Sea of Stars Review

This is a spoiler-free Sea of Stars review, including only minor early-game details.

Sea of Stars is like a time machine, whisking us back to the glorious bygone days of Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 6. This long-awaited indie title is a love letter to the era many still regard as the golden age of RPGs, after promptly hitting its funding goal on Kickstarter over three years before release.

Sabotage Studios, known otherwise for a platform title called The Messenger, set out to fuel our nostalgia whilst adding some modern sheen to the traditional RPG formula. With neat turn-based battles, vibrant graphics and a charming world to explore, it’s probably fair to say they succeeded in giving their backers exactly what they wanted.

Sea of Stars tells the tale of Zale and Valere, two young warriors blessed with Eclipse magic. Zale was born under the summer solstice, thus being granted the power of the sun. Valere, meanwhile, was born under the winter solstice, gaining the reverse power of the moon. After being trained at the Zenith Academy of Mooncradle, they set out to rid the land of evil creatures called Dwellers, who can grow big enough to destroy the entire world if not exterminated.

Along the way, the pair join forces with a motley group of companions, including their childhood friend Garl the “Warrior Cook” and a historian called Teaks, whose enchanted book can relay the backstories of magical artifacts.

Sea of Stars makes a great first impression with striking, vibrant visuals which perfectly capture that old 16-bit feeling. Everything looks lively and colourful, from the character models to the lush surroundings and overworld. At first glance, the nostalgic charm of the graphics may trick you into thinking they are of the same standard as decades ago, but the reality is they are far superior in crispness and polish. Sea of Stars looks absolutely gorgeous to anyone with fond memories of the aforementioned SNES classics.

Sea of Stars unashamedly draws huge visual inspiration from Chrono Trigger, and such homage is also evident in the battle system. Battles are triggered by touching an enemy on the field, prompting an old-school, turn-based skirmish where characters can use individual skills and combo abilities to gain the upper hand.

With a helping of Super Mario RPG, the battle system also features a timed button press mechanic, which can slightly boost your attack power if executed at the exact moment your attack strikes. Similarly, you can negate some of the enemy damage by pressing the button to defend as you take a hit. It’s a neat feature which has some novel use for certain skills, such as Valere’s Moonerang which can be repeatedly deflected for massive combos with the requisite timing.

Another cool inclusion is the occasional ability to interrupt enemy skills, where a series of element icons will appear in advance of their turn. If you can hit each element displayed before they strike, then the enemy will be rendered helpless for the rest of the turn. Though a pretty simple component, I really came to love plotting my turns to cancel out these dangerous skills – particularly against bosses where a bit more thought is involved.

Whilst perfectly enjoyable for the duration of the game, the battle system still doesn’t quite have enough depth to be considered top-tier. Unfortunately, there are only a small handful of skills for each character, with no progression tree to learn anything new. Instead, the same few attacks will be utilised for virtually the entire game, and the only other elements to mix things up comes in the form of Ultra attacks and character switching.

By this time, the game is ridiculously easy to break, and it’s not as if there is a huge amount of challenge anyway. Even without using the ‘easy mode’ accessories which seem to have become a recent trend (one I’m not fond of), I did not die in the entire game. Save and rest points are everywhere, and can easily be revisited quickly if you get in a bit of trouble. Compared to the admittedly brutal difficulty of yesteryear’s RPGs, it’s almost patronising. The boss battles don’t put up much of a fight either, outside of a small few that require a bit more tactical consideration.

Though I’d have welcomed some tougher combat, the most fun and engaging part of Sea of Stars’ gameplay is its many dungeons, which perfectly mix battles and puzzles in equal measure. There are enough enemies around to feel a sense of danger without being overwhelmed with relentless combat, and just enough puzzles to mix things up. The puzzles themselves also strike a great balance, being stimulating without crossing the line into frustrating.

Dungeons are really well designed, generally enabling players to backtrack easily enough, whilst holding enough secrets to reward exploration. Some of these contain Zelda-esque key items that can unlock new areas both inside and outside the dungeons, like a grappling hook or an underwater breathing charm.

Unfortunately, backtracking outside of the dungeons is a rather different story. The cumbersome fast travel system is really limited, and some areas simply cannot be skipped through quickly, forcing you to trudge through lengthy areas all over again again. Since there are a few times when backtracking is necessary to progress the story, this became pretty frustrating.

