In December of last year, a certain Matthias Linda had given new life to a genre seemingly destined to remain in the memory drawer, renewing the magic of JRPGs with turn-based combat thanks to game design solutions capable of keeping the attention of the players. and ward off the ghost of repetitiveness: our Lorenzo Mancosu had spoken about this topic with Linda in an interesting interview. Sabotage Studio has set the same goal as Chained Echoes: looking to the past and, at the same time, projecting JRPGs into a new future, creating an admirable balance between nostalgia and innovation.
We can say right now that the operation of the authors of The Messenger can be considered completely successful. It is commendable, first of all, the courage to completely separate itself from the genre of its first work - an excellently crafted metroidvania - to embrace a totally new one, placing the adventure in the past with respect to the events of The Messenger, but with the from a completely different genre of video games. This also applies to the development and financing philosophy chosen by the team: after publishing The Messenger with the help of Devolver Digital, the developers decided to trust Kickstarter (with a campaign crowned with a sensational success) and themselves . -publish your work, with the contribution of Kowloon Nights. Our feeling is that this choice will bring great financial benefits to the team, because the qualities and appeal of Sea of Stars shine clearly and the public, who greatly appreciated operations like Chained Echoes, seem to be interested and receptive to this revival. Classic JRPGs.
We tell you how Sabotage Studio managed to soften the rough edges of the classics of the genre in ours. sea of stars review.
The sea of stars
The story of Sea of Stars It begins by introducing us to the two protagonists, Zale and Valere, two children destined for large companies. Born the first during a summer solstice and the second during a winter solstice, both are endowed with magical powers associated, respectively, with the Sun and the Moon. Naturally, they will enter the Zenith Academy, a place designed to hone their skills and prepare them to defend the world from the fearsome powers of Fleshmancer, an entity capable of summoning bloodthirsty monsters and threatening the very survival of humanity.
Starting with Mooncradle, Zale, Valere and their childhood friend Garl, perhaps the character with the most successful narrative arc in all of Sea of Stars, will find new allies, witness twists and turns (not always sensational, but successful especially in the last part of the adventure), they will endure betrayals and acquire new skills, relevant both from the point of view of exploration and combat. The dialogues are well written, but we have some critical issues to point out, firstly, in terms of language. We point out, first of all, theabsence of translation of the texts into Spanish. The real flaw, however, lies in the English used in Sea of Stars, including punctuation and lexical errors that are difficult to forgive in a production that relies above all on text to convey stories, emotions and growth of the characters. characters. We look forward to a future review, particularly regarding the first half of the game, which is particularly affected by this issue.
If, as we mentioned with Garl, some characters manage to shine and remain in the player's heart, the same does not happen with the two protagonists. For most of the approx. thirty hours necessary to complete Sea of Stars, Zale and Valere are practically interchangeable with each other, with barely mentioned motivations and personalities, just enough to justify the continuation of an adventure that will become increasingly complex and painful for them. It's a shame, because all the potential was there: this is still the story of two predestined children, condemned to face a future that places them at the center of singular, powerful and, therefore, terrifying events, a bit like what happens to them. the protagonists of many Greek Tragedies, with all the possible moral dilemmas that they entail.
a wonderful World
More than Zale and Valere, he is theincredible world of Sea of Stars. With a well-implemented isometric perspective and adequately exploited even in the (simple, but effective) environmental puzzles, the various locations described by Sabotage Studio leave you speechless in terms of variety and quality. From splendid cliffs full of waterfalls, passing through gloomy cemeteries to swamps full of mushrooms that change color and shape depending on the time of day and night, the universe in which the protagonists move always manages to amaze and capture the attention of the audience. players, clearly inspired. for classics from the SNES, GameBoy Advance and PlayStation era. There Pixel Art Sea of Stars will go down in history as one of the pinnacles of the genre for taste and wisdom in the mastery of textures and colors: we have no doubt of this.
As the hours pass, the group will obtain objects capable of making the exploration more complex and layered: ranging from the Mistral Bracelet, which generates a gust of wind so strong that it can push blocks and other elements present in the scenarios, to the Graplou, a kind of grappling hook to traverse the environments horizontally, thus overcoming the frequent abysses. Zale and Valere then learn to govern time, being able to change the time of day thanks to their powers: this ability, unfortunately, is little exploited in the first part of the adventure, but towards the end it becomes increasingly distinctive and important. And it's nice, because Sabotage Studio has managed the modifications of thelighting with extraordinary real-time rendering, even taking care of the music dynamically, ensuring that these changes are palpable on multiple levels at the same time they occur. This demonstrates the organic care taken by the artistic direction, with a very successful combination between the visual design of the stages and that of the music, entrusted to the great Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears) y un Eric W.Brown, also known as Rainbowdragoneyes, both in excellent shape.
Everything is inserted in an open world that, according to tradition, opens up little by little thanks to the acquisition of new travel possibilities. At the end of the adventure we can unlock a practical help that indicates on the map the places where there is something left to do; Overall, it is worth spending time exploring and exploring. side missions to discover secrets (also linked to the plot of Sea of Stars), acquire useful equipment and skills or allow the development of settlements that will guarantee us shops, places to fish and taverns to play Wheels.
