History YMMV / Sunrider

** After being given a taste of it in the non-canon ''Academy'' and ''[Re]turn'' spinoffs, many fans were hoping that ''Sunrider 4'' would have Shields be able to romance the various female characters -- a feature that's generally seen as a staple of visual novels and has been requested especially after ''Liberation Day'' had Chigara be the only romance option. However, like the previous canon games in the series, this was not to be -- with it being noted on Steam that the amount of writing to make that work would have made the game take exponentially longer to develop, used up the limited resources of a small team, and potentially detracted from the story they wanted to tell. The devs have commented that they are well aware of how much the fanbase wants to see traditional character routes, and that those ''are'' something they'd like to integrate into the main series -- but only "when the time is right and in the right place".

* EvilIsSexy: [[PirateGirl Cossette]] and [[PrettyBoy Fontana]]. Also [[spoiler:the Prototypes, when in their skin-tight black suits]], and [[spoiler:HospitalHottie [[TheMole Claude]]]].

*** The entirely of the final battle at the [[spoiler:World Fountain]]. The Maray arrives disadvantaged following the lack of support from the Solar Alliance. So what how does he even the odds? [[spoiler:[[SummonBiggerFish Summon the Prototypes and their flagship the Cathedral]], leaving Fontana in a panic that lasts the whole battle.]]
*** Plus Kuushana remaining ''entirely calm'' throughout the battle. No matter what sudden surprises Shields brings up, she adapts accordingly and gets the PACT fleet reorganized for a counterattack while Fontana is left in a VillainousBreakdown.
*** Sola [[spoiler:awakening her true Sharr abilities, now longer needing to perform a HeroicSacrifice to launch the graviton torpedo]].
*** Finally, the last moment upon [[spoiler:detonating the graviton torpedo]]. After burying the ghosts of his past that are his former ship and [[spoiler:now-corrupted girlfriend]], how does Kayto get it with thousands of PACT ships pursuing him? [[spoiler:Flying towards the sun he created with the torpedo and using its gravity well to pick up the speed he needs to cruise past the Crimson Armada, all while dragging PACT ''4,000 ships'' into the Star with thousands more heavily damaged. That’s over ''half'' of PACT's ''entire navy'' of 10,000 destroyed while shaking off the remaining Prototypes and pursuing forces, leaving with the VillainRespect of Kuushana and an utterly humiliated Fontana that dragged his name down for so long. Once again, what was once a name for a ship, Shields as become a literal sun-rider.]]

*** Finally, the last moment upon [[spoiler:detonating the graviton torpedo]]. After burying the ghosts of his past that are his former ship and [[spoiler:now-corrupted girlfriend]], how does Kayto get it with thousands of PACT ships pursuing him? [[spoiler:Using the sub he created with the torpedo and using its gravity well to pick up the speed he needs, all while dragging ''4,000 ships'' into the Star with thousands more heavily damaged. That’s over ''half'' of PACT's ''entire navy'' of 10,000 destroyed while shaking off the remaining Prototypes and pursuing forces, leaving with the VillainRespect of Kuushana and an utterly humiliated Fontana that dragged his name down for so long. Once again, what was once a name for a ship, Shields as become a literal sun-rider.]]

*** Finally, the last moment upon [[spoiler:detonating the graviton torpedo]]. After burying the ghosts of his past that are his former ship and [[spoiler:now-corrupted girlfriend]], how does Kayto get it with thousands of PACT ships pursuing him? [[spoiler:Using the sub he created with the torpedo and using its gravity well to pick up the speed he needs, all while dragging ''4,000'' into the Star with thousands more heavily damaged. That’s over ''half'' of PACT's ''entire navy'' destroyed while shaking off the remaining Prototypes and pursuing forces, leaving with the VillainRespect of Kuushana and an utterly humiliated Fontana that dragged his name down for so long. Once again, what was once a name for a ship, Shields as become a literal sun-rider.]]

*** The entirely of the final battle at the [[spoiler:World Fountain]]. The Maray arrives disadvantaged following the lack of support from the Solar Alliance. So what how does he even the odds? [[spoiler:[[SummonBiggerFish Summon the Prototypes and their flagship the Cathedral, leaving Fontana in panic.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments: In Chapter 9 of ''Sunrider 4'', Asaga singlehandedly fights off nine Prototype Ryders and goes 1-v-1 with the Widow, a freakishly powerful machine that can undo the damage she inflicts with its nanomachine hull. She's outmatched, but through sheer determination she keeps fighting, pushing her body and ryder to the limits of their endurance. She doesn't win, but she ''does'' hold the Prototypes off long enough for the Maray to come in guns blazing, rescuing her and Kayto.

--> '''Cossette:''' “[[EvilLaugh Aaaaahahahaha!]]- ''(record stop)'' [[TheNapoleon Hey, who the hell put camera up!?]]”

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Through all of the political intrigue and war drama, the visual novel series is lined up with moments worth a chuckle.

--> '''Cossette''' “[[EvilLaugh Aaaaahahahaha!]]- (record stop) [[TheNapoleon Hey, who put the camera up!?]]”

* FunnyMoments: Through all of the political intrigue and war drama, the visual novel series is lined up with moments worth a chuckle.

--> “[[EvilLaugh Aaaaahahahaha!]]- (record stop) [[TheNapoleon Hey, who put the camera up!?]]”

