Sea of Stars (Review)

Developer: Sabotage Studio
Publisher: Sabotage Studio
Available On: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on Xbox Series S

While there has been no shortage of retro-inspired video games over the last console generation or two, none have captured my imagination and won me over as immediately as Sea of Stars. Ever since its debut in the E3/Summer Game Fest/Nintendo Direct cycle of the previous few years, it’s been impossible to deny just how perfect this game looks. With its gorgeous visual style inspired by the 16-bit RPGs of the ’90s, a timing-based combat system that draws from the likes of Super Mario RPG, and the promise of a grand story à la Final Fantasy, everything about this game looked like it was firing on all cylinders and made the leadup to its launch equal parts exciting and excruciating. Now that it’s been released and I’ve spent the past few weeks working my way through it, two things are clear. Sea of Stars was well worth the wait and its developer, Sabotage Studio, deserves to be a household name.

Whether this is your first RPG in this style or you grew up on these types of games, Sea of Stars instantly feels nostalgic and engaging from its opening minutes. This is a sweeping story about young heroes, magic, prophecies, returning evil, and the fight to save the world. At first, it all seems like typical fantasy tropes, and anyone who grew up playing fantasy RPGs, reading fantasy novels, or watching fantasy movies will probably find a lot of familiar themes here. While this could potentially be a detracting factor in any other game, Sea of Stars manages to make the familiar feel new with an emotionally resonant story carried by one of the most lovable casts in recent memory. So many fantasy stories use a lot of these tropes without any deviations from what people expect, but Sea of Stars manages to flesh out its world wonderfully and make clever little twists on well-trodden themes that feel earned and exciting. As a fantasy/RPG nerd who grew up in the ’90s, I found this game to be a warm and nostalgic blanket that simply oozes with comfort while also being pleasantly surprised by the subverting of expectation sprinkled throughout.

Much of the story is centered around two characters: Valere and Zale. These two young heroes are Solstice Warriors, champions destined to fight evil by drawing power from the sun and moon. Valere is a Lunar Battle Monk, using her connection to the moon to heal her friends and call on the lunar forces to damage her foes. Zale is a Solar Blade Dancer, dealing powerful melee strikes with his sword while also commanding solar magic to burn his enemies to a crisp. You can choose which character to play as at the start of the game, but all this really changes is who you move around as outside of battle, and you can freely change your mind at any point. However, while Valere and Zale may be the duo called to save the world with their magic, the real star of the game is their childhood friend Garl. While the two Solstice Warriors spent most of their childhood honing their magic, Garl practiced becoming a Warrior Cook to help protect his friends and keep them fed when they were old enough to head out on their journey. Garl is an endlessly flowing source of optimism and his love for his friends and his eagerness to see the world and learn about it are infectious, making him one of the best characters of the year.

As Valere and Zale learn about their role in defeating the forces of evil, they’re tasked with leaving the small town of Mooncradle where they’ve lived since birth. Along with Garl, none of them have ever left the safety of their village, resulting in a fun and exciting story about a group of friends exploring the world for the first time and learning about how it works. One of the greatest strengths of the game is that its locations are so varied and full of so many different kinds of people that there’s always something or someone new to meet, letting you feel like you’re making these discoveries right alongside the heroes. Pirates, haunted mansions, underwater cities, and more await around every corner, and the brisk pace of the game ensures you’re never bogged down in any one location for too long. In fact, in a genre full of games that can take over 100 hours to complete, it’s refreshing to have one like this which can be fully completed in around 40 hours.

One of the things I loved the most about this game is the way in which it slowly peels back its layers to envelop you in its world-building. In the early hours of the game, there are several references to different characters, events, locations, and general terms with little explanation, but it does a great job of revealing different pieces of the puzzle in a satisfying manner. Some of the best moments are when you learn about a famous event that took place and then have part of an earlier environment feel recontextualized with that knowledge, or spend hours hearing references about something only to have it suddenly show up and feel super impactful. Another way the world-building is handled is via Teaks, a historian who follows your group so she can document the world and share stories. Finding certain key items allows her to extract stories from them with her magical journal and tell you new stories about the world and its inhabitants. A wonderful sense of discovery comes with this world, and simply learning more about it is a highlight of the game.

