Reviews from

in the past


Emotional visual novel with stupid teenager characters. It's like Persona except I don't like any of the characters and they aren't funny. There is some gameplay but it's more of an illusion than anything mechanically interesting. The worldbuilding was excellent but the story and characters I don't think were good. There's about one million flashbacks which I thought was just lazy.

Aside from a particular event at ~25% of the way through, I didn't click with the story emotionally which I think is the main point of the game. It was an okay experience overall but I was expecting a lot more considering how people rave about this game. I want to like this genre but I don't seem to get much out of these 'emotional' type games.

É impressionante q em 10 horas e pouco de gameplay esse jogo consegue criar um mundo fantástico com uma escrita excelente, e com um desenvolvimento dos 3 personagens incríveis
Gostei demais mesmo do universo, cada pontinho q tu vai tem uma pequena historia vibe Mass Effect 2, pra completar uma trilha sonora maravilhosa pra fechar esse jogo com chave de ouro.

As someone who never finished Night in the Woods and never thought he could care for narrative-focused games, this game genuinely shocked me with how quickly it hooked me, and it never let go. The ending also broke me. Incredible game.

I gave this one a quick chance because it's leaving Game Pass but it's not for me. It's a visual novel, mixed with a 2.5D walking simulator and has VERY light puzzle solving. I found this super boring, but I won't be rating it because I am just not a visual novel gamer in general.

Eu amei esse jogo, é simplesmente uma obra prima, arte pura.


What a surprise! I found this through Game Pass and had a vague recollection of it getting some praise a couple of years ago. It’s totally warranted. An expansive exercise in world building, an emotional and intimate story through place and time, a basic but enjoyable puzzle platformer/resource management sim/visual novel that’s always more than the sum of its parts.

What immediately drew me in to this world was the scope of it all. It feels like this universe is huge, and you are only ever traversing a very small part of it on a journey that in the grand scheme of things is probably miniscule, but is packed with an emotional resonance that rivals the best of them.

I won't go into specifics regarding the story, but you find yourself with a crew of interesting characters travelling around the solar system and just soaking in the lore, be it through dialogue, through item descriptions or through flashbacks.

The main gameplay loop is you getting a set of coordinates, slowly making your way there with a few stops on the way to harvest resources and fuel to keep your space ship going and upgraded, and when you get there you either get some dialogue or you get a cave exploration segment. The gameplay hooks are barely worth mentioning; there are some light puzzle elements, some light adventure game mechanics (use item A on item B to progress), some light traversal and exploration as you make your way through the caves and some mini-games akin to lockpicking.

The gameplay is not why this game is good. It's all about the story - a story which would fall absolutely flat if you don't buy in to the anime-isms of the characters. I'm predisposed to like it, but I know that doesn't apply to everyone.

Wow this game was incredible. Please play it if you like great stories. It will make you cry, but it will be worth it.

He deixat el joc a mitjes parcialment no per culpa del propi joc sino per cansament dels videojocs en general (he acabat jocs molt pitjors i molt més llargs). Seguidament un bombardeig de les meves sensacions en les primeres 4h, totalment subjectives i sesgades en gran part pel context personal (no ideal) on l'he jugat:

-El protagonista és l’estereotípic heroi amb un honor irracional que el fa semblar subnormal.
-Els altres personatjes, la pilot clàssica nena d’anime antipàtica que en el fons és bona gent i la altra noia sense res destacable.
-És un joc molt estrany, fa moltes coses però tot manera superficial: puzzles, missions, roleplay, decisions on tens poquíssima agència…
-Les parts on camines les pitjors, quan estàs en la nau prou bé. Puzzles sense dificultat on només camines d’un costat a l’altre i presiones una tecla
-M’agraden les parts on vas per diferents punts de l’espai trobant altres personatjes i events, hauria estat bé un joc que profunditzés en això
-Estil artístic i música molt bé

Hooo boy this is a true gem. I literally don't know where to start. The stroytelling, character development, writing, and music are all crazy good. Ending made me cry, like Makoto Shinkai movie level of cry. Playing through all the past Sigono games to prep for this one was such a trip, because in the span of a couple days of playing I saw this tiny mobile game dev studio put out this lore rich intensely polished experience that blew me away. Highly recommend, had a great time playing it (Side note, don't try achievement hunting, I was frequently given achievements for things I did not do and was not given them for things I did do)

Opus: Echo of Starsong is a beautiful journey through an under represented genre of science fiction that stretches itself a bit too much.

