Sea of Stars

[sXeth]

So as aforementioned I've gotten to it this weekend, and barring any late stage dramatic falloffs, easy GotY nod for me. By far the best effort I've seen to take that old-school SNES JRPG feel, actually hit that, and then also build on it in ways that don't feel clunky or weirdly obtrusive (like Battle Chasers weird repeat dungeons and diablo-esque loot drops that dragged that one down from doing similar)

The level design and traversal stuff is worth a special mention too. It wasn't that standout in the demo, but there is an immense amount of freedom in this (outside of some metroidvania type gate points) and interesting level design that really stands out. Probably comparable to Dark Souls (1).

 

[BrawlMan]

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[Chimpzy]

Ordered a physical copy on Playasia. After a coupon and using up all the loyalty points I wasn't doing anything with, it was actually cheaper than digital. Will have to wait until december tho. Technically a Japanese copy, but that wouldn't be the first time, and it's multi-language regardless. Afaik, Iam8bit is also doing a physical release, but they don't have a release date yet, and will probably be more expensive anyway.

 

[BrawlMan]

I have not seen the video.

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[Dalisclock]

Been enjoying it so far. I've been waiting for this since the Demo dropped and it hasn't disappointed.

Currently on the spooky island and it's clear there's gonna be some kind of big twist because I'm not far from the "Big Bad's" house and I'm 5 hours into the game. Also I know CT was a big influence which means I can be sure there's going to be a much bigger threat occur down the line then a Dweller, especially if this is supposed to be the last one and then the "world is safe forever".

Oh, and knowing this a prequel(apparently distant) to the Messenger(from the same studio), I decided to check that out, since I've owned that for a while but had yet to play it(the comparison to Ninja Gaiden put me off because I have nothing but PTSD memories from the NES Ninja Gaiden games due to how fucking hard they were). And the first thing I get when I boot up The Messenger? Humanity is fucked and demons are everywhere and the rookie has to save the world because apparently everyone else is dead.

So apparently this mission to kill the evil in the world in Sea of Stars is Doomed from the start, because otherwise Humanity wouldn't be on the brink of annilation in The Messenger. Now, that doesn't mean neither game is worth playing. On the contrary, I'm having a blast with both and even enjoying the 30 minutes of the messenger I've played so far. It just means that Sea of Stars is prelude to Tragedy and it'll be interested to see how it gets there. I'll probably end up playing through both games because the messenger isn't particularly long(12-15 hours) and Sea of Stats is like 30-35 hours and also because I want to see the cross-references in Sea of Stars.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Started the game. The first hour is essentially a visual novel that front-loads way too much; I think it could've been edited down a bit without missing anything of significance. I don't mind a lengthy tutorial, but it gets ridiculous. Half the time it's not even gameplay tutorial, it's watching cutscenes of the characters being berated and Rocky-training.

But whatever, I'm bordering on off-the-grid asocial following two very intense campaigns of the very lonely, melancholy and mostly wordless Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Now I'm controlling several characters at once and they're all so chatty and just happy to be there and I can't make a right without somebody stopping to tell me, as you know, about Mooncrest and Everwinter Island and The Keyblade to Kingdom Hearts and babbling nonsense names and how Solstice Warriors are delivered by The Great Eagle and trained by the High Elder to go seek the Elder Mist.

I'm just here for the adventure. I want to walk around dungeons opening chests and fuss about who gets to wear the vest I just found and whether I use my turn to attack or heal. As soon as I started getting all of that around the hour mark I was happy. Soundtrack is catchy exciting, the pixel art is gorgeous and colorful. No surprises there coming from the studio that made The Messenger. The animation is top notch as well. I can tell the game's gonna be a lot of fun.

 

[sXeth]

Started the game. The first hour is essentially a visual novel that front-loads way too much; I think it could've been edited down a bit without missing anything of significance. I don't mind a lengthy tutorial, but it gets ridiculous. Half the time it's not even gameplay tutorial, it's watching cutscenes of the characters being berated and Rocky-training.

But whatever, I'm bordering on off-the-grid asocial following two very intense campaigns of the very lonely, melancholy and mostly wordless Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Now I'm controlling several characters at once and they're all so chatty and just happy to be there and I can't make a right without somebody stopping to tell me, as you know, about Mooncrest and Everwinter Island and The Keyblade to Kingdom Hearts and babbling nonsense names and how Solstice Warriors are delivered by The Great Eagle and trained by the High Elder to go seek the Elder Mist.

