She can fight for me, anytime.

Hoshigami was one of the few games I was never ever to make progress in, simply because of the inability to save over large spans of time. When I heard about Hoshigami Remix, I was interested immediately. I am never one to back away from a challenge, but Hoshigami had me beat from the beginning.

Like most tactical RPGs, Hoshigami Remix is a text-heavy game. I spent over 15 minutes just reading the introduction to the first battle. Unfortunately, I do not remember enough of the original game to know if the text was a vast improvement or not, but it did flow nicely despite being quite lengthy.

The battle system itself was, without a doubt, an improvement. While there are fewer button presses to issue commands to each person than before, it's still a tactical RPG, so don't expect complete simplicity. One thing to remember is that once a character has been moved, it can't be taken back. The character can be moved again, but more time must be spent to do so, delaying the next turn.

Turns are decided by the Ready for Action Points (RAP) gauge. Any action taken has a cost of delay on the gauge. This allows far more variety in a player's actions, from the simple move and attack, to attack, then move, or attack multiple times; basically as much as the person wants to push the gauge out. Once the character's gauge crosses into Over, the character will receive additional delay for their actions.

Let's get it started.

The other reason for the gauge is Sessions, where an enemy can be passed from one teammate to another causing additional damage. The RAP gauge can be used to group the players together to pull off the session. This was extremely hard to pull off in the single battle I tried. Any action from the opposing forces messed up the plan, and I did not have the skill to group my entire team together in order to pull it off. Eventually I had to decide between trying to make a session and winning the battle. I went for winning the battle.

I also got a chance to listen to the new soundtrack. It definitely helped the feeling that the game was made for the Nintendo DS and not a simple port of a PlayStation game. While there weren't many different pieces in the time I had, they were nice to listen to.

Hoshigami Remix isn't going to be a game that will pull people who don't like tactical RPGs into the sub-genre, but for those who already enjoy it, I feel it will give a solid experience. It's a game that will require a good amount of thought and patience, but many worthwhile things do.