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Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky is the English localization of the Doujin title, "Hoshi Oi No Miko / 星追いの巫女", or "Star-Chasing Shrine Maiden", which is described as an "omni-directional gravity-defying 3D action game". While there is certainly gravity within the game and while the sales pitch might be a slight stretch, Starchaser is a fun little diversion with a cool concept, even with its numerous faults and less-than-intuitive nature (more on this later).

The story revolves around a young priestess-in-training, Kineto, who brings her village prosperity by continuing the tradition of praying to the celestial bodies through a rigorous ritual involving ceremonial garbs and constant studying... as a formality. However, there is more to this tradition than meets the eye, as Kineto's best friend and previous shrine maiden, Filie, alludes to. Every time Kineto attempts to complete her prayer, she experiences an out-of-body experience as she is transported to another realm that is home to the constellations, where she has to travel through a maze of their design to find them at the core, face them in battle, and remember their name, logging her finds in the town's ancient Starchasing Book. Only by continually succeeding will she learn the truth about the "Rite of Starchasing".

This game would feel right at home as one of those left-field titles released for the 3DO or early PS1 days. From the relatively minimalistic design to the simple soundtrack and less-than accommodating controls (almost like something from the days of pre-dual-analogs) and sometimes obstructive camera, it's almost surreal, as if I was transported back to that era. While there are some workarounds as far as the controls (which can turn a frustrating game to a modestly enjoyable one), the rest of the game is unapologetic and basic, which suits it for better or worse and makes the total package more convincing. Nonlinear, the developers, have a fairly extensive portfolio among Doujin developers, but this game is perhaps one of their most ambitious titles.

The game's main feature is gravity-based puzzles, where players can travel freely across cubes with checkered tiles, utilizing (sometimes) all six sides to traverse (sometimes) large areas divided by floors by activating switches, defeating enemies, or using some other type of level gimmick to progress. Players will always know the general direction of the exit on each floor due to an arrow that points the way, but getting there is easier said than done (though seldom frustrating). Players can use a basic attack combo, double jump, and "dash evasion" to survive and start with 100 health that must be preserved wisely to get the best rank at the end. Different ranks reveal different information about the celestial bodies, and dying all but ensures that you can't get the best rank (a steep time penalty and score reset). Between levels, you can do basic functions in town and get a smidge more plot. The game takes about five hours to complete.

Even moving quickly, each area is fairly long and there is no saving in-between, so you have to do it in one sitting, and dying or taking too long means you have to start all over if you want the best rank. Still, it's not a bad game... there is something oddly satisfying about climbing with inverted gravity and taking a big leap of faith to an exit out in the middle of nowhere or thinking you found an alternate path only for it to be a trap, and some of the bosses are interesting to fight too. If this was released during the 32-bit era in limited quantities, I dare say it may have been labeled as a hidden gem.

This is a video of the game in action. You can purchase this at:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/365850/Starchaser_Priestess_of_the_Night_Sky/

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