Board 8 > Sea of Stars Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://opencritic.com/game/15003/sea-of-stars/reviews

The newest Chrono Trigger-like is finally here and seems like it might actually be living up to the hype? I actually don't know a ton about this game other than a few people I know backed it on kickstarter awhile back so I'm looking forward to trying it out. It's free on both Game Pass and PS+ Extra so plenty of people should have access to it.

So far it's averaging a 94% with 17 reviews so far. I assume more will be rolling in soon. SEEMS PRETTY GOOD TO ME

Gamepur - 10/10
Sea of Stars is a triumphant JRPG that pays homage to the classics and carves its own space in the pantheon of its best titles. The world and characters were excellent, and experiencing the story alongside them was an absolute joy. Whether it was combat, exploration, or puzzles, I always found myself fully invested in the adventures of Zale, Valere, and everyone else I met on the journey.

The masterful way that Sabotage Studio has been able to capture that feeling of adventure and nostalgia is nothing short of incredible, and Sea of Stars not only sits among some of the genres greatest, but it manages to exceed them. It is truly one of the best JRPGs I have ever played.

Dexerto - 5/5 Stars
Sabotage Studio has accomplished its grand vision. With a mission statement of creating definitive editions of the game genres we enjoyed as kids, not only have they tactfully paid homage to their inspirations, but through a number of dazzling new ideas, theyve now left an indelible mark on the JRPG genre. Sea of Stars is a modern classic.

Noisy Pixel - 9.5/10
Sea of Stars has lived up to the hype and then some. The masterful turn-based combat system thats almost entirely reliant on skill, the endlessly enchanting presentation that gives the world an unparalleled vibrancy, the enthralling soundtrack that never fails to move you, and the emotional story strengthened by an endearing cast merge to make this an unforgettable RPG of the decade.
Even the few critiques I had, namely the not-as-strong handling of the two protagonists in the early hours, do little to impede the evident care poured into this title that has been communicated so well. Regardless of your love for classic RPGs or those that pay tribute to those eras, every general fan of the genre should play Sea of Stars.

WellPlayed - 9.5/10
Sea of Stars is a breathtaking ride through familiarity and originality, engaging in its mechanics and colourful in its story, culminating in some of the best twists and turns of any RPG Ive ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

Game Informer - 9/10
Sea of Stars is a stellar throwback that appeals to fans like me who love 16-bit RPGs, but it also functions as an excellent entry point. Annoyances that hindered early games that inspired Sea of Stars are nowhere to be seen. Simple actions like moving around the world feel great, the story picks up quickly, and farming experience is effectively unnecessary. It all leads to a smooth, consistently thrilling adventure with fun combat, all in a gorgeous and inviting world.

Gameblast - 9/10
Sea of Stars is an exciting journey through a richly crafted world that combines nostalgic elements of classic RPGs with modern innovations. In the company of a captivating group of heroes, we dive into a spirited adventure full of twists and good times. In addition to having a well-constructed universe, the game enchants with beautiful visuals in pixel art and memorable soundtrack. As an RPG, the title offers a remarkable mix of elements. Turn-based combat captivates with real-time commands, many tactical options and characters with diverse styles. Exploration is agile with scenarios full of obstacles to be climbed or jumped, with several secrets, puzzles and alternative routes. And there's plenty to do, like optional quests and minigames. In the end, Sea of Stars perfectly balances nostalgia with contemporary elements, resulting in an unmissable RPG experience.

DigitalTrends - 4/5 Stars
Sabotage Studios blends aspects from Super Mario RPG, Illusion of Gaia, and Chrono Trigger to create Sea of Stars, its largest RPG yet. It incorporates combat quirks like timed hits and dual attacks that force you to pay attention way after youve selected a move, and keeps encounters exciting with the diverse enemies throughout the colorful, pixelated landscapes. All that, plus respectable storytelling, make it the best indie RPG that Ive played this year.

One of those Kickstarter backers checking in - only game I've ever backed, by the way - and I can at least say that from the beta test and then the demo, the game is shaping up to be everything I hoped for.