I don't think I'd be able to do the story justice by trying to describe it in full, but I think the premise of witches and runners across the universe was done rather well. Having corporations and investment groups at economic war while scouting for rare minerals isn't necessarily new or unique, but when done well it can make a franchise rather interesting. Starsong takes advantage of a good premise and gets some mileage out of it, but down the stretch of the game relies too much on a rehashed anime storyline in which tsundere's become the main focus. It gets rather predictable and honestly the melodrama that exists within the crew takes a lot away from the captivating parts of the game's lore and the overall story at large.

Opus is the third game in a series, the first two of which I didn't play, but I felt like I had no issue jumping into this third and ultimate entry. The world and lore within Starsong is intricately laid out and told to the player through conversation, loading screens, item descriptions, and interactive items in the stars you visit. It's always tough to jump in and try to learn an entire franchises history that is brand new to you as the audience, but Starsong does a great job putting it all out there. Even though it seems like it can be too much at times, I found myself slowly but surely learning about the histories of the United Mining Association and its war to capture mining rights across the universe. I started completely lost about the witches, lumen, and the runners and ended up starved and wanting more.

As for gameplay, as other reviewers have written it's fairly limited and that's okay... but it did lead me to yawn and get a little sleepy during my playthrough. There's a lot of stretches within the "story" in which you're jumping from station to station only interacting with dice rolls, and once you get to a location that you have to scout with the main character, you're just running left to right with minimal interaction.

This game is absolutely beautiful, while the character models and sidescroller sections aren't exactly eye candy, the shots of the galaxy and use of colour during the game's deceptively lengthy runtime were phenomenally done. Everything looked good, be it the flashbacks or backgrounds while the party's ship flew through a galaxy, this is a pretty title. The use of songs and music is minimalistic but ethereal, playing into the otherworldy theme of the story and mystery at large. The way the music coupled with the art and design made Starsong feel like a spacey dream while playing.

Opus: Echo of Starsong is a great Gamepass game, I don't think I'd pay for it outside of the service. It's beautiful and has a lot going for it, but doesn't stick its story landing or its pacing well enough to be a title I could recommend.

pretty though surprisingly poor animations. interesting worldbuilding but the main sappy story not very well executed, didn't get me emotional at all, characters are paper thin

I don't know how else I can describe my experience with this game other than to say it fell completely flat.

While there are some component elements to Starsong that were good, the game never managed to weave them into a satisfying (or even cohesive) whole. There’s the history and backstory of Thousand Peaks which, despite lots of worldbuilding surrounding it, rarely ended up being relevant to the main story. There’s the mythology of the cosmos and mystery about the true nature of this world, but once again it was of minimal importance to the actual story despite such a large share of time and dialogue being devoted to it. And there is the ‘gameplay’ itself. While Starsong has resource management and puzzles, both elements are incredibly barebones and simple, making them feel more like padding than a core part of the experience.

Ultimately, Starsong’s focus is on its characters. And while there is an actual resolution to the info it introduces about them, it's honestly pretty dull. Most interpersonal relationships are stagnant throughout the game with the biggest changes only taking place offscreen. Likewise, the characters themselves never actually grow or change throughout the story. Apart from the aforementioned shifts in their interpersonal relations, nothing about their personality, goals, or beliefs ever changes throughout the story. Jun at the beginning of the story is practically the same as the Jun at the end, just a little bit more competent. Eda is the exact same character from beginning to end, the only difference being that she starts to like Jun about halfway through the story. Remi is the exact same, the only difference being she goes from disliking Jun to tolerating him. You learn almost everything important about each character early on, but none of that info is ever developed further.

Characters don't change. Rather, they just start doing different things. They’ll go from scavenging through caves to exploring much larger structures. They go from nobodies to recognizable figures. They’ll take on bigger and bigger tasks that seem as if they’re building to some big revelation. But it never does. The entire experience felt stagnant. I’d call it predictable if not for the fact that the glowing reviews made me think something big was gonna happen that all the earlier mundanity was building towards. But that just made the ending feel even more disappointing when I realized the end result was just as flat as the rest of the game.

I just don’t see what the appeal is here. The things the game does well are never capitalized on, and the areas where it does focus are probably some of its weakest. A large chunk of the time feels like padding thanks to the unnecessary gameplay elements making even the short runtime feel needlessly long.

It seems I’m decidedly in the minority here, but I really don't understand why. Maybe I just never got in sync with the game’s vibes and so everything else was lost on me, but if vibes is the only thing this game has going for it then its sky-high praise still seems excessive.

