Game: Starlight Legacy
Genre: JRPG, Indie
System: Nintendo Switch (also available for Steam (Windows))
Developers | Publishers: Decafesoft | eastasiasoft
Age Rating: US E 10+ | EU 7
Price: US $12.99 | UK £ 11.69 | EU € 12,99
Release Date: May 28th, 2025
A review code was provided, many thanks to eastasiasoft
There’s a magnificent historical anecdote about a tailor’s apprentice who was left unsupervised in his master’s workshop during a late 1700s holiday eve. Gripped by a large amount of free time, granted access to a bounty of fabric scraps, and alone with an unsuspecting cat, the apprentice knocked out a full suit for that cat, Revolutionary-era waistcoat and all. And rather than being chastised for his efforts later, his master was so charmed by the whole thing that the suit went up in the shop window for the whole town to see.
Let’s apply this anecdote to video games: what if you let people who grew up on the heady, cozy nostalgia of early Squaresoft Final Fantasy games loose on a program (GameMaker) that offers most of the same tools those early Square developers had? Usually, you get early experiments from young developers, full of love and loose stitching. But sometimes you get a full suit. Waistcoat and all, even if it’s sized for a household moggy. Meet Starlight Legacy, a short but tightly sewn game that’s so keenly aware of its Final Fantasy roots that it could pass for a hobby game from one of Square’s own ‘90s interns.
Starlight Legacy Wakes That Kid Up One More Time
Starlight Legacy opens with a trope played so straight it’s knowingly cheeky. Your main character, Ignus, drags himself out of bed only to be instantly accosted by his mother and told that his best friend is looking for him. But Ignus isn’t wild about his call to adventure, and his buddy, Teryl, is a little too loyal to the idea of being the king’s errand boy for Ignus’ comfort.
From such humble beginnings come some of the best JRPGs of all time. Starlight Legacy knows it’s not going to reach such heights, so it settles, comfortably, for a familiar yet engaging ride through some of history’s tonal highlights. Character art resembles fantastical Pokemon trainers. Monsters are huge and detailed compared to your boxy leads. The text font and simple strategy of Final Fantasy come through with little in the way of tutorial beyond your own familiarity with these kinds of games. Instead, it asks you to play with your options in combat.
Your beginning town stresses its love of magic, and the forests are lush with free MP potions, and carefully inspecting your options will show even your beginning spells can hit all your targets right away. Elemental weaknesses matter the further into the game you delve, making sure you pay attention to your tactics when entering new areas. The game even offers that archaic but ever-welcome luxury of refilling your HP and MP on a level-up, letting you press on a little further than you maybe thought you could. Pleasantly, once you’ve mastered an area, auto battle can typically carry you back to town.
Tropes Are Tools, Not Inherently Bad
Starlight Legacy offers a story that a long-time gamer can probably predict, beat for beat. However, presentation matters, and the dialogue and tone go a long way towards maintaining the charm that carries the story. And that said, that story does have a few twists to it that, while still guessable by the most seasoned, offer a level of consideration to the story that a lot of indie JRPG riffs don’t manage to land.
Your characters, while familiar, have a few foibles of their own. There’s not a ton of growth — don’t expect the tribulations of Final Fantasy IV’s Cecil — but their roles are shuffled up a bit. Ignus is hero-coded, but he’s not all in on King Lennox’s use of mercenaries. Teryl is a bright-eyed loyalist, and he’s the party healer. And your third character, who will join after the big introductory set piece of the first act (it involves a big, special tree and some discussion of the central political conflict), is a no-nonsense gal named Frida whose Earth magic will knock a man on their butt.
Together, these three will pick their way through the King’s lands on a heroic fetch quest to fix what the scurrilous separatists have destroyed. But from the earliest moments, despite the boldly written set-ups, there are questions about whether the King deserves the loyalty of a man like your bestie, and if the separatists, angry and violent, don’t have some good points to make about oppression.
To call it serviceable is low praise; I would rather call it an eager attempt to replicate the simplified-yet-deep social commentary of something like Pokémon Black & White. With about ten hours of gameplay, Starlight Legacy doesn’t have room for deep discussions, but it still makes an attempt to ask a question or two. It’s appreciated, and it shows thoughtfulness on the part of its maker.
No Muss, No Fuss
Brought to the Nintendo Switch after a moderately successful run on Steam, Starlight Legacy avoids the number one pitfall of ported games: it runs just fine. Running from town to town is a fairly seamless process that offers only a tiny hitch as it loads a new area, and the Switch screen is a good place to remember how cool we used to think Mode-7 graphics used to be.
A few options are in place to customize your play style, like button palettes and whatnot, and they’re all nicely to taste. Combat speed is fine, and a launch issue with a clunky inventory system isn’t something new players here have to worry about. It’s bright, pretty, and, unfortunately, it’s stuck deep in the shadows behind big-name classic JRPG rereleases like Lunar and Suikoden while handling fairly similarly.
Conclusion
Starlight Legacy is a brief but charming throwback to the earliest years of Final Fantasy, with a competent story, familiar gameplay, and a visual style that reminds us why we can’t quit our love of pixelated games. At roughly ten hours of gameplay, it never has a chance to hit a long stride, but it’s a pleasant bite of game for someone looking for a wind-down after this year’s glut of long-play classic JRPGs.
The game is also another great reminder that indie developers are out there doing their best for the love of the game. When it shines through, maybe it still can’t out-gleam the professional classics, but it’s proof that there’s still a lot to this nostalgic genre to love.
Final Verdict: I Like It
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