A few months back, one of many Steves I know, this one being Sheridan, wanted to borrow a GBA game- the Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. I was done with the game and let him borrow it happily, and as a show of thanks Sheridan gave me this one. At no point had I expressed any interest in playing it, but I figured "why not" and accepted the game. Superstar Saga sat in my backlog for months untouched, until recently when I figured I'd give it a shot, if only to give it back after a few hours of playing time. This partly came true- I played the game a total of 4 hours before putting it back down again for a month. Finally, last Friday I picked it back up and 16 hours of playtime later, it is finished. All in all, it was a very good game, which is saying something as I have never been known to enjoy many rpgs. Superstar Saga had a refreshing twist on turn-based combat in which special moves require precisely timed button presses to pull off, and these special moves remained satisfying to pull off throughout the course of the game. The tone of the game is completely silly, but not to a point where the humor is overdone. The puzzles offered are carefully crafted and can generate several "A-ha!" moments we all enjoy. One place where the game could have used some work, however, are boss fights. The level of frustration I had with some of the final bosses had me ready to toss my DS out the window- no matter how perfectly I fought for 20 minutes, one mis-timed button press would force me to start over.
Overall though, I'd definitely recommend Superstar Saga (but not to Stan, at least not for a few years). I see this game along with Sonic Chronicles as sort of the completion of my "RPGs for Dummies" course and now I can go out and enjoy one of the true classics like a Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger.
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