Crunchyroll’s new puzzle game is a shining star

The Star Named EOS, a delightful photography-based puzzler, is about to glide onto mobile through Crunchyroll’s Game Vault – and I got to try it out. So I’m here to compare the performance and controls to those of the game on Switch and let you know if it’s worth playing.

For a deeper look at the game, you can see our full The Star Named EOS review on Nintendo Switch here, but I’ll give a quick summary of it. The Star Named EOS is a point-and-click game laden with puzzles, where you play as Dei.

He finds photographs left by his mother after she went missing and aims to recreate them to relive memories of her, using her camera, too. You do this by solving puzzles to find items, then placing them in the setting and snapping a pic. There are only a few chapters, as the game isn’t very long, but an emotional story unfolds through them nonetheless.

The game translates incredibly well to mobile. You’re going to be tapping different objects and moving slowly around while pivoting on the spot – both of which work excellently on a phone screen. I think I might actually prefer it on mobile than on Switch, as the touch-screen controls only appeared during moments where you’re figuring things out, not as a constant option. It’s much easier to look around with a simple swipe of the finger than with joysticks, for me.

The artwork in EOS is delightful. It’s all hand-drawn, and really adds to the feel of the game, and isn’t compromised on a different platform. I played the game on a Samsung S24 FE, so not the best phone out there, and it played perfectly well.

Now, gameplay-wise, this is mostly puzzles interspersed with some story told through letters and pictures. If you’re not a fan of this kind of gameplay or find yourself not wanting to figure out answers from clues, this might not be for you. There aren’t any hints available, so if you get stuck, you might need to find a walkthrough.

If you’ve been wondering about playing The Star Named EOS, I highly recommend it on mobile, as the touch-screen controls smooth the puzzle-solving process. We also have more recommendations of similar hidden-object games, and of course, some picks of the best gaming phones out there if you need an upgrade.