OPUS: Echo of Starsong stands out as one of the best Adventure/RPG titles in recent memory.
95
Verdict
96%
Steam
—
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (96% positive from 9.2K reviews)
Compelling narrative and story
Rich open world to explore
Outstanding soundtrack
Limited professional critic coverage
"I will claim the starsongs, and bring honor to the clan." Exiled by his people, Jun ventures out in search of starsongs to redeem himself. But progress is slow, until he saves Eda, a witch who can pick up on the sound of asteroids. However, what appears to be a blessed encounter, will end up becoming a lifelong burden...
Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 1d ago
What could be called the final boss of melodramatic cosmic romance, and one of the most beautiful experiences money can buy on this platform — and it's well worth it. Echo of Starsong definitely doesn't feel like a true visual novel, somewhat in between a visual novel for dialogue and something like Gris in regards to the atmosphere and gameplay loops. As with the other games in the Opus series, it shares the same charm but more defined and developed upon with the best aspects from the previous games. The intentionally linear gameplay is still engaging enough and will make finding lore bits through exploration feel more meaningful and deliberate. The story can only be described as a beautiful tragedy, but whether or not you see it as a 'happy ending' is dependent on how much lore you've acquired during your playthrough. Sigono put a lot of effort into this one, and it paid off as probably the most immersive story-telling experience of the decade, in my humble opinion. The mythology portion is undeniably one of the best aspects it has to offer, and will ultimately decide how you perceive the ending. Along with the world building, the mythology is intrinsic to understanding the bond between the two main characters, so don't skip on it. As for the character's themselves, I wouldn't agree their motives leading up to the ending are necessarily unrealistic given the setting, that's just part of melodrama. After completing the game, you should recall most of the small details you've acquired that seemed either overwhelming or unremarkable come full circle to direct you to the much needed closure between the two. As with the other Opus games, it has a beautiful soundtrack, but this one in particular stands out as it is the main emphasis, hence the name Echo of Star[b]song[/b]. Sound is laced through and through as the center driving force of the universe, hence starsongs as the main mechanic for the gameplay and narrative. The soundtrack ranges from soulful piano pieces to haunting and ethereal vocals. The music is emotionally rich and well suited to each setting it portrays, like an opera [spoiler](you can find this reference in Prism Peak)[/spoiler], you could tell the story solely through the music. For a less analytical closing paragraph, I'm usually not one to leave reviews, but this tragic melodramatic masterpiece hit all the right notes, struck a chord you could say. For $10 on sale, it will offer you about 12 hours of solid gameplay if you go about completing and exploring everything it has to offer. With the amazing visuals and music, this was nothing short of a work of art. Of course with everything, there are things that could've been done better, but that is what makes it a truly human story, and I'm not here to gripe. The finale is profoundly emotional and will leave you with a longing bittersweetness, it's worth all the time invested into it. This game was an absolute treat to play through, and a whole lot of slicing onions. I almost wished it was longer. [b]TLDR: Interactive Shinkai film with soundtrack and visuals straight out of heaven.[/b] [b]1000/10 peak cinema[/b]
The first game in the OPUS series I can recommend unconditionally. Go in blind, never look anything up, mistakes and misjudgements you make along the way are part of the story. Critique: - The flashbacks get a bit too numerous at the and and weaken some of the final moments. - 30fps by default, you should absolutely "unlock" the framerate and lock it to you screen refresh-rate via you GPU vendors control software. Praise: Remi and her JP VA. The other characters, to be perfectly honest, are a bit flat. Perfectly fine for the story, but they look pretty weak next to someone who actually has emotions and opinions.
I'll be frank, this game hinges heavily on your investment in the characters and character drama. For better or for worse, everything else in this game is sacrificed in favor of that aspect of the narrative. The story for me more of a mixed bag than I expected. I really really wanted to like these characters and get invested and cry at the end, but I think this game severely mishandles all of them. I'm not sure if I just misunderstood the main theme or message of the game, but the ending left me frustrated and pretty confused. [spoiler] First of all, Jun as a main character isn't very compelling or interesting to me, he barely shows any emotion besides when talking about Kay and his clan, the game wants you to buy into his romance and eventual obsession with finding Eda again but the romance scenes between the two didn't really make me feel like they had any deep connection. There were barely any scenes of intimacy or more discussions about how they felt about each other or anything. Most of the 'romance' parts of the story are implied or barely broached until the finale when the game expects you to believe that a 80 year old Jun somehow remembers a girl he spent a single year with 66 years ago. I just don't buy it, and Jun was not a interesting character to me. Next up is Eda, the opposite love interest and wow did she piss me off. The whole game is about her master's message of finding her own way, and not coming to look for her so she can make her own life for herself. So Eda of course disregards all of her teachings and throws her life away to crash on the same comet and die with her master? What message am I supposed to glean from this story? Eda just throws her life away meaninglessly and then suddenly realizes she needs to make her own decisions after the fact? She just really rubbed me the wrong way. Lastly Remi. Wow, they did this character super dirty. They basically write her as a massive jerk to Jun for the first half of the game before she suddenly warms up to him out of nowhere, and then she dies off screen not getting to meet Eda ever again, even after she arguably had the closest connection to her. [/spoiler] Each of the main trio of characters just upset me with how they were written and behaved, and the romance felt shallow so the ending felt very unearned. Because the story is such an integral part of this game, this is a big reason I can't recommend it. The characters contradict what seemed to be the intended messages, and the romance is mostly implied and shallow in it's execution. Besides the characters, the story plays itself pretty straight and is very predictable. I was waiting for another shoe to drop, for some big cosmic twist that would recontextualize the story, but nothing comes. The game just ends. Next up is the gameplay, which is just dry and shallow as hell. You basically just hop node to node, press a few buttons and read some prompts, make a choice for RNG, or just press a single button to explore twice. You can learn a bit more about the world and Myrian culture but it doesn't feel like it amounts or matters much in the grand scheme of the story. Upgrading the ship doesn't feel like it impacts much of your gameplay, and it's quite easy and mindless to max your ship and by that point you can cruise through anything the game throws at you easily. There's no challenge, the choices aren't interesting, and upgrading the ship doesn't feel rewarding. The only segments that are interesting to play are the story exclusive cave exploration segments, which still amount to just walking left or right, and doing 2 types of puzzles. This game really should have been a straight visual novel. Overall, Opus Echo of Starsong is just disappointingly mediocre to me. It's characters were infuriating, it's story was predictable, and it's gameplay was shallow. 25 dollars for this is a ripoff, just save your money and watch the game's story on Youtube. I'd rate it a 5/10 only for it's good music and art.
Reviews sourced from Steam. All reviews belong to their respective authors.
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