I don’t get it. I feel like this is just one of those cases where I have to resign myself to the fact that people are just gonna have different tastes and that not all preferences can be explained.

Está bonito. Le sobra bastante la gestión de recursos y quizás habiendo tomado un camino en su gameplay más cercano a algo como Night in the Woods todo cuadraría mejor, pero narrativamente está muy trabajado y el ambiente melancólico es precioso.

Made me sob like a little bitch and if that doesn't warrant a 10 idk what does.

I cried, man. Hard. I also spent way too much time just sitting on the main menu listening to the menu music.

Overall: 8/10 game, 9/10 visual novel.

Gameplay: 6/10
Story/Narrative: 7/10
Graphics/Visuals: 9/10
Audio/Soundtrack: 10/10

Excelent art, audio and story, even when I already knew how it was going to end from the beggining it was worth the ride, the gameplay is meh but is alright because that isn't in what you should be focusing on

i liked the story but did not enjoy playing the game in the slightest

Opus Echo of Starsong is an emotional journey. It doesn't have the best narrative by far, but it focuses the storytelling on each character's growth and relationship. The gameplay is nothing special, and the puzzles are something an eight year old could do, the hard part is just finding the object to interact with.

The game is short (7-10hrs) and the good thing out of this, is that things rarely slows down for a long time, it can go from 1 to 100 in the span of a chapter or even half of it. The bad thing out of it is that the game is very lore heavy. There are so much lore surrounding the whole place that you need to process in the short span of the game.

Character developments also plays a huge part in this game, however only Eda was somewhat "stated" to grow by the end of the story (despite her actions proving otherwise so...). Whereas Jun is still the same person throughout, obsessing over "honor" and his "clan" from the beginning to the end, the only development he got is being infatuated with Eda as the story continues. Remi, as well stays the same for most of the story, she did soften up to Jun near the end and even becomes his close friend after a certain part, however their reconciliation just happens. She suddenly feels guilty towards Jun. It feels too fast, and it's just resolved after. Though, unlike Jun, I do like Remi and find her character tragic. Unfortunately, the character developments are not handled well.

The length also affects other character's relationship, as at times, things are developing too quick. Bones and Jun for example, although he did save Bone's life, he was the one that placed his life in danger in the first place, and somehow after writing him letters, they became close buddies? This is one of those they tried to explained as one of the "things" that just happens during the time skip (which happens a few times), so it feels out of nowhere.

The biggest emphasis of the problem are also on Jun and Eda's relationship (The biggest driving point of the game) which feels underdeveloped. You will get one or two major scene/s between them every chapter and the rest of it is mostly implications of their relationship developing, and the funny part is, a lot of it are actually from other characters, while other times it's merely little things like worrying about each other. Jun's feelings toward Eda however does come from a place of love, although not said explicitly, but he stated that meeting her is one of the best things that happened in his life. Though Eda does feel the same way, it is only implied, it is also apparent that she cares for Jun's wellbeing a lot. She tends to have a "tsun" attitude toward Jun whenever he's doing or saying something with romantic connotation, sometimes showing discomfort and even keeps dismissing his sincerity as "jokes" or not acknowledging it much, this never really change till the end, especially her choice at the end. It feels like they are trying to write a blooming love story while at the same time, trying their best not to make it apparent, and so the clear imbalance of what is said and implied makes it so that, in the short span of the game, not enough development between them is seen to be built. It's a very big reason why I think the game should've been longer. The ending between them didn't hit me as much as I thought it would.

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
A good storytelling method for me, would be one that stood somewhere between "exposition" and "implication". If a story loves doing expositions, then I might as well be watching Dora the Explorer. If a story goes full implication, then nothing might as well happened. A narrative that does more implications (foreshadowing/underlying meaning) can be executed well if the payoffs are expositions (big twist/reveal), this game however pays off implications with more implications, which some may like, but not me personally. This brings me to the ending scene in which Eda planted the flowers for Jun. In this scene, it's supposed to be the culmination of their relationship throughout the game, however their relationship is still underdeveloped due to not much has been explicitly established, and so it doesn't really hit me as much as I thought it would. Eda planting the flower, could also be seen as a lot of things, I've seen a few took it as her "declaration of love" to Jun, although it might be, among other things, it just feels out of character for her. I see it more as her keeping her promise to him as well as atonement for leaving him and Remi behind. But again, it could really be any or all of these. They also seem to reunite in their young selves somehow? even though it's only explained that emotions and thoughts are the only thing that can travel through time, unless it is in the afterlife, it doesn't seem clear as it just cuts off which is why I'm disappointed as the culmination of their relationship growing being insinuated before this is even more insinuation. It's not a terrible sequence, but I am just more in awe than I am emotional.

