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.
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.
Reviewed on Jan 21, 2023