Starward

Starward is a popular 3D fighting game where players control unique and adorable anime girls to battle various enemies. Besides traditional ground combat, players can also engage in aerial combat using different button presses, offering more possibilities. Players can acquire their favorite girls through a gacha system; each girl has different skill designs and skins. Skins allow players to customize the girls' attack effects, making them more visually appealing on the battlefield. The game also features ongoing seasonal events where participation rewards players with skins, collaboration characters, and other prizes, providing even more excitement.

Features of Starward:

Multi-Platform Arcade Fighting Game: An arcade 2v2 fighting game that can be played even without being in an arcade. Compatible with PC, smartphones, controllers, and arcade controllers! Focusing on PVP battles, start fighting immediately after logging in! Experience thrilling battles and claim victory anytime in 3-minute fights!

Shooting & Melee: Shooting & melee combo attacks, boost dashes, counters, burst awakenings... a complete recreation of arcade battle gameplay! Realize every mech combat operation imaginable, down to the smallest detail!

Get the best heroes: In Starward Mecha Girls you will find dozens of female heroes that you can unlock as you defeat opponents. The title will introduce you to a whole host of characters equipped with very different abilities and weapons that you can try out in the setting for each battle. However, you will need to pay attention to the characteristics of each fighter to use the most appropriate skills for each round. Don't forget that you can even spread your wings and surprise your opponents from above.

Counterattacks: Not only exhilarating shooting battles, but also intense mech close-quarters combat! Whether you prefer strategic positioning or exhilarating melee combat, you'll find something to enjoy in "Wings of the Stars" battles!

Defeat the Enemy Together: With a team-shared COST system, even high-performance characters on the battlefield won't guarantee overwhelming victory! Teamwork and strategy are paramount! Turn the tide of battle with a rational character combination and smooth controls!

Characters of Starward:

Akatsuki: An exceptionally well-rounded high cost character, one might believe that Akatsuki can fulfill any role she needs to with the extensive list of tools available to her. Not all these tools are the highest quality of their kin in the game currently, but the fact that she has so many desirable ones more than makes up for their performance - a forward advancing shooting guard, a gerobi, boomerangs, a freefall, and a 5 frame melee button just to name a few. Obviously, the main advantage to Akatsuki having so many generically good tools means that she can adapt to many situations and matchups in both shuffle and duo play, and is therefore recommended for new players that want to learn a 3 cost character that they can grow into. Her projectiles are also of decent quality, letting her play a very stable neutral game at multiple distances, with a wide array of cancels letting her remain flexible. For close range engagements, her boomerangs (5AB) allow her to stave off approaching opponents while also repositioning, but she has movement tools like 4/6BC to engage back if she feels confident enough. Though it arguably isn't a big downside, perhaps Akatsuki's only "real" weakness is that she lacks the ability to really push forward and force a lot of pressure on her own. This stems from the fact that a lot of her tools are better suited for reactive/defensive play in neutral and capitalizing on her opponents' mistakes, whereas her more aggressive tools are a bit too risky in many situations. This tends to sort of funnel Akatsuki's general playstyle into a "neutral enforcer" that wants to keep the game in a manageable tempo for her and her partner, even though she does have tools to revert back to neutral after an unfavorable scramble situation. Not unlike Cherub, Akatsuki can handle a wide variety of opponents but may struggle against the fringe extremes of hyper aggressive melee brutes but also untouchable zoners, so her team composition and communication with her partner is key.

Akigumo: Akigumo is a melee specialist character who has access to some of the highest damage potential in the game with great oki to boot, at the cost of being pretty unconventional - even so far as not having any sort of traditional projectile. Her only ranged option is her partner/stand Shuramaru, who she can send out with 5AB or 4/6AB, nullifying projectiles and lingering for a few moments to give her mobile followup options. Perhaps most notably, he will pop up the opponent on hit, granting Akigumo time for her most consistent confirm into her high melee damage with moves such as 4/6BC. Once she is actually in on opponents, she has tools for most scenarios, such as a large unblockable pressure (2B), a move that beats any other melee (5A ~BC), and a forward charge with shooting guard (5A ~B). Additionally, finishing the entire string of certain moves will grant her a charge of Mitama Miko [MM], a resource that passively improves her damage and gives her access to the powerful 2BC. This allows Akigumo to snowball considerably, capable of even 2-touching many characters in the game. This all must sound too good to be true, so let's get to what potential downsides it may have. As previously mentioned, she has no traditional projectile, making Shuramaru's deployment in 5AB her only real one - of which any opponent with experience against her will do their best to stay outside that range and be mentally prepared for it anyway. This means that Akigumo (typically) has to play very patiently and methodically, working her way in safely until an opportunity arises. She does have a very important tool to assist in this with her unique movement option in 5A -> step, letting her move very far and quickly return to the ground on a very short reload (1s). This lets Akigumo make sure she lands before her opponent, then punish them with Shuramaru or her other forward moving buttons. An additional issue for her is that her combos can be very long and easy to cut, and if she shortens them or cancels it she risks not getting stacks of [MM]. Due to this, she must be very aware of the current state of the game to safely cash out when she can. Akigumo is a fiddly character to learn and deal with, but with some patience and practice she can be an absolute nightmare that will swallow up ranged and melee opponents alike.