Alongside the world-building is the world itself. All it takes is one glimpse of a screenshot or just a few seconds of seeing it in motion to understand how gorgeous this game is. Sabotage Studio made a name for themselves with 2018’s The Messenger (which I admittedly haven’t played) and proved that they understand retro aesthetics and are more than capable of intentionally making games that look like they’re from another era. With Sea of Stars, Sabotage Studio is channeling the likes of Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Golden Sun to create a 16-bit RPG that looks like a long-forgotten gem of the ’90s. However, what really makes Sea of Stars so visually pleasing is that it doesn’t just look like it’s aping a visual style. Instead, it uses the power of modern platforms to overcome the limitations of the past and use a massively wider color palette, more detailed sprites, and real-time lighting, as well as the ability to feature more music and sound effects. It feels like a modern take on a classic genre in a way that feels more like you remember these types of games being than what they actually were, and thanks to this increase in production value it makes the game feel equally modern and timeless in a powerful manner.

Fans of classic RPG combat systems are going to find a lot to love in Sea of Stars. In typical old-school RPG fashion, combat is turn-based. Combat plays out in rounds, with one round coming to a close after each member in your party takes one action, such as a melee attack, spell, or using an item. You can freely choose the order in which your party carries out their actions, but that order is very important. The enemies you face use a “Lock” system to signify their upcoming attacks (as pictured above) and require you to use corresponding attacks and abilities to weaken or cancel their attacks. As you can see in the above picture, the fish enemy needs to be hit with one solar attack (sun tile) and three lunar attacks (moon tile) to cancel their next attack. The little icon that looks like a stopwatch indicates how many turns you have to break the Lock before the attack is unleashed, which in this case is 1 turn. While you start off with only Valere, Zale, and Garl, your party grows over the course of the game to allow you more options in combat, although you can only have three fighters on the field at a time. Although you can freely swap out any character for a different one at the start of your turn without it counting as an action, allowing you to prepare your lineup for the fight.

Each character has their own basic attacks, spells, or abilities, and learning how to best combine them effectively is the key to breaking Locks. However, it’s not as easy as just choosing the right attack to target the Locks. Spells and abilities cost MP, which can be restored by using basic attacks, meaning you have to manage the MP of your more powerful abilities while also trying to keep yourself topped up by using basic attacks. I know it sounds like a lot to take in, but the game does a tremendous job of tutorializing the combat and helping you grasp everything. What makes all of this especially fun is that basic attacks make enemies drop magical orbs that you can absorb on your next turn to imbue your basic melee attack with a character’s unique magical affinity (if applicable) to still be able to take out a Lock if you don’t have enough MP for the related damage type. It essentially makes the combat system feel like a puzzle, forcing you to figure out the most efficient way to break locks before the timer counts down and the enemy launches an attack. It is worth noting that every enemy also has weaker basic attacks which still feature a countdown, but don’t have Locks, so it’s also a viable strategy to just brute force your way through some fights.

The last two major components to battle are combos and timing. The more you attack and use abilities, the more your combo meter will fill. Your combo meter has three gauges and depending on how many gauges you have filled you can unleash devastating joint attacks with two characters that can remove multiple types of tiles from a Lock. Each character has access to one combo attack when they join the party. However, exploring the world and completing certain story beats and bonus objectives will unlock more combos between different characters, giving you even more ways to break Locks. The other big component is timing, which some people are going to love and others are going to hate. If you time a button press at the exact second your basic attack, spell, or ability hits an enemy then you’ll deliver a second attack or deal more damage. You can also use this timing during the moment an enemy attack hits you, allowing you to minimize how much damage it deals. I thought learning the timing of when to attack and block added an awesome additional layer to combat, but those who feel intimidated by it can use Relics in the menu to give a better idea of when the timing window is or even have it handle it for you. There are several Relics unlocked from the beginning that modify the combat to make it easier or harder, and there isn’t a penalty for using any of them in terms of Achievements/Trophies, progress, etc.