In this sense, we highlight the presence of a real metagame: wheels. It is a game based on luck and strategy: each of the two players uses two heroes (soldier, archer, mage and others, each with their own characteristics) to bring the opponent's health level to zero. In each round you have three rounds available in a slot machine that guarantees various improvements: depending on the result obtained, you will be able to improve the defensive walls or the level of the attacking characters, as well as launch offensives directed at the opponent. paying attention to his level of protection. Playing wheels is a completely optional hobby, but it turns out to be a nice break from the adventures of Zale, Valere and company, and the same goes for fishing.
The fishing minigame, among other things, connects with an essential element of Sea of Stars: the kitchen. Garl, a self-proclaimed warrior chef, feeds the team his delicacies. To prepare them, simply go to one of the campfires scattered throughout the game, or place your camp between one explorable location and another: thanks to the ingredients collected during the adventure (including capture), you will be able to cook a maximum of ten dishes to take with you . Here, here we find one of the great novelties of Sabotage Studio: instead of the traditional JRPG inventory - full of objects that we will not even use during the final battle, obsessed with wasting that precious Megaelixir - we have a backpack with limited capacity, with considerable strategic importance. Selecting the dishes we will take will be essential to safely traverse a world populated by monsters that do not forgive lapses in attention, far from the traditional cannon fodder seen in thousands of random confrontations present in video games in recent decades.
The Sea of Stars combat system
Here is the key point of an operation. Modernization of traditional JRPG game systems. It's right here. As Chained Echoes also does, Sea of Stars completely abandons the repetitiveness of routine or random fights to embrace a more agile vision, capable of giving personality and character even to confrontations with basic enemies. It is enough to face opponents as they are presented (clearly visible in the environments, with no gaps between the exploration and combat phases) to be prepared and at the level of each challenge, as long as you are attentive and have ready reflexes: Sea of Stars, in fact, implements a system that - strange as it may seem - has as a reference what Nintendo has done in titles like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
In fact, attacks and parries can be improved by pressing a button at the right time, and some offensive moves will remind fans of the shots of little Mario and Luigi. In some boss fights, taking advantage of this mechanic will be essential to emerge from combat unscathed, but don't worry: Sea of Stars does not regulate difficulty in a traditional way; That is, there is no easy way. . However, there are some Relics capable of facilitating some aspects of the game: from doubling the characters' health points to reducing the cost of items in stores, to introducing visual feedback (a star is released from the hit) when performing a perfect attack or parry. It is a system that captures the player's attention, eliminating the soporific effect of the old turn-based combat, but could put some in difficulty due to the very short time window for its correct execution.
Another essential point on which to hit the gavelinnovation in game design like this: how can we make the movements used in battle varied, preventing players from always using only the attack command? The answer is brilliant: create a system that enhances every offensive option available to the characters. Let's explain better: the magic points available to fighters are very limited, but they are recovered by performing basic attacks. This already creates the conditions for a good alternation of commands to select, but that's not all: basic attacks release a substance called "living mana", which can be absorbed by characters to enhance their actions, both melee and magical. . All these elements create a happy dialogue between the members of the group, all well characterized, and combined with the great variety of enemies present in the scenarios they generate great dynamism.
I bossTherefore, they are exceptionally characterized both from a visual point of view and from a careful care for the diversification of their offensive options: we have never come across a battle that seemed like we had already seen it. It doesn't end there: the most powerful attacks of each enemy are accompanied by symbols called "locks", corresponding to actions or elements available to the group. Hitting the locks the correct way will decrease the strength of the hit, or cancel it completely if all of these symbols are removed. The only defect of the system is the presence of a rather small catalog of magic, as well as there is little equipment at the disposal of the characters, often with exclusively parametric relevance and not characterized in terms of skill.
The development of the equipment is carried out by levels, with the increase of characteristics partly by default, partly depending on the choices of the player, who will be able to select various elements (life points, magic points, physical attack, magical defense and so on). Nothing too complex, but we found the system to be consistent with thelean focus chosen by Sabotage Studio for its reinterpretation of a genre, that of JRPGs with turn-based combat, often known for its excessive and sometimes artificial complexity. We conclude with applause for the impeccable cleanliness of the Sea of Stars code, always stable in performance on Nintendo Switch: our game has never been affected by bugs or glitches of any kind.
Conclusions
Tested version Nintendo Switch digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 33.99 € Holygamerz.com 9.0 Readers (42) 8.7 your voteThe Sea of Stars production philosophy can be described with a single verb, a single categorical imperative: “prune.” Like a gardener looking at a tree and choosing which branches to prune, Sabotage Studio has studied the JRPGs of the past to preserve the best elements and trim the outdated ones. Out with the random fights, out with that cumbersome inventory full of never-used items, out with the obsession with grinding; We welcome happy additions like the time-based Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga system, capable of keeping player engagement high even with basic enemies, an element that must be mastered to the best of your ability during fierce battles against the boss. The spectrum of repetitiveness is largely exorcised, but two protagonists of singular flatness and a range of skills that are too limited slightly diminish the quality of the experience, without thereby affecting a fun product, magnificent to see, listen to and experience. . . There is no excuse not to try Sea of Stars, available at launch on both Game Pass and PS Plus (and, despite this, 100.000 copies of the game have already been purchased). And how sweet it is to be shipwrecked in this sea of stars.
PRO
- Artistic direction out of scale, both graphically and musically.
- Some character arcs are simply spectacular.
- Some game design solutions adopted are really interesting.
- The Relic system is implemented excellently.
- Bosses and basic enemies well characterized and never banal.
AGAINST
- The two protagonists are the characters that stand out the least in terms of personality.
- Number of spells, skills and equipment too small
- Vocabulary and punctuation of the dialogues to review.
