You play as Jun, a young cave runner out to find asteroids full of lumen, a valuable resource in this post-war space-bound world. He must team up with a witch named Eda, who can record starsongs that unlock these mysterious caves. But there's a bounty on both of their heads, so it's certainly not smooth sailing and they fly from station to station picking up coordinates and information.
There are moments where you switch to Eda and Remi, mainly for gameplay purposes, but each of them also have their own stories to tell. However, the bulk of the game is set up as Jun looking back 66 years on these events. So what happened back then? Where are Eda and Remi? Where is Jun going now in his old age?
Visuals
OPUS: Echo of Starsong is a mix of anime-style visual novel and 2.5D adventure. I definitely enjoy both of those things, but this is not my favorite rendition of either. The character portraits are actually really nice, but the CGs looked underwhelming in comparison. The character sprites for the side-scrolling portions also reminded me the original Sims, which was interesting.
I loved the look of outer space though. Watching them fly around was a nice visual treat, that almost made up for the other bland environments. The buildings and other structures do look out of place, since they're low poly and not very detailed. But it was also an interesting contrast to the painted look of the stars and skies around them.
Sound Effects + Music
As a game with "song" in the title, I was expecting some exceptional sound design here. And it is pretty good, not stellar, but definitely enjoyable. There's a wide variety of background tracks which change with the location, situation, and tension levels. But there's also a lot of quiet time, which makes sense in the vacuum of space.
There is voice acting. Default is Japanese, but you can also switch to Chinese, or nothing. No voice acting adds in those typical typing, clicking, booping noises depending on the speaking character. Eda does sing at times to record starsongs for Jun to use in his explorations.
Gameplay + Controls
OPUS: Echo of Starsong is kind of a visual novel in the sense that the focus is on the story and the majority of your time will be spent reading, but it's also kind of a point-and-click adventure, since the main gameplay loop is you simply moving Jun around and clicking on things. There are some light puzzles, which involve matching up the starsongs you collect to the doors they unlock, but they're easy and felt like a simple way to add more interactivity. And there are even some arcade-like sections where you must guide the ship through friends of debris.
I played with keyboard and...well, just keyboard since mouse inputs aren't used. You really just need the arrow keys to move Jun around the screen or to scroll through menus, and the spacebar or Enter to select. The most interaction is actually with the navigation menu, as you need to read messages to obtain coordinates, scan unknown signals, and manage your meager supplies as you travel across the universe. These parts aren't that interesting, as you'll always have exactly what you need to move on, as long as you don't fly all over the map wasting fuel.
Replayability
OPUS: Echo of Starsong definitely has enough content for multiple playthroughs, especially if you skipped or missed some locations and events. I wouldn't play it again, since I'll admit that I didn't always follow the complexities of the story and world, and therefore wasn't always that invested. But if you loved the story, there would be more to discover.
Overall
I definitely enjoyed my time with OPUS: Echo of Starsong. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was a pleasant surprise. Even though I wasn't 100% invested in the story, it still had me coming back for more when I'd take a break from playing.
There are moments where you switch to Eda and Remi, mainly for gameplay purposes, but each of them also have their own stories to tell. However, the bulk of the game is set up as Jun looking back 66 years on these events. So what happened back then? Where are Eda and Remi? Where is Jun going now in his old age?
Visuals
OPUS: Echo of Starsong is a mix of anime-style visual novel and 2.5D adventure. I definitely enjoy both of those things, but this is not my favorite rendition of either. The character portraits are actually really nice, but the CGs looked underwhelming in comparison. The character sprites for the side-scrolling portions also reminded me the original Sims, which was interesting.
I loved the look of outer space though. Watching them fly around was a nice visual treat, that almost made up for the other bland environments. The buildings and other structures do look out of place, since they're low poly and not very detailed. But it was also an interesting contrast to the painted look of the stars and skies around them.
Sound Effects + Music
As a game with "song" in the title, I was expecting some exceptional sound design here. And it is pretty good, not stellar, but definitely enjoyable. There's a wide variety of background tracks which change with the location, situation, and tension levels. But there's also a lot of quiet time, which makes sense in the vacuum of space.
There is voice acting. Default is Japanese, but you can also switch to Chinese, or nothing. No voice acting adds in those typical typing, clicking, booping noises depending on the speaking character. Eda does sing at times to record starsongs for Jun to use in his explorations.
Gameplay + Controls
OPUS: Echo of Starsong is kind of a visual novel in the sense that the focus is on the story and the majority of your time will be spent reading, but it's also kind of a point-and-click adventure, since the main gameplay loop is you simply moving Jun around and clicking on things. There are some light puzzles, which involve matching up the starsongs you collect to the doors they unlock, but they're easy and felt like a simple way to add more interactivity. And there are even some arcade-like sections where you must guide the ship through friends of debris.
I played with keyboard and...well, just keyboard since mouse inputs aren't used. You really just need the arrow keys to move Jun around the screen or to scroll through menus, and the spacebar or Enter to select. The most interaction is actually with the navigation menu, as you need to read messages to obtain coordinates, scan unknown signals, and manage your meager supplies as you travel across the universe. These parts aren't that interesting, as you'll always have exactly what you need to move on, as long as you don't fly all over the map wasting fuel.
Replayability
OPUS: Echo of Starsong definitely has enough content for multiple playthroughs, especially if you skipped or missed some locations and events. I wouldn't play it again, since I'll admit that I didn't always follow the complexities of the story and world, and therefore wasn't always that invested. But if you loved the story, there would be more to discover.
Overall
I definitely enjoyed my time with OPUS: Echo of Starsong. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was a pleasant surprise. Even though I wasn't 100% invested in the story, it still had me coming back for more when I'd take a break from playing.