Cosmic Star Heroine coming to Nintendo Switch in August (Digital + Physical)

ZeroX said:

I'm really struggling, I'm up to the third hour and really tempted to drop it.

GameSpot and RPGamer's reviews (76/77 MC) reflect how I feel the closest, though I'd be a little more negative. I know GAF/ERA (rightfully) loves the devs for their communication, as they're active users, but I feel a little duped with how highly recommended it's been. That said, the game is cheap, so if you don't like it, it's no big loss.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/cosmic-star-heroine-review/1900-6416668/
https://archive.rpgamer.com/games/indie/csh/reviews/cshstrev1.html

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Hey, I liked the RPGamer review - yeah, they didn't care for the story, but they gave us high marks in visuals, music, and combat system (my baby).

I think the big sticking point for a lot of people is the tone & pacing. Although I spent a lot of time analyzing Chrono Trigger to see how it handled character movement & combat positioning & Phantasy Star was a big influence for plot & setting, I gotta admit, when I think nostalgic JRPGs, I think the Lunar games and I tried to emulate their mix of serious & silly. The result is a game that's more of a cheesy celebration of over-the-top sci-fi/fantasy pulp than the serious game that some people wanted. I feel the Freedom Festival scenario is a good litmus test (and I'll be vague here to avoid spoiling it for people who haven't played the game yet) - it starts out as an homage to stuff like Chrono Trigger & Xenogears, then events start happening & it just gets more and more over-the-top ridiculous. And some people see all this and think "Awesome!" and others think "Stupid!" And both responses are valid because different people want different things from their games.

As far as pacing goes, one of my pet peeves is RPGs that are too slow & have too much filler. Like, one of my favorite games of all-time is Persona 4 Golden, and man, that game would be even better if they sped everything up a bit & cut some of the fat. I will admit that I maybe went a little too far in the opposite direction with CSH, but better a game that leaves you wanting more than a game that's too long.

Anyway, everyone's welcome to their own opinion, although saying that you feel duped implies that people were lying to you because they like us rather than that they just had different opinions. The game has a 90% rating on Steam and it's not like anybody there cares who we are.

Oh and here's a recent review of the Vita version: https://postgamecontent.com/post/173954727108/cosmic-star-heroine-playstation-vita-review - I think it expresses both the strengths & the weaknesses of the game rather well.

ZeroX said:

I'm really struggling, I'm up to the third hour and really tempted to drop it.

GameSpot and RPGamer's reviews (76/77 MC) reflect how I feel the closest, though I'd be a little more negative. I know GAF/ERA (rightfully) loves the devs for their communication, as they're active users, but I feel a little duped with how highly recommended it's been. That said, the game is cheap, so if you don't like it, it's no big loss.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/cosmic-star-heroine-review/1900-6416668/
https://archive.rpgamer.com/games/indie/csh/reviews/cshstrev1.html


Edit: Just lost an hour's progress to a glitch. Yep. Dropping this game.

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This is the first game I've played by the developer, and I absolutely love it.

The visuals, music, and combat carried me to the platinum trophy. I would say the story is the weakest part, and the characters didn't have the same charm as Chrono Trigger, but don't forget this is an indie game.

werezompire said:

Hey, I liked the RPGamer review - yeah, they didn't care for the story, but they gave us high marks in visuals, music, and combat system (my baby).

I think the big sticking point for a lot of people is the tone & pacing. Although I spent a lot of time analyzing Chrono Trigger to see how it handled character movement & combat positioning & Phantasy Star was a big influence for plot & setting, I gotta admit, when I think nostalgic JRPGs, I think the Lunar games and I tried to emulate their mix of serious & silly. The result is a game that's more of a cheesy celebration of over-the-top sci-fi/fantasy pulp than the serious game that some people wanted. I feel the Freedom Festival scenario is a good litmus test (and I'll be vague here to avoid spoiling it for people who haven't played the game yet) - it starts out as an homage to stuff like Chrono Trigger & Xenogears, then events start happening & it just gets more and more over-the-top ridiculous. And some people see all this and think "Awesome!" and others think "Stupid!" And both responses are valid because different people want different things from their games.

