An interactive, anime-style turn-based RPG that combines martial arts and the power of words Wonder StarsYou take on the role of Ringo, an aspiring martial artist, reluctantly teaming up with the mysterious and somewhat suspicious Wolf on a quest across the star system to find fragments of the mythical Wonderstar map. Only time will tell if you'll be successful, but… Wonder Stars The demo sets a promising stage, even if it only ventures into the beginning of an epic journey.
Wonder Stars's central concept is that words can be powerful weapons. Ringo is a user of Kiai, a martial art that has swept the galaxy. Characters choose a descriptive word to indicate the type of move they will perform. The two main action words available to start with are “kick” or “punch”. If they have enough remaining SP, they can augment their chosen action word with modifiers such as “super” or “extra”, or attribute descriptions such as “fire”.
Elemental words add bonuses to attacks, dealing more damage if the opponent is weak to that element. They can also cause negative status effects on contact. For example, fire and flames can burn opponents and deal extra damage over multiple turns, so using the phrase “fire kick” does exactly what it sounds like. Modifiers add further layers to attacks, amplifying their strength or providing additional effects. For example, “hard” increases the effective damage output of the attack if the opponent tries to block. Words such as “continuous” increase the chances that the attack will hit (but will do less damage each time it is hit repeatedly), while “special” adds even more offensive power to a combat move. “Super punch” is a fairly clear example of combining an attack word with a modifier.
Once you've collected enough SP, you can combine three different types of wards to create powerful combos. The “Super Wind Kick” is particularly powerful against opponents who are weak to wind, and the “Super Special Wind Kick” will deal even more damage if successful. At the start of the demo, you can only choose from a limited number of ward types, so the number of ward combinations you can make is limited. However, as Ringo gets stronger, you'll be able to chain together even more wards.
Besides stringing together attack combos, Ringo can use words like “item” to use helpful recovery or support items from her limited inventory, or “block” to gain BP that decreases before her health takes damage. “Block” can also be combined with attributes and modifiers for added effects; for example, “fire block” increases resistance to that attribute and gains BP.
Enemies have weaknesses and resistances to different words in Ringo's vocabulary. Attacking weak points not only deals damage to their health, but also restores SP for each weak point you attack. This SP recovery allows you to chain together even more words before ending your turn. For example, the final boss in my demo was weak to “Claw,” so I used that attack word in my word chain every time it finished its cooldown.
This is the gist of fighting common enemies. Wonder StarsBoss battles have attack stages that you must learn to have an effective strategy, such as knowing how to prevent or prepare for the boss to unleash a super destructive attack, but overall they are similar to normal combat. Since Kiai is an honorable martial art, it is interesting that when you reduce the health of many enemies to zero, you have a chance to end the battle amicably with a “Peace” prompt. This option allows you to make friends with your rivals. This gives you access to “Pep Up” phrases, which are modifiers specially added to certain words. Tagging this phrase gives you unique bonuses and additional effects. Collecting Pep Ups and various new words in battles and traversing the map will strengthen your apple arsenal, giving you more options for words to equip and bring to battle.
Wonder Stars is split into 10 episodes, but the demo only covers the first episode. Because the demo is short, you can't save, so it's unclear how this feature will work in the full game. I believe you can “play through” the entire game in one go, or in smaller chunks per episode. In this first episode, you'll explore a variety of point-and-click maps with notable locations where combat occurs, treasure is found, and special dialogue events can be seen. You can explore the maps as much as you like on your way to your destination. Wonder Stars In that respect, it approaches player choice: while I played, I tried to do everything I could to gain more words, Pep Ups, items, and money, but I could easily have chosen not to.
Combat can be time-consuming, but I had a lot of fun coming up with effective word combinations, so it didn't bother me. However, I think the lack of actual save options during episodes will be an issue in the full version. I love the visual novel approach to most dialogue scenes, and the anime-style animation in the notable cutscenes and combat animations. There's a colorful attention to detail in the character designs, and the inspiration from martial arts/action-oriented anime is handled brilliantly. Dragon Ball Z!
Ringo is a fun character and I love Wolf's sarcastic attitude and how his cynical outlook at this stage in the story contrasts with hers. Their later unwilling partnership feels dynamic, lively and believable. I'm intrigued by Ringo's search for her missing brother and grandmother, Anzu, and her connection to the Wonderstar map. I'm also curious as to why Wolf is looking for the map in the first place and his past connection to the space pirate Axe.
of Wonder Stars The demo ended with just a hint of the huge galactic adventure to come, leaving me wanting to know what happens next. Wonder Stars is a fun sci-fi martial arts epic with creative wordplay at its core that has me wanting to play more. I can't wait for the full game release!
Wonder Stars There's no set release date yet, but the game is coming to PC via Steam (a demo is still available on Steam) and to the Nintendo Switch.
