Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius

 PC
Metascore
tbd

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User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 24
  3. Negative: 4 out of 24
  1. halberdman
    Aug 5, 2014
    9
    Full of heart and obviously a labor of love for the developers, Sunrider will blow you away if you keep in mind the scope of the project.Full of heart and obviously a labor of love for the developers, Sunrider will blow you away if you keep in mind the scope of the project. Don't expect AAA levels of optimization, detail, or effects, but what is present is highly polished. The soundtrack is refreshingly quite good, and the visuals manage to do quite well given that the game is built on Ren'Py. The combat system is enjoyable and quite challenging but can be modified with a difficulty slider if you're just wanting to blaze through the story or if you want an additional challenge (and are a masochist) to top off the package.

    A hybrid VN/TBS, anyone who has played games such as Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara, Galaxy Angel, or any of the Sakura Taisen games will recognize the layout quickly. The majority of the game is an ADV style visual novel, with text and sprites on a background to present the events occurring in the game universe with frequent and sometimes quite nuanced decisions presented to the player. Occasionally, the game will drop out to a tactical, turn based grid strategy game reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics or any of its many spinoffs in which the titular Sunrider and its complement of giant mecha (all female pilots of course) battle their way through various hazards while attempting to halt the expansion of a despotic interstellar regime.

    As Strunk64 pointed out in his review, the characters contain common tropes and the story is based on a pretty common idea, but the devs have managed to make the characters sympathetic and the story deeper than you might think at first glance. I've played nearly every major visual novel in the English language, and I was still surprised by how much I came to care about the characters and story even in the beta phase of the first entry to the trilogy.

    On the negative side, and really the only thing preventing me from giving this a better score, is a lack of optimization. Ren'Py is not really designed to handle the level of complex content that Sunrider presents, and as such the game suffers from slowdowns, incorrectly displayed combat data, and occasional trigger failures (allies fail to spawn for example) during scripted events. It's certainly not show-stopping, but it will frustrate you to have to wait out the (very long) enemy turn before you can load a save or to fire a shot with "100%" hit chance only to find out that it actually had a 12% hit chance.

    As an added bonus, the developers have published 100% of the project to their Git at the time of this review, and all the content is open-source and available for modding, adjusting, or expanding if you want to dig into the code.

    Also worth mentioning is that this game contains NSFW content, though nothing so extreme as H scenes, and you should approach it with the understanding that there will be nude scenes and suggestive content.

    tl:dr It's free, it's open source, it's surprisingly good. Get it.    … Full Review »
  2. Strunk64
    Jul 19, 2014
    10
    I first discovered Sunrider through a gaming news site, during the middle of the Kickstarter. I followed it for a while, eventuallyI first discovered Sunrider through a gaming news site, during the middle of the Kickstarter. I followed it for a while, eventually downloading the demo. Though nowhere near as refined as it currently is, the combat and the story drew me in, and made me want more. It wasn't a hard decision to back it, in the end, and I haven't regretted it since.

    Each of the characters have tropes and cliches making up their general personalities, However, that's not all there is to them. They each have life and depth, which, in my opinion, makes it worth fighting through even the toughest battle, just to see what happens with each of them next.

    And believe me, the battles will be tough. Love in Space designed Sunrider to be a very difficult game, in which you always feel as if you're just about to be overwhelmed. I think they have succeeded at this, as I certainly never feel completely at ease during battle.

    Still, there are different difficulty levels, if it's too much for you. I don't mind admiting that I switch to Easy on occasion, myself. However, if you're one of those people that finds "nearly being overwhelmed constantly" too easy, there's always the Hard difficulty, which is sure to blow you out of the proverbial water. There's also Visual Novel difficulty, which is good for testing out strategies, or just speeding through the game, if you simply can't wait to get back to the story.

    The plot itself is interesting, though if you're a big fan of the genre, you've likely seen the basic idea before. Still, having seen Love in Space's past works, and some of the bigger twists in Sunrider, I can safely say that, by the end, you'll be shocked at where this story goes.

    If you're not sure about Visual Novels, Strategy RPGs, or both, I'd like to remind you that the game is free, and not going anywhere. You can try it out at any time, for no cost, so just think it over for a while. If you ever get bored and have nothing better to do, Sunrider might be the right thing to pass the time. And who knows; you might just end up liking it.    … Full Review »
  3. Oreo_Blue
    Jul 17, 2014
    10
    One of the best totally free to play games on Steam. It's like the combination of Mass Effect and Dark Souls. Great story and challenging TurnOne of the best totally free to play games on Steam. It's like the combination of Mass Effect and Dark Souls. Great story and challenging Turn Based Strategy.… Full Review »
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