Games worth discovering

Sea Of Stars - A Stunning JRPG

3K View2023-09-03

Hey There! If you're looking for a new JRPG to check out, look no further- since I'll be covering Sabotage Studios, Sea Of Stars. As it currently stands, I'm still not entirely done- having only plunged some 22 hours into the journey (with a colleague having taken around 37 to clear their review copy, albeit at a relaxed pace). That said, I still feel I've gotten a good enough look at what it has in store - so, let's dive right into it, shall we?

Woe & Strife

After many long years, the festering corruption left in the wake of the Fleshmancer has been all but purged from the world. This great undertaking has been the work of the Solistice Warriors, an order of magical warriors spanning many generations. - and which will now end with the defeat of the Dweller of Woe. Zale & Valera, newest amongst the order, have been trained for this day all their life- and with the help of their childhood friend Garl, they may even see it through.

This is about as much of the premise as I'd like to say, because this is a -heavily- story-centric title, and there is actually a fair amount that I could accidentally spoil. What I -can- say, is that I thoroughly enjoyed what I'd encountered. Execution-wise, this does come in the form of a lot of dialogue scenes with the characters - but the writing is solid, and does a great job of fleshing out the characters and the world at large.

Also, compared to their work in 'The Messenger', Sea of Stars feels a -lot- more grounded compared to its' predecessor. That's not to say the humour isn't still there- but, the main characters are substantially less snarky - with a greater focus being placed on how they get along.

And it's overall pretty well done. Beyond that, the only other major narrative element I can think of is Teak. Teak, whom you meet early on, is a travelling Historian- a member of a lost order of Archivists, whose job is to jot down the history of the world. She does this by wandering the world and finding artifacts, whose stories are then scribbled down into her magical journal.

Mechanically, this plays out by you finding items and tossing them over to her- and is -surprisingly- rewarding, given that the stories she tells help to really flesh out and contextualize certain events, or to serve as potentially ominous bits of foreshadowing. It's pretty great, actually.

Though, whether or not this factors into the game's ending(s) is something else entirely. Yes, Ending plural- since, while I haven't gotten there yet, my colleague let me know there was more to scour after I beat the game the first time. So, if you're the sort hungry for more- this might itch that scratch.

Eclipsed By Greatness

As for the mechanical side of things- there's a lot to familiarize yourself with here, even despite this title belonging to the JRPG genre. First off, the exploration in Sea Of Stars feels a lot more dynamic than you might be used to. While your ability to hop around and navigate the world might seem like a gimmick at first, the game puts it to good use, relying on the players' attentiveness to discern routes to treasure chests, or hidden routes to other locations. What's more, it slowly trickles an array of movement-related abilities to the player - such as a wind ability that lets you interact with certain slide block puzzles or a grappling hook that lets you both navigate the world in new ways ... but also initiate fights with an advantage.

Speaking. Of. Which. Combat is absolutely fantastic in Sea Of Stars - with a lot of various subsystems that all work together to provide a lot of complexity, even with the seemingly simple options laid out before you. For instance, if you're familiar with games like Super Mario RPG - you're likely going to be familiar with the timed Hit System. Simply put- whenever an attack lands, if you input a key at the right time, you'll deal extra damage (and potentially change up the animation). Inversely, when an enemy lands a hit, you can likewise click a button to reduce it (which also counts for -every- part of the attack). While you don't -need- to engage with this system, mastering it goes a long way towards guaranteeing your long-term survival, given- your party is fairly squishy, and you don't actually have an endless reserve of health potions to throw at problems.

In fact, you can only hold up to 10 healing items at a time - which you'll be customizing based on whatever recipe items you cook up or collect. Add in the very slow rate of levelling in Sea of Stars- and there'd definitely going to be times when your crew members wind up taking impromptu naps on the floor. This is where another interesting element crops up- because though there are a few limited options for dragging a team member back to their feet- you also have the option of -surviving- until they regain consciousness. Which, gets a bit complicated if it keeps happening since they'll stay down for lengthier bouts of time.

That said, the most interesting combat element has to be the 'lock' system, in tandem with the turn initiatives. See, you can use any of your characters, in any order in a given round. Whenever you do, the initiative order of all the enemies also clicks down by one. Overall, that's fairly basic- but does pave the way for calculating if you can take down an enemy before their attack would resolve to prevent incoming damage.

No, the interesting part is that an enemy preparing a special attack will generate a 'Combat Lock' - an arrangement of battle symbols associated with certain types of damage (such as blunt, slashing, solar, or poison) - which need to be activated -before- their initiative resolves. Successfully pulling these off tends to require proper input timing for combo attacks or the clever application of a character's special attacks.

