It's been a big year for indie RPGs. Not going to lie, I was thinking I might skip this one. But with all the hype around Sea of Stars, coupled with the fact that I really liked Chain of Echoes earlier in the year, I decided I had to give it a shot.
Not to be confused with Star Ocean, the other game with a maritime metaphor for space in its title, Sea of Stars is the latest heavily hyped, 2D RPG designed as a callback to the classic golden age RPGs that many of us grew up with. It was developed by and published by Sabotage Studios, a Quebec-based indie developer best known for their 2018 action platformer The Messenger. For the record, the two games allegedly take place in the same universe but have nothing else really to do with each other. Sea of Stars began its life in 2020 as a kickstarter campaign, with the studio wanting to produce a title that had more depth than its previous offering. It was heavily influenced by games like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI and Lufia II. Stop me if you've heard that one before. One paragraph in, and I am already starting to feel like I am reviewing Chained Echoes again. Look, these two games are inevitably going to get compared to each other, probably until the end of time. We will get back to that, probably in a few weeks, but for now I want to give Sea of Stars its time in the spotlight. Because while it wasn't perfect, SOS more than stands on its own. This was a good, solid RPG that harkens back to some classic old titles, sometimes even a little too much. But it's a well-designed game and an admirable effort from a small indie studio. As is customary with RPGs, I will be discussing the story, plot and characters first before delving in to the gameplay. The story here is solid, if a bit uninspired and disjointed. I don't think its bad, but it definitely doesn't quite match some of the titles it's trying to ape. I get what they were trying to accomplish, but things go from overly simple to overly complicated very quickly and it almost seemed like they were trying to shoehorn too much content into a relatively average length RPG. A lot of it is going to be a little difficult to explain, as I am going to actively try and avoid spoilers. All that said, it was still relatively compelling and at no point did I ever feel bored or lose interest in what was going on.
Sea of Stars puts you in control of Valere and Zale, two young Solstice Warriors from the remote village of Mooncradle (you can choose either one as your point character, but the story is unaffected by this decision). Every few years on the solstice, the Great Eagle will bless the village with a potential Solstice Warrior, tied to either the powers of the sun or moon. These warriors are important, because the posses the innate ability to use eclipse magic. This special magic is the only way to harm creatures called Dwellers, creatures created by the evil Fleshmancer hell bent on the destruction of the world. Valere and Zale have a relatively simple childhood, playing alongside their friend Garl and idolizing adult Solstice Warriors Erlina and Bugraves. But soon, it becomes time to begin their training. Taken to the academy by Headmaster Moraine, the duo is locked away during a seven-year training process as they learn to harness their powers. They miss Garl terribly, but they know they have an important role in keeping the world safe. Their training complete, the duo sets off on what could be their first and only mission: defeat the Dweller of Woe on the mysterious Wraith Island. The end is in sight, this is the last Dweller and if it can be defeated, the world may finally be free of the Fleshmancer's grasp. The duo sets out, joined by Garl, who has been doing some training of his own. Moraine isn't thrilled to have a non-Solstice Warrior around, but at the end of the day, he will take all the help he can get. Without spoiling anything, let's just say the battle with the Dweller of Woe doesn't go as planned. A betrayal leads to the summoning of the Fleshmancer's Acolytes and sets Valere and Zale on a quest to stop an even more nefarious enemy, all while they learn about the true nature of their world.
It's a pretty solid, if underwhelming plot, though it's kind of nice to see in a game designed to reference old school RPGs like this. You have your chosen warriors, loyal best friend, stodgy old headmaster, major existential threat, you know the drill. It may be simple, but it's relatively well told and loses very little to things like technical or translation issues. It starts out simple, but once you hit the midpoint of the main story things start to get real weird, real fast. Any time you have anything going on with multiple timelines things are going to be at least some level of tricky to follow. It doesn't really impact the gameplay like it does in something like Chrono Trigger, but it does lead to a story that just randomly starts throwing curveballs seemingly left and right. A lot of terms, locations, entities and characters are thrown out at the player very suddenly and very late in the game. Most of these twists are actually good and some are even great, but some of them lose their impact when they just come one after another after another. You just start getting over the shock of time traveling pirate ships and the game is all the sudden throwing robots and evil bird cults at you. Don't get me wrong, there are some truly excellent story beats here, some of which are especially tragic. But it seemed like a lot of stuff was thrown against a wall in hope it would stick. There feels like a lot of loose ends that aren't tied up, though maybe plans for some kind of sequel are in the works. I do get what they were going for and I definitely liked the story overall, but it wasn't perfect. At times, it almost felt like it was trying too much to be like the old games it was inspired by. But that's also kind of the point of a game like SOS, so I am kind of glad they went that direction instead of just going with something completely out there.
