The Star Named EOS Review - Quick, Charming Puzzle Fun

Finding a good, story-based puzzle game is like a reward for those who love the genre. The subtle art of exploring puzzles and learning a story bit by bit can be satisfying, and The Star Named EOS is a good example of what the genre can offer. 

The Star Named EOS has a good balance of challenging puzzles and narrative, and the graphics and music support the rest of the game well. While it’s a solid puzzle game and one that those in the genre will enjoy, it struggles to stand out or above other games as a whole. 

Meet Dei, his mom, and puzzle galore

The story begins with the player’s character, Dei, following in his mom’s footsteps. Every stage starts with a picture that Dei’s mother took, and his goal is to recreate the picture. 

Players complete a variety of puzzles as they try to take the perfect picture. All of these are found by exploring the environment of each story chapter. The puzzles strike a good balance of being complex without being frustratingly difficult. While a few puzzles are much more difficult than others, most of them are about the same difficulty level. 

Two puzzles in particular were so frustrating that I was nearly in tears thinking I’d never solve them. However, after spending some time solving them (and inputting random things), I eventually got to the answers. They didn’t seem like they were supposed to be as difficult as they were, the hints just didn’t give quite enough information to make sense.

Other than those two puzzles, The Star Named EOS flowed well. I didn’t get too hung up on any particular area, and the progression felt natural and not too difficult. This kept my focus on the story instead of thinking too hard about most of the puzzles.

While exploring, there’s often dialogue for the things Dei interacts with. For the most part, the dialogue was well-written. However, a few parts of dialogue were reused with items that were the same but in different areas. They weren’t important items, but it was one of the small things that could have been polished.

Besides the few instances of repeated text, the environments themselves had a quant charm to them. Each area felt thoroughly investigated by the end of a chapter, which was both satisfying and a good use of space. 

Art and Sound

The art style of The Star Named EOS is pretty, and certain areas stand out more than others. Most of these were at the end, making for a pretty climactic end, which went well with the story. The music did the same, not quite standing out but doing a good job of subtly enhancing what was happening at any given moment. 

The same theme showed up here. The Star Named EOS had good graphics and music, but it was just that: good, not great.

The Star Named EOS | Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, The Star Named EOS doesn’t do enough to stand out. It’s not a bad game – the story has a meaningful lesson by the end, and the journey to get to it isn’t bad. It’s got a charm to it that most puzzle game enthusiasts will probably enjoy, but that charm won’t translate well to people who don’t get the same satisfaction from these types of games. 

However, it doesn’t do anything to stand out from other games, even in the genre. It’s good and worth a play if you’re looking to cozy up with a puzzle game, but it’s rather average. That isn’t a bad thing – sometimes a solid puzzle is the best way to relax, and The Star Named EOS is perfect for doing just that. 

The Star Named EOS was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a copy provided by the publisher over the course of 4 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.