Sea of Stars is the latest JRPG hotness scoring some major scores from pretty much all of the reviewers, landing it as one of the all-time greats in the genre. Even before the scores came out, I was pretty excited to play it as it looked just so good with its SNES/PS1 throwback look and that style is just among my favorite things. So is Sea of Stars worth playing? Yes, that's certain.
However I don't think people should come into this one expecting one of the best games in the genre, the game mostly hit the nostalgia factors well but it really lacks in imagination and innovation. I've been playing JRPGs since I was a young kid (Final Fantasy in 1990 was my first) and there's very little that Sea of Stars does that pushes the boundaries of what you'd expect. There's a big Chrono Trigger influence here with trio of characters and combos between each other, it doesn't quite hit the highs of that game but it feels like some good comfort food nevertheless. The game does have a lot of polish and provides a good linear experience, but if you are looking for some major depth and lots of decision making, perhaps this isn't quite the game to deliver that.
The equipment is always straight forward and you are replacing your old piece with your new piece cause it has more attack or defense power, and there's just 1 weapon and 1 armor slot. A few relics to boost some other stats or effects, but there's so little of them throughout the game that you will rarely be customizing your team in any adventurous ways. The battle system is interesting at first but this a 30 hours RPG here and it does get pretty repetitive, about 90% of the time you'll be using the same strategy once you've figured out a few things. Speaking of the length, the game is about 10-15 hours too long as the 2nd half is just a repeat over and over of the same concepts. The dungeons are all on the same template with climbings, jumps, hooks, switches and gathering objects in numerous rooms to eventually unlock the boss room... definitely not the games strongest suit as it feels they ran out of inspiration and just repeated the formula.
It's not all bad of course, the art style is gorgeous, the soundtrack music is in pure classic JRPG style (which I really liked, I will be checking out the full soundtracks) and overall it's pretty fun to play. Comfort food is really the best way to describe things here, if you like those classic RPGs from the 90s you will feel right at home here. The story while not mindblowing is pretty good and there's a great cast of characters to meet and the game does incorporate humor well in it, without any of it feeling forced. I did enjoy myself while playing it all the way to the credits, it's just I couldn't help myself thinking of some reviewers putting this on the level of a Persona 5 and that's a big nope from me. But you should play it if you want a classic JRPG experience. It's on Game Pass and PS+ so it should be very accessible to everyone one, there's a lot of love put into this but I don't think the devs really pushed for enough depth (at least based on my personal preferences). I haven't played their previous game The Messenger so I don't know how it compares, but I will be playing that eventually to see where they came from.
A good game. As for as Retro JRPGs, I do think Cross Code and Chained Echoes nailed the innovation factor a lot more, these 2 games were able to build upon classic templates and add a lot of new interesting mechanics to them. Sea of Stars is just more of the same stuff we know, but applied very well into a tight (but perhaps overlong) adventure.
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very lovely game, i think the simplicity of the combat works in its favor. probably the de-facto modern JRPG to recommend to someone who has never played one before
I'm resigned to the fact that these modern throwback (j)rpgs are, despite being throwbacks, geared towards a younger audience than people like myself who grew up enjoying classic jrpgs from the 90s/00s
maybe i've played too much BG3, but the railroading in this game is extreme. ~10 hours in, there's zero exploration, zero RP choices, zero branches in the plot/direction, even combat is strictly dictated by enemy vulnerabilities and counters you need to perform to cancel their attacks.
knew someone was going to bully me for this, because gamers are so lovely. oh well.
i understand that JRPGs are supposed to be more linear, but from what I remember - and, granted, i've played the most influential games in the genre well over a decade ago - it still doesn't mean that you get railroaded every step of the way.
i don't remember combat in other games, but in FF7-9 you can make characters use different elements/summons, choose gear which nudges them into different playstyles, customize your team.
when you get an open world transport - you can go wherever you want, and there are places for you to go besides the main quest line. some of my fondest memories of playing FFVIII as a kid are of just popping off to different places around the map for dozens of hours and just ignoring the main story. in Sea of Stars all the map except the main objective is locked when you get the ship.
and more importantly, whenever you get to a new location in classic JRPGs, there's a lot to do there: quests, mini-games, and just fun stuff hidden around the locations. you can choose to stick to the main mission or just fuck around and explore. Sea of Stars gives you zero reasons to explore, all the locations (and I mean hubs between quests) i've visited during my 10 hours were absolutely barren, you're just there to get to the next dungeon/story beat.
cool, i'm glad they eventually give you more things to explore! but personally i don't feel like the game gave enough to keep me interested beyond the initial 10 hours
i understand that JRPGs are supposed to be more linear, but from what I remember - and, granted, i've played the most influential games in the genre well over a decade ago - it still doesn't mean that you get railroaded every step of the way.
i don't remember combat in other games, but in FF7-9 you can make characters use different elements/summons, choose gear which nudges them into different playstyles, customize your team.
when you get an open world transport - you can go wherever you want, and there are places for you to go besides the main quest line. some of my fondest memories of playing FFVIII as a kid are of just popping off to different places around the map for dozens of hours and just ignoring the main story. in Sea of Stars all the map except the main objective is locked when you get the ship.
and more importantly, whenever you get to a new location in classic JRPGs, there's a lot to do there: quests, mini-games, and just fun stuff hidden around the locations. you can choose to stick to the main mission or just fuck around and explore. Sea of Stars gives you zero reasons to explore, all the locations (and I mean hubs between quests) i've visited during my 10 hours were absolutely barren, you're just there to get to the next dungeon/story beat.
hope that answers your concers, dear angry weebs