The characters in SOS were a bit of a mixed bag, some were strong while others were very forgettable. I will say there really wasn't anyone that I was annoyed by or wished would go away, which was a positive. But SOS is a game that is absolutely carried by its secondary characters. That's not necessarily a problem, but how noticeably weak the protagonists are kind of is. I was calling Zale and Valere "boy" and "girl" for probably the first 10 hours of the game...that's not good. It's not like they were silent protagonists either, they just kind of lack any real personality. Okay, so they are Solstice Warriors fated to battle Dwellers. But they don't really get too deep into how the duo feels about this, their hopes, fears, dreams, anything beyond "hey, we get to fight monsters, that's cool." Erlina and Bugraves are far more developed in that regard, you can really see how weary they are becoming of their roles as Zale and Velare prepare to take over for them and you get the vibe they would have chosen a different path in life given the option. Moraine is a bit hackneyed as the gruff old academy master, but he does a good job and grows quite a bit more than characters of this archetype typically do. The first party member to join the trio is Serai, a mysterious assassin that looks suspiciously like the pirate captain you just met in town. She's a cool character and incredibly well designed, but there are like, four plot twists directly involving her character and while all of them make sense, it becomes overkill. She has all this change without any actual growth, by the end of the game she is a completely different character yet still feels the same. She's strong enough as a character that she's still cool though. Alchemist Resh'An will also join your party and I think he's an excellent character, though elabortaing on why would completely spoil the plot. Your party will also interact with a number of supporting characters, including Teaks, a historian that can tell stories based on items you find. These stories are often hints at side content or, at the very least, interesting tidbits about the lore of SOS. She has that "peppy RPG girl" personality that's normally reserved for a token female party member, so it's kind of cool to see her fill a role like that. You will also encounter a pirate crew led by the enigmatic captain Klee Shae, that serve as a sort of comic relief. I think they overdo it here with the overly meta RPG references, but for the most part they are fine. The Fleshamancer is a suitably menacing villain, he looks intimidating and his power level is well established. His acolytes are also great underlings, though they kind of disappear without much of an explanation.
But the strongest character here has to be Garl, and I don't think it's particularly close. To be honest, I thought they were setting him up as a villain when we first met him, with Zale and Valere leaving him to go to the academy and their initially being resistant to him traveling with them. But they avoid that whole RPG trope and keep him in the role of supportive friend that follows the duo to the ends of the world. And he plays that role about as well as he possibly could, almost to the point where the game feels like it's more his story of following the mains on their journey rather than the story of their mission to destroy the Dwellers. It certainly helps that he's well written and all of his dialogue is realistic and organic, but the reason he is so compelling goes deeper than that. The problem with the whole "destined child" trope, not just in SOS but in RPGs as a whole, is that it kind of leads to main characters coming off as unrelatable. I damn sure have never been destined for anything. Look, at the end of the day, the chosen one with godlike super powers is just inherently going to be less relatable than the short, fat guy who's hobby is eating and who's primary form of attack is bashing enemies over the head with a pot lid. Of course, that's not the only reason he's a great character, but it helps. Garl is often the mouthpiece for the party in situations where most games would dictate that role to the protagonist. He's positive to the point of being naieve, but he's not such a moron that he gets himself in trouble at every chance he gets. His desire for adventure and longing to be something more than just another regular citizen of Mooncradle (basically it's the role of every non-academy member there to wait on the Solstice Warriors hand and foot and give them what they need) is something that's all too on the nose for those of use that live the daily grind. SOS goes a long way in making him an incredibly sympathetic character, which makes the events surrounding him later in the game all the more impactful. In fact, I wasn't going to go for the true ending but I decided to do it for the sole reason I felt bad for him.
Whenever you have these retro-adjacent games, you have to find a good balance between doing something new and paying respect to the games they reference. I think SOS does a fairly good job of finding that balance, though I think it leans a little too far into aping old school RPGs. Honestly, this is actually more of a problem in the gameplay department, which we will get to next week. But even story and presentation wise, there are points where it feels like the developers were trying more to re-make Chrono Trigger than they were trying to make a new game. That's a surefire way to get praise from the internet crowd nowadays, so I get why they did it. But it feels like these games get closer and closer to CT every time. I mean, I guess I would rather developers borrow (or outright copy) Chrono Trigger than some of the alternatives, but it's still a bit disappointing. Fortunately, SOS does have plenty of original stuff going on and its meant to be a callback to old school games, so I don't think it's a major problem. I also recognize how difficult it is to find that aforementioned balance, but it's still something I feel like I have to bring up and will probably have to bring up every time I play a retro-inspired JRPG.
While it doesn't do anything revolutionary story-wise, Sea of Stars tells an interesting, well-presented tale that will appeal to any RPG fan. Anyone who cut their teeth on 4th gen and early golden age JRPGs will find plenty to like here. It's also a great entry points for newer gamers to get started in the genre, as it has an old school feel with a lot of modern amenities. I think the main characters missed the mark a little bit, but the supporting cast makes up for it in spades. The story didn't wow me, but it never lost me either and I had very little problem finishing the game. Sea of Stars is worth playing for its story, but what about the gameplay? We will get into that next week.
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