Overall, It's still a journey, and though I've mostly mention the flaws, it's more coming from a place of wasted potential. The story is nothing grand and doesn't evolve beyond what it already is, but it'll still pull your heart strings regardless.

A visually compelling game, with extremely mediocre exploration gameplay. More visual novel than game, with exploration segments being far too simple to feel like anything but a chore. It is carried hard by great art direction and music. It managed to get me a bit teary eyed at the end so it did something right.

I was most of the way through the final chapter, thinking is this all you can throw at me?!?!?! and then old jun cried. :(

Amo molto la fantascienza. La combinazione di questo genere allo stile di gioco delle visual novel ha dato vita a lavori eccellenti (Steins;Gate su tutti). Dal punto di vista narrativo è debole rispetto alle grandi storie del genere, ma la combinazione a elementi strategici e mini-giochi —sin troppo semplici a dire il vero— funziona e tiene bene fino al doloroso finale.

Can they put the OST on spotify I beg


It's a very bog standard anime romance story. Predictable and cliched to the bone. But it's executed well enough that I wasn't really too bored through it though I wish it had some restraint in how much it leaned into the same tired tropes. Pacing suffers a lot especially towards the last third and this could really have been cleaned up more.

In terms of gameplay, you're primarily controlling a ship and exploring a solar system, hopping between points of interest and expending fuel. There's a bit of randomness in terms of the encounters you get and their outcomes but upgrades that you get pretty early on let you pass most of the checks. The only real "challenge" is in conserving your exploration kits to get all the loot in all the systems but this is fairly inconsequential other than collecting lore bits. You need money to refuel and buy upgrade components for the ship but exploring leaves with you with more than enough money to get everything checked off. There's a few short "exploration" segments on foot or in space but these are extremely linear outside of collecting more loot and all tied to story sequences.

All in all, I don't regret spending time with the game but I don't think it's all that either. It's serviceable and inoffensive.

This review contains spoilers

I loved this game. It has a wonderful story, one that made me cry over it.

The story takes place after 6 years from a war that lasted for 20 years. However, this story is not about this war, it is about finding yourself and your purpose in this huge galaxy. All the characters pursue this one way or another, for example, Jun. Jun's goal is to restore honor to his clan after what he did to lose it, but then on his journey, he meets Eda and Remi. They helped him immensely, then the honorable Jun decided to help them as much as possible to find their missing mother (master), and then stuff happened.
It is sad, but like the Executive producer of this game said: " The story is often sad but it has a sense of warmth in it" and I agree.
I know my interpretation of the story may be off, or from what I explained put you off from trying the game, but if you are looking for a heartwarming story with a bit of gameplay, this is the game for you.

one last point, What is sad is that while you're flying around in your space ship you will encounter destroyed settlements, orphans, and people affected by the war. but the story is not about that so you will see a glimpse of it.

oooh, I nearly forget The music, in my opinion, is truly wonderful, I guess it is one of the reasons that made me cry.

I lowered my score because of the gameplay, and to be honest it didn't bother me much, but the story make up for it.
9/10 would cry again

A space-faring journey into the unknown.

Opus: Echo of Starsong can be hard to place a finger on. It looks like a side-scrolling action game, but the core of the game is the story and resource management. The core story here is solid, telling of a disgraced leader, who needs to regain his group’s fortune, a woman who has a prized skill, and a universe that has overgone multiple turmoils. It’s a compelling narrative.

On the other hand, the gameplay is a bit lacking at times. There are some randomized events, as well as dice rolls, but this isn’t a game intending to challenge players, but rather a story with enough interactivity that players won’t call it a walking simulator. Resource management is an interesting addition but at least in the early game, it was simple to balance all the desires.

Pick this up if you want to go on an interstellar adventure, in this Opus succeeds, but if you’re looking for anything challenging, this isn’t the game. It’s a visual novel that succeeds in not appearing to be a visual novel, and that’s a strong positive.

If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac

I bought this based off a random youtube review months ago, I finally came to play it now, and wow the ending was amazing. Probably one of the best I've ever seen. The space exploration gameplay is pretty decent for what it is, and the music and graphics are pretty incredible. I do think the development between the cast could've been better, and the start of the story is a bit too slow. But as I said, the ending really is incredibly powerful, tragic but also uplifting. Worth a 10 hour playthrough for sure.