you for attacking earlier.
If you manage to hit an enemy before they do their action, you will crit them, which on top of extra damage can come with other bonuses like stuns, or armor breaks, depending on what attack you used.
On top of that, you can push their action further down the timeline, which then gives ANOTHER one of your characters an opportunity to crit them, and possibly even push them further down the timeline.
Enemies build up a resistance to being pushed at some point, but if you manage to use the right attacks to push them far enough before that happens, you will "break" them, which means their turn will be skipped until next round.
This allows for such fun and strategic play. Attacks can be devastating in this game, especially from bosses or larger groups, so pushing enemies down the timeline can save your characters one round, while you quickly regen your shields or prepare a strong attack for next round.
There are a ton of status effects, weaknesses and strengths that different enemies have, and you can see it all when you inspect them.
In between combat, you are plopped into an overworld with randomly generated encounters. You can only visit a handful of them per day, so you need to plan your route efficiently. Some tiles might have loot, while others may have a strong mini-boss.
Killing enemies rewards you with DNA that you can upgrade your characters with. They get base stat increases, while allowing them to equip higher end gear, and earning them new moves or cards to use during camps.
Setting up a camp is what you do once you've depleted your moves for the day. Your characters sit around the fire, and prepare for the next day.
Here, you can use character cards on their companions. This can sometimes heal them, or give them buffs for the next battle. On top of that, it'll increase the relationship points between the two characters. As that happens, they earn permanent buffs, gain a combined attack, or even unlock a new progeny character for you to use.
Once you're done with the camp segment, you play out 2 more days before you have to fight the big bad boss for that specific planet.
Bosses come with randomized traits, including things like weaknesses to specific attacks, or becoming enraged if you break their armor, for example.
After you've completed one planet, you have a brief respite where you can use earned credits to purchase equipment from the store, and get to recruit new characters to your squad.
And that's the basic rhythm of the game.
Although there isn't a huge focus on story, it's present, and characters chatter all the time. Most of it is jokey, and got a chuckle out of me, while sometimes they sprinkle a bit of lore.
The main premise is that the bad guys are going from dimension to dimension, wiping out everyone. If you succeed or fail a run, your next run will take place in the next dimension in the crosshairs of the evil imperium.
As for the aesthetic, it speaks for itself, but it truly gorgeous. The pixel art is awesome, but the lighting is really what seals the deal. It makes everything pop out and just look stunning. The sound adds "oomph" too, with satisfying attacks sounding explosive.
Finally, the music is incredibly catchy and helps accompany the atmosphere.
Overall, I love the game. My only real issue is that UI can be a pain sometimes. Seeing enemy effects isn't as easy as it should be, being hidden behind two button presses, but that stops being a problem after you've learned the symbols more or less.
The rest of the game is very well crafted though. The gameplay is satisfying, and discovering new characters is exciting.
I highly recommend it!
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This game has a lot of flaws, but at the core of it it's pretty fun and entertaining. I'd give it a 6/10 - which is to say that it's worth playing but needs some work. A healthy dose of polish (see Cons list) could easily bring it up to 8/10 or 9/10.
Pros:
* Combat system is great if you enjoy turn based combat
* There's enough difference and variance to keep runs interesting
* Soundtrack is chill
* Enemies ranking up for killing you is a neat touch
Cons:
* Dialogue is old and stale super fast, there's only like a dozen lines or so that just repeat all the time
* Typos, misspelled words, and inconsistency with punctuation shouldn't be as present as they are
* Character personalities are pretty non-existent, even for intentional caricatures.
* Not all combos seem viable or useful (*I'm not an alpha gamer, this is just my opinion I'm sure there's ways to make everything work that I'm not seeing)

What would make this 8 star or better?
* Fix typos, spelling, and grammar mistakes
* Add new dialogue for everyone
* Better writing
* New behemoths/planets

EDIT: I'm now 40+ hours in. I would recommend only if you really enjoy these rogue-lite RPG games; it is most similar to Darkest Dungeon, but not as fun.The game length is 6-8 hours so you cant always finish in one sitting- this was my biggest annoyance. too long that you cant keep playing after failed attempt (like an FTL), and is not divided into short missions even if it is long (like a darkest dungeon).
After learning the mechanics, the game is almost boringly easy; have 1 hero that breaks ("stuns") enemy, 1 hero to tank, 1 hero to deal bonus damage to that stunned enemy. its very basic core mechanic is too optimal and doesn't have much room for other team archetypes to shine based on the bosses you will face (they are always the same bosses).
