Steven Universe is my all time favorite cartoon. Hell, it may be my favorite piece of media, period. So when it came time to get some video games, I was surprised just how much love the series was given. Cartoon Network teamed with little mobile developer Grumpyface Studios and thus was born the "Light Trilogy," a canon trilogy of RPGs set in the world of Steven Universe. I have never played the last two, but I was saving them for a special time, now that Steven Universe proper has been done for over a year and this is the last bits of worthwhile SU media I have not yet experienced. I did beat Attack the Light years ago, but I figured I'd judge the trilogy as a whole.
Being a mobile game, this game is short. I blasted through a pretty casual 100% hard mode run over the course of two days. But for a mobile game, this is surprisingly high quality. Enemy variety is great, the music sounds appropriate for the show, and the chibi art style is endearing, but the star of the show is the Paper Mario influence. When your basic attack begins, you can tap the screen just as it connects to do a combo move, and when you get attacked, you can tap at just the right time to halve the damage. On hard mode, you can't see the special indicators of when to tap, but it's still easy to figure out if you basic pattern recognition. The star system is also brilliant. Your actions cost star points and you can only use one item from your inventory per turn, so it's on you to risk and reward conserving stars for a big fuck-off turn, or spend them all immediately to draw aggro or do small, instant damage. There's even a badge system. I also love the role Steven plays in this game. At this point in the story of the show, Steven hasn't yet unlocked his fighting capabilities, so he's the healer, bard and item distributor. I also like the gag where Steven starts out at level 1 whereas the Gems start at level 9001. Cute touch.
The biggest problems with the game are the basic story, controls and items. The story is inoffensive and basic, like the most "this is a video game based on a pre-existing property" kind of story, but thankfully the later two games rectify this issue. The controls work for the most part, but occasionally a group of enemies will be too clustered together, so when I meant to tap on one for a target, sometimes it would target a different close-by enemy, which was annoying. The balancing is kinda fucky, too. Garnet is supposed to be the beefy tank, Amethyst the weaker, critical-hit based multi-target attacker, and Pearl is the character you use to pick off squishies with little cost. I guess I accidentally spec-ed Pearl into DPS, though. Garnet's basic attack is a single-target two-cost, but Pearl's is the same but it's one cost. She would do a little bit less than, the same, or even more damage from one attack than Garnet could, but since I could pop two Pearl attacks in what would take Garnet one, I kept relying on Pearl for damage. The economy is also for shit. At the start of the game you never have enough money, and then once you reach the halfway point, you always have enough money. I wish you could sell items, but you can't. Star fruits that give me extra star points, healing items, and reviving items were the only ones I ever used. I didn't ever touch my status effect items, yet I had about a hundred of them in total just cluttering my bag. The final boss was also piss easy. Since you start the fight will full health, I just popped one of my "next action costs 0 star points" items, used my once-per-fight fusion, and ate half its health bar, dropping its attack and defense stats while doing so.
Attack the Light is a humble beginning for the Light Trilogy and it's clear that Save and Unleash have both built upon and improved the groundwork laid out by this first game. If you're looking for a Paper Mario-esque RPG to play over a lazy weekend, I do recommend this game, especially for the low cost of $3. You don't even need to be a fan of the show to enjoy the game. But the other two are definitely more fan-oriented. But that's okay because Steven Universe is literally the best thing ever just watch it you cowards.
Being a mobile game, this game is short. I blasted through a pretty casual 100% hard mode run over the course of two days. But for a mobile game, this is surprisingly high quality. Enemy variety is great, the music sounds appropriate for the show, and the chibi art style is endearing, but the star of the show is the Paper Mario influence. When your basic attack begins, you can tap the screen just as it connects to do a combo move, and when you get attacked, you can tap at just the right time to halve the damage. On hard mode, you can't see the special indicators of when to tap, but it's still easy to figure out if you basic pattern recognition. The star system is also brilliant. Your actions cost star points and you can only use one item from your inventory per turn, so it's on you to risk and reward conserving stars for a big fuck-off turn, or spend them all immediately to draw aggro or do small, instant damage. There's even a badge system. I also love the role Steven plays in this game. At this point in the story of the show, Steven hasn't yet unlocked his fighting capabilities, so he's the healer, bard and item distributor. I also like the gag where Steven starts out at level 1 whereas the Gems start at level 9001. Cute touch.
The biggest problems with the game are the basic story, controls and items. The story is inoffensive and basic, like the most "this is a video game based on a pre-existing property" kind of story, but thankfully the later two games rectify this issue. The controls work for the most part, but occasionally a group of enemies will be too clustered together, so when I meant to tap on one for a target, sometimes it would target a different close-by enemy, which was annoying. The balancing is kinda fucky, too. Garnet is supposed to be the beefy tank, Amethyst the weaker, critical-hit based multi-target attacker, and Pearl is the character you use to pick off squishies with little cost. I guess I accidentally spec-ed Pearl into DPS, though. Garnet's basic attack is a single-target two-cost, but Pearl's is the same but it's one cost. She would do a little bit less than, the same, or even more damage from one attack than Garnet could, but since I could pop two Pearl attacks in what would take Garnet one, I kept relying on Pearl for damage. The economy is also for shit. At the start of the game you never have enough money, and then once you reach the halfway point, you always have enough money. I wish you could sell items, but you can't. Star fruits that give me extra star points, healing items, and reviving items were the only ones I ever used. I didn't ever touch my status effect items, yet I had about a hundred of them in total just cluttering my bag. The final boss was also piss easy. Since you start the fight will full health, I just popped one of my "next action costs 0 star points" items, used my once-per-fight fusion, and ate half its health bar, dropping its attack and defense stats while doing so.
Attack the Light is a humble beginning for the Light Trilogy and it's clear that Save and Unleash have both built upon and improved the groundwork laid out by this first game. If you're looking for a Paper Mario-esque RPG to play over a lazy weekend, I do recommend this game, especially for the low cost of $3. You don't even need to be a fan of the show to enjoy the game. But the other two are definitely more fan-oriented. But that's okay because Steven Universe is literally the best thing ever just watch it you cowards.