Star Overdrive, Ep. 8: The Pulse Sovereign

First playthrough · PC/Controller #indiegames #withnocategory

Gathering the last of the fractal orbs.

Timestamps:
· Crate | 0:00
· Hunting Ground | 8:42
· Style | 15:10
· Point 1 | 19:21
· Point 2 | 24:35
· Tower | 30:11
· Point 3 | 39:32
· Tower | 48:08 / Tape [51:23]
· Launch | 59:34
· Upgrade | 1:05:42
· Tower | 1:13:08
· Point 4 | 1:19:27
· Pulse Wraith | 1:23:22
· Nous | 1:29:21
· Point 5 | 1:32:18
· Pulse Wraith | 1:36:51 / 1:45:00
· Round 2 | 1:53:45
· Cutscene | 1:55:10
· Continued | 2:03:25

The game mixes a bunch of ideas together that mend well and parts are done well such as some of the music, the hoverboard riding/terrain detection, the vibrant stylization, scale of the world, and quality texture mapping; though the 3D platforming is a bit slow-paced compared to others when on foot while no guaranteed air recovery animation drags fights and other aerial mishaps towards a bit of tedium. The puzzles had elements that were both familiar and unfamiliar. I would say that the average critic scores it received of 70%-72% falls short of observing some of the games' higher qualities.

Overview:
Release: April 10th, 2025
Developer(s): Caracal Games
Publisher(s): Dear Villagers (Plug In Digital SAS), 3goo K.K. (Switch)
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (2025), Nintendo Switch (2025), Windows (2025), Xbox Series (2025)

Recorded using OBS on "Simple" output settings:
· Recording Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
· Recording Format: MKV
· Encoder: H.264

OBS Video Settings:
· Resolution: 1920 x 1080
· Integer FPS Value: 120

PC Specs:
· CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics
· GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060
· RAM: T-Force Vulcan Z (x2 16GB)
· SSD: WD Blue SN570
· Monitor: 24” ASUS-TUF VG249Q3A
· Controller: 8BitDo Pro 2