As far as pacing goes, one of my pet peeves is RPGs that are too slow & have too much filler. Like, one of my favorite games of all-time is Persona 4 Golden, and man, that game would be even better if they sped everything up a bit & cut some of the fat. I will admit that I maybe went a little too far in the opposite direction with CSH, but better a game that leaves you wanting more than a game that's too long.

Anyway, everyone's welcome to their own opinion, although saying that you feel duped implies that people were lying to you because they like us rather than that they just had different opinions. The game has a 90% rating on Steam and it's not like anybody there cares who we are.

Oh and here's a recent review of the Vita version: https://postgamecontent.com/post/173954727108/cosmic-star-heroine-playstation-vita-review - I think it expresses both the strengths & the weaknesses of the game rather well.

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Sounds like it's just my jam :D Hope you'll be able to tell the story behind the reason why the game took so long to come to Switch, I remember Robert being kinda frustrated about that.

Anyways, congrats and good luck regarding the game's release on this new platform!

werezompire said:

As far as pacing goes, one of my pet peeves is RPGs that are too slow & have too much filler. Like, one of my favorite games of all-time is Persona 4 Golden, and man, that game would be even better if they sped everything up a bit & cut some of the fat. I will admit that I maybe went a little too far in the opposite direction with CSH, but better a game that leaves you wanting more than a game that's too long.

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I think you're dead on here. P4G is a great example: it took me three tries before I got past the opening, but once I did I was hooked and couldn't stop playing. The characters, much more than murder mystery, kept me playing. P5, while still good, didn't have quite the same effect by slowing the pacing even more and then focusing more on the villains than than the party members.

CSH on the other hand, just blazes through everything. I got the fifth party member but still don't feel like I know the rest of the characters at all. They seem like an extremely competent team of moral badasses and that's about it. All the males in the story at this point having beards and sunglasses was confusing too. I think most of the elements are good to great, but they way they're pieced together combined with blasting past character/story moments just makes me lack motivation to keep playing. Throw in a glitch where I got stuck in the environment and couldn't move and yeah the buzz is killed.

There's an old RPG Maker game called A Blurred Line. This game reminds me of it, they're both cyberpunk, you find out you were working for the baddies, etc. By all accounts it's an extremely janky game, it was back in 2002, I imagine it's a mess now. Weak battle system. Sprites were a mismatched mess of default elements. Music was just MIDIs from other games. But it was extremely well regarded within the community because it had a very compelling plot and characters and it embraced the slapdash nature of how it was put together. I think about that game every now and then, how despite being a mess, it was so easy to forgive the many flaws because it was so damn compelling. And then the sequel was never finished.

I dunno. I don't want you to feel bad. It's still a hell of an achievement to ship a game like this. I remember threads with Battlefront 2 where people were just ripping out the game and developers. And there's people on this forum who work for Dice and EA who have no control over the monetization but still have to read a bunch of posts saying they should lose their jobs for things out of their control. I can only assume how horrible that must've felt.

Worldshaker said:

This is the first game I've played by the developer, and I absolutely love it.

The visuals, music, and combat carried me to the platinum trophy. I would say the story is the weakest part, and the characters didn't have the same charm as Chrono Trigger, but don't forget this is an indie game.

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Any time a game is released it's an extremely impressive achievement. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly aware of how difficult it is to make a game, I've failed plenty of times. But I will say, my backlog is huge and things are going to get cut if I'm not feeling them, regardless of the situations behind developments.

RPG_Fanatic said:

Is the physical edition going to come with a instruction manual like the good old days?

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The question is not "will it come with a full color manual" but more like "how many pages will they (Nintendo) let us get away with including in the full color manual that we will put in it?"

bstiernberg said:

The question is not "will it come with a full color manual" but more like "how many pages will they (Nintendo) let us get away with including in the full color manual that we will put in it?"

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Hopefully the answer is all the pages.

Is the game as good as people say? How would you stack it against say, Trails in the Sky, Bravely Default or Grandia II?

Next week should be big. The Switch digital preorder page should go up, the official release date will be announced (no more vague August), and LRG should get Switch review codes. I'm very excited. :)

Day Oneish.

werezompire said:

Next week should be big. The Switch digital preorder page should go up, the official release date will be announced (no more vague August), and LRG should get Switch review codes. I'm very excited. :)

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I'm glad I waited on this. I remember the struggles of trying to get this on switch.

