Potential Game: Star Savior
Star Savior has been one of my more anticipated games since it was first announced, and now with the half anniversary being announced (and the many hiccups that have hurt the game), it seems that now would be the best time to write my review on it.
(For context, I started playing a mere couple minutes after the first daily reset, meaning I lost my special day one player status and degraded into day 2 player status)
Since I have no clue how to start a review, lets just get straight into it!
Story (I love teleporting to other worlds):
BSide's (the developers of SS) other (now in purgatory) game, Counterside, has been praised a lot for having a great story, so how does Star Savior compare?
Well, SS is set in Lavistar, a fantasy land (with some very mysterious ruins which contains some very mysterious tech) where chosen people, also known as Saviors, are sent on a year long training campaign to complete the Journey, a trial made by the Grand Witch Alicia to honor the mysterious Star Savior, a person who saved the world from a great calamity. You play as the Captain, a person who is assigned to the Savior to help guide them in this journey. A Cycle exists as well, aka a time resetter (think like Groundhog Day, but yearly).
There are technically 2 storylines: the main story (with the white haired captain) and the Journey stories (with the black haired captain).
While the main stories have been quite middling to decent (although the later chapters have shown very good signs), the Journey stories are quite nice, each one diving into the character and a specific goal of theirs (like Bell and her wish to be free from her command spell and Lacy wishing to write a new story). All in all, I would say that the story is quite a decent read (not something to skip).
The Gameplay and Progression:
SS's gameplay has been said to be a mixture of Uma Musume, HSR (or as many would say, Epic 7 or Outerplane) and Nikke. This is both one of its strengths and its weaknesses, in my opinion, for reasons that I will explain soon.
The turn based gameplay is similar to the Epic 7 systems, where you have 3 skills, a basic, a special and an ultimate, with the special and ultimate having cooldowns. There is also a toughness meter, which if broken, makes the opponent do more damage to the broken character, while also reducing the action gauge (basically when your turn occurs) to 0%.
SS also follows the average RGB Moon-Sun system like other pvp gachas, with additional classes as well which currently only gatekeep some arcanas (more on them later). However, where they deviate from the path of a regular PVP gacha is through the Journey.
The journey is a system similar to Uma musume, where you can strengthen your characters with your desired stats, along with special buffs you can get from Arcanas. Arcanas are similar to the cards in Uma musume, which can give buffs ranging from Crit Rate to a special Guard for your tank. They also come with special stories for the characters featured on the art, which is quite nice. At the end of a journey, you can use these results on your characters outside of the Journey, being able to replace them when needed.
While it can take a while, there is also an auto feature, which allows you to skip the journey and allow the bot to do it all for you (although mysteriously, it sees to be worse then playing the game yourself)
This is the one of two ways which one can strengthen their characters, the other being gearing, which is similar to other gearing systems. In the next half anni, we will be able to craft gear with desired substats, although how time consuming/pay walled this system may be has yet to be seen.
Now, how would one level up? This is where the NIKKE part comes in (although not always in a good way): level up materials come in the daily funding systems, similar to many idle games, with the amount of resources tied to how far you've gone in operation (the PVE mode). This may take a while (a long while, in fact), with the maximum level requires you to get a character at MLB. You can use Star Link (or the level sharing system) to place characters to be at the similar level as your 4th least levelled character. A tower mode also exists, with the daily tower rotation being for the RGB characters.
Gacha, dupes and %***??I%L!VE% IN%--%%!Y0UR!:::walls>w<!!::
Star Savior uses the spark system for its gacha system, with the cost being 200 (the spark carries over). The rates are quite high as well, being at 4%, with rateups being 2% or 1% (if it is a cosmic character). Pulls tend to be given out at a good rate (although in can be a bit slow sometimes), especially for new players, who are given out 50 pulls immediately (for rerolling), along with 280 standard pulls over the next 14 days (and much more as well, in the time I've played, I have gotten over 2100 pulls, so it is quite nice).
There are two types of banners, the character and the arcana banner, with most entering the standard banners after one month (the exception is for limited characters, which we will get our first one next patch)
Dupes are mostly not required for most characters, with most providing stat boosts or a qol boost for RNG (for example, in the case of Haydee, which increases her chances for gaining her special stacks). There is only one exception to this, that being Asherah Waltz, who requires at least one dupe, while wanting to be at MLB for smoother content, but she remains as the exception (newer charactes dupes aren't required at all, in my honest opinion). However, getting a character to MLB will grant a lobby wallpaper for them, or in the case of alternates, an interactable 3d scene (akin to a dorm system), which is probably the best reason why you should get the MLB.
While I haven't bought the packs yet (considering I am but a lowly f2p 😔), after kidnapping some whales, it seems that it is quite normal for your gacha standards, with the monthly pass being the best value (after ofc the selector box).
Fanservice:
Now the part you've all been waiting (or dreading) for: the goon!
While SS has been pretty goonery from the start, with the bg alts all having interactive lobbies, and many of the normal lobbies being quite lewd (Emily's, Carmen's and Tanya's coming to mind first), the half anni seems to push it even harder, with the soon to come clothes break option (right now, only the wedding characters that will come with the half anni seem to have the option, but they will probably add some later to older characters). Yes, the game has not been competing with Outerplane or Epic 7, but with Lost Sword instead.
(Additionally, the half anni will give us a voting panel for the next wedding skin, this is a recruitment for you to join team OMEGA, and help us all get peak in the game)
Some problems:
Now, saying everything is sunshine and rainbows here is bit of a lie, considering there have been a lot of issues, for example the lack of anything to do at some point due to the idle nature (except for pvp), the lack of proper communication from the devs (although it may seem it might improve, although many people have not been hopeful) and the long progression times to fully level up characters. There are other issues as well, but they do seem to be getting fixed (although slowly).
Is it worth playing and when is the best time to start?
I mean yeah, I'd recommend you start playing, why else do you think this review was made? SS is best played as a side + idle game, due to its idle nature timegating your levels, quick dailies and the lack of endgame content.
However, the main issue I would say is when it would be best to start. This is due to the half anniversary giving specifically new and returning players a character and arcana selector. However, starting right now, it would be possible to gain 50 limited pulls and at least 10 limited arcana pulls, which would help in getting the next unit, wedding Carmen (who is limited). So if you play right now, you will get some more pulls, while if you play later, you will get guaranteed selectors, so it's mostly if you trust your luck enough if you decide to start now.
The half anni will also give us 200 free pulls (100 standard and 100 limited), so if you wanted to start, this (or on 28th May specifically) would be the best time to start.
(also if you do want to play, make sure to use STARHALFANNIVSAVIOR on 28th for a free arcana dupe)
Either way: TLDR: Game is really nice (and generous) and does stand out quite a bit, with a couple of flaws, but there is a lot of improvement that can be made, if the devs were anything but BSide, which is why it can be called a potential game, but I would still recommend you try it out, especially for the half anni rewards.