Really interested to see how this ends up being compared to Chained Echoes, which I didn't like as much as some folks here but still thought was very good. I remember that game's developer said that his goal was to make something that captured the feeling we had playing RPGs as kids rather than something that captured what those games actually were, and Sabotage said the exact same thing in their Making-Of video that just game out a few days ago. Hope more people realize that's the way to go so we get more of these games and less I Am Setsunas.

Wow this must be the best reviewed Star Ocean game yet!

Thought the demo was surprisingly boring but I'll check it out since it's on gamepass/PS++

The devs also haven't done enough to prove to me that they aren't fans of jordan peterson so I'm glad I don't have to buy it

Really surprising scores though most of the big outlets arent in yet.

colliding posted...

The devs also haven't done enough to prove to me that they aren't fans of jordan peterson so I'm glad I don't have to buy it

Wait, what?

LightningStrikes posted...

Wait, what?

In their prior game, The Messenger, the shopkeeper character tells a bunch of fables/stories that seem to me to have a vaguely libertarian bent. In one, he attributes it to "Jordan the Wise." There's a screengrab floating around (that could admittedly be fake) where the devs say they were influenced positively by Jordan Peterson (among other writers). As far as I know, the devs have never really clarified. It's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to leave me feeling turned off by the studio, despite the game itself being pretty damn good.

Oh shit i wasnt even keeping tabs on this one. This is exciting

Is this out now? I was looking forward to it until the demo, which did not really impress me. Aspects of it certainly did, but the combat was kinda meh.

I've also heard the writing has strong overtones of someone's philosophical works (apparently Jordan Peterson according to colliding,) but I'm waiting to hear more about that.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1696188932784783731

Apparently some issues with the English script? They wanted to emulate SNES RPGs in every way, it seems...

_stingers_ posted...

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1696188932784783731

Apparently some issues with the English script? They wanted to emulate SNES RPGs in every way, it seems...

Another similarity to Chained Echoes already!

colliding posted...

The devs also haven't done enough to prove to me that they aren't fans of jordan peterson so I'm glad I don't have to buy it

Yeah this bothers me, I really liked The Messenger but that put a dampener on it. IDK if it was a single writer who shoehorned that stuff in there or if it's the whole team's philosophy, but either way it's a disappointing black mark on a really talented studio.

colliding posted...

The devs also haven't done enough to prove to me that they aren't fans of jordan peterson so I'm glad I don't have to buy it

Never heard this conditional for a retro RPG before

How does incentives for stuff on Game Pass/PS Extra work

like is the stuff already paid for to put it on the service? Is it tied to downloads?

I know some devs have put a broken game on PS+ and never fixed it because hey, they already got paid.

andylt posted...

Yeah this bothers me, I really liked The Messenger but that put a dampener on it. IDK if it was a single writer who shoehorned that stuff in there or if it's the whole team's philosophy, but either way it's a disappointing black mark on a really talented studio.

https://i.imgur.com/QW8mnIe.png

here you go

LiquidOshawott posted...

How does incentives for stuff on Game Pass/PS Extra work

like is the stuff already paid for to put it on the service? Is it tied to downloads?

Dunno about PS Extra, but Microsoft apparently does it case by case. Some developers are offered a lump sum in advance to pay for production costs, some a lump sum when it's done, some want it paid based on usage.

andylt posted...

Yeah this bothers me, I really liked The Messenger but that put a dampener on it. IDK if it was a single writer who shoehorned that stuff in there or if it's the whole team's philosophy, but either way it's a disappointing black mark on a really talented studio.

Did you also dislike Bioshock because it's a pro-Ayn Rand work?

LiquidOshawott posted...

How does incentives for stuff on Game Pass/PS Extra work

like is the stuff already paid for to put it on the service? Is it tied to downloads?

Everything I've seen says it's mostly a lump sum in advance, though some games get different contracts.

I know regular PS+ has payment based on number of downloads for a lot of its games though.

Day 1 non-buy (due to Game Pass) for sure

_stingers_ posted...

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1696188932784783731

Apparently some issues with the English script? They wanted to emulate SNES RPGs in every way, it seems...

I was totally fine with this in Chained Echoes. I wonder how much worse it is here but it should prob be fine.

MacArrowny posted...

Did you also dislike Bioshock because it's a pro-Ayn Rand work?

