Where do I start with this one?

Sunrider was my first VN, and it's been a long road to get here. I think Captain's Return is a much needed reset or palate cleanser after Liberation Day.

I spent a few days reliving peak Sunrider nostalgia with this one, and ended up falling in love with the characters all over again. In a sense, Captain's Return is very similar to Mask of Arcadius, We spend some time getting the crew together, we spend some time gathering allies and exploring the geopolitical landscape of the galaxy, and then we ramp up into fighting the big bad.

The visuals are good, the VAs are on point, and the music is great. The story pacing is a little off, but honestly I didn't care that much. It's ok.

The new combat system is incredibly fun after you get used to it. As always, the best defense is a good offense, because they can't kill you if they're dead. But you don't have to play that way, and you can instead turtle up, bleed momentum, and form a sniper's nest for Sola. The new combat plane creates so many new avenues of combat and I can't wait to see where it can go. (Asaga and Icari are broken)

I'm ambivalent with the other modes, I don't really care for the rat race modes and the puzzle maps were mostly tedious, if somewhat interesting to solve the first time around.

Overall, I'm not sure if it's worth full price if you won't get hit by the nostalgia bomb, but a good game and worth a try.

(Please buy and play the game so the foil card price goes down.)