Xya and the Lost Star

Xya and the Lost Star is a 3D action-adventure video game developed by All Star Interactive Media and published by Cradle Network. The game stars Xya, a playable character from Playbox, a game which was released a few months earlier. It was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in February 2003. The game was released under the title Xya and the Mystery of the Missing Star in Japan.

The game sold approximately 800,000 copies across all three consoles by January 2004. It later went on to be rereleased as a Player's Choice title on the GameCube and a Greatest Hits title on the PlayStation 2.

Gameplay
Xya and the Lost Star is a Metroidvania-style 3D action-adventure game. The game features a large open-world environment which the player can explore freely. In order to make progress in the game, the player has to complete a certain set objective which they must fulfil in order to move on.

The GameCube version allows the player to save as many files as they like, with each using four Memory Blocks. The Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions are a bit different, in that they only allow the player to save up to three files, though creating extra files does not use extra storage.

How to play
The titular character, Xya, serves as the main protagonist and playable character. He is capable of jumping, double-jumping, and holding two different forms of items; Items and Special Items. Items can be used by the player to give them a slight benefit or advantage, whilst Special Items are needed in order to make progress in the game. Only four Items and one Special Item can be held at a time.

Xya usually moves about by walking. He is capable of running, though can only run for a short while. The player has a guage which shows how long Xya can run for. If the guage empties, Xya will stop moving altogether for a while in order to catch his breath, which can leave him vulnerable. The idea is to stop running when the guage is away to run out. It slowly refills itself over time.

Enemies
Upon entering certain areas in the game, there is a random chance that they will be filled with enemies. There are many different enemy variants in the game which all act differently, with some standing or moving about in one area and others chasing Xya. Usually, the player cannot leave the area until all of the enemies have been defeated, though exceptions do vary from time to time.

Unlike most games, Xya does not have a "health" meter or "lives", and is prone to getting a Game Over upon being attacked by an enemy even once. However, there are items the player can buy which can protect them from enemies.

Development
All Star Interactive Media received a copy of the "Peach's Castle" tech demo from Nintendo in 2001, which they used as inspiration when developing the game. Due to the studio developing both it and Playbox at the same time, Xya and the Lost Star had a very length development which lasted approximately sixteen months. In order to increase the game's appeal, Playbox characters were added into the game, replacing the generic-looking human characters present in the earliest prototypes.

Xya and the Lost Star was originally developed as a GameCube-exclusive. However, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were also made. A version for the original PlayStation was considered, but was scrapped due to the consoles lack of high-quality graphics. A Dreamcast version was finished, but was also cancelled due to the system having reached the end of its lifespan.