Sea of Stars (2023)

This game was leaving gamepass at the end of August 2025, and I learned this on August 18th, and from the 18th to the 30th, I was pretty religiously playing this game. I had a really fun time. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but the combat was fun with just the right amount of depth. Timing attacks was pretty fun, if a little too strict. The world was very beautiful and I liked the characters and the worldbuilding. The biggest drawback is the story, it is laughably bad. Two of the main villains have 0 reason for being evil and the overlooking evil baddies for a lot of the game have 0 depth to them. There is an interesting story that is going on in the background, but even that falls apart during the true ending of the game. Speaking of the ending, the regular ending is once again a laughably bad story part, but after getting everything needed for the true ending (which was fun to do, it was mostly sidequests for the main characters that had fun boss fights, the only annoying parts was collecting the collectibles to unlock the true ending but even then it wasn't too bad since there is an in game mechanic to help with that ), the true ending itself wasn't even good. Overall, almost the whole time I was playing the game, I was really enjoying myself and enjoying how fun the combat was and marveling at how nice everything was to look at.

The one thing in the looks department that was weird was like the hand drawn cut scenes that happen throughout the game. They aren't bad, but they are such a whiplash from the pixel style of the actual game, that I really don't think they should have been included.

To talk about the DLC, I was left dissapointed by it. Once again, the story is incredibly lackluster. The problem with the DLC compared to the base game is that the level design is so boring, it's all basically go to a room, do a puzzle, fight an enemy. In the base game, there was more exploration offered. Also, the special cut scene of the DLC is laughable for how hard it is to achieve it, I'm happy I didn't bother going through the steps. The actual combat itself was still as fun as the base game, but I thought during the final boss it was kind of dumb how they revert back to their original powers instead of keeping the DLC powers.

Overall, I would rate the base game like a strong 8/10 because of how fun it was to constantly play and how nice it was to look at everything, but the story was just worse than non existent. I would give the DLC a 7, it's free DLC which is awesome, but it has the same story problems as the base game, and the levels were not as fun. Overall though, a great great game and am looking forward to what this studio makes next.

Woo boy, is there anything that can kill my interest in an rpg faster than terrible, forced jokes coupled with 4th wall breaks as part of the main story?

I’m not sure but I think I need a moment to forget what I just read. Sabotage Studio is great at nailing game mechanics but they really, really need a new writer.

I just started this game last night and I am SERIOUSLY impressed! The pixel graphics are gorgeous, the music is PHENOMENAL, and the combat is really engaging. Two hours in, it seems like the kind of game that has the perfect balance of a simple game that I can play to wind down after a long day, but just challenging enough to keep it interesting.

Idk who recommended this one to me but you're the real MVP today!

The Dawn of Equinox update is out today. c:

I backed this game, but never got very far when it finally released over a year ago. I'll get back to it eventually, especially since these updates look great. I'll probably wait for the DLC next year.

The entire game is now playable as 3-player couch co-op, the prologue has been revamped, there are new relics, speedrunner modes, updated difficulties, and more.

Well, I just got my Platinum Trophy for Sea of Stars and WOW - what a game. Honestly if you are a turn based RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to play this one!

There was a Relic I received towards the end of the game called the "Artful Gambit" relic that is necessary for a trophy and WOW - it made the last few bosses wildly fun and tense, highly recommend turning it on for boss fights when you get it!

Play Sea of Stars, if you haven't yet! Check out my playthrough here!

This is an interesting one to review because every aspect of the game was really great with one or two frustrating flaws.

I thought the combat system was very good, the locks system is brilliant and introduces a layer of surprisingly deep puzzle solving to every encounter, and I kept discovering new techniques even into the final boss (e.g. I had an epiphany when I figured out how to optimize healing by benching hurt party members, wait for a healers turn, then switch all hurt members in at once). The most challenging fights require careful decisions around which party members should be active vs benched, when to use regular attacks to build up a reserve of magic, when to consume magic, when to use combos to build ultimate meter (ultimate attacks being the most valuable magic-source for locks), that add up to a level of strategy that traditional JRPG battle systems can't match. However, the super-mario RPG action mechanics for a few of the attacks became a huge PITA especially as the game wore on, Lunarang I am looking at you.