I was wondering if you can share those struggles or insights of bringing this over.

Thanks and good luck!

werezompire said:

Next week should be big. The Switch digital preorder page should go up, the official release date will be announced (no more vague August), and LRG should get Switch review codes. I'm very excited. :)

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What's the price gonna be on the eshop? Didn't see it listed (can't see twitter so perhaps the OP has it already)... I'll pick it up after I beat hollow knight and octopath... so maybe December lol.

werezompire said:

Next week should be big. The Switch digital preorder page should go up, the official release date will be announced (no more vague August), and LRG should get Switch review codes. I'm very excited. :)

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Thanks for the update. Can't wait. Should be done Octopath Traveler at that point.

Hyped.

Wander said:

I'm glad I waited on this. I remember the struggles of trying to get this on switch.

I was wondering if you can share those struggles or insights of bringing this over.

Thanks and good luck!

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It's not that interesting of a story. When the Switch was first revealed, I emailed Nintendo expressing interest in releasing the game on the Switch. I got a form letter back saying they weren't ready to accept applications but to sign up as a Nintendo developer (for Wii U / 3DS) which I did. For months, I periodically contacted Nintendo - I eventually got responses from actual people instead of generic form letters, but they were always vague non-committal "try again later maybe" responses. Talking to other indie dev friends, I heard that Nintendo generally didn't like to work directly with tiny indie devs and that our best bet would be to release through a publisher who was already approved for Switch releases. We were contacted by a major publisher who wanted to release the game for us on Switch, but the terms weren't great (mind you, they weren't awful either) and we'd have to port it ourselves. While we were debating whether or not to sign up with them, we were talking with LRG about our physical releases and they offered to port & release it for us with very favorable terms since they wanted to also do a physical release for it. They did all the porting work (although they asked us questions periodically & we were able to offer a suggestion that led to fixing an error that made the start-up load times longer than needed) and that's the story. :)

What's the price gonna be on the eshop? Didn't see it listed (can't see twitter so perhaps the OP has it already)... I'll pick it up after I beat hollow knight and octopath... so maybe December lol.

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$15 USD.

Should be done Octopath Traveler at that point.

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That's precisely the reason why we're launching in August. Didn't want to compete with Octopath Traveler and by then, people who pick up Octopath at launch should be finishing it up & hopefully looking for their next RPG.

werezompire said:

It's not that interesting of a story. When the Switch was first revealed, I emailed Nintendo expressing interest in releasing the game on the Switch. I got a form letter back saying they weren't ready to accept applications but to sign up as a Nintendo developer (for Wii U / 3DS) which I did. For months, I periodically contacted Nintendo - I eventually got responses from actual people instead of generic form letters, but they were always vague non-committal "try again later maybe" responses. Talking to other indie dev friends, I heard that Nintendo generally didn't like to work directly with tiny indie devs and that our best bet would be to release through a publisher who was already approved for Switch releases. We were contacted by a major publisher who wanted to release the game for us on Switch, but the terms weren't great (mind you, they weren't awful either) and we'd have to port it ourselves. While we were debating whether or not to sign up with them, we were talking with LRG about our physical releases and they offered to port & release it for us with very favorable terms since they wanted to also do a physical release for it. They did all the porting work (although they asked us questions periodically & we were able to offer a suggestion that led to fixing an error that made the start-up load times longer than needed) and that's the story. :)



$15 USD.



That's precisely the reason why we're launching in August. Didn't want to compete with Octopath Traveler and by then, people who pick up Octopath at launch should be finishing it up & hopefully looking for their next RPG.

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Robert, does pre-ordering on the eshop help you in any way? I know for physical releases it allows retailers to have a better understanding for market demands and potentially get more copies in the pipeline. However, I don't really understand how preordering would help an indie dev in the digital space, but I would do if if it helps!

The way LRG handled the physical release really rubbed me the wrong way. They sold the PS4 physical copy and after the pre-order time ran out they announced the game for Switch. If I had known there was a physical version coming out for Switch I wouldn't have bought the PS4 version :/.

