Sea of Stars Review: A New Star Is Born

It’s been a hell of a couple of months for RPG fans. Whether you were enamored with the procedural generation and replayability of Remnant 2, taken aback by the sheer spectacle that was Final Fantasy XVI, or have become obsessed with dice rolls while engrossed in Baldurs Gate 3, RPG fans have been spoilt for choice with experiences when it comes to cutting edge RPGs.

If you’re like me, though, you don’t always want something pushing the boundaries. Sometimes, you just want something cozy and familiar – comfort food gaming, if you will. For that reason, I’ve been massively excited for Sabotage Studio’s Sea of Stars. A pure throwback to the 16-bit JRPG, inspired by greats such as Chrono Trigger, Sea of Stars has had my attention since it sailed past its Kickstarter goal with ease back in 2020. Thankfully, people’s faith in Sabotage Studios to deliver upon its vision was well placed, as Sea of Stars is the absolute delight that I had hoped it would be.

A Wholesome Adventure

In terms of narrative, Sea of Stars makes no attempt to shy away from its inspirations. It’s a classic tale of an ancient evil, the Fleshmancer in this instance, embarking on a diabolical crusade that may have world-ending consequences if not prevented by a band of unlikely heroes. In this instance, our primary protagonists are Valere and Zale, two Solstice Warriors who have spent years training and honing their use of magic for this very occasion.

Sea of Stars does throw in a few twists and turns along the way, but truth be told, it can feel as though you’re retreading very familiar ground, initially, at least. See, and this is probably my biggest complaint with Sea of Stars, the opening hours are a touch lacking in personality and identity. The plot, character motives, and the overarching threat are revealed at what can feel like a glacial pace, and you’d be forgiven if, after your first few hours with Sea of Stars, you were finding it all a touch generic.

Stick with it, though, and much like Sabotage Studio’s previous work, The Messenger¸ which Sea of Stars shares a world with, you’re presented with a title that is so much more than it initially seems. It never takes any of the hard turns that The Messenger took, but its world and characters open up in a way that makes this universe impossible not to love. The writing is excellent, often witty, and frequently breaks the fourth wall, taking jabs at the grindy and often frustrating nature of the 16bit JRPG. The cast of characters, especially the core party members, are soon incredibly well fleshed out, each with their own motives and reasons for wanting to embark on the perilous journey they’re undertaking, with Sea of Stars almost becoming as much a coming-of-age story as it is about stopping the Fleshmancer in his tracks. Some may scoff at how incredibly wholesome and cozy the writing can be at times, but after recently spending 60-plus hours with Final Fantasy XVI, where I can positively say that I found almost every character to be obnoxious and self-centered, it was a breath of fresh air to spend 30 or so hours with a group of friends who (for the most part) cared as much about each other as they did themselves.

A Tactical Delight

Truthfully, Sea of Stars’ universe and its cast would probably have been enough to see me through to credits alone as long as the gameplay was even serviceable. I’m thrilled to be able to confirm, though, that it’s so much more than that.

Starting with combat, it’s both a love letter to the greats that serve as inspiration whilst simultaneously managing to challenge genre conventions such as grinding and pushing through tough battles purely as a result of excessive leveling. It’s a turn-based affair, as you’d expect, but each turn sees you able to freely select between which party member you want to use, so long as they haven’t acted in that round yet. Rather than just spamming your most potent attacks and spells, Sea of Stars takes this freedom to select your chosen party member freely and asks you to think creatively. This is most felt in the Lock system, which sees enemies periodically readying themselves to unleash devastating signature abilities, which can decimate your party in seconds. By using certain types of magic and damage types that align with icons above the enemies during this readying phase, you can reduce the eventual power of the ability and, if you successfully hit all of the required damage types, prevent them from unleashing it at all.

It adds a wonderful layer of strategy to battles, as you constantly survey the battlefield, assessing who to go on the offensive with in order to mitigate the damage you’re about to take. As further party members such as Garl and Seira get added to your party, your tactical options only deepen further, with the former able to toss enemies around the battlefield, repositioning them in such a way that you might be able to use Zale’s devastating AoE magic to reduce the tackle the Locks of multiple enemies at once, with the latter able to use her tricky portals to deal damage to different enemies in a single turn.

Adding a further tactical layer is the boost system, which sees enemies dropping orbs when being hit with standard attacks that can then be hoovered up by one of your party members in order to boost the damage output or healing potency of their next attack or spell, for example. Again, this adds a brilliant element of tension as you’re forced to weigh up when best to boost a party member – play it safe and use the boost to power up Garl’s heal attack, potentially saving your party from a wipe, or do you go for broke and power up a huge solar-powered spell in the hopes that the enormous boss you’re faced with doesn’t have enough health remaining to withstand the attack?

