Shining Song Starnova
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 330 reviews of which 312 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.
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
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
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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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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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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STORY: Shining Song Starnova denotes the struggles and the rise of a girl idol band and their manager, the male protagonist, in the Japanese idol industry. Not a lot of decisions to be made, and the story progresses in a pretty straightforward manner. In the middle of the story you get a single choice - which girl/route to choose - and then another one in each that leads to a good or bad ending. There are 7 different girls, each with their own wildly different backgrounds, quirks, personalities, and problems. There are rather large inconsistencies and plot differences between the different girl stories that are not properly explained by that single decision - which girl to choose - alone. There is quite a bit of variety - the degree to which the band ends up being successful in the good endings varies, and some of the bad endings are much darker in nature than others. That being said, the overall story is well written and paced, with good character development along the way. It has quite a few good ups and downs mood-wise, from very funny moments to very sad and/or dark scenes. Quite a few mature themes and topics are covered throughout the stories, even if in a very exaggerated way. ARTWORK: Characters are well drawn, and offer a decent variety of expressions. No animations however. Each character story gets about 6 or so CGs, plus a dozen+ in the common route. I did not appreciate the censoring in more spicy scenes, which I can understand but as applied is beyond excessive in my opinion. Lots of other characters - besides the obvious main ones - are drawn in, offering quite a bit of variety throughout the story. Tons of different backgrounds, all of which are very well designed. SOUND: Music is of good variety - over two dozen tracks - and is of great quality, and fit well with the current story mood, as it should be in a music-themed story. It includes a couple of fully voiced upbeat songs as well. Unfortunately only some story scenarios have full voice acting, the rest being covered by placeholder words and sentences instead. The back and forth between the scenes with and without full voice acting is clumsy and unnecessarily cheapens out the game in my opinion. SUMMARY: I enjoyed Shining Song Starnova quite a lot, and do recommend it for those looking for a music industry related plot with decent story and great music. 9/10
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Pretty solid story and has enjoyable characters, but the abundance of dialogue can get overwhelming/annoying (especially during the POVs of the rival idol group and their drama). You can honestly skip most of the rival idol group's POV dialogue and still enjoy the story like I did. Looking forward to revisiting and playing the other routes when I have more free time (I've completed 1/7 so far). Also the porn is great lol
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 17 November 2024 23:20 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 19 January 2025 06:02 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:40 |
| Steam reviews | 22 January 2025 08:03 |
Online players
2
Developer
Love in Space
Publisher
Sekai Project
Release
13 Sep 2018
Platforms