A throwback RPG with fresh gameplay twists
Sea of Stars ($34.99, available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox) is a love letter to classic 16-bit role-playing games like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. This Sabotage Studio-developed title features gorgeous pixel artwork, engrossing turn-based battles, an excellent soundtrack, and a fantastic world that ties it all together. Sea of Stars has its share of foibles, namely some tedious combat mechanics and bland protagonists. Nonetheless, it’s a fantastic RPG that riffs on genre icons from the past, while injecting enough uniqueness to stand on its own. An RPG Inspired by Classics
You begin by selecting a main character from two options: Valerie and Zale. Besides a few unique lines sprinkled throughout your adventure, this choice doesn’t affect the narrative (plus, you start the story with both characters in your party and go through the same story beats). For comparison, the Star Ocean games prevent you from obtaining certain party members and quest lines depending on who you choose as your lead, which incentivizes you to replay the game. In Sea of Stars, it’s a mostly cosmetic choice.
Protagonists Valere and Zale are magically inclined children living in Mooncradle Village. After an unfortunate incident early in their lives, they honed their abilities in Zenith Academy to battle supernatural abominations called Dwellers. It’s your standard RPG quest to save the world and defeat evil, though it has a few twists to keep the plot engaging. The game moves at a brisk pace, with a playthrough clocking in at around 20 hours, which can be pushed to 25 or more if you engage in optional side content and quests. It’s satisfyingly concise, like classic SNES RPGs.
Admittedly, the characterization falters a bit. Sea of Stars is relatively lighthearted, and the character development feels deliberately sparse so as to not bog down the plot and pacing. The result is a cast of fairly one-note characters that, while not bad, aren’t particularly interesting, either. The main characters are especially bland; Valere and Zale are essentially blank slates that engage in the dialogue to further the plot, but don’t have much substance themselves.
On the flipside, the music has plenty of personality, and it delivers wonderfully catchy tunes from beginning to end. The soundtrack features music from Eric Brown, a composer who also wrote music for Sabotage Studio’s previous title, the side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden homage known as The Messenger. It also includes guest tracks by Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer behind classic RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Shadow Hearts. It’s a fantastic collection that perfectly suits the nostalgia-fueled visuals that Sea of Stars brings to the forefront.