While the use of Relics can make the game a lot easier, I don’t think the base difficulty is all that bad. There are a few tricky bosses and if you aren’t careful you can get yourself caught up in some really tough Lock situations, but for the most part, there are a ton of avenues for you to find success. Taking the time to memorize which skills and combinations of characters can break certain locks is the key factor for victory, but you can also shop in towns for new weapons and armor or level up and get a significant boost to your stats. Being a shorter RPG than most, the max level is 30, and each bonus from a level up sees a noticeable change in stats, making the process feel more meaningful. One of the things I really appreciated about the leveling system is that whenever you level up you get a small boost to just about every stat, but then you also get to choose from a random selection of four of your six stats to get a more significant boost. This allows you to really shape the different characters how you want them and choose if you want to have more balanced stats or go all-in on one as a specialization.

There are also multiple side activities to mess around with when you need a break from saving the world. One of the most important is cooking. Being a Warrior Cook, Garl can use ingredients found throughout the world or bought at shops to create tasty meals that restore health and MP or revive fallen party members in combat. It’s not the most engaging activity (there’s no mini-game) but it proves to be incredibly helpful nonetheless. Likewise, there are secret rainbow-colored conches hidden around the world that can be turned in for special rewards, a fun board game called Wheels that can be played at inns and even an entire island settlement where you can find building plans for new structures and recruit people to come and live and work there. There’s also a good old-fashioned fishing mini-game, which I think every RPG needs.

Another aspect of the game that I found surprising was an almost Metroidvania-like use of backtracking. While I won’t get too detailed about what they are, you unlock special tools throughout the course of the game that allow you to navigate the world and manipulate parts of it in different ways. These tools are mostly used for solving small puzzles during the main quest, but you can also revisit previous locations to unlock new areas, find powerful gear, and track down some of the more elusive rainbow conches. It offers you a decent enough incentive to backtrack and look for new paths and possibilities, although it is worth noting that some of the areas are quite large and can take a while to traverse again, even with shortcuts and the aid of your new tools. Thankfully, there’s a Relic you can unlock that allows you to see whether or not you’ve gotten everything in an area as well as letting you know where you still need to search for full completion, which minimizes some of the backtracking.

This is also one of those RPGs with a “true ending”. If you play the game naturally then I can almost guarantee you’ll have a great time and feel like you walked away from it with a satisfying story, but putting in the work to see and do literally everything in the game will allow you to experience a significant story change, learn some new information, and unlock what’s arguably one of the greatest video game scenes in recent memory. Do I think it’s necessary to unlock the true ending to enjoy the game? Not necessarily, but I do think it makes the story better and I would recommend you try to go for it, or at the very least look it up on YouTube once you finish the game with the normal ending.

Music lovers will also be happy to hear Sea of Stars has one of the best soundtracks of the year. There’s a very specific vibe that these kinds of RPGs had back in the day, and the music on display here sounds like the exact style of classic games while also feeling like its own thing. It’s a hard balance to walk between paying homage to an era and just copying its sound, and I think Sea of Stars manages to walk that line effortlessly. There are usually only a few gaming soundtracks I listen to repeatedly each year (the only other significant one this year has been Hi-Fi Rush) but Sea of Stars has definitely joined that list.

On a final note, while I can’t speak to all platforms, I found my experience on Xbox Series S to be completely bug-free. I didn’t encounter any issues with the video and audio, never experienced any performance issues, and didn’t have anything get in the way of progression. It was smooth sailing from beginning to end. Also, in closing, it’s worth noting that while this game is currently available digitally (and on Game Pass/PlayStation Plus!) those holding out for a physical version will have to wait for “Early 2024”.

FINAL VERDICT

Sea of Stars reminded me why I fell in love with RPGs. This immaculately made love letter to the past has everything about the genre that found its way into my heart as a kid and has remained into adulthood. It’s a fun story of good versus evil, young people with magic abilities, mysterious new worlds, monsters, adventure, and exploration. It simply feels like playing a lost game from my youth, albeit one that’s also benefitting from the advanced hardware of modern platforms. The combat is clever and engaging, the characters are wonderful to spend time with, and the beautiful and creative world it presents filled me with a sense of awe and wonder that felt wholesome and nostalgic. Sea of Stars has won me over and earned a spot on my “Favorite Games of All-Time” list, making it undoubtedly my frontrunner for Game of the Year.

– Zack Burrows