Shining Song Starnova on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

Take the stage in Shining Song Starnova!

Shining Song Starnova is a visual novel game developed by Love in Space and published by Sekai Project.
Released on September 13th 2018 is available in English on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

It has received 333 reviews of which 315 were positive and 18 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.7 out of 10. 😎

The game is currently priced at 28.99€ on Steam.


The Steam community has classified Shining Song Starnova into these genres:

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Shining Song Starnova through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • OS *: Windows XP
  • Processor: 1 GHz Intel or AMD Processor
  • Memory: 1024 MB RAM
  • Graphics: OpenGL or DirectX Compatible Graphics Card
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 3 GB available space
MacOS
  • OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
  • Processor: Core 2 Duo or newer
  • Memory: 1024 MB RAM
  • Graphics: Any OpenGL graphics card capable of running Mac OS X 10.6 or later
  • Storage: 3 GB available space
Linux
  • OS: Linux Kernal 3.2
  • Processor: i3+
  • Memory: 1024 MB RAM
  • Graphics: GTX 460+ HD5700+
  • Storage: 3 GB available space

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

March 2025
Amazing writing, lots of content, Mariya's Route made me cry, a lot. 10/10 would love a dlc for more content.
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Oct. 2024
havent even got to the H-Scenes yet, but i honestly love the development through the first couple chapters. pretty nice to have a nice story before everything turns to sex.
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July 2024
Cute and sexy. Starnova is an engaging visual novel with an interesting perspective into the Japanese idol industry. It also has a spinoff business tycoon game that lets you manage your own idol agency.
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June 2024
I can't believe I didn't know about this game just until recently! This is good. THIS REALLY IS GOOD. SSSN has a beautiful catchy story depicting many aspects of being idols (and producers) with right amount of drama, fan service and dark matter. In my eyes, first six routes meant to show the unshown side of the idol business world to the outsider, and the grand mandatory final route meant to convey messages to ones aspiring to be an idol themselves. While the plot is good, the true strength of SSSN lies in CHARACTERS and DIALOGUE. Stunning quality, these two parts really put me under a spell. DLC for those ‘energetic’ scenes can be added for free from Steam and even come with no-mosaic and animated experience. H-Hey, N-N-Not that I care about those scenes or anything.
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June 2024
Why some idol producers get to be so lucky? Introduction Shining Song Starnova is a VN developed by Love in Space, and is the story of a group of idols, but it's not your typical garden variety idol story. This aspires to be a more mature, realistic version of a idol story. Did they achieve their goal? Let's find out. Worldbuilding Not much to say about worldbuilding. The game is set on Japan, and it doesn't have any supernatural, fantasy or science-fiction elements into it. It's as similar to the real world as it can be, so, it's very hard to break established rules, because the setting is consistent with how real world rules work. The plot The story is about a group of idols and their producer, about their ups and downs, the good, the bad and the ugly of the idol business. This is the weakest element of the game, because there are plot conveniences and contrivances, especially during Nemu's and Mariya's chapters, but, in the latter case, they aren't that important, because none of the big payoffs of the chapter relies on these conveniences and contrivances. In Mariya's chapter, though, the big payoff of her chapter relies on a contrivance, in this case, a character important to the storyline appearing at the right moment, with no foreshadowing whatsoever. That's certainly a way to damage, or even destroy any investment. The characters Just like the plot is the weakest element of the game, the characters are its strongest element. Each character is properly characterized, whether through their dialogue or their actions, each one has a set of goals, traits, flaws, fears and motivations, and their flaws are actual obstacles to their development. They pay the price for their mistakes (sometimes heavily), they learn, grow, and change for the better. Their arcs are well written and lead to satisying payoffs, with some exceptions (see the plot section of this review). I'm actually impressed how the writers nailed the character writing for this game, and it made me take notes to improve my own character writing. But I need to say it: the narration during H scenes is the most cringy I've ever seen on a VN so far. Gameplay Initially, I didn't want to assess gameplay, because it's the same way other VNs operate, but there is something I wanted to mention, and that is, in this game, routes can be failed. It's not like the typical romance VN when, once the player enters a route, it's smooth-saling from there. In this game, if the player makes the wrong choice(s), the game will present them with a bad ending for the route. Lastily, if you want to play Sasami's route, then you're in for the long haul, because you need to complete the other six routes, with their good endings, of course. Bad endings don't count. Presentation The art direction for this game is very detailed and well done overall, especially in the background CGs. Character design is an interesting mix between current anime and 60s and 70s anime, but I'd appreciate more detail in the event CGs. The voice acting is up to par with what's standard for Japanese voice acting, but, in non-critical plot points, the voice acting is similar to when main characters are talking to NPCs during side quests in some JRPGs, like Tales of Arise, for example. The music fits the setting and the context nicely, but it can be a bit overdone (the orchestral arrangement of Quasar's theme, Gravitation, wouldn't be out of place on a fantasy setting like Lord of the Rings). Technically, the game has some artifacts in transitions, there is a bit of flickering here and there, and sometimes the game blacks out momentarily when some elements of the Windows 11 overlay, like volume indicator, appears onscreen. I think the version of Ren'Py this game uses has some minor compatibility issues with Windows 11, or it could be just sloppy programming. Lastly, there are H scenes in this game, animated and fully uncensored (provided you have the DLC). In conclusion: Pros: -Impressive character writing. -Good presentation overall. -More grounded and mature idol story. -Uncensored H scenes. Cons: -Plot issues damaged some payoffs. -Some minor visual bugs and glitches. All in all, this game accomplishes what it wanted to do: to tell a more grounded and mature version of an idol story. The characters are the highlight of the game, and carried the weight of the story on their shoulders, but some plot issues damaged some big payoffs, and it's a shame, because Mariya's chapter is one of the best, along Aki's and Sasami's. If the writers paid more attention to the plot, I'd have put this in the same level as other great VNs, like Atri or Steins;Gate. But, as it is, this is still a very good VN which I can recommend to anybody who is a VN enthusiast.
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Data sources

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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates
Steam data 06 April 2025 23:07
SteamSpy data 08 April 2025 13:27
Steam price 12 April 2025 20:40
Steam reviews 10 April 2025 21:52

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Shining Song Starnova, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Shining Song Starnova
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of Shining Song Starnova concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Shining Song Starnova compatibility
Shining Song Starnova
8.7
315
18
Online players
3
Developer
Love in Space
Publisher
Sekai Project
Release 13 Sep 2018
Platforms