* AwesomeMoments: In Chapter 9 of ''Sunrider 4'', Asaga singlehandedly fights off nine Prototype Ryders and goes 1-v-1 with the Widow, a freakishly powerful machine that can undo the damage she inflicts with its nanomachine hull. She's outmatched, but through sheer determination she keeps fighting, pushing her body and ryder to the limits of their endurance. She doesn't win, but she ''does'' hold the Prototypes off long enough for the Maray to come in guns blazing, rescuing her and Kayto.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Some of the fanbase did not take well to the second set of character sprites, saying that they preferred the old style that was in the demo. Others liked the new sprites, saying they're more expressive and more detailed, and are better for the tone of the game. The third versions, which combined the most well-liked parts of both former versions, appeased both sides
** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara (who was hardly the most popular character from the original game) to the exclusion of all other love interests, and being billed as the finale only to end in a {{cliffhanger}} that [[ShaggyDogStory destroys all that the heroes accomplished]]. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems, restored cut features, and included an extended PeggySue DLC that brings about a CosmicRetcon to the unpopular ending, opens up the other girls as love interests, has Kayto [[IHatePastMe chide his past self for his stupid decisions]], and reveals it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

** After being given a taste of it in the non-canon ''Academy'' and ''[Re]turn'' spinoffs, many fans were hoping that ''Sunrider 4'' would have Shields be able to romance the various female characters -- a feature that's generally seen as a staple of visual novels and has been requested especially after ''Liberation Day'' had Chigara be the only romance option. However, like the previous canon games in the series this was not to be, with it being noted on Steam that the amount of writing to make that work would have made the game take exponentially longer to develop, used up limited resources, and potentially detracted from the story they wanted to tell.

** ''Sunrider 4''[='=]s lack of an NSFW version -- which previous games in the series had -- was met with disappointment by fans who were hoping for more of the sort of H-scenes seen in the ''[RE]turn'' DLC, ''Sunrider Academy'', and Love In Space's other visual novel ''VisualNovel/ShiningSongStarnova''.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The switch to an all Japanese cast was jarring for many players. It was later clarified to have been done as a compromise as reprising the existing cast proved difficult to contact, but it's still a noticeable change. This practice is still retained in the fourth game.

** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara (who was hardly the most popular character from the original game) to the exclusion of all other love interests, and being billed as the finale only to end in a {{cliffhanger}} that [[ShaggyDogStory destroys all that the heroes accomplished]]. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems, restored cut features, and included an extended PeggySue DLC that brings about a CosmicRetcon to the unpopular ending, opens up the other girls as love interests, has Kayto [[IHatePastMe chide his last self for his stupid decisions]], and reveals it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara (who was hardly the most popular character from the original game) to the exclusion of all other love interests, and being billed as the finale only to end in a {{cliffhanger}} that [[ShaggyDogStory destroys all that the heroes accomplished]]. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems, restored cut features, and included an extended DLC that brings about a CosmicRetcon to the unpopular ending, opens up the other girls as love interests, and reveals it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The switch to an all Japanese cast was jarring for many players. It was later clarified to have been done as a compromise as reprising the existing cast proved difficult to contact, but it's still a noticeable change.

** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara (who was hardly the most popular character from the original game) to the exclusion of all other love interests, and being billed as the finale only to end in a {{cliffhanger}} that [[ShaggyDogStory destroys all that the heroes accomplished]]. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems and restored cut features, including an extended DLC that brings about a CosmicRetcon to the unpopular ending, opens up the other girls as love interests, and reveals it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara (who was hardly the most popular character from the original game) to the exclusion of all other love interests, and being billed as the finale only to end in a {{cliffhanger}} that [[ShaggyDogStory destroys all that the heroes accomplished]]. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems and restored cut features, including an extended DLC that brings about a CosmicRetcon and revealed it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

** ''Liberation Day'' was generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, and forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara, to the exclusion of all other love interests, who was hardly the most popular character from the original game. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems and restored cut features, including an extended ending that revealed it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.

** Assault Carriers. On top of being one of the hardiest ships PACT has (with a pretty solid offensive arsenal to boot), each turn these will spawn either a PACT Support ryder or a PACT Elite ryder. Yes, this is a Demonic Spider that spawns *additional* Demonic Spiders. Assault Carriers are usually the highest priority for takedowns, with the possible exception of PACT Supports that are already on the field.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Twice. The sprite reworks under BrokenBase and the "2.00" patch under InternetBackdraft both served to restore a great deal of fan goodwill for Love In Space after mistakes drained it away.
* BrokenBase: Some of the fanbase did not take well to the second set of character sprites, saying that they preferred the old style that was in the demo. Others liked the new sprites, saying they're more expressive and more detailed, and are better for the tone of the game. The third versions, which combined the most well-liked parts of both former versions, mostly unified the base.

* InternetBackdraft: ''Liberation Day'' is generally seen as a weak title, releasing with a mess of bugs and broken features, squandering money on unnecessary graphical updates that cause the game to run very poorly, having a weak, minimally-branching, cliche-riddled script that flattened out many characters, replacing all of the original English voice talent (admittedly, for availability reasons) with Japanese voice actors, and forcing the player into a romantic relationship with Chigara, to the exclusion of all other love interests, who was hardly the most popular character from the original game. And it's the only one you have to pay money for. The heat was ''intense'', with a developer eventually apologizing and admitting that they'd thrown all their energy into the battle system rather than the story and romance without noticing just how many of their fans would rather run through the game on the lowest difficulty setting in an effort to get more of them. He went on to promise that future releases would focus more on those aspects of the series. A 2.00 patch fixed many of the technical problems and restored cut features, including an extended ending that revealed it was ''not'' the planned finale for the series.