I’ve always loved magical girls. The idea of an ordinary person transforming into an ethereal being with world-saving superpowers that leaves all their prior insecurities behind touches a part of my heart that few other things do. I grew up with the likes of Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Mew Mew Power, and plentiful others that left a lifelong impression.
The fact I was also a trans girl hiding in a glass closet likely played a role in my love for all of these shows, but decades later, and I’m still smitten with all things mahou shoujo. So, when a game came across my inbox pitched as ‘Hades 2meetsSailor Moon’ I immediately sat up and took notice. Starlight Re:volver is everything I love about the genre and then some, so I caught up with newly formed developer Pahdo Labs to talk about bringing this game to life.
“Starlight Re:Volver is definitely inspired by the mahou shoujo genre but it’s almost just as much inspired by adjacent genres like sentai and shonen,” creative director Alijah Ladd tells me. “It’s a combination of the things we love, not just in storytelling, but in gameplay. It’s a nostalgic world inspired by our team’s lived experiences; fighting games at the arcade after school, weekends making new friends in KMMOs - our favourite moments in time, interlaced and retold through [the game’s] world and characters.”
An exciting first look was unleashed onto the world last month with a reveal trailer that is equal parts gameplay and animated cutscenes with the enthusiastic tunes of Kero Kero Bonito driving the action, leaving one hell of an impression. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people came along for the banging tunes alone.
Combat combines Japanese APRG mechanics with that of western roguelites, so it seems the focus here is on both mechanical depth and endless replayability.
While you would expect the game to be a single-player affair given how it draws direct inspiration from Hades, Pahdo Labs hopes to create a four-player co-op experience where your interactions mimic the primitive online worlds of the early ‘00s.
“There are too many [inspirations] to count!,” Ladd says of the graphical flair that pulls from everything from Jet Set Radio to Hatsune Miku. “Naoko Takeuchi, Rumiko Takahashi, and Akira Toriyama, in particular, have inspired us so much. Some of our favorite game artists are Toru Nakayama, Ken Sugimori, & Shigenori Soejima. All legendary. We’re also very inspired by the works of Studio Trigger in terms of how things move.”
But a memorable aesthetic means nothing without a cast of worthwhile characters or a world to underpin it, and that seems to have been a consistent focus for Pahdo Labs. Its reveal trailer focuses on a quartet of characters, all of which will be playable throughout Starlight Re:volver’s early access release. Their influences, much like the visuals, clearly stem from a variety of sources. First up is leading lady/magical girl Effy.
“Effy is our spin on a female shonen protagonist,” Ladd explains. “Starlight Re:volver takes place in a colourful, festive, and explosive world, and we wanted a heroine that completely embodied that. We looked a lot at traditionally more male shonen personalities. There’s a little bit of Luffy and his recklessness, and there’s a little bit of Kagura from Gintama, naivety and acting like she doesn’t care, but beneath it all, actually being quite a profound person who will always pull through for her friends.
There’s also Kira, a lone wolf archetype who transformers into a beautiful monarch with shades of a princess; Ren, a a mentor character who is more kamen rider than magical girl; and finally Vivi, the youngest member of the cast who is shy, reserved, but willing to cause some serious damage in a firefight. I’m told all of these characters will look and play very differently, and that much is obvious in the reveal trailer, as some wield melee weapons as others pepper enemies with projectiles from far away. Learning how each character works and can complement one another mechanically will likely be a key to effective co-op play.
Although many of our inspirations are single-player experiences, we thought that our world and art style would be perfect for an online co-op game - studio founder Daniel Zou.
Given its inspirations, I was surprised to learn that Starlight Re:volver won’t feature any relationship mechanics, but will encourage players to instead pursue mechanical mastery and unearth the backstories of each character through continued play. Nishi Island is a location in the game world where players can hang out and relax, before diving into more chaotic and unpredictable dream worlds where dark forces run amok. There is a compelling juxtaposition to it all, much how ostensibly wholesome shows like Madoka Magica embrace more harrowing ideas in the space of just a few episodes.
“Our goal was to find something that is both fresh and unique but is also broadly appealing to a diverse friend group. Since one of our key features is Nishi Island Metropolis, a social hub and hangout spot that supports 30 plus concurrent players, we wanted to pair it with a vibrant and uplifting art style that would be a great place to take a break from competitive gaming or studying.”
There is still much more to learn about Starlight Re:Volver, but in an industry where trying to stand out is proving harder and harder, Pahdo Labs has left an impression that will hopefully take it far. Zou puts it best, telling me that he’s “incredibly grateful to have found backers and an early audience for our product during such a challenging time for the independent games industry.” Now they just need to stick the landing.
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