There are times when a gaming experience can be made or broken by the moment your expectations meet the reality of what a game is all about. I was unsure of what type of gameplay I would uncover with this particular title, but I found that it was a bit more limited and simplistic than I was anticipating, which was a bit of a letdown. Rather than being even a modest turn-based RPG or something in that vein, it has a more on-rails experience to offer, which ultimately makes it feel more like a puzzle game than anything else.

You will face a series of boss battles, and your goal will be to assemble your team of Star Guardians carefully in order to best counter their strengths and weaknesses. This means that you will need to learn your crew's base abilities quickly and well, then match them up against the enemies that will best suit their skills to find success. However, you will not be able to defeat some enemies with your initial specials, as you will sometimes need to use skills that you can only gain by defeating other bosses. This is where it all feels more like a puzzle game than anything else.

There is at least an attempt to lean into the visual style with some odd humor between missions, and the game also gives you hints to help you figure out what you need to do. However, what makes or breaks this title is whether you will find the core style of gameplay interesting or not… and that feels like only middling odds overall.