I'm just here for the adventure. I want to walk around dungeons opening chests and fuss about who gets to wear the vest I just found and whether I use my turn to attack or heal. As soon as I started getting all of that around the hour mark I was happy. Soundtrack is catchy exciting, the pixel art is gorgeous and colorful. No surprises there coming from the studio that made The Messenger. The animation is top notch as well. I can tell the game's gonna be a lot of fun.

Yeah the first hour more or less being an extended cutscene with a couple of tutorials was a bit heavy, I'll give you that. Though by some of the genre standards, thats altogether tame lol

 

[Jarrito3002]

So I was going to hold off on Sea of Stars cause I planning to get BG3 on PS5 cause computer is suspect. But then the dreaded digital only thing happened. I have no issue against digital but if you are going to make that release later make things happen. And sense I am more inclined to give the AA and Indie space the digital buy I decided to get Sea of Stars.

First off charming just beautiful the sprite work should be applauded. The character designs and sprite work remind of Cosmic Star Heroine but much more vibrant and with more interactive levels. The combat opens up as you play but again devs..........timing is needed stop saying otherwise. My only gripe is pacing can slog but overall the story is moving at a good beat and rhytem. My only gripe is the combat can off putting cause some enemies the timing window is very awkward and feels like luck more that timing it right.

But so far this is a 5 out of 5 experience just the 1:30 in which is pretty early but when one door close another one opens.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah the first hour more or less being an extended cutscene with a couple of tutorials was a bit heavy, I'll give you that. Though by some of the genre standards, thats altogether tame lol

I know, it's just been a while since I've played this kind of game. It's an hour to leave Destiny Islands in Kingdom Hearts but at least you're playing through that hour and getting tutorialized through gameplay. But then again it's like 3 hours to get over the Roxas prologue in KH2. Or at least that was what it took me.

 

[Dalisclock]

Started the game. The first hour is essentially a visual novel that front-loads way too much; I think it could've been edited down a bit without missing anything of significance. I don't mind a lengthy tutorial, but it gets ridiculous. Half the time it's not even gameplay tutorial, it's watching cutscenes of the characters being berated and Rocky-training.

But whatever, I'm bordering on off-the-grid asocial following two very intense campaigns of the very lonely, melancholy and mostly wordless Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Now I'm controlling several characters at once and they're all so chatty and just happy to be there and I can't make a right without somebody stopping to tell me, as you know, about Mooncrest and Everwinter Island and The Keyblade to Kingdom Hearts and babbling nonsense names and how Solstice Warriors are delivered by The Great Eagle and trained by the High Elder to go seek the Elder Mist.

I'm just here for the adventure. I want to walk around dungeons opening chests and fuss about who gets to wear the vest I just found and whether I use my turn to attack or heal. As soon as I started getting all of that around the hour mark I was happy. Soundtrack is catchy exciting, the pixel art is gorgeous and colorful. No surprises there coming from the studio that made The Messenger. The animation is top notch as well. I can tell the game's gonna be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I had to warn a friend the first hour or so is a bit slow and it picks up after that. The nice thing is, there are lore dumps but they're mostly optional for those people who want lore.

I'm about 15 hours in and the game has definitely hit stride for me. Don't get me wrong, I was invested hours ago but now I'm at the point where I look forward to playing every night. Especially now I got some background about the dwellers and how they fit into all of this as well as the idea of multiple parallel times, some already doomed, some possibly doomed and some probably will be fine.

Also appreciate I can generally get through dungeons without a massive time commitment and keep the story rolling along at a good pace. I also like there's a little town to help develop now as a side activity.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah, I had to warn a friend the first hour or so is a bit slow and it picks up after that. The nice thing is, there are lore dumps but they're mostly optional for those people who want lore.

I'm about 15 hours in and the game has definitely hit stride for me. Don't get me wrong, I was invested hours ago but now I'm at the point where I look forward to playing every night. Especially now I got some background about the dwellers and how they fit into all of this as well as the idea of multiple parallel times, some already doomed, some possibly doomed and some probably will be fine.

Also appreciate I can generally get through dungeons without a massive time commitment and keep the story rolling along at a good pace. I also like there's a little town to help develop now as a side activity.

I'm enjoying it a lot. Nothing like arriving at a new town in a "J"RPG and running around opening all the chests, searching all the nooks and crannies. As a matter of personal taste I generally despise how excitable everybody you meet is, and how you're immediately best friends with just about anybody (history waifu, the pirates). But I also like how the game is relatively earnest about characters and humor. I was expecting something more jokey and parodic like The Messenger. And I guess the pirates are basically that. But so long as they're quarantined as the comedic relief I'm good.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm back to furiously praise Sea of Stars' game-within-a-game "Wheels", a clockwork board game that combines slot machines, turn-based tactics and the structure of a tower defense minigame. Ignoring real life game sims like playing cards in Red Dead, this is probably the best and most addictive thing to waste my time while already playing a videogame.