Still buying this as soon as the pre-order page is up on the eShop, but with Octopath poised to consume approx. 2 billion hours of my life, it may be a while before I get around to playing it lol.

jred250 said:

Robert, does pre-ordering on the eshop help you in any way? I know for physical releases it allows retailers to have a better understanding for market demands and potentially get more copies in the pipeline. However, I don't really understand how preordering would help an indie dev in the digital space, but I would do if if it helps!

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Preorders still count as sales when it comes to creating the Top 30 Best-Selling lists (All & Digital-only) so if we managed to break onto one of those before launch that would be HUGE. There's also the possibility that even if preorders aren't enough to break into either top 30 list that preorder sales could be strong enough to convince Nintendo that they should include the game in their general indie game marketing plans.

The way LRG handled the physical release really rubbed me the wrong way. They sold the PS4 physical copy and after the pre-order time ran out they announced the game for Switch. If I had known there was a physical version coming out for Switch I wouldn't have bought the PS4 version :/.

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I believe that LRG may be providing an option for people who would like to turn their PS4/Vita order into a Switch order so contact them and express your concerns.

werezompire said:

I believe that LRG may be providing an option for people who would like to turn their PS4/Vita order into a Switch order so contact them and express your concerns.

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Fantastic! So happy to hear that.

Woo details soon, hyyype. Can't wait for this!

Loved this on the Vita. Highly recommended

werezompire said:

Next week should be big. The Switch digital preorder page should go up, the official release date will be announced (no more vague August), and LRG should get Switch review codes. I'm very excited. :)

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I follow you on Twitter and I just found this out :/ . Anyways congrats on having the game finally on the platform, and kudos to LRG to making it happen. I do know you mentioned a 3rd party helping you test it on the Switch a while back, and so that was LRG?

I will do everything in my power to get this game on day 1 or around it to support you guys

Also I'm not sure if this is appropriate in this thread but in the same sentence that you said that a 3rd party was testing it on the Switch, you also mentioned X1, can you shed any light on that at all

Hopefully this does well. I'm not nearly as convinced as some that an indie game on the Switch guarantees great sales, but this seems like it would be hitting all the right notes for another big success. I kickstarted it, but never got around to playing it on PC, looking forward to finally diving in when it releases on Switch.

Congrats Zeboyd, this game deserves larger recognition.

DanTheMan said:

I follow you on Twitter and I just found this out :/ . Anyways congrats on having the game finally on the platform, and kudos to LRG to making it happen. I do know you mentioned a 3rd party helping you test it on the Switch a while back, and so that was LRG?

I will do everything in my power to get this game on day 1 or around it to support you guys

Also I'm not sure if this is appropriate in this thread but in the same sentence that you said that a 3rd party was testing it on the Switch, you also mentioned X1, can you shed any light on that at all

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They didn't just test it on Switch, they did the actual porting. We've also discussed them handling the XBO port but that'll be after the Switch version is out.

Hopefully this does well. I'm not nearly as convinced as some that an indie game on the Switch guarantees great sales, but this seems like it would be hitting all the right notes for another big success. I kickstarted it, but never got around to playing it on PC, looking forward to finally diving in when it releases on Switch.

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As long as it doesn't do worse than Steam (and I don't see why it would - it's a great fit for portable, there's less competition, review codes are going out in plenty of time & it's a high quality port that isn't buggy like the PC version was at launch), I'll be pleased. If it does noticeably better than Steam, I'll be ecstatic.

This game is only 15 bucks ? Man for some reason I thought it would be more expensive. Seems like a no-brainer at this price from what ive read about so far.

werezompire said:

They didn't just test it on Switch, they did the actual porting. We've also discussed them handling the XBO port but that'll be after the Switch version is out.



As long as it doesn't do worse than Steam (and I don't see why it would - it's a great fit for portable, there's less competition, review codes are going out in plenty of time & it's a high quality port that isn't buggy like the PC version was at launch), I'll be pleased. If it does noticeably better than Steam, I'll be ecstatic.

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Is an XBO port really even worthwhile? That has to be the worst platform to be on for an indie JRPG.

Been waiting for this one. Love all the RPG's coming out on Switch

Yeah I'll check it out.

werezompire said:

I believe that LRG may be providing an option for people who would like to turn their PS4/Vita order into a Switch order so contact them and express your concerns.

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Thanks for the heads up, I tried creating a support ticket. Whether I get the PS4 or Switch version I can't wait to play the game :).

