Starlight Legacy was a game I had my eye on due to claims that interested me on its announcement. It was said to be inspired by the old 16 bit era of gaming, had a non-linear format to its exploration, and even had some flying dragon moments in its gameplay. I just had to get my hands on it to try it out!
Game Name: Starlight Legacy
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Decafesoft
Publisher(s): Eastasiasoft
Release Date: February 5th, 2025
Price: $16.99
In Starlight Legacy, you are the Starlight Warriors, Ignus, Frida, and Teryl who get ordered by the king to find the Starlight relics to resurrect the Eternity Tree which protects the kingdom. You have to travel to four different provinces and collect all four relics for the king. A simple premise but one that does get a bit more complex when you start learning more about the world you are in.
The Good
Right off the bat, the music and the pixel graphics are awesome. They had a big influence of Pokémon when it came to the route designs and the way the music changes based on the route you are traveling. That isn’t all that influenced by Pokémon, even the puzzles needing a specific move or item to go to hidden routes or find shortcuts. You can get a raft to swim across water areas for hidden treasure and surprises. You can get items to have an NPC make you a hammer for you to destroy rocks that block paths and even get a magic carpet to fly above smaller obstacles. Going back to earlier areas once you get these items help you net some nice loot.
The non-linearity aspect is actually really simple but effective. When you grab a new relic which requires you to beat a pretty powerful boss, the world essentially goes up a new level of difficulty. It also helps you unlock other treasure chests since there are some powerful loot that require you to have a relic or two to nab. This essentially lets you go to any area in the game without needing to worry about getting too overpowered as you can’t get the stronger items until after you get more relics and defeat more bosses. The shops around the world are also tied to this world difficulty. The weapons and spells you can buy at the shop update with each relic you grab. This is actually a smart way to implement a non-linear format to a JRPG setting.
Honestly this was the perfect length of time for a JRPG like this, it had good value in what abilities you could acquire and the game itself can be finished in 10 hours. There is moments you can see coming from far away and some that come out of nowhere that also builds up on the world. It may be a simple world with easy to read factions but it does a good job with making the story and characters.
Starlight Legacy has a really good rhythm to its combat. You have three types of controls, either the directional buttons will perform actions or the face buttons can do actions as two different types. Or a third one that is essentially just menu type combat like older Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest titles. It made the combat experience customizable and I had mine set up mainly for the face buttons as I liked to make my actions quickly.
There is no difficulty set in Starlight Legacy but there are modifiers that help you reign in endless grinding in case you need to. First there is random encounters, you can turn them off and on. This helps with backtracking or if you just are at what you think is the level limit for the boss and don’t want to deal with enemies until then. The second one that changed everything was an experience modifier. You can make fights give you up to double the experience points which helps your characters level up quicker and allow you to deal with the bosses faster.
Initially I was very confused on the telescope system. It felt like in my first area I already had everything down pat in terms of where I needed to go and why. The telescope in the middle of the area felt like just a weird addition to show off the map design. That was my feeling until I made it to the third area I got to and the map itself go a bit more complex. I was able to use the telescope to figure out a good way to find the layout of the map and where I could go. Thank goodness for the telescopes!
The Bad
As areas became more complex, so did the layout of what I needed to do. The world map you get lets you see the layout in a Pokémon style layout. You also need to talk to NPC’s to know where to go, but sometimes you have to go search every house in the area to figure it out, or in one province you need to go to a different town all together to find out the path forward.
Initially when you get a spell tome, you will get just the name of the tome. You can teach a tome to any of your three Starlight Warriors. However, you won’t know what the spell does until you look at it after it is already learned. The properties of the tome will just tell you the name of the spell. For the most part it can be pretty easy to figure out Fire deals fire damge, Ice deals ice and so on. There are some that can be confusing like expose, or cure. Recover heals your HP which you will figure out early on as one of your characters will know this spell by default. Needing to teach the spell though removes the tome and if you teach it to someone, that warrior alone will know the spell. You will have to find another tome of the same name or buy one to teach it to another warrior.
I don’t know if something was wrong with my version of the game but there is a feature of having a character able to summon different monsters to help you in a fight. Whenever I tried this though, it made my game crash. After trying it three times and having it crash I just stopped trying to use it and replaced the skill with a different one. Another big issue is the explanation for the item stardust, it says it revives with full HP and MP. However it doesn’t revive characters, it only restores the character’s HP and MP. It made me lose the item instead. (Odds are these issues will be fixed but I thought I would let you know. The developer is pretty attuned to the feedback from players)
The Verdict
Starlight Legacy is a great feeling turn-based JRPG. It has the look of a traditional Super Nintendo experience but it plays much better. I wasn’t expecting to see a map and route system similar to Pokémon but they incorporated it well into the DNA of the game and its world. If you are someone who wants to see more 16-bit-era goodness then this is the game for you. A fantastic Steam Deck experience as well.
Starlight Legacy is available right now on Steam or GOG.
Review Disclosure Statement: Starlight Legacy was provided to us by Eastasiasoft for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Starlight Legacy is a solid turn-based JRPG with its inspirations blended in perfectly for a fun and engaging experience.
Pros
- Simple yet satisfying combat
- Customizable combat and menu experience
- Well balanced non-linear structure
Cons
- Some provinces can be more confusing than others
- Aged menu and spell mechanics
