Sea of Stars

We often see game developers from near and far frantically trying to reinvent the wheel by combining nostalgia with modern sensibilities and design philosophies. It doesn't always work, but it's hard to deny that being transported to a place where you remember how games worked when you were a kid is a powerful force.

Sea of Stars doesn't try to combine the classic with the modern, no, this is a straight-up 90s JRPG in the style of the classic Final Fantasy titles, and perhaps most notably Chrono Trigger. Sure, there are little refinements here and there, but this is about celebrating a bygone era, not necessarily reinventing it or presenting it to a new audience. Isometric perspective, a party line-up of unique characters with unique abilities, a bombastic fantasy narrative, epic bosses - it's all here.

If Sea of Stars does anything modern, it's undoubtedly streamlining a genre that's notoriously known for becoming somewhat unwieldy in terms of the number of active systems, interaction options and content types. Sea of Stars is a sort of emulation of the classic JRPG titles, but it does so without a quest log, a myriad of crafting systems, eons of optional side content and endless exposition-heavy dialogue between characters. While the game doesn't lack for content that will take you a good 30 hours to get through, it's very direct throughout - decidedly linear much of the time, in fact.

In this fantasy universe, the so-called Warriors of Solstice fight against the evil Fleshmancer, a fabled entity that may have left this universe, but has left behind a myriad of Dwellers that continue to grow stronger and become a greater threat to world peace. It's up to our heroes, Zale and Valere, along with their faithful companion Garl, to find the next Dweller before it grows too strong.

It's a relatively classic tale in its setup, with a myriad of mythical characters and vague place names thrown at the player without much of it necessarily sticking. However, it must be said that across the relatively long story, Sabotage Studio once again demonstrate (the first time via The Messenger, which technically takes place in the same universe, just thousands of years in the future) that they understand dark humour, comedy and narrative precision just as well as the more expansive and broad elements. There are several moments that are downright hilarious, serving as a tongue-in-cheek critique of the legendary games it draws inspiration from. I would never go so far as to call the narrative original, but the key here is to construct an effective frame narrative where you're interested to see how our characters will react to the next twist, and this is so far clever without being flashy.

It's in its wholehearted dedication to the 16-bit era that the game's primary qualities are to be found, and thankfully it only takes a few moments to fall in love with it. While the game's aesthetic also tugs at the nostalgic heartstrings, there's a colour, width and volume to your surroundings that make it an absolute delight to look at. Sea of Stars features a myriad of unique character models that impress both as sprites on screen and as character portraits during dialogue exchanges. Combine that with great music that both rhythmically and melodically manages to stick with you for many, many hours after each play session, and you have a game that looks and sounds brilliant.

Even though Sea of Stars is a sort of emulation of the past, the aforementioned streamlining can be felt in every corner of the experience - for better or worse. Many may appreciate the non-existent "grind" (there's really only the enemies that exist, and no real opportunity to pre-empt the game's progression with a little extra work), but at the same time, some may miss an extra system or two, or opportunities to explore further beyond the strict path laid out in front of you. In Sea of Stars, it's truly "what you see is what you get", and while it's easy to praise the razor-sharp vision behind it, it's also hard not to feel that something is missing.

Take the combat system as an example. There's no crafting, so you just buy the best weapon from the nearest merchant in the next town you stroll into. There's no customisability in the range of unique spells each of the characters you play with have - they just unlock them as they go, and they're added to the inventory. No more complexity is added over time, it's the same rudimentary turn-based system. Enemy attacks have turn timers on them, they are particularly weak to certain elements and strong to others. Blocking a strong enemy spell requires a bit of a tactical approach, as you need to use the number of turns you have to execute specific attacks. This is especially evident in the boss fights, which are far more sharply focused than much of the other rubbish you end up clearing. There's a bit of timing here and there, there's Live Mana that creates additional cohesion between spells and standard attacks, and there's the possibility of combos here and there, but overall, the combat system you're introduced to during the first hour is the same one you end up with.

That's certainly not to say that the game is compromised, as, again, it's easy to turn a criticism of lack of variety into praise for knowing your limitations. And you have to hand it to Sabotage, Sea of Stars is an immensely precise gaming experience from start to finish, whether it's progression, challenge, combat or the surprisingly fun Wheels minigame. It's all polished, honed and checked to make sure it all works together.

Still, I feel it necessary to point out that I missed versatility, variety and a curveball or two to create an increased drive through the narrative, but at the same time I recognise that one's tolerance for the mildly unnecessary layers of fat that distract from the juicy core is a subjective matter of taste. All in all, well done Sabotage for a precisely designed, perfectly accented love letter to a bygone era that I'm sure many will love just a little more than I did.