I don't know if this post is sarcastic or not but it's clear that Bioshock is sarcastic about Ayn Rand, and that The Messenger is also sarcastic with that dialogue, since the shopkeeper's gimmick is going on those iamverysmart screeds

_stingers_ posted...

https://i.imgur.com/QW8mnIe.png

here you go

Ah thanks for this

I thought the demo for this was super boring, but I'm intruiged. I guess people thinking the demo wasn't great is a pretty common take? Must have not put their best foot forward.

I'm going to be knee deep in Baldur's Gate 3 and Anonymous;Code, so hopefully that gives then time to clean up some typos.

Hmmmm this will be on base PS+, right? I'm letting my high end PS+ lapse in a month because it's, you know, really bad.

It's PS++. May want to downgrade to that from +++.

andylt posted...

Ah thanks for this

Yeah, this is the first time I've seen them respond this openly about it. That's honestly good enough for me to bury the hatchet re: the Peterson stuff.

What's now more worrying is the fact that the combat is boring AF (at least judging by the demo). When people say "turn-based combat is boring" this game is exhibit A. People forget that Chrono Trigger's battles were for the most part extremely fast. I honestly think timed hits do more harm than good in every game not named "Super Mario RPG." Turn-based combat isn't boring (see Octopath, Persona, Chained Echoes, FFX, Trails, etc) but this brand of it really is.

I'm a backer and haven't been following it much but boring turn based combat sounds really disappointing.

Although I wouldn't exactly call Chrono Trigger's combat good either (by modern standards) so if it's at least on that level then it'll probably be okay.

colliding posted...

What's now more worrying is the fact that the combat is boring AF (at least judging by the demo). When people say "turn-based combat is boring" this game is exhibit A. People forget that Chrono Trigger's battles were for the most part extremely fast. I honestly think timed hits do more harm than good in every game not named "Super Mario RPG." Turn-based combat isn't boring (see Octopath, Persona, Chained Echoes, FFX, Trails, etc) but this brand of it really is.

Yeah, the Mario & Luigi games exemplify that issue. Battles take freaking forever in there. Ruined potentially great games like Bowser's Inside Story.

Not to say anything about Sea of Stars in particular, since I haven't played that.

I thought Chained Echoes combat was really flat for the most part. The gimmicks are interesting in the beginning but there's not much depth after a few hours. A couple of late game fights were really well designed and felt really good, but that's it. I don't think it held the game back too much though since it wasn't offensive.

0 animal characters so thats a hard pass for me

_stingers_ posted...

https://i.imgur.com/QW8mnIe.png

here you go

OH GOOD I kickstarted the thing and that had really sucked the hype out of it for me.

foolm0r0n posted...

I thought Chained Echoes combat was really flat for the most part. The gimmicks are interesting in the beginning but there's not much depth after a few hours. A couple of late game fights were really well designed and felt really good, but that's it. I don't think it held the game back too much though since it wasn't offensive.

yeah, I was perhaps being too charitable with Chained Echoes by grouping it with those other games, but I wanted to distinguish between it and what I played of the SoS demo. CE can be fast at least if you play around with the abilities.

really, I want to stress that in turn-based battles, if you're the same level as the enemy you should be able to kill it in two hits, one hit with a special/magic. the average random battle shouldn't take more than a minute.

Hmm I'm not understanding the Chained Echoes critiques. What do you consider good turn based combat if you didn't like Chained Echoes?

Switching characters provided some interesting strategy and the overheat meter added some thought into when to cast specific spells.

I'm just curious what people consider the peak of turn based combat if you're looking at Chained Echoes on the lower end.

Even games I liked more like Persona 5 or DQ11 have some relatively boring turn based combat imo.

Some fights in Chained Echoes I found annoying, though one of the great things about that game is you can just nope out of any fight (if I remember correctly).I think mech combat specifically was a bit limited in feeling like "I have to do this sequence of moves in order to get through this fight, and the next few fights are going to feel exactly the same."

Basically it boils down to "If I want to finish this fight in 30 seconds, I can" versus "the game is going to make you go through the motions of its mechanics/animations in every single fight." I love the overheat gauge but sometimes I also love "spam attack to win."

skullbone posted...

Switching characters provided some interesting strategy and the overheat meter added some thought into when to cast specific spells.

