Rogue Flight Review (Renown Liar)
TLDR: Very good game, if Star Fox is a 5/5 I would give this a 4/5. My only real complaint is that it could use another level or 2. If you have any interest in it I would recommend at least trying the demo.
A few weeks ago, Youtube's algorithm finally did something right and showed me a trailer I'm actually interested in. The second I saw the trailer I knew I was gonna get this game. Star Fox 64 has always been one of my favorite games and the 90's Anime aesthetic put me right in their target demographic. I'm happy to say I was not disappointed.
Gameplay
I play through demo twice when it came out and didn't really click for me off the bat. However, after buy the game and getting to the 2nd and 3rd level, I started to understand that I need to go for combos more. The game has a similar system to Star Fox 64 *Hits*. In that game if you kill multiple enemies at the same time it give you more *Hits* that count towards medals. In Rogue Flight the game rewards you a lot for string kill combos together with you primary fire, missiles and jet stream attack. The bigger the combo the more shields and stat points you get. Once I started on focusing on extending the Combos will all 3 attacks the game really clicked and any worries I had about the gameplay vanished.
The game will also reward you with unlockable ship modules. To get them you will need to do things like parrying enemy fire, getting multikills with missiles and collect shield and missile drops with your vortex ability. Points are not spent, but rather the modules are auto unlocked at certain thresholds for each stat. Trying to max out each for the modules adds a lot of replay value. I just wish you didn't have to go to extras tab in the main menu to look at the stat descriptions. If you there was an option in the pause menu to get a that linked to the database descriptions of each stat and how to increase them that would be nice.
I do have one other very small issue with it. Once you have played the story a few times and start unlocking ship modules the game can get a little to easy. Luckily there is a fix for this, in the setting tab you can change the difficulty to 2 harder levels (or 2 easier ones if you just want to chill to the music and story).
-If the devs are seeing this, I really think it would be good idea to have the game ask you which difficulty you want after selecting the game mode. I totally missed seeing until I have beaten the game 5-6 times.
If you pump the difficulty all the way up and still want a change the rougelike modes will give it to you. It took me 3-4 tries to beat the harder version of it and I admittedly got a little carried by getting one of the late stage weapon upgrades. Do keep in mind though that the Rougelike mode really just changes the modules you start with. From what I have seen it doesn't change the story or stages at all.
Music and Graphics/Style
I'm just going to group these together because there not much to say other than that they are perfect. Honestly, I bought this game purely from the music and overall aesthetic that I saw in the trailer. Once you have beaten the game a few time I would suggest looking in the Settings and Extras tabs. There are a few treats in there like a Music player and a retro mode that changes all of the music, voice overs and some of the visuals in the story. Also give you an achievement for beating the game with retro mode on. .
Story/Length
The story and voice acting are pretty good, but a little short for my taste. Really the length is probably my only big complaint for the game as a whole. There are 7 stages (and a tutorial) with a few changes on each stage depending on the game mode and route you take in the story. If you are not watching the cutscenes I think a normal run will be about 30-40 mins for both of the short routes or 60-70 mins for the long route. If the game had just 1-2 more levels I would say its near perfect. Overall though I still really liked it and if your a fan of Star Fox I think your going to too. I would definitely recommend buying it and if your still on the fence you can always try the demo or wishlist it for a sale notification.