YMMV / Starfinder

• Broken Base: Magic is nowhere near as powerful as it was in Pathfinder, leaving martials happy that Paizo has finally averted Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards. But just as martial fans are happy, caster fans are not. There are plenty of technology replacements and counters to magic, leaving many caster players wondering "Why bother?" It's still an issue of debate whether or not Paizo went too far.
  • Then there's the added confusion of spellcasters only having six levels of spells as opposed to Pathfinder's nine. Until you actually read the spell lists, it's easy to assume that these spell levels are the same as they were in Pathfinder and not realise that many spells that were 9th-level spells in that game are 6th-level spells in this game. While spellcasters may not be as powerful as they were in Pathfinder, they still have access to more magical "umph" than one might expect from just looking at their spell progression.
  • Decoupling the lashunta's castes from their gender. Many don't see the point, while others are pleased at the nod towards inclusivity. It's worth noting that this is an In-Universe example of societal change, where the gender-specific castes are noted in the setting as a historical convention that lashunta society has moved on from (though lingering stereotypes and biases remain in places.)
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • The game pretty much encourages this. Where else can you play as a giant talking rat that gets into shootouts with space monsters?
  • One of the new playable races introduced in the Alien Archive 2 are uplifted bears. Not werebears or bearlike aliens, but actual bears that have been genetically modified to stand on their hind legs and use weapons.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Pathfinder 40,000, due to being a Sci-Fi version of their fantasy setting.
  • The Paizo community blog have tagged the iconic mystic Keskodai with the self-evident "Bug Dad" after his backstory revealed that the little worm in the canister on his hip is actually his child.
• Funny Moments:
  • Golarion World is a planetary Theme Park based on Golarion. But be careful, the Devils in Cheliax Land offering to buy your soul for shorter waits at the rides might not be Cast members.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Altronus, the iconic Solarian, is loathed in Society play for being absolutely awful at his job, as he's a melee fighter with low Constitution and low Resolve, making him a Glass Cannon at best.
• Nightmare Fuel: As in Pathfinder, monsters in Starfinder can be scary.
  • Devils do not play around when invading a planet, summoning a giant, living starship called a dhalochar. A starship that is also a sentient, highly intelligent devil in and of itself, and can reshape itself into a giant humanoid war machine brimming with weapons. There are dozens of these things, each more brutal and vicious than the last, and all carrying hundreds of their brethren with them.
  • Orocorans, Starfish Aliens who resemble humanoid, drugged-out fleas who feed on Aucturn's ichor with the personality of crazed, drugged-out death cultists. These things are the Pact Worlds' allies.
• Science-Fiction Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The starship length/mass table is... broken. To the point that a 15,000 foot long dreadnought (about 4,600 meters, the largest size classification available in the game) is about the same mass as a Royal Navy Type 45 Daring class destroyer, giving it less than 1/3 the mass of the amount of air required to fill it.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop:
  • In a similar vein to Dungeons & Dragons 5e, the mechanics of Starfinder have been severely streamlined when compared to Pathfinder. To name a few ways: the number of base classes has been reduced from twenty to seven, feat trees are now virtually nonexistent, level 1 stats are capped at 18, and a number of skills and bonus types have been melded together.
  • Weapon enhancements are also far less potent in Starfinder, with most of them only activating on a critical hit. And even then, an attack can only activate one critical hit effect at a time.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This is probably the closest thing to a Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) RPG you'll ever see.