Sea of Stars is special. Inspired by SNES turned-based RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire, Sea of Stars is a party-based turn-based RPG with plenty of environmental puzzle solving in its fairly linear story. It doesn’t run into the trap many RPGs run into that make you endlessly grind to get your level up to progress the story, making it a perfectly manageable 25-30 hours. Its story kept me engaged throughout with enough twists to keep you guessing combined with charming dialogue and a great cast of characters.
Story
You choose to play as one of two Solstice Warriors, Zale or Velere. These teenagers are born into their roles of being heroes, just as every Solstice Warrior has before them. Luckily, the story is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance. Yes, you will be tasked with saving the world from impending doom. Yes, it will take you to distant lands, and require you to meet a diverse cast of characters and force you to unlock your true potential. But along the way, it throws enough curveballs at you to stay interesting and I truly found the entire game to be quite endearing in an almost juvenile way. This is partly due to your characters being teenagers and viewing the world through their eyes, but also just in the whimsical nature of the world & characters around you. It makes it easier to digest the dark and heavy events unfolding in the story when each interaction your characters have is tinged with such lightheartedness. I always love it when a game has “that moment” and I feel like this game has several which makes for some great conversations when talking with fellow players.
Progression through the story feels very organic, with its villains, characters, and world lore being rolled out throughout the game instead of a huge exposition dump in its first 5 hours. If you ever find yourself needing a refresher or a deeper understanding of the world and story, you can rest at a campfire and talk to your traveling companion who documents your travels. I love this and I’d love to see it implemented in more games moving forward. Final Fantasy XVI had a system like this on steroids earlier this year and I hope the industry continues to push towards this, especially as I become busier and have to return to games sometimes months later. Speaking of campfires, building one allows you to speak with Zale or Velere (whichever one you aren’t playing as) and switch to controlling them. This is mostly a cosmetic change, as both characters interact in most dialogue scenarios, but still a nice touch.
Presentation
Sea of Stars is quite gorgeous. From its visuals to its animations and an incredible amount of small details. Every second that I spent in its world I was joyed to be watching my characters interact with the world around them. The 16-bit inspired pixel art is absolutely stunning. The resolution is super high and makes the art appear super crisp and it combines it with a lighting system that truly shines. And my oh my, the music. Yasunori Mitsuda, of Chrono Trigger fame, really popped off here. The music sounds both upgraded and beautiful but also just like you remember from the SNES days. It really is something.
There is a lot of exploration in this world that includes climbing up ladders, shimmying along cliff edges, and walking across tightropes. Each of these actions is brilliantly animated down to even having unique tightrope animations for each character. My favorite is a ninja character that is so agile they don’t even have to hold their arms out to balance on them. Each character you interact with has unique little animations and the main cast has even more care given to them. Grass and trees sway in the breeze and the water is surprisingly fluid & interactive. Battles take place directly in the world without a loading screen or dumping you into a pregenerated arena which adds to the interactivity of the world.
In classic Chrono Trigger fashion, you move between levels/zones on an overworld map free of combat but filled with a few side areas and they always look stunning.
Combat
Sea of Stars really got its hooks in me with its combat. I enjoy classic turn-based RPGs, but I really enjoy when a combat system adds a layer of engagement or complexity on top. Sea of Stars doesn’t reinvent the wheel in this regard, but it does do a few things to keep you engaged and utilizing all of the tools at your disposal. Each turn from both your party and the enemy offers you a timing-based chance to either inflict extra damage or negate extra damage from an enemy attack. Some of these are terribly hard to anticipate, but luckily they aren’t necessary to leave a battle victorious, they just allow you to do so more quickly. Another neat wrinkle is that all your standard attacks regain a small amount of MP. This encourages you to consistently use your skills in addition to regular attacks during each combat encounter. Couple this with unlockable combo moves from your party and each battle felt engaging till the end of my playthrough.
Each enemy in battle has a counter about their head that tells you how many turns until they attack. This added a nice layer of strategy to each encounter. You can start each combat encounter with whichever character you want, allowing you to swap between characters or attack with a certain type of magic/weapon type. This is especially nice because when enemies are powering up their special attacks. When an enemy is powering up a special attack, they have a host of damage types above their head along with the turn counter. If you do none of these types of damage by the time the attack goes off it will deal 100% damage. If you attack with only a portion of the damage types by the time the attack occurs, it will deal decreased damage. And the holy grail is if you deal ALL types of damage required before the turn timer reaches 0, the enemy will be interrupted and not able to use their special attack at all. This creates a nice risk reward to try and stop certain enemies from attacking while leaving others open to attack you at will.
Final Thoughts
In a Summer/Fall that is absolutely stacked with great triple-A RPGs, I’m glad to report that Sea of Stars stands up there with the best of them. It is focused, charming, and a ton of fun. Sabotage Studio has successfully created an RPG that pays homage to the SNES classics while creating a space for itself among a crazy good year of games. Please go play this game.