Cammy: Cammy brings her unique rhythm game-like mechanic, Rock Forever [RF], to Starward as a mid-close range character with a blend of projectiles that force movement as well as aggressive mobility that can lead to high damage melee combos. When performing certain moves in her kit, Cammy's [RF] will bring up a timing circle on screen, where if she re-inputs the respective button again the move will be enhanced in some way, often in the form of damage - giving Cammy a feel that isn't really felt anywhere else in the cast currently. One of her strongest tools is her 5AB, a way to deploy orbs of sound towards the opponent in multiple ways depending on directional input, with 4/6AB being a funnel-like weapon of high quality that will make opponents constantly move to avoid them - where she or her partner can then go in and either confirm the hit or force an interaction if they so choose. When it comes to getting aggressive, Cammy has a directional dash in 4/6/8BC, of which has many cancel routes such as 5BC, a melee attack with super armor, to smother her opponent. This leads into Cammy's main two weaknesses to play around however - her short red lock distance and most of her weapons placing her into vernier state. This means that she almost always needs to remain within a close distance of opponents to stay effective, but with her feet constantly stopping while attacking she can open herself up to getting punished, especially if she is currently in double lock. That being said, she still possesses excellent self defense tools like 2B to return to the ground and regain boost, aforementioned armored 5BC, and 2A as a "get off me" button. She is also on the stronger end in the game in terms of base mobility, so she can leverage it to quickly get into red lock range, do what she needs to, then run away if she must. Cammy has a unique install in 2BC, which will fill up from hitting certain [RF] attacks or gradually if she has T1. While active, Cammy can buff herself and also her teammate if she holds the button down to keep playing. With all these tools, she can constantly flex between an aggressive character that demands attention and boost, to a support character that can keep both herself and her partner alive.

Cavalry: Cavalry is an oppressive shooting-oriented character with a large arsenal of weapons of which she can freely cancel into one another when in her unique movement stance, Assault Mode [AC]. When she isn't in [AC], many of Cavalry’s weapons have poor speed and tracking so she can have a hard time fighting even some lower cost characters, especially up close. One could say this lack of close range self defense is Cavalry's main weakness, especially in a double lock scenario. Once she enters [AC] however, she has nearly unmatched shooting ability that can be devastating at mid to close range, especially to characters that need to stop moving for their skills more often. This allows Cavalry to be the center of attention while making plenty of space in the match with her wall of projectiles, though their straightforward nature makes them easily blockable - which still allows her teammate to capitalize greatly and gain ground. With the long stopping animation of [AC], Cavalry needs to be aware of when she can push and when she must retreat to safely deactivate it, with the earlier she does so the quicker it will reload back. As she plays almost entirely around her [AC] cooldown, the player must make good use of it for impactful damage/knockdowns to make up for her weakness when it is reloading.

