Review of Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return

Subject	Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return
By	Helpfulness: 2 jpo05 on 2023-02-14
	This review contains spoilers, click to view.
Review	Sunrider 4 TCR starts of well but mid game it become just a mindless TBC ( turn based combat) and towards the end not even a lint of Visual novel element is found ---Pros--- The Art style is more detailed well on par with japanese illustrators 9/10 for that Updated Sound and thats it for pros. ---the cons--- -1% Viusal novel and 99% everything else the predecessor had 40% combat and 60% story. -the main protagonist became much weaker and weak willed now relying on goddess or supernatural phenomenon to save the day. compared to earlier tactical and witty, shields character was a disaster in this. -the villians were showed in a way to garner hate but were equally foolish, they started off like thanos but in the end were no better than shields. -the music was recycled much of it anyway, the few originals were saved for the very last 4-5 continuous battles. -THE SAVE FUNTION was disabled just before the last battle and picking a ending hence forcing the player to play the very last batlle again and again, a really cheap and 3rd rate move by developers. -much of the story revolves in past, along with 3-4 new puzzle sections which were a headache for many. -the story is still not finished and you may have to wait another 5-10 year for the next installment. -the devs have a very sketchy and unreliable track record to hope for a installment soon, even though the game is made on ren'py engine (its no rocket science) the current installment took around 6 years for less than 3hrs of visual novel exp, the battle part depends on the player, it took me 12hr+ to clear everything with all assists on due to slow movements and animations. -No H-elements, they were not developed for this installment ---Final thoughts---- the S4 TCR is mess if not a total disaster, saved only by good art and a decent yet repetitive music. i will advise against picking this if you liked previous ones or visual novels in general. because much of the shift is now on battles and grinding and the grinding only starts during the last continuous set of battles. the middle and end section of story is a glorified mess. by the time the next one will be out i may probably have grey hairs or moved away from vndb. i was expecting much deeper story and more in dept elaborated plot not mindless battle after battle. so if you have a same mindset as me then this game is NOT RECOMMENDED. but if you really want to try puzzles, turnbased combat and bit of visual novel elements then you can give it a try but buy it only on sale or massive discount, because this one have zero replaybility even though it has new game+ but the only thing new game+ has more difficult enemies and thats it. so once you completed it its gonna sit in you collection so get it for as low as possible if you opt to try it.
	2 points

#1 by andryi 2023-02-16 at 21:00	< report >Maybe I'm too emotional and looking for a plot where there is none, but I liked the game, 8/10. Yes, there isn't much of a plot here, I might even say a little, but it's not a bad "prologue" to something bigger, I hope. I hope that the next part will not have to wait for more than 2 years. I hope that the game will be at least 30 hours of READING, not fights. I hope that there will be normal routes. As a Chigara hater, I want to romance Lynn!
#2 by aquariusrainbow 2023-02-17 at 09:43	< report > -1% Viusal novel and 99% everything else the predecessor had 40% combat and 60% story. Not true, it's still about 60% combat, 40% story. It's your fault if you're too slow to finish battles. -the main protagonist became much weaker and weak willed now relying on goddess or supernatural phenomenon to save the day. compared to earlier tactical and witty, shields character was a disaster in this. -the villians were showed in a way to garner hate but were equally foolish, they started off like thanos but in the end were no better than shields. That's just how the writer made it, go argue with him, instead of forcing your poor opinion of the plot on people who don't have their own yet. -the music was recycled much of it anyway, the few originals were saved for the very last 4-5 continuous battles. What else do you expect? They hand-picked the music from some free databases, except for OP and ED. -THE SAVE FUNTION was disabled just before the last battle and picking a ending hence forcing the player to play the very last batlle again and again, a really cheap and 3rd rate move by developers. Just save at the end of the final fight, when you can 1-shot the last enemy. They had to disable mid credit saves for now, cause it caused bugs. [it was explained on Steam] -much of the story revolves in past, along with 3-4 new puzzle sections which were a headache for many. I'm sorry but NANI THE FUK? There's literally like 4-6 short scenes that happen in the past, and even the big "reminiscenting" at the end doesn't actually happen in the past. -the story is still not finished and you may have to wait another 5-10 year for the next installment. Is that really a "con"? Imho, worth the wait, and they're basically 2 guys funded on Patreon, so, again, what do you expect? -the devs have a very sketchy and unreliable track record to hope for a installment soon, even though the game is made on ren'py engine (its no rocket science) the current installment took around 6 years for less than 3hrs of visual novel exp, the battle part depends on the player, it took me 12hr+ to clear everything with all assists on due to slow movements and animations. This is made in Gamemaker Studio, so would you kindly stfu with the Ren'Py disinformation. The whole point of their Starnova idol-simulator game was for them to learn Gamemaker, and even a peek at the files would tell you that. -No H-elements, they were not developed for this installment That's hardly a con, coomer. Go fap to Nekopara or something. [basically unironically] So yeah... Chears, mate. :)Last modified on 2023-02-17 at 09:44
#3 by aquariusrainbow 2023-02-19 at 14:15	< report > Not true, it's still about 60% combat, 40% story. Taken for a fact it's against the rules of d2. I take that back. Please vote on entry restoration @ t19832.Last modified on 2023-02-19 at 14:16