Sea of Stars lives as much as its sun-and-moon idea of duality in ways in which developer Sabotage Studio in all probability didn’t intend. The group has cited Chrono Trigger and other classic SNES games as inspiration for Sea of Stars, however whereas taking part in the sport I rapidly realized these ambitions didn’t fairly prolong to its characters and writing. Characters resolve main conflicts and relationship obstacles with ease — they merely cease speaking about them — and over the course of what tries to be a grand epic, nobody actually adjustments or grows. But out on the battlefield, Sea of Stars typically shines extra brilliantly than the luminaries round it.
Sea of Stars’ narrative has lots in frequent with Dragon Quest and different easy, good-versus-evil setups. The primary story facilities on a pair named Zale and Valere who harness the ability of the solar and moon, respectively, on their quest to battle an evil being identified by the marginally awkward identify of The Fleshmancer. There’s intrigue, betrayal, and revelations that shatter the characters’ worldviews because the story unfolds, all telegraphed so clearly that it’s laborious to really feel stunned after they occur.
The sport can be virtually universally populated with one-note personalities. Valere and Zale are interchangeable to the purpose the place, when you coated their character portraits, it might be virtually unattainable to inform who’s speaking. Their dynamic seems like a missed alternative as nicely. The connection between the 2 is shallow and underdeveloped for a lot of the sport, as the main focus stays firmly on the occasions they’re a part of reasonably than the characters themselves. The identical is true for his or her allies and enemies.
The top result’s one thing that resembles Golden Solar greater than the story-driven RPGs of the ’90s. The concept of the characters and their journey is extra fascinating than the truth, and inconsistencies in writing tone and magnificence additionally make it troublesome to totally spend money on that concept for lengthy.
Sea of Stars does a superb job promoting the thought of journey, although. Its world is fantastically rendered and brimming with magic, from hill-sized catapults and dragons cozily draped round mountains to brightly lit fungal tunnels, haunted forests crammed with sickly inexperienced miasma, and colourful cities perched precariously on the ocean’s edge. Even your commonplace, early-game areas really feel contemporary and thrilling, helped partially by the creativity of monster designs and their conduct in fight.
Battles in Sea of Stars really feel like these in Mario & Luigi: Famous person Saga, even right down to Valere and Zale’s first expertise, that are virtually similar to Famous person Saga’s shell kick and fireball. The three members of your celebration have primary assaults and particular expertise, each of which deal additional injury when you press a button on the proper second earlier than the hit lands. Expertise price mana, which you’ll be able to regenerate by utilizing primary assaults, and enemies are weak to sure sorts of weapon and magic injury. The setup is a well-known one, admittedly, although Sea of Stars provides a couple of additional layers that make it one of many smarter fight methods within the style, one which rewards good planning and offers each motion a objective.
Enemies enter a lock state earlier than utilizing highly effective spells or assaults. You may break the lock with the suitable mixture of strikes and cancel the assault, however there’s a catch. A lock may require two bludgeoning assaults to interrupt, or three consecutive moon factor assaults. That’s difficult to drag off relying on flip order and the way a lot mana you could have left, however when locks spring on a number of enemies, it requires a deeper degree of technique even throughout commonplace encounters.
Then there’s stay mana. Your primary assaults create this useful resource, which you should use to spice up a personality’s assaults and even imbue them with parts, useful for breaking enemy locks when you time your boosts accurately. It’s a deft stability of complexity and approachability that solely grows extra satisfying as you group up with extra allies.
Sea of Stars goals for, nicely, the celebrities, however lands someplace a bit decrease. Its charming world and sensible fight carry a lot of the journey. Nonetheless, when Sea of Stars needs very a lot to be a narrative-driven sport with an enormous solid of characters, it’s troublesome to miss the story’s shortcomings.
Sea of Stars can be launched on Aug. 29 on Nintendo Change, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Sabotage Studio. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. You could find further details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.