Terramax
Well-Known Member
Not so much a review as a personal retrospective.
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, the sequel to the cult N64 title, which was released exclusively in Japan during the very end of the console’s lifespan. This footage is being played and recorded from a Nintendo Wii U.
Star Successor was co-developed by Treasure Co, THE indie game company. Indie companies are a dime a dozen nowadays, but when these guys first started out, over 20 years ago, setting up a small Japanese game studio was not the norm.
I’m quite the fan of Treasure Co. Illegibly originally consisting of programmers who, fed up of making tired sequels within the juggernaut company that was Konami, left to set up their own studio with aspirations of developing original titles where gameplay and creativity ruled over all else.
Over the years, their output has been inconsistent at best. They’ve made some of the greatest cult classics of all time (Ikaruga, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Gunstar Heroes), but they’ve also made some absolutely terrible games (Silpheed: The Lost Planet, Freakout aka Stretch Panic, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream). Thankfully, S&P: Star Successor lies safely in the former category, if not one of the greatest games the company has ever produced.
Star Successor is a 3rd person rail shooter – one of my favourite genres – and is set several years after the events of the first title, where the main characters of that story saved the dying planet of earth from, well, dying.
The main character is actually the son of the first game’s two protagonists, and he’s ultimately a human with some rather interesting abilities, achieved by the mutations his father before him attained. But you don’t really need to know the plot to the first game… don’t even know why I bothered to explain it… anyways…
The story starts off feeling like a cut-scene is missing somewhere. In fact, when I first bought this title, I was convinced that I had missed an opening scene somewhere, as the game never really makes it quite clear why everything is happening.
Apparently, a young man named Isa, from one dimension, is sent by “the creators” to kill Kachi, an entity from another dimension, taking the form of a human, who’s out to destroy his dimension.
Isa ends up falling in love with her, and helps her escape purging of the creators. As a consequence, the creators send the Nebulox – a group of 5 assassin’s with special powers, to eliminate both of them.
None of this is explained anywhere in the game; instead the game opening with the crashing of Isa’ ship whilst being in hot pursuit by the Nebulox, The game does consist of cut-scenes that explain some of the world and Isa’ back-story, but by the end, some holes are left unfilled. The story is actually pretty intriguing, with some great presentation, so these missing sections in the plot really work at the game’s disadvantage.
Never-the-less, there’s still a lot to like about this title.
Firstly, the level of detail in the graphics is nothing less than stunning. Whether it be in the cutscenes or in the gameplay, both the models of the characters and enemies, or the locations, are heavily detailed and show off just what the Wii was capable of when the effort was put into it.
The art direction itself is just lovely. It has that post apocalyptic setting that the original had, but perhaps brighter with a little less saturated this time round. The final result is a game that has me wishing I could see and learn more about it. It’s tragic that so many mediocre action adventure and RPG titles out there have such uninspired and unimaginative worlds, and yet Star Successor has a world just begging to be explored further.
The gameplay is a return to the ye old gameplay of the 80s and 90s arcades. You control the character with the nunchuck analogue stick, aim with the wiimote, and the remaining buttons have you shooting, locking on, dodging, and jumping.
There are two gameplay styles, depending on the character you pick. Both have their pros and cons. Isa has you needing to manually lock onto enemies with a more powerful gauged attack, whilst Kachi lets you lock onto enemies, and her more powerful attack allows you to target multiple enemies.
Whilst the gameplay sounds simple and easy enough, considering you have make a number of these actions all at the exact same time, frequently, and considering how relentless this game gets pretty early on, this game will take quite a lot of practice to master, especially on harder difficulties.
Levels are just brimming with ideas. Every level introduces new concepts, increased difficulty, new enemies of all shapes and varieties, and lord knows how many bosses to which no two are the same (besides the very end of the game, which is ultimately a boss rush, but more on that later). Every level is exciting to see for the first time, and I’m sure anyone interested in this game will have personal favourites that they’d like to return to for multiple playthroughs.