And even that might not be enough, as the number of locks increases, alongside their overarching complexity, and the amount of enemies using them. Yes, partially nullifying them can reduce their effect - but the real meat is if you successfully match all the locks since the affected enemy loses their turn. Well, that, and you gain even more combo points, which you're already slowly generating as you use actions (and especially with good timing). Combo points are neat because they give access to combo attacks between conscious party members, which can do things like, provide powerful party-wide heals, or devastating attacks - which can -also- fulfill the criteria for breaking locks and feeding back into the loop of generating combo points.

(Which, when used, also generates points towards Ultimate attacks. It's just so many layers - though you'll mostly see those in longer fights).

That said, there are things you'll get to use even in the smaller fights. For instance, you regain mp whenever you use a basic attack- which means using skills on normal enemies doesn't feel super wasteful, and keeps things like healing skills accessible. They also generate 'Live Mana' (a resource you can also generate by ambushing an enemy) - which allows you to empower a normal strike to do the element associated with your character (great for locks) and to just boost its efficacy and that of any skills during the turn it was channelled.

Like I said, there is a -lot- to keep track of in combat, to the point that I was grateful that you could swap characters you're not currently using into the party mid-fight (and even use combo attacks to achieve that same end offensively). Pretty good if you're scrabbling to figure out a boss's weakness.

Admittedly, it -really- helps that when the game decides to punch your ticket, you don't actually lose a ton of progress. It saves whenever you enter a new room, so at most, you'll only be set back a few fights. While this hasn't happened to me often- I count my blessings every time. Especially since I built my party like a pack of glass cannons. And I mean this fairly literally, given that upon levelling- you're actually given a choice options between a small number of stat boosts. And I am very much of the school that an overwhelming offence is the best defence.

That that I couldn't make things easier for myself. Sea Of Stars is -incredibly- kind to its players, providing them with relics they can use to adjust to the overarching difficulty of the game. Some you start with, such as the amulet of storytelling. Others you can purchase, whether with gold, or through the collectible Rainbow conches you find scattered through the game (like the Tome & Tooth - which adjust experience gained, and reduce shop prices respectively). And there's more besides which can be found, some of which even make the game -harder-, ramping up the overall damage output of enemies. or reducing the damage they'd take when channelling skills (making casters a nightmare, unless you solve their locks).

Though, I suppose that -is- something I should comment on. See, while I -said- that you can certainly buy relics and the like, I perhaps should have been a bit more cautious, because Sea Of Stars isn't quite as haphazard about its currency as other JRPGs tend to be. Specifically, you'll find gold in chests, or from selling items in markets (such as precious gems you find from chests) - and then most other things you could vend will amount to pittances. Realistically, you have to be very mindful of your finances, and not simply try to buy out shop inventories, or you'll hit some very early dead ends.

Sure, you could, theoretically, spend an afternoon playing the fishing mini-game to run a small-scale fish market. It's a surprisingly fun endeavour- and there does seem to be some sort of overarching element to it, given each lake has a little sign that details which kinds of fish you've found.

That said, rather than buy gear and relics recklessly - you could just - explore. Gear, especially, was often found by just scouring areas- which generally left me -with just- enough gold to snag whatever relics or interesting accessories I had my eye on. Some of those accessories are really neat - like healing a portion of the physical damage you deal, with or restoring mana whenever you properly time a guard.

That said, if you aren't a fan of frugality, you -still- have options since there's both a strategic mini-game you can play in the taverns scattered across the world (known as wheels) and a hidden trivia game you can engage with. Which, both are apt to have some really nice end-of-questline rewards.

It's honestly fantastic. At this juncture, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything that I dislike about Sea Of Stars, other than the fact that the overworld movement speed is a little bit slow.

Plenty To Sea

Visually Speaking, Sea Of Stars looks great. I adore the character designs and the combat animations and find myself legitimately impressed that, even after 22 hours, I've yet to see recoloured enemies or areas that have felt like rehashes of earlier ones. A pragmatic part of me is actually incredibly grateful for this because I think it would have been really frustrating to encounter a rehashed enemy with different timing from their peer that I'd have to relearn, or just tedious if nothing changed.

Pragmatism aside - I just appreciate all of it. The character portraits during dialogue are great, I'm consistently discovering areas that look unique, and the bestiary is a treat to beat up. Also, the animated cutscenes are -absolutely- stellar.

And on an audio level? This game is just catchy. I am, in fact, going to be diving back into this game after I finish writing this review, just so I can fling myself face-first into some fights. The boss music especially is right up my alley. (I'll also admit, it helps that there's an audible response to properly timing inputs).

But Was This RPG A Rockstar?

Yes. I'm not even going to mince words here. I have literally nothing but praise for this game. Mechanically speaking, it manages to do quite a bit without throwing a heap of useless options at the player. I find myself challenged, without being roadblocked - and there's just so, so much to do. And narratively speaking? The game has caught me off guard more than a few times- so I am eagerly awaiting to see where else it's going to go with it's narrative.

Simply put, if there was a JRPG that you were going to play this year? Make it this one.

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