I have to admit, I’m a little ashamed of myself when it comes to this game. Not because I played it, but because I didn’t even know it existed. Knowing how much I just love Steven Universe, my buddy @tjarvinen86 told me that he found a Steven Universe game in the PSN store. I didn’t believe him, so I went searching and came up empty. I didn’t give up my search though and eventually was able to find this game. Thanks for keeping it so well hidden PSN, like it’s some sort of secret or something. After finding it I immediately downloaded it and started playing because I couldn’t help myself. One month later I finally finished the game and got all of its trophies, so that means it’s time for a review.
Steven Universe: Save the Light is based off the show Steven Universe, so if you don’t know your Steven Universe, better do some catching up. Anyway, after the events of Steven Universe: Attack the Light, which was a small mobile game that I had no idea existed until now, Steven and the Crystal Gems are off to find the Light Prism and save it from a new Homeworld Gem Hessonite who wants to reclaim the Light Prism and use it for her own evil doings. Will Steven and the Crystal Gems be able to stop Hessonite and reclaim the Light Prism? You’ll travel to a bunch of different familiar areas from the show in order to go on the hunt for Hessonite and take her down once and for all.
Neato Burrito! Can I say how much I loved that this game used all of the regular voice actors from the show for this game and added in Christine Baranski as Hessonite? This really made the game and it made me feel like I was interacting with the show and playing inside of the show which was just amazing for this super Steven Universe fan.
So I loved this game. Of course I did, it’s a Steven Universe game. The plot of the game was really great and don’t worry if you’re like me and didn’t play Attack the Light because you get a whole recap at the beginning of the game about what happened so you won’t be left in the dark. I thought it was great to go through the game and visit areas that you see all the time and do battle as Steven and the Crystal Gems while sometimes taking along other characters like Peridot, Connie, and Greg. Not to mention that when you aren’t working on the main quest of the game, there are side quests that you can do for the people of beach city. The game was a nice mix of an action adventure game and an RPG game as you had some silly decisions to make throughout the game. It was also just really fun to play and for a while I considered it my happy game because how can you not look at this game and just smile? Anyway, that was until the game was over and the trophy grinding began, but we’ll get into that in a little while.
As much as I loved this game, I didn’t love the many glitches that this game had. Sometimes the game froze for no reason, sometimes characters got stuck and the game had to be restarted, and sometimes it just plain didn’t work. This kind of killed some of the enjoyment for me and the immersion when it came to this game. I never thought I would sigh in frustration so much at what should have been a simple little game. Other than that, the mechanics of the game are super easy as each battle is basically turn based and based on the amount of stars that are collected in your meter. Each move that either Steven or the other characters make costs a certain amount of stars and you get the chance to hit it perfectly by hitting X when the star under the chosen character you’ve attacked turns purple. The same went for blocking as when one of the characters on the battlefield was getting attacked a star would appear under them and a perfect block would occur when you hit X as the star turned purple. Thrown in there for good measure were some pretty brain challenging puzzles to complete. Other than that, the gameplay for this game was more than I really expected going in.
The graphics for this game were just great as they were exactly like the show down to the smallest detail of beach city and the strawberry battlefield. Not to mention the characters and the people around beach city like Onion, Sally, Lars, and so many more were just perfection. I really felt like I was just wandering through the show throughout the entire game. This made the game even better as it was cool to explore and see how the graphics got everything right and really made this game feel like a really long Steven Universe episode.
Now onto the trophies for this game. There are a total of 20 trophies for this game including a platinum trophy. While the trophies aren’t hard to get, they aren’t the easiest to get either. They will require some grinding, which wasn’t really expected and kind of ruined the magic of the game just a little bit. Before we get onto the grindy trophies, let’s talk about the other trophies. Some of them are luck based and you’ll just get them when you get them and others are for just playing the game. There are some collectible trophies and a trophy that requires you to complete each area of the game to 100%. Now onto the grindy trophy. This is for upgrading each character’s equipment in Bismuth’s forge. In order to do this you’ll have to go through the game and collect Chroma. This shouldn’t be a problem, but this is where the grinding comes. Let’s use the Yellow Chroma as an example which you’ll need 10 of each to complete a few designs. There are really only three places you can find this Yellow Chroma and once you collect it, you can’t just leave the area, come back and pick up more Chroma. That would be to easy. You actually have to wait an hour before going back to the area and picking up the Chroma. When this is the last trophy that you need, it becomes a bit tedious as you go to your Yellow Chroma spots, pick them up, then shut off the game and wait for an hour until they re-appear. These are on a strict timer and you have to wait exactly one hour before going back into the game and picking up more Chroma. Sure you can mess around with the PSN clock, but that’s kind of cheating.
There is no multiplayer for this game and I absolutely love it. I didn’t want to share my Steven Universe game with anyone, even though I could have seen the appeal of it having multiplayer, this was just one of those games that was better off without it. Not every game has to have multiplayer in it, and this is one of those games.
Overall I give this game a 3 out of 5.
What’s Great:
+ It’s a Steven Universe game and if you love Steven Universe what’s not to love about this game since it has everything that a normal Steven Universe episode would have!
+ All of your favorite characters return and even voice their characters in this game making it even more fun to play when you hear your favorite characters voice and it matches up to the ones in the show.
+ The graphics for this game make you feel like you’re playing out an episode of Steven Universe as they are so well done and get every single detail right.
What’s Not So Great:
– The glitches in this game, while not game breaking, are just annoying as hell as you’ll have to stop, save, and restart throughout many of them. This leads to some frustrating and controller breaking moments that just make this game a little less fun then it should have been.
– I can understand trophy grinding, every game has it so that you keep playing the game if you want the platinum trophy, but this takes it to a whole new level as there are actual timers on the Chroma that you need to collect. What is up with that? It’s just insane and really just makes that final trophy you’re going to need a little less fun to get.
This game was a really welcomed surprise to my collection as I love Steven Universe and I loved this game despite its downfalls. Now this game certainly isn’t for everyone and is basically a fan service for Steven Universe fans. It also comes at a hefty price tag of $24.99 so it isn’t cheap. I would say that if you are a die hard Steven Universe fan like I am, then you’ll want to play this game, but I suggest waiting for a sale of some kind because it’s a bit pricey. Don’t worry about not playing the first game either because you get a recap at the beginning of the game and it serves its purpose so that you aren’t lost. If you aren’t a Steven Universe fan then I would say to give this game a pass since it’s pretty lore heavy and you’ll probably be lost unless you do some Steven Universe research.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 