Omega 6 Triangle Stars – Destructoid

Imagine, if you will, a trip through the stars. Imagine a mission to find a new planet Earth. Imagine having to battle hordes of angry aliens with nothing but your Rock Paper Scissors skills. Right, enough imagining. Time for the real thing.

In this unique retro RPG, designed by Takaya Imamura (who, among Majora’s Mask and having designed Captain Falcon, also gave us Tingle), we will explore strange planets in search of clues and answers to finding a new habitable planet for the human race. Along the way, we’ll meet strange creatures that make you feel like a Starbucks barista at a spaceport in a Star Trek episode. But is this RPG for everyone?

Omega 6 Triangle Stars (Nintendo Switch, PC, [reviewed])
Developer: Takaya Imamura, Happymeal, Pleocene
Publisher: Clear River Games, City Connection
Released: February 28, 2025
MSRP: $29.99

Somewhere in the distant future, a wormhole has appeared near Mars. An influx of aliens has appeared through it and they all would like to live on Earth. Before people could wake up and vote for their favorite alt-right politician in power, all the major cities on Earth were occupied by those illegal… uh, aliens.

Now it is up to two androids, Thunder and Kyla, created by Dr Victor Franklin, to step aboard the Omega 6 spacecraft and find a new habitable planet so that human beings can escape the alien tourist menace.

Omega 6 feels like a retro RPG through and through, almost like a re-release of a long-lost Turbografx-16 RPG from the early 90s. And I don’t mean it simply in the “pixelated graphics” sense, but all the systems, the presentation, and the mechanics feel downright old. That feeling would be hard to place for most Western gamers who perhaps grew up with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Takaya Imamura’s first game since 2016, when he worked as a supervisor on Star Fox Zero, feels rather indebted towards lesser-known classics such as Shining Force. In each town or planet you visit, the menu-based interface will allow you to perform various actions, such as “Move” or “Talk”, even though often you will have to “Call Over” the character you want to speak with.

In other places, you can “Buy” or “Sell”. On the other hand, “Inspect” will allow you to interact with the locations by using a pointer-based interface, just like an Examine button in an Ace Attorney title, but for the most part, you’re restricted to shuffling through choices.

And the game never really abandons this vintage framework, not even in the combat which is quite peculiar in its design. I’m not sure if this is a nod to the Rock Paper Scissors boss fights in Alex Kidd in Miracle World, but Thunder and Kyla will fight enemies by using cards with Rock, Paper, and Scissors signs. Each turn, you and your enemy pick a card and whoever wins gets to perform a successful hit.

But things are not as easy as they seem, since most of the enemies’ cards are usually hidden, depending on the character you’re fighting, so you will have to employ a strategy between random guesses and trying to use your cards at the best possible time. While this works at first, it tends to get repetitive quite fast, since there’s no real variety to the combat and there’s quite a bit of it which can’t be skipped.

Pretty soon in the game, Thunder and Kyla, along with their robot friends such as Headless, will be required to earn as much money as possible and the main way you will get to do it is by hunting down wanted criminals. And yes, you guessed it, when you capture one you will have to fight them.

The writing, overall, keeps things light and quite amusing, even though there is not much that sticks out as particularly funny or memorable. It’s a light chuckle situation, not really a barrel of laughs. The banter between the androids and the robots in the player team form the best part of the dialogue, at times almost reaching Cowboy Bebop-quality levels.

Indeed, the best part of Omega 6 is the character designs which are always unique and amusing. In this, the experience of Tamamura shines. The game is an adaptation of the original Omega 6 manga. Not to mention, also, the great Super Nintendo-like soundtrack that will keep us company on our journey through the stars

I like how there aren’t just random NPCs around, but each character feels like they bring something of interest, despite our interactions often being short and limited. Still, Omega 6 is a tough recommendation for anyone who hasn’t dreamed of playing a retro first-person RPG, as there is not much that would convince someone to drop their second playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 or that run of Avowed to join the crew.

Still, I am pretty sure Omega 6 deserves its own dedicated audience and, why not, a little cult following. I just wished it had something more, in terms of gameplay, narrative, or combat, that could transform it into a wholehearted recommendation outside of that small niche. See you, space cowboys.