Thoughts on Steven Universe: Save the Light

I really liked the Steven Universe mobile game, Attack the Light. It reminded me of a watered-down Super Mario RPG with bite-sized levels and touch controls appropriate for a smartphone.

Naturally, I was pretty excited for its sequel, Steven Universe: Save the Light, a full console title available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. And a lot of what I was excited about made it onto the TV screen. But overall, I’d have to say the game didn’t meet my expectations, though it did have some great elements.

Here’s what made me think that:

– Use of license: If you watch Steven Universe, you can tell that the showrunner team grew up playing SNES just like gamers in my generation did. Because showrunners like Rebecca Sugar not only get games but are excited about them, the collaboration between them and the game developers seems a step above usual licensed titles.

For example, the developers really take care to nail every single character and references–both playable characters and NPCs behave like themselves, power-up items come from events in the show, and the plot feels canonical. The game is full of music and loving relationships, just like the show, and the real voice actors lend their characters life with charming stock phrases. Even the unique-to-the-game villainess, Hessonite, is voiced by the amazing Christine Baranski. This is the only game I’ve ever played where I listened to the voice acting from start to finish.

– Limitations of license: Unfortunately, the game has to differ from the show in that the outcome of the plot has to maintain the status quo. Steven Universe is primarily a TV show, not a game series, so major changes or reveals have to happen in episodes, not RPGs. That forces the plot to be less gripping, like the story can’t play with the full spectrum of the show’s emotional palette. Which is a shame, because story is such an important part of JRPG-style games.

– Bugs: There’s no way around it, this game suffers some technical issues. Early reviewers had the game freeze on them. I waited to play it until it had been patched (maybe?), but I still encountered some frustrating issues. I had to restart the game once or twice, and there were a bunch of minor glitches, like the AI characters or my lead character getting stuck in the scenery. I could usually fix that by going into a new scene or switching the character I was controlling, but it still interfered with smooth gameplay.

It was also frustrating to look for secrets because some elements of the settings were invisible-walled off, some you could glitch through, and still others you could actually go through on purpose, without a ton of cues to help the player tell the difference.

There were still other secrets I could see and (thought I could) figure out how to get, but I couldn’t make the characters do it. I could throw a projectile right behind the target, and I could throw a projectile right in front of the target, but the game wouldn’t let me throw it at the target, despite that same strategy working to nab a similar power-up in another level.

– Camera: The game has a 2D look (your characters and scenery elements feel flat) in a 3D world, a little like Paper Mario. So you can go backward and forward into the settings as well as left and right. I’ve always found this perspective tough for platforming, and I didn’t enjoy the occasional jumping or movement puzzle, but at least the game compensates by letting you find a power-up that negates any damage you’d otherwise take by falling off a floating platform or running into spikes. I didn’t like how it was tough to judge whether my out-of-battle opening attacks would actually hit the enemy I was aiming at, but I can accept that maybe I just gotta git gud.

However, I found the game’s camera kind of frustrating. It’s difficult to anticipate when the otherwise static camera will shift to a new perspective when the software decides you’ve entered a new “scene”, and you can spend minutes with the scenery pivoting back-and-forth as you jockey for position to try to see that one liminal area.

– Battles: One of the reasons I compare this game to Super Mario RPG is because it has a similar hybrid turn-based/action battle system. During enemy fights, your party has a star meter that fills in real time, like Crono’s action meter. Each cycle gives you five stars, and each move costs between 1 and 6 stars. If you use up your stars, you have to wait for the meter to fill again or use a special item to add more stars.

You can also double the efficacy of your attacks and mitigate enemy blows by timed presses of the action button. The game cues you visually with fight animations, and it’s a great way to keep an impatient player like me engaged while the star meter fills up again. It also makes me feel as if the results of battle depend on my skill as well as strategy.

However, I do wish that, like Super Mario RPG‘s original timed-press hybrid battle system, the defend button and attack buttons were different. I’ve sometimes missed blocking an attack because I was trying to get one of my party to start their own action.

– Playable characters: This is probably the only JRPG where I’ve used every single character even after new ones got added to my roster. Yeah, I have my favourite party, but each character has specific benefits that make me wish I could easily rotate through all of them at the beginning of every fight and puzzle.

The only non-swappable character, Steven, is the support and healing character. He has a basic attack, but you’re way better off making him specialize in teamwork and defense and leaving the offensives to the others. Their attacks range from area-based periodic attacks to heavy-duty single strikes. There’s something for everyone, and the attack styles make sense for each character.

Plus, each character has a unique movement style outside of battle. Some are slow, and some are fast. Some jump high, some jump long, some double-jump. Short characters can get under scenery that taller characters can’t. Each character also has an outside-battle special that lets them solve puzzles: for example, Greg can play special songs on the guitar to unlock Gem tech, and Connie can cut grass with her sword a la Link to find power-ups.

Bottom line: Overall, if you like Steven Universe, this game is worth playing for the delightful characterization and voice acting. It constantly finds new ways to incorporate the show’s charm and strengths. But unfortunately, as a JRPG, it has great ideas that fall through in practice. It’s not unplayable-broken, but it is constantly irritating.