Foto Boy: Flashstar Review – Return Of the Shutterbug

After the success of the humourous Foto Boy: A New Job, I’m pleased to see the series continue as planned. A New Job may have been short, but it was funny, charming, and deliciously entertaining. Now, we once again continue the theme of retro-style mild ecchi adventuring, keeping the same protagonist but in a new setting.

Introduction

Foto Boy: Flashstar is an adventure game with top-down 2D visuals reminiscent of a retro RPG. The game was developed by Sweet Banana Games and released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as a cross-buy title from returning ecchi publisher Gamuzumi on 23rd May, 2025. The game is the second installment in the Foto Boy franchise, after Foto Boy: A New Job.

It is difficult to say where Foto Boy: Flashstar sits in the Foto Boy timeline. It could be a sequel or prequel; it isn’t very clear. The characters of Kin and Blondie return but appear to have no knowledge of each other, however we will be reacquainted with another familiar character by the end of the game. Without clarity, much of the overarching subplot will be left up to the player to speculate.

Story

Flashstar continues the misadventures of the frequently unemployed Kin, as he attempts to return to his new career as a photographer, snapping cheeky shots of the many attractive ladies he conveniently encounters. These photos are then sold to editor Giovanni, who is putting together a collection of local beauties for the town’s ‘Thirst Quench’ magazine.

With no budget for models, and rather hoping to pocket as much of his hard-earned cash as possible to spend on rare anime figurines, Kin will have to charm the girls around town if he hopes to get a decent payday. Fortunately, a familiar photogenic blonde can help get him started…

Gameplay

In this retro-stylised adventure game, we’ll be exploring the vibrant little world of Foto Boy from a top-down 2D perspective. Kin will need to interact with the mostly female characters around town. There aren’t really any puzzles to solve this time around, however we’ll need to complete a handful of minigames and short fetch-quests to earn the favours of the town’s lovely ladies.

There are ten girls to find and photograph by pressing the R1 button. Each photo must be taken consensually for it to work. You’ll automatically save a copy of any successful photos to view at any time. Characters may reveal new locations to visit. These areas can then be ‘fast-travelled’ to by interacting with Kin’s bicycle which is always conveniently located nearby.

Graphics/Sound

Mirroring its predecessor, Foto Boy: Flashstar utilises retro 8bit and 16bit-era graphics. Characters feature minimalist detail and animations but also display higher-detailed portraits with alternating facial expressions which regularly update from line to line. Photos of each of the ten available girls are also pixelated yet feature colourful details and unique poses, though the fan-service is once again minimal here.

Dialogue is fully text-based with no voice acting included, and minimalist, ambient music tracks delivered in a similar retro style. Interactions are usually very short, however Kin retains some of his quirky, flirtatious banter which was more prominent in the previous game. Kin’s lines of dialogue often feature comedic overreactions and cheeky jokes.

Replayability/Trophies

There is only really one available ending this time around. Unlike the previous game, photographing each of the ten available girls is no longer optional, but the game’s primary goal. Everything can be done in a single playthrough, with most trophies being story-related, and a couple of other bits and pieces to unlock along the way.

There is technically a ‘bad ending’ of sorts which will cause the game to intentionally break, stopping your progress and forcing a manual reset. This is achieved by prematurely losing the comedic RPG-style boss battle towards the end of the game. This is actually very hard to do and will likely be your final trophy, as it requires the boss to attack Kin successfully four times within seven turns, and its attacks are entirely random.

Conclusion

At first, it may seem like Foto Boy: Flashstar is essentially more of the same, however when we break down the components and runtime, what we’re really getting is less of the same. Some of the extra minigames and quite a lot of the conversation has been trimmed throughout the game, leaving us with a rather unimpressive runtime of around 30 minutes.

There is some fun to be had in general progression, enjoying the satisfaction of our little photo album filling up with beauties, yet an entirely luck-based trophy will deny us the fulfilment of finishing the game entirely, by forcing us to repeatedly reload a save-file to trigger the secret ending. It’s such a challenge that I genuinely believed the game was actually bugged, not unlike its predecessor.

For a game that really needed to make a narrative and interactive step forward to stay relevant, Flashstar makes a troubling step back, cutting back on key content to produce something overly short and lifeless. The uncensored Steam version of the game may be able to sell itself on its cheeky nudity and more complete interactions, yet on consoles we’re really left with the bare bones of a game.