I’m really only scratching the surface here when it comes to tactical depth. I haven’t even touched on the combo system that allows you to combine attacks in order to deal multiple damage types at once, dismantling Locks with ease, or the timing-based input system that sees you pressing the face buttons on your controller to either deal more damage while on the offensive or block damage while on the receiving end of an attack. Honestly, it’s fantastic stuff, and as touched on above, really de-emphasizes the need to grind. Sure, there is a traditional progression system at play that sees characters leveling up and improving on their core stats, but not once did I feel like I hit a wall that I couldn’t pass with the right tactics. Keeping on top of your party’s equipment and making good use of the various tools on offer in each fight was always more than enough to conquer even Sea of Stars’ toughest challenges.

Secret Stuffed

I’ve spent a lot of time singing the praises of Sea of Stars combat, and it’s well deserved, given it truly is wonderful. However, it would be remiss of me not to touch on the excellent exploration, which I think represents some of the best open-world exploration ever seen in a retro-inspired JRPG.

Dungeons are a particular highlight, each stuffed with puzzles and backtracking with new abilities that feel as much inspired by The Legend of Zelda series than anything else. I’d frequently grind to a halt, stumped by a puzzle and tearing my hair out in an attempt to solve it, only to progress further into the dungeon and backtrack with a new ability, the entire dungeon suddenly falling into place. There are plenty of secrets and best-in-class equipment to be found as well for those willing to tackle Sea of Stars’ more tricky environmental puzzles, making each dungeon a joy to comb through.

This puzzle-solving also extends to the open world, with entire regions often feeling like pure puzzle boxes waiting to be solved. Chests, hidden cave entrances, and seemingly unreachable NPCs are dotted around, tantalizingly out of reach and begging the player to stay a little while and unpick the intricacies of these environments. Helping add to the mystery is the fact that I have never played a retro, or a retro-inspired JRPG with this level of verticality built into its environments. Cliff faces can be scaled, waterfalls can be swum over, and ledges can be jumped to and off of, unveiling secret after secret. There’s a depth to these environments that I just haven’t experienced in similar titles, at least to this extent, and it all makes for a world that leaves the player feeling as though they’re traversing a real space, rather than just hurrying along a pretty map that’s there to serve as little more than eye candy.

Pixel Perfect Presentation

That’s not to say that Sea of Stars isn’t stuffed with eye candy – this is one extraordinarily beautiful game. Landscapes are colorful and vibrant, and, most importantly, boast incredible lighting, the likes of which I didn’t think possible in a pixel art title. I’d frequently pause to just soak in the dynamic lighting and the ambiance it creates, the effect most dramatically felt during certain puzzle sequences that require altering the time of day in real-time. Along with the insane level of verticality, the lighting system feeds into one of the most dynamic feeling pixel art worlds I’ve experienced in this medium.

And then there’s the soundtrack. Worked on by Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross fame, the soundtrack is simply a delight and perfectly evokes those warm fuzzy memories of being sat in front of the SNES on an old CRT TV. I’m someone who finds a lot of music in modern RPGs largely forgettable, but from the moment I was set loose on the world of Sea of Stars, I would often just stop in my tracks to let the soundtrack sink in. It’s that good, and it’s a soundtrack that I’ll gladly go back and listen to outside of playing the game – something I seldom do.

Sea of Stars is everything I wanted it to be and then some. I expected a solid, retro-inspired JRPG that tapped into people’s nostalgia for a bygone era of gaming, but what Sabotage Studios has produced, with its tactical and fluid battle systems and incredibly liberating exploration, is so much more.

Sure, it could be argued that in its opening hours, Sea of Stars doesn’t put its best foot forward, but when what follows an admittedly slow start is such a joyous experience, that’s nothing only a small blemish on an otherwise impeccable product that is easily forgiven.  I’ve played a lot of retro-inspired RPGs over the past few years, and while I’ve enjoyed many, rarely have I come away with the opinion that they can hold a candle to their inspirations. Sea of Stars, on the other hand, not only manages to confidently stand shoulder to shoulder with the greats, but in many ways, improves on them to create an unmissable JRPG experience.

Final Verdict: 5/5

Available On: PC (Reviewed), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Switch; Publisher: Sabotage Studios; Developer: Sabotage Studios; Released: 29 August, 2023; Players: 1; MSRP: $34.99

Full Disclosure: A review code was provided by the Publisher.