Everyone judges a book by its cover. It's a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless. There could be a brilliant game that shines through after thirty minutes of gameplay, but if those thirty minutes bore the player too much, that brilliance will be lost. As such, it's important to give something to the player to hook them in and give them a fair representation of what kind of game you are about to play.

Not only did Starship TsukuruNova 20003, the latest game by unity, succeeded in hooking me in throughout the first thirty minutes, but from the very beginning, you knew exactly what kind of game you were getting into IMMEDIATELY. Very rarely can the first ten seconds of a game perfectly encapsulate the entire experience. Take a look at this screen here:


A 2k3 RTP ship on a space parallax. Immediately, the message is clear: this is not a game you are meant to take too seriously.

Of course, one could make the argument that this is a lazy screenshot. After all, shouldn't there be a spaceship chipset available for 2k3? Why couldn't it be used? Well, all this would hold true if it weren't for the fact that the game was made for Golden Week of 2k3, where one of the restrictions was that ONLY 2K3 RTP was allowed to be used.

Disclaimer: I don't know squat about 2k3. As such, I can't really tell you how well the RTP is used, or if there were better options available. Let me just go ahead and lay down a blanket statement that it looked and sounded just fine.


Starship TsukuruNova 20003 puts players in the role of the Hazardous Emergency Assault Recon Team. Led by Maelym Terraero, one of the few Relfaeian race, and followed by the human Jean-Luc, and the android LR-388, H.E.A.R.T. (I see what you did there!) is tasked with traveling to the planet Greenshell 3 and repair the Firmament Plant, which provides fresh air for the colonists. However, the reason for the breakdown is unknown, so HEART has to be ready for any scenario. Luckily, each character has their own diverse set of skills to prepare them. Maelym, one of the few Relfaeian race, uses powerful, single shot elemental abilities, while LR-388 has AOE elemental abilities. To back them up, Jean-Luc has healing and restorative abilities.

Their races are more than just their class differences and skill in battle, though, and this leads me to one of my favorite parts of the game: The progression paths. Jean-Luc follows the traditional RPG style of progression of leveling up, gaining stats, and learning skills via level ups. However, Maelym and LR-388, because of what I assume to be the difference in classes, handle things differently. Maelym can only learn new skills by buying and using consumable items called Gadgets. LR-388 also does this in the form of Installers, but takes it a step further in that she can only increase her HP and SP by finding additional upgrades scattered throughout the maps. The Gadgets and Installers grant the characters elemental attacks that many enemies are often weak to.

And you will need them, too. The game, for all its lightheartedness, isn't afraid to show some teeth.


You will very often be outnumbered in battle. Lucky you.


There are multiple enemy types throughout the game. Each type has a specific elemental weakness: fire, lighting, explosive, etc. If you can't find those upgrades, you will have a bad time. This system rewards exploration, and makes the player feel empowered by using the skills you found, to defeat enemies. It's a shame then, that in the final stretch of the game, Maelym and LR-388 were flat out given a super powerful Gadget and Installer each, that you immediately use and switch to and forget about everything you acquired up to that point, especially during the final battle. This cheapens the sense of empowerment that was built up from the start of the game and felt more like hand holding.

I'm not saying those items shouldn't exist, but I would much rather have done something extra to EARN them, as opposed to just being given them. Maybe a small room behind a miniboss? Or perhaps the result of a long trading minigame with NPCs throughout the areas? Something that makes me feel like I've earned them.

As for the rest of the battle system, I really don't see anything wrong here. There was never a moment where I was frustrated by high difficulty, but I was never able to win battles by simply mashing attack, not even in the early fights! To me, the difficulty level was perfect and, best of all, this level was maintained throughout the entire playthrough. Of course, the difficulty is directly affected by how much exploration you do. I can't imagine you'll have a good team even at a high level if you don't thoroughly examine each area for Gadgets, Upgrades, and Installers.

I enjoyed the unique feel of each character because of this. Unfortunately, it's also because the game's story doesn't do a good job of characterizing them.

I get it: This game was made in about a week. You're not going to have a deep and meaningful character-driven story, especially because, as we've already established, it's not something you're meant to take too seriously. But outside of the initial cutscene where each party member introduces themselves, there is no real character development. I would have liked to know a bit more about who I'm playing as. No, I'm not asking for a complicated backstory, but could we at least get some comments from the party about the environment? Or NPCs? Or… anything?

It's a shame too, because it's obvious that effort was made to try and develop the characters. What I feel is the biggest missed opportunity was at the end, where the main villains are finally confronted. The back and forth between the cast during this point did more to establish their personalities than the entirety of the game it took to get there. Without spoiling too much, at said confrontation is where two villains show up simultaneously. This really baffled me. All the while I was thinking, “You could have introduced these two in any of the dungeons I had visited previously like you did with the first one!”

Sometimes less is more. As it is, these new villains merely gave the party a reason to speak without having discernible traits themselves, aside from them being foils to each of the heroes. I felt that the story would have been stronger with just one villain.

Also, you can't just add SPACE in front of everything and expected to be funny, or even entertaining. The first few times were okay, but sometimes it was so obviously reaching for humor that it just felt foolish:


It's a sign. A sign! Not a SPACE SIGN!

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Starship TsukuruNova 20003. The engaging battle system and interesting character progression kept me engaged throughout the estimated two or so hours I played. Since there's no timer in the game, I can't tell you how long I actually played. Two hours is just a rough estimate.

This game wasn't trying to light the world on fire. It was clearly designed to be a fun little excursion, and I feel it does exactly that. I highly recommend it.