The developers have been updating this game very regularly post-release, so that is a very good sign. They need to reduce the number of worlds to 3 (shorten the run time), then have the extra worlds rotate randomly each run so you face different bosses/mobs each time, and have the extra random events not as extra maps but as extra fights.
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+ POSITIVES
+ a lot of customization. equip different weapons, devices, armor on up to 5 different heroes, and you can level heroes up to level 10, each level unlocking skills or temporary buffs.
+ replayability with different heroes, and if you increase their relationship from previous runs they create progeny heroes
+ cool persistent lives of enemies and heroes. if you die to an enemy unit ending your run, the game promoted the enemy and you meet it next run. I've only beat it once, but cool to unlock heroes and their progeny (lol)
+ tactics matter and you're heavily punished for incorrect plays. deciding order of attacks on timeline, inspecting enemy traits, weaknesses, strengths goes a long way, selecting the correct skills and targetting the correct enemies is important
+ each hero has multiple skills that are useful in different situations.
- NEGATIVES
-UI is overcrowded. overlapping hero models made it harder to select heros, determine where enemy attacks were targetted, and it got worse later in the game with more heroes on your team and more enemies
- no explanation of any statuses and effects of items, skills, units and what they do. they dont have a complete wiki for the game either
- item shops could be improved. they give you 3 options. at least one of the items have throwaway stats (e.g. sword that goes on heavy attack hero, buffing light attacks). items are usually higher level than current hero levels, which makes you stockpile DNA (and delay levelling) until you find item chest so you can see the item you want to buy then level that hero. what should be enjoyable is sometimes annoying
- camping system didn't feel fleshed out, camping cards give temporary buffs, but you also want to send cards to and from specific heroes to improve relationships. sometimes i felt just spamming cards to build the relationship instead of caring for which buffs they are; the only cards i really cared about targetting was healing cards
-map movement was clunky, often get stuck on autopathing around map
-30% of game is down time just wasted in night time walking around map to pick up randomly spawned DNA/coins, walking around a new behemoth map that has nothing to explore and just a straight path, navigating UI to check shop and check inventory then re-check shop. there's already camp mode for downtime, the fun dies down a lot between battles.

i haven't stopped playing this game since i bought it, not only is it a great game but it's a game that you can take your time with and really think about your moves before you take them. every run is different as you unlock more gear and characters and even after 127hours played i'm still being challenged in every playthrough.
the artwork is also incredible, the backgrounds on some of the fights are the best pixel art i have come across.
great game, tons of replayability, beautiful artwork and it's fun.

I’m a simple man. If a game offers me a Robot Space Pirate Self-Help Guru, a four-armed Gunslinger and a Customs Officer in Hulkbuster Armor, who go out and try to stop evil interdimensional colonists, I'm down.
There might be a reality out there in which I don’t like Star Renegades. This version of me does not live in that reality.
But does it accomplish universal fun?
Let’s break it down…
Visuals&UI
Non-combat UI is well integrated and easy on the eyes, not cluttered, but it needs a bit of orientation to know what’s what. Some information is hard to find or absent (e.g. perpetual buffs, relationship buffs).
Combat UI is thorough and sensible. It tends to get cluttered and noisy in late game, when more characters are on the board and lots of AoE become part of the battle routine. Separating different Overwatch and Counter effects also requires some detective work, as the Fluff name of some abilities is counterintuitive to what the executed ability actually does in the context of the game.
Enough with the boring nonsense, we all know why we're in this section:
The. Visuals. Are. Gorgeous.
The attention to detail, how Star Renegades ‘fools’ your eyes in the most positive sense, is stellar.
If you love to see pixel art done right you should have a field day. The character design is memorable and creative, integrates well with gameplay and backgrounds are stunning.
The best I can do to describe the artstyle is that it makes you ‘hungry’, you constantly want to see more of it, hunt for little details hidden in what seems to be so simple, yet is not.
I’m now 30 hours in and I haven’t skipped a single animation, because yes, they’re that charming.There’s distinct animations for attacks, hits, exhaust states, guarded states and they all translate incredibly as exciting, fun expressions of how these characters would fight.
It baffles me that combo attacks do not have their own animation. I understand the constraints of Indie Development, but that just seems like a big missed opportunity to add more charm to the game, as the visuals are the heart and connective tissue of the whole thing.
II also noticed some slight quality differences or odd choices. The Marksman character twirling his damn rifle in Sniper Mode drove me insane and actually kept me from using it, and some executions seem .5 seconds too long compared to more snappy moves (Looking at you Man-O-War).
Sound
So if my eyes are in a constant state of bliss with this, what about the ears?
