Sea of Stars (2023)

Beautiful pixel art, even more beautiful cinematics. Sea of Stars is a fun and captivating JRPG that does (almost) everything very, very well.

Wikipedia summary:

Sea of Stars is a 2023 role-playing video game by Sabotage Studio. Players take control of two heroes named Valere and Zale, who use the power of the sun and moon to fight against an alchemist.

Review

Setup

• Version: PlayStation 5
• Difficulty: -
• Total playing time: 29h (normal ending), 31h (true ending)

Comments

As my posts usually tend to be more extensive over the things that I disliked, I think it is worth mentioning in advance that this game is really fun. It felt like most of all the things it tried to do, it did really, really well. I repeated the phrase “it is, consistently, very good” a lot to a few friends. And that is how I would summarize it: has some bumps and things that disappointed me, but overall it can be taken as personal preferences, and the game as a whole is just on a very good level throughout all different areas (music, graphics, gameplay, animations, etc.).

The game seems to put a focus on the positivity vibe, trying to be mostly cheerful. Of course, there are some bad news and plot twists that are a bit dark, but for the most part it is light-hearted. Some examples of silly stuff that made me chucke: one of the characters is named Klee’shaë, while another found their magic powers when having both eyes closed by pirate eye patches (which happened by accident while they decided to dress as a pirate while already being in a pirate costume).

At some point, the story progresses in funny ways. I think Captain Klee’shaë was forgotten and left behind, which is funny because the main characters find out it is actually Seraï in a disguise, but the pirate crew does not know that. So the crew should definitely have noticed they are traveling without their captain.

The fight with the first Dweller of Strife was cool mechanically, but at no point I really felt at any risk, so it was a bit disappointing. At the end of it, Brugaves and Erlina betray us, and it is not really clear why, which left me with a bit of a sour feeling. Not because of the betrayal, but because I had a feeling the reasoning would not match the twist to make it worth it. The story was still being developed, so I had to wait to see how it progressed, but we eventually see a throwback scene where they both decide that summoning the worst enemy back would solve the problem. It really was not clear to me how that would be a good plan, and ultimately what I got from it is that they just wanted to save themselves because they did not trust the “cause” anymore, so they made a deal to summon the BBEG in exchange for being spared.

After some progress in the story, we reach and meet the Archivist (Resh’an). Basically a God, or at least an immortal being that has a lot of power in this universe and is keeping track of many “multiverse” timelines. They say the warriors have actually failed, because in reality they reached the Archivist’s tower and were met by a closed door they were not able to open, being too late to save the world, the Dweller of Strife becomes a World Eater, and the heroes and their world fall to the monster and everything is lost. But the Archivist wants to show us another timeline, one in which the door opened. So, at this point I was really confused. It looked like they were telling us we actually failed, but would show us what would happen if we had succeeded… Which I guess makes sense story-wise, but was just confusing and maybe an unnecessary extra step to the story’s development.

Story is not the strongest point in the game for me. It is fun and all, but it kind of lacks depth. We are given a somewhat interesting and scary perspective of the world, but the things that keep happening are just making me care less and less about it. For example, we start out with specific dangers and a possible world ending scenario, and we kind of know what to look for to avoid it. However, as story progresses, we get more and more sidetracked with “less” or just other important stuff, or some twists (like Brugaves/Erlina betrayal, or having to save another world altogether). At least it turned out, somehow, that every sidetrack eventually helped us achieve our goal. Story forced us to go save another world before taking care of ours? Coincidentally, this new dimension is exactly the place where the big bad evil guy has its fortress. How convenient.

Deus ex machinas

Then some deus ex machina moments happen that also take away from both the depth of the story, and the importance of the mission. One example is when arriving at the top of the Sacrosant Spires: three new boss enemies are around out of nowhere, which felt unnecessary as we had previously been introduced to four other (Fleshmancer Acolytes) that could be used if they were harder, instead of using them in two pairs. At the same time, through the path to beat them, we release some “random” member of this new world, Verlot. Turns out Verlot comes back later in a moment where none of our heroes can do a task they seemed very capable of doing, and then does this miracle task to save our mission, and disappears again. Basically, the character seemed to only exist to be saved and be able to come back at this moment and “repay the favor”, which is the type of thing that makes me like the story’s development less and less.

Another deus ex machina example, and this one was kind of the worst for me, was when reaching the Clockwork Castle. We just meet a random group of people that decide to help us out of nowhere, and build a machine that, without it, we would have been completely devastated by the following boss fight. Basically, if this deus ex machina did not happen, the story would have no way to progress because we can barely deal any damage to the boss without their machine. Of course, if you were avidly hearing the stories from Teaks in the campfire, we can find the item that reveals their background story just a short while beforehand. But, you know, if you somehow missed the item or decided to hear the story later (like I did), you completely miss the context, and it becomes a full-blown deus ex machina moment (which it still is, but at least the motivations behind the characters help is explained).

Another point where I thought the story fell flat, was when we reach the Cloud Temple. We meet a council of giants who are supposed to be the ones who can allow us to navigate into the Sea of Stars. However, they require a plan and reasoning to do it, and the main characters just tell their friend Garl to figure it out. Not only was that kind of laughable by itself (no offense to Garl, but it just made no sense), but then we witness Garl just come out with this ridiculously elaborated plan out of thin air, with multiple things we hardly (aside from the Elder Mist visions) heard of. It felt as if the character had been dreaming his whole life to reach this situation and the plan was created through a long process of thinking and planning, but we never get to see Garl actually reflect on that, he just “comes up” with it.

