Michael Leask

Game Review

I got Star Renegade for Xbox on sale for $6. It’s a turn-based, pixel-art game (tactical RPG). I won’t call it an RPG; though its foundation is an RPG, there isn’t really any story to it. I wanted to try out this game as I’m currently learning how to create a pixel platformer.

What is this game about?

Star Renegades is a pixel, RPG light, turn-based combat game. The Imperium is an enemy that crosses realities to take control of the worlds in each reality. The player is part of the Renegades, those trying to stop the Imperium and save all the realities from their conquest.

What do I like about this game?

I liked the challenge that every battle is like a game of chess. The player’s goal, besides defeating the enemy, is to push them past the bar and ‘break’ them, which means they lose their turn. It’s challenging in a good way because not all the playable characters have the same attributes.

Unlike other RPGs, you cannot choose from the start who goes with you, and you cannot heal a character in battle. Only found equipment can steal HP from the enemy; the other way is camping, but only if a character has a heal card with them (not including Rav’n Tysanno, who heals themselves at the end of every battle). The characters are not automatically healed when they camp. This makes a very interesting challenge for the player as it makes choices count. If the player lets their party take lots of damage, but there are not enough healing cards, it can affect the subsequent battles. If the character dies in battle and the player wins, the character is brought back alive but with 1 HP. The player needs to weigh the risks to take before committing to battle. If all the characters die, it’s game over, and the payer must start again (with the current iteration of the villain, not from the start).

When the player defeats the Imperium in the first reality, a member of the renegades becomes the next villain because they might be evil in another reality and cannot exist in the one you are trying to free (meaning they are unplayable until the player defeats their evil version). This forces the player to try different characters, fail, and find a good team that will make them succeed. There are no duplications in stats for characters, meaning not all characters are good at piercing armour or shields, and not all characters can regenerate shields, increasing the challenge.

What do I bump against with this game?

This game frequently crashes on my Xbox One. In addition, I dislike the lack of a progress bar—the idea that there is no end in sight to completing the game. The final battle takes place in the Prime Dimension, but the player is unaware of their progress toward getting there.

The next thing is that the maps do not change. The first world is always the same layout, the second, third, and so on. The map might be slightly different, but all the dialogue and found items are the same. The player must defeat the new ‘villain’ in each reality. Still, it’s essentially playing the same thing over and over again. The redundancy becomes testy.

Would I recommend it?

After all the obstacles I faced, I still wanted to beat the game. I wanted to find out what happened in the end, and the gameplay was simple yet challenging enough to reward me for winning.

I would recommend it to indie developers who want to be inspired by a pixel game like this. The game mechanics for the battles are very interesting and keep the player engaged. I like the idea of pushing the enemy to ‘break’ them so they don’t have a turn. The game keeps the player engaged, preventing boredom.

I also think Star Renegades is a good example of what a company or an indie developer can do to create a game that reuses scenes and other game mechanics to produce a finished product. It’s simple and not complicated.

Outside of indie developers, I’m hesitant to recommend this game. The point of Star Renegades is to repeat battling over and over again, and I don’t think casual gamers would appreciate it. However, yes. If you are an indie developer or are getting into indie development, play this game.