Gameplay's foundation is great, but I feel like this game being a roguelike hurts it.

Runs are at least 3 hours long and I feel like your ability to deal with core challenges hinges on RNG. At least my first loss didn't feel deserved as game announced enemies can now be in the backline and I had no tools to effectively deal with that, so I slowly started taking damage when fighting basic enemies.

Gameplay is your standard turn based RPG with timeline (actions cost time and you can delay enemy actions), front/back rows and few other things virtually every game of this type has. The execution is pretty good too when it works as fights (even against basic enemies) forced me to use defenses.

This thumbs up is a tentative 'maybe'.

The game is charming, especially the pixel art is nice to look at and the writing is not bad at all. But while Roguelike + Tactical RPG sounds enticing at first, it quickly turns into a slog, as many other reviewers have already pointed out. Progression is slow and runs take a VERY long time, which is a fundamental miscalculation.

This genre combination also leads to some other problems. While encounter design is more often than not well balanced, sometimes it just throws a curveball at you and you simply die. This is made worse by the inclusion of this "Shadow of War"-esque Nemesis system in the background, which, just like Shadow of War, is able to generate enemies which flat out just negate your entire build and strategy. In SoW this is fine, you can run away, do something else, or use the linear progression the game offers to become stronger. In Star Renegades, this RNG makes you lose a hours long run for no fault of your own.

There are simply too many RNG layers, the metagame is at the same time restrictive and grindy while also gatekeeping most of the fun Class variety and new items. The game forces you to make tough choices with your limited resources between Single target damage, AoE, different attack types, backrank and frontline reach attacks and more, but during many runs also expects you to have ALL of the capabilities ready to solve the combat puzzles. This restricts party compositions and leads to the afromentioned curveballs where if you encounter something that you simply could not prepare for, you will die a frustrating death.

And all of these negative points are sad due to how solid the general framework is. The deterministic combat system is fun, the classes and abilites are cool, the party banter is witty, the world is interesting and story is servicable. Massive Damage Inc. needs to revisit this formula, as I believe that they do have a talent for this sort of gameplay, they simply need to build on their experiences and feedback to turn this game into a snappy, well balanced Tactical Combat gem, or salvage the combat system and bring it into something more RPG-like, as other reviewers have said.

I bought this for 5 € and it was well worth it. I cannot recommend it for the full asking price, as the underlaying RNG layers make any effort of having fun into essentially gambling. On sale it is a fun and interesting project that I can recommend to at least try out.