Saying that, the world of Sea of Stars is not particularly big, with its modest number of locations mitigating the issue. It’s undeniably great to be back on a world map, setting out on an epic quest guaranteed to take you across all corners of the globe. I really miss world maps.

There is incentive to explore everywhere, with one of the main perks being the mini-game Wheels. Once you’ve worked out the rules (which is no small task), Wheels proves to be a terrific inclusion mixing luck with strategy as you aim to take down gradually better players.

Exploration and combat is all accompanied by a good soundtrack from Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer from – you guessed it – Chrono Trigger, among some notable others. I absolutely adore Mitsuda’s work on the Xenoblade Chronicles games, and he once again showcases his talents with a mixture of adventurous beats and intense battle tracks. There’s one particular boss variation I loved, but overall the soundtrack is probably not quite in the upper echelons of Mitsuda’s portfolio. Whilst perfectly serviceable in all respects, there aren’t many tunes I’m likely to revisit in years to come.

Following Sea of Stars’ main narrative is mostly a straightforward affair, taking you gradually around each area with problems cropping up to halt your progress, inevitably requiring the heroes to conquer the nearby dungeon. Nonetheless, it has a few interesting story beats and hooks that captured my attention and had me keen to unravel some of the deeper mysteries.

The characters are a bit of a mixed bag, with a couple of really interesting ones who end up a little underused. Unfortunately, I found main heroes Zale and Valere themselves a little bland, and the notion of gaining equal powers from opposite sources is not particularly explored within the plot. I felt there was more opportunity to have the pair’s natural tendencies more reflected within their personalities, showcasing each one’s specific strengths to balance the other’s weaknesses. Instead, I never really found either had much character beneath the surface.

Another gripe of mine is perhaps a little more controversial – Garl. The “Warrior Cook” is the childhood friend of Zale and Valere, who promptly joins them on their quest after not seeing the pair for many years. To put this in perspective, Zale and Valere have special solstice powers and have also spent their entire childhoods undergoing intense training with other Solstice Warriors. Garl, who trained on his own and fights with a pot lid is apparently more than capable of holding his own alongside the two warriors.

I wouldn’t mind this too much – a bit of absurdity is definitely in-keeping with old-school RPGs – except that Garl proves to be a bit of a Gary Sue. Everyone everywhere automatically loves him, and a few simple words from Garl seem to be enough to break the strongest of resolves – such as when Zale and Valere try and talk him out of joining the adventure only to back down immediately. In fact, there are many pivotal scenes where Garl rather takes over, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that Zale and Valere are actually the main heroes, and I ended up finding him a bit annoying.

The plot itself still has some high points, with one pivot I didn’t see coming. There are even a few cool cinematic cutscenes, which completely caught me off guard and add some emphasis to the more dramatic scenes. This is juxtaposed with dialogue that is generally ‘to the point’, with scenes rushing by after major events that could have been utilised to expand on the more interesting characters. Instead, there are just a handful of short lines before we are straight back to business.

In fact, after reaching the true ending in around 36 hours, I actually couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing from Sea of Stars, as if a final chapter had been cut out. With a number of crucial plot points left unresolved, I had to double check online that I had in fact reached its final conclusion. Disappointingly, I had indeed.

Whether Sabotage Studios is hedging its bets for a possible sequel or whether their resources were all spent, I’m not sure. A DLC stretch goal was reached, but its prospective title does not suggest it is going to fill in the particular blanks I am referring to. I guess time will tell, and for the record I would definitely be open to a follow-up.

As it is, Sea of Stars remains a terrific indie title, and a worthwhile endeavour for any fans of the 90’s SNES era. The story shortcomings and easy difficulty are still made up for with its quirky battle system and gorgeous world that is both enjoyable and rewarding to explore. It may not reinvent the wheel, but Sea of Stars is clearly fine with that – and so am I.

Score: 8/10

Sea of Stars is great turn-based RPG which successfully captures the nostalgia it aimed for, whilst adding some modern polish to its traversal and combat. The story did not quite deliver on its early promise, but fans of the classics will find plenty to enjoy from this excellent indie effort.