Metallix87 said:

UGH! Bit the bullet and ordered the physical Vita version from them. Oh well, guess I'll order this and sell my sealed Vita copy.

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D'oh! Same here- I figured a Switch release wouldn't be for quite some time (if it happened at all with the games Nintendo seemed to be playing) so I jumped on the Vita release. Depending on the timing, I will double dip. I'll likely keep the Vita copy for posterity, though.

Hero said:

Is an XBO port really even worthwhile? That has to be the worst platform to be on for an indie JRPG.

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I thought indies on XB1 were actually doing fairly well these days? I recall a sales breakdown thread not too long ago where a certain indie had performed better on XB1 than on PS4 and PC. I wanna say it was Wulverblade. Not sure if being a JRPG is a disadvantage or not, but incidentally, XB1 is having a big sale on anime and anime-inspired games this month.

Also, Nier: Automata was a big hit.

I hope it will cost like hollow knight 15 dollars / euros from the start, then it's an insta buy. If not I'll wait for a sale.

Another one of these "how can it be 15$ " like Hollow Knight ?

I have Octopath, then Saga Scarlet Grace on August 2, but... I most certainly have one more space in August for a very good RPG.
never played it but seeing the praise I have to try.

I'll definitely preorder it as soon as it goes live eShop :)

Yes, it's $15 USD.

werezompire said:

They didn't just test it on Switch, they did the actual porting. We've also discussed them handling the XBO port but that'll be after the Switch version is out.

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That's really exciting to hear! If/when the Xbox version happens, I'll be there day one, my guys. And in the meantime, I hope the Switch release does gangbusters for you. You guys deserve it.

KingdomHeartsFan said:

The way LRG handled the physical release really rubbed me the wrong way. They sold the PS4 physical copy and after the pre-order time ran out they announced the game for Switch. If I had known there was a physical version coming out for Switch I wouldn't have bought the PS4 version :/.

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One of the many great things of retail releases is, you can sell them :) i think i will sell my PS4 copy because i will buy the Switch version and i don't want two copies of a game in my collection.

werezompire said:

I think the old E3 trailer we did does a good job selling the game (make sure to have audio on):

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woot oO is this like a PC-88 cyberpunk rpg?
definitely interested now

werezompire said:

That's precisely the reason why we're launching in August. Didn't want to compete with Octopath Traveler and by then, people who pick up Octopath at launch should be finishing it up & hopefully looking for their next RPG.

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I think I can squeeze CSH in between Octopath and Monster Hunter :D

Was going to eventually pick this up anyway, will def get on Switch now.

Another great jRPG for yhe Switch.

Count me in.

I got this game on Steam, but just played around 4 hours. From what I played, it's a great game. But as soon as I heard about it was coming for the Switch, I decided I was going to wait to double dip it.

For 15 dollars it's mandatory for everyone who has a Switch and likes jRPG.

Apologies if this isn't the right thread, but is this available as a PS4 physical copy at all? I feel like I missed the date somehow

Cream Stout said:

Apologies if this isn't the right thread, but is this available as a PS4 physical copy at all? I feel like I missed the date somehow

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Indeed, you missed.

This reminds me it's still in my PSVITA wishlist... summer is the time to buy it!

Shizuka said:

Indeed, you missed.

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Man ._.

I'll pick it up digital then, I just enjoy physical copies. Still wanna support these fine folks~

cw_sasuke said:

This game is only 15 bucks ? Man for some reason I thought it would be more expensive. Seems like a no-brainer at this price from what ive read about so far.

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They forgot to include the Switch tax. I mean, everyone else does pretty much. IMO (and it's kind of dumb coming from customer side, I know), should have priced it at $20 since that also gives bigger leeway during sales.

In any case, going to triple dip, since I love this game and it's cheap enough.

ffvorax said:

This reminds me it's still in my PSVITA wishlist... summer is the time to buy it!

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I think it's in the current PSN sale. Check it out, it's definitely worth the asking price and then some. Alongside CrossCode, it's my favorite indie RPG (not counting studio games like PoE or Divinity line).

Hopefully that will be another switch success story

I remember the nightmare you had with your first launch

Tailzo said:

Loved this on the Vita. Highly recommended

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.
(and PS4),should be perfect on the Switch on the go.