One of the biggest areas in gaming you see the nostalgia trend in is RPG gaming. Everyone wants to revisit those stories they played as a kid and developers know this. For the last decade or so we’ve had release after release trying to recapture the magic that made those old RPGs and some have done pretty well. Games like Cross Code (review here) and Chained Echoes (review here) have gotten us closer and closer to those old releases. But now there’s a new entry into the classic JRPG style and it’s going to blow you away. Welcome to Sea of Stars.
Developed and published by Sabotage Studios, makers of The Messenger, Sea of Stars is the modern 16-bit style JRPG you’ve been waiting for. That’s not something to be said lightly either, because this is a genre where people’s expectations are remarkably high and their initial reactions make or break releases. But Sea of Stars is something special. Let’s get a bit of detail work out of the way first. This is a prequel to The Messenger but it’s not directly related. It takes place in the same world but thousands of years before and well, it’s an RPG too. So while you might catch something that is tangentially related, this isn’t going to be the same experience at all.
In the game you play Zale and Valere, two Solstice Warriors. They are powerful mage warriors that are destined to fight against the forces of the Fleshmancer and his minions, ultra powerful Dwellers that the Fleshmancer has seeded the planet with. Left unchecked, the Dwellers grow into World Eaters and well, no one wants that. Zale and Valere are eventually joined by a whole cast of characters including four additional playable ones and their task of saving the world becomes rather more complex than they had anticipated.
Here’s the thing about Sea of Stars. It’s a spectacular script that feels like it’s current and fresh and also feels like it just stepped out of an old SNES cartridge. The mesh of modern and vintage is nothing short of outstanding and the plot keeps you on your toes in a way that games have failed to do for a long time. Sure, it toes the edges of tropes all over the place, but it does so knowingly and some of the characters even joke about it a bit. This is a title that’s aware of exactly what it is and where it’s place is and manages to fit there so smoothly it feels like a game you should have played 20 years ago. It’s almost like being a kid again to play Sea of Stars.
That being said, introducing you to the six playable characters, their backstories, or even their abilities might ruin the story for you and that’s a horrible thing to do with a game this good. Instead, expect a bunch of emotional ups and downs within an incredibly solid 25-30 hour experience and a game that’s basically soul food for JRPG gamers. But why is it so good? It’s all in the recipe! Sea of Stars takes all the old RPG combat and gameplay systems and refines them in such a way that they feel fresh, modern and interesting. The game also broadens the appeal of gameplay to a wider audience and incorporates a plethora of accessibility options that many players will appreciate.
First off, let’s look at the combat. This is a standard RPG with hit and magic points and you have options to attack, use skills, and use items. Not all that complex, right? There’s not even a defend option here to muddle things up. But there’s a lot more going on under the hood than you might expect. For one, you can learn combos where characters can team up to deal more damage. Again, not all that surprising. For two, combat isn’t simply menu-driven. Instead, you can do extra damage with each attack by timing button presses to the moment your weapon hits the enemy. This adds a fair amount of extra damage, accelerating the battle and adding a degree of interactivity. You can do the same with defense. Just as you take damage, hitting the A button (on the Switch at least) will partially block damage, helping you to survive a bit longer.
That’s not all though. Hitting enemies with normal attacks heals some of your MP back, allowing you to continue to use skills in battle without using a bunch of items and wasting turns which makes battles shorter and more enjoyable. Hitting those enemies eventually starts to knock energy out of them which your characters can absorb to boost their attacks, adding an additional magical edge to their assaults and doing significantly more damage. Any character can use this energy, even ones that aren’t Solstice Warriors. You can build up three levels of energy to absorb and adding it has some pretty substantial effects.
Then there’s the lock system. Enemies have regular and stronger attacks. When an enemy starts charging a stronger attack, a lock system shows up above them. The game shows icons of the type of damage you must do to break their focus and prevent the attack, as well as the number of turns you have to do it in. This might be a simple double sword or double hammer attack, meaning that if you use a standard attack and time button presses, you could cancel the enemy out in a single hit. Other enemies and bosses might have larger locks requiring multiple hits from different characters requiring multiple turns to break, assuming you even have time or the right characters to do so. It’s a neat combat system that has a ton of versatility and tactical approach as well as interactivity instead of a simple button press to confirm actions.
