GAME REVIEW: Sea of Stars (2023)
It’s rather rare to find me purchasing a game right when it comes out, let alone pre-ordering anything. However, when Sea of Stars was announced to rave reviews and came out with a perfectly affordable price-tag, AND it boasted the same makers of The Messenger (Sabotage Studios), I felt more than compelled to step out of my comfort zone. I was finishing up Octopath Traveler II and ready for a new RPG, though I had a few smaller games in the middle to test out in between, like Children of Morta, Moonlighter, and Oceanhorn. However, once I got started, I really couldn’t put it down after a few sessions, so let’s get into it!
First of all: art and style. I want to award full scores for the absolutely beautiful pixel art and wonderful soundtrack that really subtly fits the setting. I also want to give bonus points for the music after something happens in game, which will be included in the Spoiler Zone at the bottom of this article. This is also the first game that I’ve actively started taking screenshots in, because I wanted to save the sprites to make into pixel-stitches!
Next up: gameplay. If you’re looking for a tactical challenge, this is not your game, but in that sense, I found myself very pleased with the system. If you’ve played a game like Octopath Traveler II that has also made an effort to elevate the classic RPG battle system, I feel like Sea of Stars took this a little bit further. The PCs have a few options of things they can do: basic attack, skill attack (magic), combos, and special combos. You can also draw magic from enemies with a basic attack that your other PCs can use to boost attacks. This allows for a lot of variety in battle, and as well, you can swap out your PCs for your reserve without it costing you anything—something I always thought was extremely stupid for not being an option in Final Fantasy games. If I have one complaint, it’s that sometimes the move animations, fun as they are, can be long and a little bit tedious. Using ultimate moves, for example, brings me back to summoning Eden in Final Fantasy IX—too long, though I confess that it is somewhat nostalgic! Boss battles are tricky but didn’t kick my ass too badly, though there were a couple that I had to do a few times in order to figure out the best strategy.
One of my favorite parts of the game, and one that I thought was extremely innovative, was that, rather than having a easy, normal, and hard mode, the game included Relics, which would be used to make the game easier or harder. This was really cool, because the game could feel challenging in the exact ways that you wanted it to, while you could also play it on “story mode” essentially, if you just want to experience the world. Then again, for those who want more of a challenge, there were options to make things trickier as well. I truly loved this part of the game! Furthermore, the trickiest puzzles and fights are left until the time before you approach the final battle, making the game feel like it’s made for adults while still being accessible to younger players, because the main game is quite straightforward to pick up (and I say that as a mechanical dumb-dumb). This makes the whole game feel like it’s very easy to allow kids to play, but the harder boss fights and puzzles are completely optional.
There’s also an in-game game, like Gwent or Triple Triad! This game is called Wheels and even the tactical fool that I am learned how to play it really quickly. There’s a really strong balance between using clever tactics and sheer roulette luck in the game, which can make it really frustrating, but for an in-game game, I found Wheels to be pretty fresh and fun to play, and enjoyed going to new places where I could play. There’s also definitely one character combo that’s a complete cheese-fest, so if the game gets annoying, do not worry, there’s a way to make it really, really way-too-easy.
It’s also worth noting that I enjoy simply spending time in the world, since the artwork and music was so fantastic. Yatsunori Misuda is known for having done the Chrono Cross OST, amongst others, while rainbowdragoneyes did music for The Messenger, meaning that there was a varied and fun use of music that reflected but did not mimic the creative use of music from their previous game. However, I will mention that the use of music in The Messenger was extremely innovative and blended with with their use of art style. I was delighted, then, that this game also had an elevated use of its music!
Of course, we have to talk about the story too. The Spoiler Zone down below will go into some details, but overall, they did a pretty solid job of the story. The game intro is a clever framing sequence that pays out about halfway through the game (one that got me very excited). There’s an initial status quo set up, missions are given, but there’s a big event that messes up everything, and then what feels like the real story begins. The pacing is curious, because it feels quite brisk (haha, I made a pun), but flows quite well. If you’re expecting a drawn-out Final Fantasy game like I was, the pacing might through you off too. I felt like it started out normally, escalated fairly quickly, but then more ended up happening overall than I was expecting, perhaps because it escalated so fast after the first few quests. Overall, I felt like I got quite enough bang for my buck and I was very happy to collect everything in game to get the True Ending, and then some! I wanted to enjoy the world for as long as I could, and that’s, really, the mark of an excellent game. This was by far the best game I played in 2023!
SPOILER ZONE from here on out!
At the beginning of the game, the player is introduced to The Archivist, who sits mysteriously behind a chair and is telling us a story about Solstice Warriors. As we progress through the game, however, these two stories meet and lo and behold! The Archivist aka The Immortal Alchemist aka Resh’an, IS ONE OF THOSE INTERDIMENSIONAL SPACE GUYS FROM THE MESSENGER! As soon as I realized this, I started freaking out and this was only further exacerbated by leaving the scene through a portal and THE FRIGGIN’ MUSIC FROM THE MESSENGER STARTED PLAYING! AHHHHH! You know, that crazy stuff by rainbowdragoneyes? Okay, if you know me, you know I love interconnected worlds and lore, the Pixar Theory, the Whedonverse, the Masuverse… anything that’s super interconnected and well-done, I will devour like a starving person at a feast. So this just tickled me right in my happy place. Then, even better, you get to bring Resh’an into your party? The mysterious interdimensional guys are god-tier wizards, yet you get to play as one of them! Even better, the reasoning for him to not function on god-tier level is perfectly acceptable to my logic processors! Honestly, this game really just tickled everything that I love about gaming and I cannot recommend it enough!
