Starlight Drifter Review (Birdy Light)
It's fine for what it is. I wanted some alien romancing, and this does that well enough. The characters have enough variety, and the art is pretty decent.
However, it has a couple of problems:
1) it introduces money & hull as core elements of gameplay and then proceeds to ignore both. Rarely did I ever have to concern myself with the ship's hull. Money was only used to repair the ship and buy missles, and you really only need about 3-5 missles for the entire game.
2) romance is almost exclusively paired to on-ship interactions and not to choices during missions. I get that some players may like that but I think it makes the characters feel hollow. "You litterally shit on every single idea I propose, but you chatted with me three times alone, so I guess we can go to my bedroom."
3) wasted opportunity. This game could recieve a bit more work in writing & choices and it would be easily twice as good. Missions could branch a bit more or provide more options for character-exculsive choices. The description of the game makes a big deal of "picking your crew," but your crew choices really only come into play about 5-10 times throughout the game. Also, allow me to do simple upgrades to the appearance of the ship, buy a different weapon, or buy costumes for characters or really anything that would allow me to spend the money in the game. Lastly, this is mostly a romance game, so would it be out of the question to have a little epilogue (no new art needed) with a romanced character of our choice? The text-block epilogue isn't enough.
That said, I am powerless against some alien ladies. If you're trash like me, you'll probably still like it. Dat purple lady / Luci is where it's at. Also, I bothered to get all the achievements, so clearly it still struck a chord.