Ending

The relationship with Garl seems a bit too much at some points. I understand the overall positivity and light-hearted mood of the game and its story, and Garl is a very positive character that brings this vibe out very clearly, but some of it seems to go too far. For example, near the end of the game, Garl has been killed by The Fleshmancer. Reaching the Fleshmancer’s Lair, we find a “Legendary Feast”, which is described as “Garl’s Ultimate Recipe”, which makes no sense because Garl is dead, he could not have cooked this meal, unless it was there for thousands of years made by the Garl of another dimension or something. Yawn…

Story wise, I was also a bit surprised and caught off-guard when the game ended “out of nowhere”. I was somewhat upset at that. It made very little sense to me, after spending the whole game tracking and progressing towards defeating The Fleshmancer, not getting to fight them was very disappointing. I was expecting a fight that would finally make me use my items instead of just combos, but we get to fight Erlina in her new form, and then the game ends, because The Fleshmancer is too good for us, and it would be “below him” to fight us. The comment feels like an insult that you can make them pay for, but in reality the game just ended. After that, we get a long, loong (I mean, it is incredible how many people were part of this) credit roll, and only by the end of that we get told that some strange things happened in a monument near one of the beginner areas, and that we can load the game back from the last save point to go back and investigate it before fighting this final boss.

Well, I am glad I did take my time to go through the whole credit screen to reach this, because the game opens up some kind of side-quests that might or might not have been available beforehand if you visited the area prior to finishing the game. Nevertheless, by visiting it I found a monument which shows you a mental image of different characters. To be honest, I was half pissed at the last battle and I just Googled what the hell that meant because I was not happy or motivated enough to try and figure out what some mental image is supposed to mean. Turns out it was just a hint to talk to these people in a campfire. I mean, this is quite cool, but if I am playing a game where I barely need to use the campfire because it is somewhat easy, it is not really anywhere close one of the first things that would cross my mind. Turns out, each character has a side-quest tied to their story, and some were really fun (not you, gathering Rainbow Conches).

By finally completing all these side-quests, we get to see the reward: a gift from the Resh’an, which lets us travel back in time, and save our friend Garl from death, with quite literally no other consequence. Another deus ex machina! But I have to say, it was rather cool, and I was impressed instead of annoyed :)

Then we get to take Garl into the final boss fight, and when The Fleshmancer insults us, he just fights him back, and then we get to fight and give them the smacking they deserved. That is the true ending, and was something that I was way happier/more satisfied with.

Difficulty

Most of the game was a breeze. The puzzles are not really challenging, with only a few requiring some harder thinking, but most were just kind of chores/tasks you had to do in order to progress.

The battle mechanics were satisfying, but very simple. It does not take that long to kind of master the timings and then the whole game feels a bit repetitive. I enjoyed it enough to not be bothered, but I could easily see someone disliking it.

I disliked how we had multiple instances of random merchants just before a fight. The game was not that hard that we needed it, and we can bring up to 10 food items with us all the time, which should be more than enough to go from one campfire to the next, as they usually were not that far apart either. It diminishes your sense of strategy and resource handling.

The boss fights were not really that much of a challenge either, and I ended the game having died only once and due to silly reasons. The two-star combo that heals everyone is quite strong, and paired together with the Lunar Shield, I could both avoid a lot of damage, and heal back up after big hits or multiple consecutive hits. At the end of the game, you get an ultimate spell from Resh’an which both damages all enemies and heals allies, so that was one other layer of extra defense and attack.

The fact that you could only have three characters in battle at the same time meant the rounds were short, and I could strategically spend turns in a manner that would let me either be prepared for a charged attack, neglect the attack altogether with Lunar Shield, or delay the hit with Seraï’s Disorient skill. By the way, the ultimate spell from Resh’an also delays attacks from all enemies. It is quite overpowered powerful.

Audio

The music was, for the most part, simple but soothing. Some of them were quite fun and exciting, like near the area with the Elder Mist. In a few spots, though, it was a bit repetitive and annoying.

The battle sounds were nice, and some enemies had also some themes for themselves, like the Fleshmancer Acolytes, which helped set up the tone and anticipation for their appearance. Unfortunately, they did not live to their hype, and other enemies either did not have themes or they just fell flat, as I can not remember it as clearly.

I can not put my finger on it, but I really liked the sound of the text chat loading.

Graphics

As usual, as I have a crush on pixel art, I have to comment how beautifully the game was made. Many beautiful scenarios, landscapes, background art, and even menu screens. Most cinematics were really cool, a fresh view and a direct contrast to the pixelated graphics, but looked like enhanced drafts of a storybook. However, a couple of them were just amazing, very well-made, full of details, colors, and animation.

The different areas in the game are very beautiful and very cool. For example, there is a cool light crystals cave, with very basic puzzles but still very well done aesthetically. Another example is the cool atmosphere when arriving at the Wraith Island. Many moments like these happen throughout the game as you get introduced to more of its world.

I really liked the menu background changes. As we progress in the game, some character or the weather changes. It is a simple detail, but I found it quite nice.

Pros

• Consistently high quality in almost all aspects of the game
• Very beautiful graphics, and amazing cinematics/animations
• Very fun and captivating, has some relics that can be found/bought in game that make the game very easy for beginners. It is so nice even my wife (usually not interested in playing) has been playing and enjoying it
• Around 30 hours of content, which is quite nice

Cons

• The story can hurt itself with its own twists, making you feel it having less depth as you progress further
• The battle mechanics are basically the same the whole game, so it can get a bit repetitive