Star's Favour is a short dungeon-crawling RPG created in a week by Indrah in RPG Maker VX Ace. It features retro pixel art and can be completed in less than two hours.

The plot is that a star spirit named Starlet was sent to earth to find heroes to banish the monsters that have invaded her Star Temple. Unfortunately she got a little drunk and passed out, and thus was stuck with last pick for squad of heroes; the sword-wielding spitfire Karnak and her posse, the vain sorceress Mab, an enthusiastic if whiny hunter named Edian, and a reserved warden named Olga.



There's almost no focus on the actual plot as it's just an excuse to get the player in a dungeon and start killing things. The characters do stop rather frequently to have conversations, but aside from some really surface level personality traits, none of them have much in the way of characteristics. The only noteworthy facet of the party is that Karnak and Mab are lovers, and they'll make sure to remind you of this fact, over and over again, in every single conversation, much to the annoyance of their companions and, most likely, the player.

The Star Temple is arranged in about four floors laden with monsters to kill, treasure to find, and helpful spirits that will give you hints. Combat is non-random and there are a set number of encounters in the game. Encounters are color-coded, with blue monsters being generic enemies and red being more challenging mini-boss level encounters. Silver enemies will give you a skill upgrade and gold will teach your party a new skill. it ends up feeling rather similar to Craze's Wine & Roses although lacking that game's scale, sense of mystery, and challenge.

The meat of the game is the combat and it's pretty simple and not very challenging, but it does feel rather satisfying. Your characters have quite a few ways to support and combo with each other which leads to great party synergy. Your party heals fully after every encounter and your supply of items is replenished entirely after every battle so there is never any risk. This unfortunately conspires to make the game feel very toothless and you'll never feel threatened or have to make any interesting strategic decisions.You'll win every fight if you throw yourself at it enough.



The game interestingly feels like only one part of a greater whole, like perhaps the player was supposed to have played some other game to get the backstory, and it's definitely left open for further adventures. My guess is this was intentional on the developer's part if she ever wanted to expand this concept further.

If you're in the mood to play a very easy dungeon crawler you could do worse than Star's Favour, and it's an impressive game considering it was made in a week, but it lacks any true challenge, and it's not a game that's going to leave much of an impression.