This is one of the hidden gems I've played this year, I came to the game with low expectations, seeing the previous games of the same studios were such letdowns for me, but with Cosmic Star Heroine, Zeboyd Studios really nailed their formula this time.

I like playing games in their highest difficulty most of the time, and with Breath of Death/Cthullu saves the world, that meant hours of grinding because the game wasn't balanced around those difficulties. But this time, there was almost no grinding needed at all once you fully understand the whole battle system.

The main gimmick of the battle system is also something I would like to see on more games. Here, you can't just spam your best skill over and over again, since almost all abilities are a one time use only, and are only recovered when you defend for a turn, this combined with hyper mode, a state where your next attack will do double damage every few turns, means that controlling the flow of the battle is the key for success.

The only downsides I've found is how many items are permanently missable, with a lot of places not being able to be revisited, and some side content is a bit obscure to find, abd also the story is not something extraordinary, but any of those things really hurt.

A simple and somewhat short JRPG-like. Nearly unplayable on the higher difficulty, so I'd stick with the default.

Encounters play more like puzzles than actual adhoc strategy.

Story is fun, but nothing to write home about and doesn't wear out its welcome.