Stardust Valkyries

So good

EDIT: Made some corrections after more time with the game. Firstly, let me say the other reviews are likely mad because they had to purchase the game for $10 when 1. this game is still in a state of development. and 2. part of the "jank" is just the game being the way it is. It's part of the fun! For that I understand their grief, and I think the devs might have messed up by giving the game a $10 price tag instead of putting it into open beta before it's in (what I would consider) a fully polished state, but the reviews are a little unfair. Anyways, about the game.... [h1] Overview [/h1] As a hybrid platform x anime fighter, man, it's got a lot of potential! I think the thing people are missing in their reviews is that it's actually drawing a lot of inspiration from Smash 64, even if it seem's more "melee" in it's movement. It wears that on its sleeves, and sometimes that inspiration is great! The visual effects, the hitstun for cool combos, the low-res sound effects, the general low-poly vibes, and use of drawn, low-res textures in place of detailed backgrounds or particles... I love it! ...and that 64 inspiration falls flat in other areas (L-cancelling, and the clunkiness of smash 64 is pretty apparent in this game too, and not in a good way). For right now the devs of the game should steer clear of focusing on balance aside from egregious things (some moves have insanely ridiculous knockback values, Cassia 5A > j.2A (?) is a kill confirm at 0% at the edge) and focus a lot more on improving the feel of the game. As a fellow dev though, I have to say I see a lot of potential here. Keep up the good work, Nucko Games. Pros: - Very unique design, giving every character a "shine"-esque move is pretty cool and some of the kits are super interesting. I like the anime fighter style of cancelling too! It's super fun to play with others, and I could see the game getting very deep very quickly despite the relatively low number of universal mechanics that tend to make other fighting games more confusing. Definitely holds it's own as a competitive game. - Good movement, as any platform fighter worth it's salt should have these days! - I LOVE the combos, they're insanely cool and the combo trial is pretty good too (though it should probably set the character manually so that you dont get a character that doesn't work for the trial). - Personally I'm actually a big fan of the way the game looks and sounds overall. It may be "janky" to some, but if the devs stick to it and polish it up a bit more, it'll make the game stand out like no other. [b]It's not for everyone! and that's okay, the more you lean into your visual design the better it will be.[/b] - Rollback netcode is good, but it still needs improvements. Things to Fix: - The camera needs to follow both players better. It looks fine when both players are on even ground, but when the vertical distance between the two players increases, it tilts horribly at an angle where the grounded player can hardly see themselves. I recommend not tilting the camera so much and rely more on zooming out to show distance. - Even though some of the animations are pretty.... lacking in the windup department and some are jank af, the more important thing that would make it a lot more clear that a move is about to happen is sound effects during the moves' startup animations, for example Darawan neutral B has no sound until the hit comes out, but a small "whoosh" that gets cancelled when the hit lands would help sell the move a lot better. ALSO fix some of the animations please lol, Zeniah up A looks ridiculous. [b]You need to get to the exaggerated windup initial pose QUICKLY, but dont always teleport there, and make the windup pose really distinct from normal. make the follow through more impactful on some moves.[/b] - The UI navigation is annoyingly unclear at times. [b]You need to communicate everything that happens in the game, even when something is simply selected.[/b] If I'm trying to change my lobby room name, it shouldn't be unclear that i'm currently editing it after pressing Enter. Change the highlighting and make a sound effect play once I select the textbox. Always let the player know when they've selected something AND what they previously have selected (on the CSS, i should be able to visually see that i've already selected my own character with a distinct visual). - Walking feels really bad and really hard to control. If you start walking with down forward, you shouldn't go into run when you slowly tilt the stick to forward, you should keep walking. [b] It should be easy to turn my character around while staying in place. [/b] I know smash 64 feels like this, but that doesn't mean a game in the modern era necessarily should feel as clunky. You do get used to it though. - I know L-cancelling feels necessary to this kind of game, but I PROMISE this game doesn't need it with how free form some of its combos are, instead, [b]take the Rivals of Aether approach and give aerials less landing lag on hit and more on whiff.[/b] Smash 64 didn't need L-cancelling at all. It's an arbitrary skill barrier, and it's not like it's hard to do either, it's just an annoying requirement. [h1]Should you buy it?[/h1] The TLDR; very solid foundation, extremely fun and truly unique direction, muddied a little by some quality of life that it needs. For people looking to purchase, I say give it a shot for 90 minutes and then return it if you don't like it in its current state. It's actually a really awesome game, it's just rough around the edges right now. If that won't stop you from appreciating a truly outstanding fighting game, then please make the plunge! It's a great time.