Yeah that's basically it. It's fine, but not great. It didn't help that switching characters was only useful because ability slots were super limited. Overheat was also only a challenge because ability slots were limited, and you needed to always have the correct color or else you risk dying. You could be doing really well in a battle but get an unlucky overdrive color and die. Of course it's your fault for not being prepared, but it doesn't feel like real difficulty or real strategy. It feels like the game was too easy to win by spamming the same attacks, and they wanted to forcibly break that up.

FFX and P5 are pretty boring at their core too, but I think they both do something really important that makes them more addictive: they focus on the rewards of battle. Interrogating personas or all-out attack is always fun, and in FFX advancing the sphere grid and creating OP characters is always exciting. So the fun becomes about beating battles as quickly as possible to get those rewards. Or even skipping them because you're experienced and can afford to speed through. CE has plot-based progression so there's no real purpose to combat, and a ton of fights are forced.

Persona and FFX also just have better boss designs that are more puzzley. CE had a couple of these, but they obviously don't have the resources to make all the bosses bangers.

A few things about Chained Echoes combat:

1. Mecha battles aren't that good and should've been used far more scarcely.
2. I ran from a lot of battles, but only after getting the rewards, which were primarily filling out the Reward Board. You also get SP to level up your skills from fighting, so the idea that filling out the Sphere Gride in FFX is somehow better than this is pretty silly.
3. You should never be dying because of an unlucky Overdrive color. They can all be planned around, and I didn't ever die because of them.
4. It's fun.

What does "silly" mean in the context of a game design convo? And "fun", for that matter

I did Chained Echoes on maximum difficulty and its early game was absolutely fucking awful, tremendously horrendous

The game only even begins to function once you have Glenn's 'cool the gauge down' skill. It's not a real game beforehand. That and Breaks. It's fun after but I would not call it a sterling example of turnbased gameplay tbqh, not with that level of shitty difficulty curving.

Purple skills were sooo sparse for so long

Apparently the IGN video review had scenes from the ending of the game and a bunch of spoilers so they had to take it down.

lol IGN

Well, it's officially out and I kickstarted this, so I'm gonna play a bit tonight.

No Vita version anymore...

Decided to say what the hell and boot this up. Armored Core isn't going anywhere.

I LOVE the lighting in this game.

No Autoplay though, which is a big pet peeve of mine in RPGs.

My one hour in review:

Holy fuck the LORE lemme just keep fighting and stuff. Fortunately it does eventually get us back to the fighting and exploring but there was a long stretch of that with text for days.

Yeah it's starting pretty slow, compared to Chained Echoes especially. Not really bothering me all that much, but I'm hoping it gets there soon.

I really liked chained echoes but not sure I want to play another game like it yet.

(For the record I thought chained echoes was amazing but obviously was less polished the longer it went culminating in a bunch of side content that didnt work at all. The optional characters desperately needed their own story arcs instead of plopping at max level in your party never to be touched)

Played up to the second boss last night, about two hours in. Definitely a slower start, but that generally doesn't bother me in JRPGs - I like worldbuilding and come into any game in the genre expecting lore dumps, wherever they're placed is fine with me. Plus, basically every review said to expect it so I guess I came in prepared.

That post about the writing wasn't lying, though. I think Thierry Boulanger is an extremely creative guy, but he does not understand commas at all. I know English isn't the first language for most of the team and it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it can't be that expensive to hire a freelancer to go over the script of your dream game project.

Played maybe two hours last night.

I didn't think the lore stuff at the beginning went on too long. Felt like pretty necessary world building.

Also got my first game over because I wasn't careful enough around some enemies that used bombs. Whoops.

NBIceman posted...

it can't be that expensive to hire a freelancer to go over the script of your dream game project

i agree with this

they should hire me, i'll do it

NBIceman posted...

and it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things,

It's honestly a dealbreaker for me.

I was gonna say it's probably quite expensive to get an editor to go over a large RPG script, but I guess there are people who would do it for close to free and it would be better than nothing

the fishing minigame is fun!!

foolm0r0n posted...

I was gonna say it's probably quite expensive to get an editor to go over a large RPG script, but I guess there are people who would do it for close to free and it would be better than nothing

is it possible these editors are unionized or something and we aren't allowed to do this work