I finally finished a single playthrough of the game within 14.8 hours according to the Steam statistics. I played it on my Steamdeck and got it for a reduced price of $17.99. All the previous bugs from the original Gameboy Advanced version have been fixed, the spaceships now suit the randomized areas better, and any glitches were very minimal. Insofar as glitches, I think apart from one aspect of screen-taring in the final area with using Krill Motherships and this one absorber transferred into an auto-bomb attack on enemy objects that caused the regular ship to become immobile when attempting to implement the auto-skill, it was mostly smooth. I barely had any problems apart from those two hang-ups and the Steamdeck even mentions it isn’t built to function the game, but it runs Sigma Star Saga DX smoothly overall. I hadn’t been able to finish the Gameboy Advanced version from years back, due to a collage of glitches that the developers have since acknowledged and adamantly fixed for the release of the DX version; I could finally play through it without hijinks like the larger ships being too big for small spaces in certain maps.
The game itself is a weird mix of campy and dark undertones. Ian Recker, who I sometimes call Eirikr because it’s easier and who was probably the reason that I ever became aware of the SMT blogger Eirikr in the first place, turned out to be a fairly well-written character with decent motivation for his actions. Psyme and his personalities just bounce off each other and make for a compelling conflict and later team-up throughout the entire game. I was actually surprised that this blended so well with the main conflict slowly unfolding throughout the story of the warring factions secretly competing for biological superweapons that would allow them to conquer the galaxy. The spaceship gameplay, of what is a space shoot ‘em up aspect of the game, was mostly enjoyable. The customization of the shooting mechanics made for some rather fun combinations but I was a bit miffed that some of the extra components were more about quickly reducing the numbers instead of customizing the shooting system with extra abilities. You fly around and shoot things in a point-based system and once the points are down to zero, then you’ve won the side-scroller battle map when using the spaceship. Yet, one major criticism I have is that the background paintings, while beautiful, sometimes don’t make it clear what background material will blow up my ship when crashing into them or what is just background appearances; that was annoying, because there’s no special lighting indication or anything demarcating the two. It’s just a trial-and-error process. By direct contrast, the ARPG elements are pretty limited with the same monsters or obstacles and it can get very boring and same-y as you’re basically on a very lengthy, drawn-out glorified fetch quests on every mission to progress what is a mostly good story about Ian Recker, Psyme, and the two factions at war. Moreover, the monster types become so boring with just different colorations of the same monsters over and over with barely any meaningful differences at all. It’s a good game, the two main characters and the overall plot are very good, and the spaceship battle system is mostly fun . . . but the ARPG aspect is limited, drags it down, and there was so much more that they could have done with it. It was still an intriguing mix of ideas and I do think they could have improved upon this formula, if they reworked the ARPG systems to be given more depth and have goals beyond just glorified fetch quests to progress the main plot. The QOL features like save anywhere was kind of needed, because of how slow Ian Recker is before he gets running boots in the game. I still wish they had used this game as a stepping stone for a sequel…
For the game’s concept art, they had multiple artistic depictions of Psyme and the artistic use makes it clear that they had so much that they used earlier pieces as placeholders for Ian Recker’s parts and multiple rough draft sketches to get Psyme’s appearance just right before the final version. At least four, judging from the artbook section. Meanwhile, they stuck with the first draft of Scarlet and didn’t change it much. I even noticed the in-game art of Scarlet’s face has a yellowish eye in one and green in another, but it seems like the DX artwork completely forgot that Scarlet’s eyes were supposed to have this heterochromia look for its space story; even within the original version’s cut scenes, they only gave her two green eyes. But Psyme? They made sure she looked perfect. It’s hilarious when you compare the two. It seems like someone who was outside of the development team forced them to add a human character than anything else. Whomever it was that was in charge of adding Scarlet would probably feel embarrassed given how much demi-human concepts and monster girl concepts are clearly drawing fascination and excitement from people who consume both Western and Japanese media. It becomes less surprising when you look at mythology and realize basically every culture had demi-human concepts of some type or another and it is more a norm of human imagination than perhaps people working in business or marketing have realized until perhaps the popularization of Japanese media and more recently, Chinese and South Korean media. If that is the case, then it’s a bit odd that it took East Asian media to normalize it, when Western media had concepts from both popularized Greek myths and European pagan myths that were always part of European culture. I thought Scarlet was over-emphasized in the original game’s commercialization, but it’s clear the developers were shipping Recker and Psyme from the get-go. I just didn’t realize how obviously one-sided it was. Why did they even have Scarlet when she’s not even interesting as a person? The game was clearly shipping Psyme and Recker from the start and they’re the two with the most personality in the game itself when compared to the rest of the characters, except for maybe Tierney.
Why did they even have Scarlet Keys as a character? Scarlet Keys feels more like a plot device than a character throughout the game. Ian Recker and Psyme have decent development and a relatively interesting bond from their interactions throughout the game, but Scarlet goes from anti-alien racist to just doing whatever Psyme and Ian Recker tell her to, without any real goal, or purpose, or coherence. She’s just friendly when the plot requires it and willing to backstab her own planet for no discernible reason. We also learn about Psyme’s backstory, meet some of her family members, and we get her perspective via dialogue with Recker. Scarlet just feels handwaved by comparison. Why would anyone even feel compelled to do the Scarlet route outside of just being a nice person for the sake of it? The Best Ending and the Psyme Ending have the same conclusion for Psyme and Recker’s relationship, because it’s clear that Sigma Star Saga is the story of these two characters. Like, I’m actually struggling to understand why Scarlet’s route even exists, because she offers nothing interesting as a character. You don’t even really know her throughout the entire game.
They should have made a sequel to this game, because the concept itself was brilliant. I just wish they had made a sequel or spiritual sequel. This idea of a biological suit connected to a sentient ship, similar to the Evangelion series, is such a cool concept. If they just allowed us to customize the ship and maybe had better action-rpg gameplay while on the planet, I think they’d make an amazing product. I wonder why they never did it. The original game had bugs, now that the DX re-release is out and it’s fixed all the glitches, I think my old criticisms still stand, but oh my goodness the concept itself had so much potential for a multi-game series that I don’t get why they never pursued it. A fusion of Action-RPG and Space-shoot-em-up with a decent plot and multiple routes? The concept is genuinely so good! I just don’t get why they didn’t do it. I listened to their Wayforward interview a few days before the re-release and I just don’t get why they didn’t pursue this idea after the first game.
Overall, I’d rate Sigma Star Saga DX a 7.8 / 10. The positive aspects like the main plot, the space shooter mechanics, and Ian Recker and Psyme’s relationship are very good; but, the negative aspects like Scarlet Keys lack of character, the limited ARPG elements, and some of the glitches make for noticeable shortcomings. I think this would have been a perfect stepping stone for a sequel or spiritual sequel game and I’m surprised they never tried to do that. I think the game is good overall and worth a try, for anyone who wants to return to playing a classic Gameboy Advance, Space Shoot ‘em up game.