Convallaria: Convallaria is a somewhat simple shooting oriented character with generically solid mobility that can leave some characters incredibly frustrated trying to catch her even after multiple mobility nerfs thanks to her various ways to protect herself and maintain boost. Once she enters her unique install Flower Blooms [FB], her shooting skills get much more oppressive which are difficult to counter with other ranged options because she gains a shooting guard in all directions - giving her properties such as firing more projectiles making them quite difficult to avoid. This extends greatly to her 5BC gerobi and 2AB missile swarm, which become highly potent threats in the game for her to exert meaningful damage from afar. Because of her dependence on [FB], she can be somewhat high risk high reward if you are not careful with maintaining it, as well as the install really appreciating Talent tiers to improve its uptime and ease of access (though she is still fine at low Talents). Unlike many other install characters, Convallaria loses access to it the moment this shield breaks, so if she makes a mistake she can instantly lose her big power surges, leaving her performance underwhelming. Movement and boost management are key to her success, as her lower life (for a 3 cost) can leave your team at half cost before she can even get rolling, though she isn't entirely hopeless when getting pressured with her surprisingly good melee options such as 8B, a fast spear attack that can also be used for evasive purposes. One of her best tools at keeping her neutral game strong is her ability to amekyan freefall her 5AB into 5A, allowing her to be a bit more aggressive while also keeping her boost healthy. Her incredible consistency and stable performance has been proven time and time again with her everlasting high level representation since the day she was added to the game, but players still must leverage her strengths and good positioning to keep her alive and well. While it barely impacts gameplay, her camera is noticeably zoomed out a bit further than other characters - this might be a small nod to developer materials that suggest she is quite short.

Player Comments of Starward:

I LOVE THIS GAME!!! I just downloaded 2 days ago and I got the black rock shooter today!!!! I love seeing a good fighting game that does often collaborations with other animes! I support this game 200% and I would pay good money to see future collaborations like automata. that would be a good idea for one. my only complaint is that it plays for like 30 minutes on my device then sends me to home screen. I just hop right back in immediately but would love if they fixed that!

I decided to give Starward a chance because I love Black Rock Shooter. I'm glad I started playing the game, because I couldn't stop playing Starward. This game runs great on my device and it's extremely easy to learn how to play. The characters are beautifully designed and easy on the eyes. There's no storyline, its a straightforward 3d fighting game. The music and sound design are also really great. This game is worth your time. The developers did a great job with Starward.

One of the best games so far, I have played so many gatcha anime type games, and this is at the top of my list, i have watched so many mecha anime and I was searching for this type of game, Great Work Developers, I hope this game survives, the gatcha system is not greedy it gives good characters easily, I hope it stays as it is in the future. Thank you Dev. And please give some ads on social media, people don't know about this game.

game is good and have a lot of potential. character design and combat was amazing. i like this game as it was the 5th favorite game i ever played though the name it Chinese had slight differences i think it was a great game despite having to re login the game in mid game(idk if it was only me or what but hope you guys didn't experience that.)

FAQs of Starward:

How Similar to Gundam vs is this?

Very similar to modern gundam vs, boost dash canceling, step fast falls etc. Characters are in the standard gundam cost brackets of 3k/2.5k/2k/1.5k.

Is this a Gacha game?

Yes it is a gacha game, yes you need to roll characters, bursts and there is a dupe system. However, with that said, the game is fairly generous, and you will be able to get most of the characters in the “standard” gacha in a very short amount of time. Dupes are hard to get, but are farmable. Some characters really want dupes, but others are very much fine without them. There is also a free rotation where 3 standard banner characters are playable at max dupes. You can try any character in training mode before rolling for them.

Why play this when Gundam vs exists?

It's free, on steam, and there is no additional setup required. Unlike any console or other versions of EXVS currently available, the game is still being updated. The game also uses servers so you will have consistent ping while playing with anyone.

How do you setup controls?

The game has some weird controls but you can get it setup to more or less feel like exvs, though you are going to want to assign a button for block.

Where can I find other people to play with?

If you play in North America, you may find difficulty finding other players outside of specific hours of the day. If you want to get games easier, you may want to use discord. The official discord can be found on the developer's twitter page, and from there you can find other, regional discords.

How do the Gachas work?

There are 3 gachas-

Every gacha has a “pity” mechanic that will give you an SSR once you hit a certain number of rolls

Standard- has a fixed pool of characters, you can select one to have a 50% chance of getting when you hit pity.

Designated Recruitment- Rerun banner. There are two, first one gives you a 50% chance of getting the character you choose at 70 pulls and the second gives you your choice guaranteed at 90. The 50% has higher rates but if you fail the 50/50 you will pull more than if you had just used the 100%. Gamble responsibly.

The banner for the new character will always have a different name, but it works the same as the rerun banner- has a 50% and 100%. Any pity you have accumulated on this banner will transfer to the next character.

Conclusion:

Starward allows you to dive into PvP combat where you can show off your power against countless rivals. On the other hand, if you prefer, you can also face off against enemies in pairs. Through these 2v2 battles, you will have more options when it comes to testing out lethal offensive combinations.Download the Starward Mecha Girls APK for Android and enjoy this striking ARPG.