Game Alert - Shukumei Star Series

It's been quite a while since I last did a Game Alert for an RPG, so let me make up for it a bit by recommending two at the same time.

Shukumei Star is a series which currently consists of two games made using RPG Maker 2003. Both games are very similar aside from one major difference which I'll get around to later so I'll mainly be talking about the series as a whole rather than focusing too much on each game individually. These games certainly won't appeal to all RPG fans, but those who enjoy them will easily get 15+ hours out of each entry. Well, that's enough of an introduction, so let's get started!

And let me start by noting that these are by no means games which should be played for the plot and this will almost certainly be the main dividing factor.  Character motivations are often vague, nonexistent, or confusing to the point that protagonists and antagonists alike seem unsure as to why they are doing things. The first game basically boils down to 'an evil person wants to take over the world and you have to stop him' while the second game is the same except with various plot points from the Final Fantasy series such as four elemental crystals and the presence of a big 'evil corporation' trying to rule the world. Just about every plot point has been done many times before and done better.

On the opposite side of the quality spectrum is the sense of exploration and discovery these games have to offer. While there is a linear plot which requires you to go to certain places in a certain order, the Shukumei Star series is brimming with secrets just waiting to be found. Doing a thorough search of any given village will not only lead to finding some handy items hidden away in various objects like in most RPG's, but it may also lead to a sidequest, a hidden boss fight, or even a secret character. Both games also take a Chrono Trigger approach to optional content by really opening up the world right before the grand finale and allowing players to access many new areas which previously could not be reached. Dungeons themselves often have various optional puzzles, hidden treasures, and secret items which can only be found upon revisiting a dungeon later in the game. Even after many hours of hunting for secrets it is unlikely that a person will discover everything hidden within these games and it's not an exaggeration to say that searching for and completing optional and hidden content will just about double the length of either entry.

Random encounters like this one are surprisingly common in both games.

Combat is another high point of the series. While it does nothing particularly new and the ATB system moves at an overly slow pace at low levels, the combat in Shukumei Star games is, overall, very enjoyable for several reasons. First, there is actually a large focus upon support skills in these games as a failure to keep up buffs on the party, debuff the enemy, and counter any status ailments or self-buffs enemies may toss out can easily lead to a Game Over even during normal random encounters. Secondly, skill costs are appropriately balanced as skills which can deal large amounts of damage or which can fully heal the entire party both exist, but are so costly that they tend to only be viable for emergency situations, allowing lower-tier skills to still be entirely viable even by the end of the game. A final high point of the combat system comes from the encounters themselves as you'll see the standard groups of 2-4 or so enemies during random encounters, but every area in both entries also has one or two miniboss-esque random encounters against a particularly nasty single enemy and such encounters ensure that exploring a dungeon never feels tedious as they keep the tension high.

Speaking of dungeons, this brings me to the final major strength of the series - dungeon design. Dungeons throughout both games vary wildly in size from short caves which will only take about fifteen minutes to get through to massive multi-floor labyrinths filled with multiple bosses which can take hours to complete. I already mentioned how dungeons are filled with hidden areas and treasure, but nearly every dungeon also has a special gimmick which makes it unique. These gimmicks can vary wildly and are often very creative, taking on the form of anything from needing to use a dungeon-specific item to detect hidden traps to a dungeon with rotating floors which causes doors to lead to different places over time. These gimmicks help to ensure that each dungeon is thematically consistent with its aesthetic and prevent the games from feeling repetitive as you'll have to constantly learn to navigate around the various tricks and traps unique to each dungeon.

Lastly, I mentioned at the start of the article that there was a single notable difference between the two games, so it's about time that I covered just what that difference is. The first game has an 'abacus system' and players can search around the world for fifty stars which, in addition to granting stat boosts, play into the abacus system. There is no easy way to explain this system, though it is simpler than it may sound. Basically, each character starts the bottom row of a column in the abacus and each column represents a certain type of magic, such as summoning or wind. Every seven stars collected moves the characters up one row in the abacus and teaches them the skill they landed on in addition to one other skill. However, players can set the path each character will take in advance by choosing if the next movement will simply be up the same column, over one column to the left, or over right column to the right; players can also set the 'pointer', which points either left and right and upon advancement a character will learn both the skill moved onto as well as the respective skill from the column the pointer is aimed at. It's an interesting and unique system to say the least, but it is also rather counter-productive as there is no way to reset choices and players will need to either actively avoid collecting stars until the end of the game to prevent advancement up the abacus or have characters acquired later on become firmly locked into a default skill path.

The first game's abacus system is interesting, but flawed.

The second game takes a somewhat more traditional, but far more functional, approach to skills. Within the second game you can acquire over twenty characters and, aside from one or two particularly odd exceptions, each character comes with two things. First, every character has a set of magic which that character can learn by buying spells at a shop; spells are divided into three tiers and not every character can learn the highest tier spells, though some can learn every single low-tier spell. Secondly, every character has either a character-specific set of spells or skills which are gained through leveling up or a single 'gimmick' skill. For example, one character can learn every single 'white magic' spell in the game and has the 'Double' skill, which allows her to cast the same spell twice in a single turn at the cost of a temporary stat reduction, while another character can only learn the first two tiers of white magic, but has exclusive access to the Holy set of spells which are learned as he levels up and which deal light-elemental damage to enemies. Furthermore, the second game has two protagonists and consistently requires players to split characters into two teams of four so that a good amount of the large cast actually gets used.

Shukumei Star is an interesting series not only because its games serve as examples of RPG's which are enjoyable despite having poor stories, but also because it revitalizes the sense of exploration at a time when many RPG's are becoming increasingly linear and formulaic. While by no means perfect, these games are certain to be excellent additions to the library of anyone looking for good dungeon crawlers and they excel in all the areas they focus upon.

The first game in the series can be found here.
The sequel can be found here.