Star Renegades‘ calling card is its reactive turn-based combat, which encourages the strategic use of well-timed interrupts and counters to paralyze your opponents’ defenses and overwhelm them with powerful combo attacks. It’s a battle system that I love but don’t often see in many games–there’s a more approachable version in Child of Light and a tactical variation in Othercide, but that’s all that I’ve experienced so far.
Star Renegades’ spin on the formula adds an interesting relationship-focused twist, both in terms of the friendships and connections between the characters in your party, as well as your squads’ relationship to enemies they’ve fought before. Your squad can grow stronger through their deepening connection to each other, and just as easily, your squad’s actions will have an impact on the makeup of the opposing army you face.
In Star Renegades, you oversee the members of an elite squad that’s a part of a rebellion against a technologically advanced alien army that’s controlled by an AI only referred to as Mother. You can only commit to a certain number of actions before your squad has to rest for the day, and while camping out for the night, each character can do something for themselves or someone else–choosing to do the latter will deepen the relationship between the two characters. Squadmates can become close acquaintances before becoming friends and then eventually something more.