The soundtrack was musically pretty good, but it sounded really bad. Authenticity to 16bit audio felt a little unnecessary here and wasn't handled super well, as most tunes just sound painfully thin.

The items system is a stroke of genius. I hate items in RPGs. If its possible to get through the game without ever using or crafting items, I will. Sea of Stars reinvents the idea by eliminating most items altogether. Instead, you cook meals at campfires and can use them to heal in battle, the catch is you can only hold 10 meals at a time, requiring you to be careful about when to use them until you find the next campfire. Each of those 10 meals feels meaningful and has a strategic purpose, and its a brilliant way to fold healing items into the gameplay loop while eliminating the rote inventory management and hoarding mentality that typically comes with items in RPGs.

Exploration was wonderful, a lot like Golden Sun but with an element of verticality that was impressive for a 2D topdown game. However, you don't really unlock a good fast travel system until the very end of the game, and it was such a pain to get anywhere! If I had known the fast travel system existed, I would have waited to complete side quests until the end of the game and saved HOURS of backtracking.

For me, the biggest flaw with this game is the writing. It's not great and it too often gets in the way of the gameplay. There are too many lengthy cutscenes, a strange obsession with the character Garl, and truly boring main characters. It has its moments but they are too few and far between. For a game that proclaims to recapture the nostalgia of the great 16-bit RPGs, they really drop the ball on one of the key elements (for me anyway) - being an edgy badass. These characters would sooner sob into their self-prepared parfaits than show a bit of confidence or style.

Another game I decided to drop.

Got pretty far, actually. But halfway through Serai's world and I just couldn't take it anymore. SoS seemed right up my alley but turned into a major disappointment.

It looks GORGEOUS and most boss fights are pretty cool, but I liked nothing else. The combat gets boring, it can be unbalanced at times, music sucks, story is awful, characters have no charisma (Garl is the worst) and I absolutely HATED how every dungeon is heavily focused on traversal puzzles. Exploring in this game is a chore.

I got no joy out of Sea of Stars, unfortunately. A lot of people are comparing this to Chained Echoes, but I totally disagree. If you want a cool retro JRPG experience, I highly recommend CE over SoS.

Overall it started off stronger than it ended.

Pros: the music, pixel art, gameplay, fighting, GARL!

Cons: the fights got stale, the game overstayed its welcome, but the biggest con was over underutilized the world building was as well as the characters. The plot was all over the place and there wasnt a lot of payoff for things that were set up, ESPECIALLY the ending. So many unanswered questions. To get the true ending you must 100% complete, no thanks. I watched a video instead.

I'm disappointed I didn't like this more. It felt like a true homage to 16-bit JRPGs and probably better then most that came out in that era. The pixel art is top notch and music is well orchestrated.

In a way, I feel like I've sadly aged out of this genre. The characters and dialog feel like it was meant for kids. The gameplay is very linear, the combat slow and not particularly challenging, and the scrolling dialog scenes left me impatient. None of that is very unusual for the genre. I'm sure I would have loved this game as kid and I can understand why others give it positive review now. It's just not the type of game I want to sink many hours into at this point of my life though.

Just finished up Act 1 of this game and here are some random thoughts:

• The art, character design, environment design are all really pleasing
• Soundtrack is absolutely stuffed with amazing tunes (the boss theme is ingrained in my brain)
• I like the RPG mechanics, locks are a cool system, and the Paper Mario style mini games for attacking and defending is a nice touch
• I was not sold on the story in the beginning, but after finishing Act 1, I am more on board
• The names of characters and dialog are extremely hit or miss, there are times where I groaned from reading something

Great game so far excited to keep going.

Played about an hour and a half over the past two days. Enjoying it, a bit of classic JRPG with the kinda slow character/story development at the start but honestly it’s opened up way quicker than I expected.

I beat the first boss(Slug thing) and made it I guess to a semi open world area? Went fishing which was a fun little mechanic.

I’ve enjoyed the aspect of jumping into the water and the climbing ect it feels a tad bit more modern in that sense.

The combat also has a dodge and a double damage aspect with good button timing.

So far I’m enjoying it.