This Girl’s on Fire
It seems like every week there is a new rogue lite or rogue like game being released and each one claiming to be better than the rest. So, what makes a truly great rogue style game. Is it gameplay? Is it art style? Is it story? Is it replay ability? Or is it a combination of all of these items? As someone that doesn’t necessarily like or dislike rogue like games, I was trying to see what makes one better than any other of the hundreds if not thousands of rogue style games out there. In my opinion, the loop of the game needs to have a feeling of progression, a balance of gameplay mechanics, and an easy system of introducing the player to advanced combat techniques. So where does the game Star Fire: The Eternal Cycle fit into the landscape of rogue games and how does it stand out?
Star Fire: The Eternal Cycle is the first game developed by Ethereal Fish Studios. The game as mentioned is a 2D, side scrolling, beat ‘em up, rogue lite game. The game starts you out without telling you what to do, zero tutorial, and no hand holding which is not uncommon in the world of rogue games. Trying to figure out what works is part of the charm of some rogue games. This one is no different. You are dropped into a sort of control room which turns out to be something like a hub world for you to operate out of and start each run. You also have the ability change weapons and apply permanent upgrades in this area before you start each run. You can also look at memory chips that you collect along the way to try to piece the story together. After selection you then start your adventure controlling a young female protagonist and from what I could gather kill anything that comes between you and the end of the level. The enemies vary from stage to stage but overall look to be insectoid like creatures. Sprinkle in a few humanoid bugs and there you have the game in a nutshell.
MSRP: $16.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $16.99
The gameplay loop is you start a run and depending on the difficulty level, determines how many areas you have to get through to ”complete” the run so to speak. The game starts you off on novice difficulty which has two stages to get through and once you have accomplished that you move onto the next difficulty, and more stages are added and so on. You can repeat any difficulty you wish at any time, but the rewards will be scaled to that difficulty. Each stage is broken into smaller areas where you face off with a limited number of enemies and once you clear that area you move to the next. This is where things get interesting. Each new area gives you the choice of what you want to do and it seems semi random. It might give you the option to treasure hunt. Or fight for upgrades. Face a elite mini boss. Or maybe even go to a shop to purchase upgrades to augment you run.
These upgrades are not permanent and will go away for the next run. The permanent upgrades can only be purchased at your hub room at the beginning of the run and only if you collect enough tokens within the stages. Obviously the higher the upgrade level, the more of these tokens are needed to get stronger, hence forth the grinding of levels. Now there are also elements called insectoid cores that drop in the stages that you can equip onto your weapon to make it stronger, do more damage, or add a special ability to that weapon. And in the shops, there are ways to forge those elements into more powerful elements. None of this is spelled out throughout the game and is let to the player to kind of mix and match things and try different combinations in order to make the best run possible.
As far as weapons, there is your standard fare of melee, ranged, and middling weapons to use and unlock as the game progresses. And each of these weapons can be upgraded, leveled and made stronger. The problem with this is I had a tendency to use one weapon and upgrade that one weapon. When I did switch weapons, I was instantly feeling under powered and would regret the decision to switch. I tried all the weapons and none of them felt necessarily better than any others but ultimately kept gravitating back to one of the beginner weapons because I had already leveled it up a few times more than others and just liked the way it played versus the others. There are tons of upgrades throughout the levels and in the hub so finding the right combination can depend on play style and feel.
The game is a very fast paced, fast action side scroller, that can easily get overwhelming early on. Your attacks consist of a light attack, a heavy attack, an ultra-attack, plus a dash to move between enemies. Combat is very fluid as you move from enemy to enemy. The only drawback that I have encountered is that when there are so many enemies attacking at the same time, it is easy to lose sight of your character and get caught up in hit after hit from the enemies until you can dash to the open. But that could be my fault as I would sometimes jump head long into a horde and spam attacks rather than try to attack them strategically.
When it comes to the story, it is delivered via these memory chips that occasionally fall to the ground. You will get a glimpse into the back story. The problem is the memory chips didn’t seem to follow any sort of order and a lot of times I would just skip reading them just to get back to the action. You can revisit the memory chips from your control room or hub. I found that what story that I did glean from my time in the game was uninteresting and just there to check a box. After all, in a game like this, the action is what kept me wanting to do “one more run”.
My time with Star Fire : The Eternal Cycle was, for the most part enjoyable. The game looks and plays very well, and for this being Ethereal Fish Studios first attempt at a game, I don’t think you could go wrong by picking this up and giving it a try. The title on the Microsoft store retails for $16.99 which is reasonable for a title such as this. There are a lot worse games you could sink more money into buying. If you enjoy the rogue lite genre and like side scrolling beat ‘em ups, then you will probably like this game. If you are looking for fast paced action, you’ve come to the right place. If you are looking for story… you might walk away feeling a little underwhelmed.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.