SFX synergize well with gameplay and art and have the right amount of impact. Attacks don’t feel weak or whiffy. If you give a giant Cyborg cat an uppercut or mind-shank a Rocket Techno Warlock, it exactly sounds like you would imagine.
Star Renegades’ Soundtrack has some good variety, though with diminishing returns. It’s a solid mix of pumpy sci-fi neo synth and spacey bloinks and bleeps.
Story
In a universe full of sentient robots, cyborgs, psyonics, power armors for dogs and all the galactic turmoil you can imagine, things get worse. A ship from a multiverse spanning empire arrives and wrecks everyone’s shit. A plucky band of resistance fighters takes them on, trying to save their reality.
If you are looking for a sophisticated plot, you have journeyed for naught, my friend. This is all you’ll get.
It’s impossible to write a story that hasn’t been told yet. But this one is simplistic, clumsy at times and as deep as misallocated Einstein quotes.
The story’s tone is self aware and dialogue is upbeat and tongue-in-cheek, but sometimes there’s melancholy, fatalism and some obvious satire/critique between the lines.
I wish the tightrope walk between these would be more balanced. As is, it creates more dissonance than achieving investment in the story.
The writing is solid, with a few hiccups that border on cringe and could’ve been used with more purpose. Humor is a delicate thing and when you don’t have unlimited space to give your characters a voice, the Narrative Designer in me wept when another line dropped that was neither poignant, nor funny and just a repeat of ‘This universe is SO wacky and absurd!’
There’s scripted ‘events’ where characters will banter a bit, but it's rarely connected to specific characters or their personality and will happen every run without variation. That was deeply disappointing. It would’ve added the experience, if there were at least some special interactions.
I also missed in-combat banter. The enemies have some, but the characters and their bonds didn’t seem to justify the effort.
Their relationship banter is a mixed bag, as some seem to have been written with more love than others, but most of it was heartwarming.
Thus fortunately, a lot of the narrative is carried by the roster of endearing characters, their interactions and some very impressive worldbuilding and corresponding artwork.
The bizarre thing about Star Renegade’s story is, there should be more. And it makes you hungry for more.
There’s so much going on, so many things alluded to... and you get none of it.
I pointed this out with the visuals already. While those do give you more, the story leaves you hungry. It’s the equivalent of someone offering you cake, and when you ask him, if you can buy more of that cake, he says: no, you may only look from 3 meters away, now back the fuck off!
I feel like this was supposed to be a linear story at some point, or rather, I feel it should be, but that’s not what we got.
Gameplay
Star Renegades is a turn based game of the Rogue variety. You progressively, over multiple runs, unlock characters and better gear you can then find in each new run.
If you know games like Grandia or Child of Light the core combat will be familiar. Attacks get a place on a timeline. Who goes before an opponent hits harder, or eats more damage if someone else goes first. There are some attacks that may knock you back on the TL or even kick you straight into the next turn.
This creates an interesting tactical environment, especially if you’re used to XCOM's combat or Darkest Dungeon, where killing as much of your opposition in your turn as possible, or alpha-striking the most dangerous foe is more intuitive.
Combat is all about delays, there are no random factors and it’s a puzzle to solve similar to Into the Breach, as there’s basically no way to just AoE or crowbar your way through it, unless you have perfect gear. Accordingly, it requires a lot of patience, but every fight you win feels rewarding.
You can get unlucky with certain team compositions or situations. I had encounters where a different tank could’ve cost me the run, because an enemy decided to spam its OP AoE 3 times, or when a sniper cloaks and one-shots your backline, because you have no means of decloaking him.
But mostly, there is a solution or trade you can make to win any encounter.
What sours the whole deal is that the Roguelite elements are lackluster.
The perks you unlock are insignificant. Same goes for Droid buffs. Mileage may vary, since I got smoothly through my runs. But even then, these perks _optimize_ they do not add anything of substance, like changing playstyle or character capacity, just a numerical bonus that diminishes hard and quickly.
If you have completed the game with base gear, more gear can be uninteresting, though it enables some nice new combos.
Character unlocks are great fun, but a run is short and by the time they reach their most fun potential, the run is basically over.
The gameplay loop is engaging, though I wish as a Roguelite, it would offer more satisfying elements and a more extensive experience.
In Conclusion
I’ve deeply enjoyed Star Renegades. I also want to scream into the void, because it could have been outstanding, especially narratively. The visuals do so much of the heavy lifting that I probably would not have considered buying the game if it weren’t for them.
But here we are, and in this reality, I can only say: Hard recommendation.