Topic: Sigma Star Saga

[couchmonkey]

Go to the Dark World Review

Sigma Star Saga

I picked up Sigma Star Saga sight unseen because I loved WayForward's Shantae and I figured this one might be hard to find.  Sigma Star Saga can't live up to Shantae but it's still fun for what it is.

The game has an overhead section that plays like a Zelda clone mixed with some random side-scrolling shooter sections.  The concept is cool, but neither part lives up to its full potential.

The overhead sections are pretty good - with some tweaking they could be a whole game on their own.  They're a lot more interactive than I imagined, with enemies to fight and simple obstacles that you can overcome with the help of various items.  Unfortunately the enemy AI falls in the average to downright awful range and the hit detection isn't perfect.  Still, it's pretty tight.

The real problem is the other half of the game. Every once in a while you get "beamed up" to one of the ships flying over the planet where you'll have to eradicate whatever threat the ship is facing. It's cool how they worked random encounters into the story, but the battles happen too often, they're too repetitive, most of the enemies are boring, and worst of all, it's impossible to escape from any of them.  All of this adds up to a lot of frustrating distractions while you're trying to explore the map.  Simply adding a run away option could have improved the game a lot because the shooting sections are acceptable in small doses, they only become annoying when you need to get somewhere. There are also some "boss" shooting sequences, which consist of a longer level that ends in a boss fight.  These are more fun and challenging, but they're still not quite up to snuff with a true 2D shooter.

The game also has "Gun Data" that can be collected and used to modify the ship's guns.  It's a cool idea, but it seems like the developers tried too hard to pack 75 kinds into the game.  A lot of the Gun Data turns out to be boring or useless - it's still a welcome addition, but it would have been cooler if they had cut it down to only the best.

Speaking of Gun Data, the menu system is a little odd.  You'll find yourself using the R and L buttons instead of the d-pad to select Gun Data on the sub-menus, for instance. It works fine with some practice, but since it doesn't follow the usual conventions there's a bit of a learning curve.  The rest of the controls are good, although some of the ships you have to pilot are very slow and clunky.  Of course it makes sense that a giant cargo ship is going to be slower than a fighter ship, but when the game forces you to navigate a really tight cave in a big, slow ship, it can feel like the controls are to fault.

Graphically the two halves of the game are almost as mixed as they are in gameplay.  The overhead portions feature the same sort of large, anime sprites as Shantae and they look great. Most of the envionments look great too, with the exception of some generic-looking indoor sections.  The shooter portions often have bland environments and gunfire, although some of the boss sequences look really good - particularly the game's opening sequence.  The ship and enemy sprites mostly look good, and you get to pilot a variety of ships instead of just one, which is neat.

The music is very cool.  It has an electronic sci-fi sound that makes great use of the GBA's limited capabilities.  The synthesized instruments fit right in with the style of music and the game has a different battle song for every planet you visit.  The sound effects are mostly good too, although a few pieces of Gun Data in the game sound so annoying that you'll want to switch to different Gun Data just so you don't have to hear it anymore.

The game's length is not great, but it should last around 12 hours which seems to be okay  by Gameboy standards.  The problem here is that because of the repetitive random battles, the game has little replay value.  WayForward tries to encourage a second play with a neat unlockable and the possibility of a better ending, but the random battles are so repetitive and impossible to avoid that a second game just doesn't sound that appealing.  If players could run away from random battles and the battles happened less often, the game would be short - less than 10 hours - but it would also be fun enough to play twice.

Of course RPG fans will be interested in the story.  It's pretty good and offers lots of interesting plot twists, but in the early chapters of the game the characters had too much attitude for my taste.  The main character, Recker, seems to question authority an awful lot for a soldier, but I guess he has to or the game would end pretty quickly.

Pros:
+ Nice graphics
+ Great sound
+ Good plot
+ Unique, but flawed game design

Cons:
- Random shooting battles are too repetitive for their own good
- No way to escape the random battles
- It's a little short and doesn't really warrant a second play

In the end, Sigma Star Saga is a pretty good RPG but a bad shooter.  If you like the concept behind the game and you're an old-school RPG fan that can handle plenty of random battles, Sigma Star Saga is still worth watching for.  Otherwise it might be a decent buy from the bargain bin, but stay away if you're a demanding shooter fan.

Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 9.5
Control: 7
Gameplay: 7
Lasting Play: 6.5
Overall: 7