We’re still not done with combat! There’s more! Completing button press combos (attacks and blocks both) builds your combo gauge and allows you to pull off combo moves. Some are healing for your party, others are powerful attacks. Saving up for combos in big fights is a necessity as some of them are much more powerful than any regular attacks and skills in your repertoire. Plan out your attacks right and you can simply obliterate the enemy. Combos are found by exploring the world of Sea of Stars and you absolutely can miss them, so don’t hesitate to check all those nooks and crannies! Eventually you’ll also get an ultimate attack as well which is pretty darn cool. Skills are also quite powerful and can be very effective if you’re good at timing your button presses. A couple characters including Valere have attacks that require you to time your presses faster and faster and give you a damage multiplier for doing so, sometimes up to tripling the standard attack damage from the skill. It’s an effective way to incorporate player interactivity in a fun and meaningful way.
Whew! Now if that was all Sea of Stars had to offer, it would be pretty good. But it’s not. There’s so much more here! Naturally you’ll eventually find a vehicle to travel around the game’s numerous islands in and even obtaining that is a great story. You’ll also get to play a surprisingly fun fishing mini-game to obtain cooking resources. Cooking isn’t a chore in Sea of Stars and only takes a few moments, unlike other games (*cough* Breath of the Wild *cough*). There’s even a village you can build up and add structures to, expanding the scope of the items available and adding to the depth of the story. It’s simple but entirely optional too, which is a refreshing change. Naturally a mini-game called Wheels is included as well and it’s quite strategic. There are also hidden shells that you can eventually exchange for unique extra items and throughout the game, you have access to a storyteller that provides you with lore and history of the world. It’s all extra stuff that you can do and absolutely don’t have to. The magic of Sea of Stars though is that unlike other games that feel like collect-a-thons, you actually want to do everything in Sea of Stars.
Exploring dungeons doesn’t feel like a chore, even if you’re backtracking. Fishing is remarkably entertaining with an excellent design mechanic, cooking feels scaled down so that it’s not a chore and is still beneficial, and the entire game exudes an excess of polish. That goes for the menu system too as there are a number of optional relics you can buy and utilize through the menu. These relics allow you to re-balance the game, kind of like difficulty settings but more complex and approachable. In the menu, they appear as a series of switches. Once you have them, you can set the game to auto-heal (without using resources) after combat and double your HP, reduce damage taken, show visual timing for combat, reduce lock damage resistance, increase blocking skills, and even time blocks for you. The best part is that you can control all of this yourself, tailoring your experience in Sea of Stars to the type of game you want to play. That’s good because the standard experience in the game is actually quite challenging and combat requires you to carefully consider skills, time lock attacks, and struggle to survive major fights. That hardcore experience is tempered by the available options but there’s truly something for everyone here.
All of this and we haven’t even talked about how the game looks yet! As you can already see, this is a game that looks like it just stepped off the SNES. Colors are vibrant, character pixel art is excellent, and the background designs are cool. There are a wide variety of areas and environments and they cleverly hide alternate routes and areas to access a ton of hidden items. Nothing is too ridiculously hard to find but at the same time, you’ll definitely have to look. The enemy designs are awesome too and oh, anime-style cut scenes that are fully animated in key areas of the game! There are some really cool scenes throughout Sea of Stars and it’s easy to see this as an animated series (one can hope). Even character portraits show expressions and reactions during story sequences. Every little detail has been thought of in Sea of Stars and the attention to the graphics shows it.
The music is no slouch here either! Sea of Stars features a very ‘90s style soundtrack but the songs aren’t incredibly repetitive and different areas of the game shift to different music in towns, dungeons, and even in combat. The variety of tunes means that nothing ever gets too stale and you can even find music sheets to provide to a band to play more music if you feel like just chilling in the tavern and listening to some MIDI style! There’s a ton of variety here from cheerful active music to somber, sad melodies and everything in between. The sound effects are excellent as well, fitting in nicely with the music and plot of the story and providing clear distinction for different areas and enemies.
What you end up with when you play Sea of Stars is an experience that’s nothing short of magical. This is a refined RPG that wears its influences clearly but manages to stay fresh and new throughout the entire game, slowly adding more mechanics and play concepts as you go. While it might follow a few RPG tropes, they’re all spun in new and original ways so that this feels like a vintage SNES experience with every modern amenity. There’s no grinding here and levelling up is honestly more of an afterthought than a goal, taking a back seat to the impressive storytelling and gameplay that Sea of Stars has to offer. Everything in the game has such a high degree of polish that it’s honestly hard to find a single thing wrong with Sea of Stars and that’s rare indeed. Simply put, this is one of the most fun and engaging RPGs ever made and it’s an absolute must-buy for anyone who has even the tiniest interest in the genre. You need to play Sea of Stars. Now.
This review is based on a digital copy of Sea of Stars provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch OLED in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. Sea of Stars is also available for PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Steam and is coming to both Playstation Plus and Gamepass. Sea of Stars will be available physically in a limited release from iam8bit games in early 2024.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
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