by traveling to space stations found throughout the game. Once the meter fully drains, the game will be over and the player will need to continue from their last save point. In the Conquest mode, the player can acquire items and upgrades for their ship by completing missions, which can increase the strength of the ship, firing rate, or give them access to a new weapon, including a tractor beam from Gaplus. Development and release Star Ixiom was directed by Yuichiro Sadahiro, known for his work on the Tales series and Katamari Damacy. It is the sequel to Star Luster, an older Namco game released for the Family Computer in 1985 that has since been ported to several other platforms. The game was billed as a "simulation and shooting" title, meant to signify the usage of elements from both tactical role-playing games and space combat simulations. It is set within Namco's United Galaxy Space Force (UGSF) saga, a fictional universe that ties together many of their space shooting games into one cohesive timeline. The development team focused on modernizing the gameplay in Star Luster while still keeping the mechanics and ideas that made the original popular intact. Its graphical style was designed after the one used in both the Sharp X68000 conversion of Star Luster and the PlayStation game Starblade Alpha. Characters and starships from the Xevious series were intended to appear in the game, but were cut at the last minute. The fictional word "Ixiom" in the game's title means "eternal truth". Namco announced Star Ixiom in January 1999; no comment was made on an international release. It was presented at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show in March, alongside Namco's own Dragon Valor and Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. The game was released in Japan on September 9, 1999. A European release followed a year later. Famitsu released a guidebook to coincide with its release, detailing its world, gameplay and characters. A soundtrack album, Star Ixiom/Original Soundtrack, was released on December 18, 1999. Reception Star Ixiom received a mixed reception, with many criticizing its simplicity and lack of variety in missions. German magazine Video Games labeled its presentation “extremely boring”, although would complement its simplistic controls, while Mega Fun disliked its lack of variety and bland storyline, unfavorable comparing it to Colony Wars. Swedish publication Super PLAY stated the game was too easy, only recommending it to players overwhelmed with