Each turn you basically play the slots three times while locking whatever wheels you want in place, trying to get at least three of a kind. There's just enough RNG and just enough strategy involved. You have two units and each turn you're either powering up an attack (squares power up the left unit, diamonds the right), building XP (units "evolve" from bronze to silver and gold) or raising a bulwark around the tower/crown you're defending. It looked like the most aggravating, overcomplicated thing as soon as the showed the minigame screen but couple of games in I caught the gist of it and was hooked. Good stuff.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Stuff that's great about Sea of Stars

• You can swap party members around during a fight without wasting a turn. You're not married to a battle formation as soon as you get into a fight.
• Equipped stuff with stat effects still counts even if the party members wearing it isn't on screen, apparently. Like the Ring of Look at Enemy HP works even if the dude wearing it sits out the fight.
• Everybody gets XP no matter who deals the killing blow or if they even join in the fight.
• Healing at campfires doesn't reset enemies in the area. Kinda breaks the game but I guess nobody's forcing you to do it.
• You can perform basic traversal/interactive actions outside battle without having to go into a menu. It's a given in a 3D RPG but 2D ones used to be very finicky about it (see Pokemon).
• Great walking speed, great swimming speed, can slide down ladders, jump down from just about anywhere. Game is pretty fluid compared to its SNES influences.

Stuff that isn't so great. Not bad, but wasteful.

• The leveling system is rather mediocre. I've only leveled up about 6 or 7 times in 13 hours and the rewards are you get to choose to level up one of four or five randomly selected stats a negligible amount. It happens so infrequently and it's so unrewarding I forget it's even a mechanic.
• Enemy locks (the icons floating over their heads indicating what combo of stat effects will stun them) can get mixed up in the more crowded fights, since they don't have a fixed position on screen. Minor nitpick but it's happened a couple of times.
• There's almost never anything worth buying in any shop. Progress is made up for the most part from the odd detour into a cave for optional treasure. I never bought anything I hadn't already equipped on one of my dudes for free, and I never equipped anything great I didn't find in the wild (also for free).
• The fishing minigame really feels like the most pointless, undeveloped part of the game. You already have a rod (without knowing it) and the game doesn't even bother to tutorialize it. This is such an inane aspect of the game I'm willing to believe it exists as a joke on RPG cliches. Wouldn't be the first.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[Dalisclock]

• The fishing minigame really feels like the most pointless, undeveloped part of the game. You already have a rod (without knowing it) and the game doesn't even bother to tutorialize it. This is such an inane aspect of the game I'm willing to believe it exists as a joke on RPG cliches. Wouldn't be the first.

It's really only there to get you fish and seafood for some of the healing meal items, because the most impactful ones require either fish or meat. Veggies, OTOH, are easy as hell to find and farm.

It's also a way to earn extra money if you need it, since you can catch and sell fish if you're broke. I mean, you could also play wheels but that takes a moment and requires you get kind of good at the game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's really only there to get you fish and seafood for some of the healing meal items, because the most impactful ones require either fish or meat. Veggies, OTOH, are easy as hell to find and farm.

It's also a way to earn extra money if you need it, since you can catch and sell fish if you're broke. I mean, you could also play wheels but that takes a moment and requires you get kind of good at the game.

I understand the function, it's just that it's not implemented on the same level as the rest of the game's mechanics.

I've never really had to grind for food or money. I heal at campfires or during battle (the healing combo that doesn't even cost MP); the game rarely strings more than three fight encounters before a campfire shows up, and if it does you're never more than a stone's throw away from the last campfire. As a result I'm always at 10/10 healing meals. I usually only just eat them to make room for a new picnic basket item.

Same with money, I've never been short. Most merchants sell stuff I get for free just by playing the game, and accessories I just get by doing side stuff. Selling the stuff I no longer use covers pretty much any extra expense.

The fights, the merchants, the collectables all happen naturally just by staying on the main path. Everything gets a (lengthy) introduction. Conversely, fishing exists entirely within its own separate areas, is never introduced or explained by anybody, and offers rewards I'm already getting by naturally playing the game and I don't even need. And it's just not that much fun either.

Maybe it comes into play later on. Right now I'm with Yahtzee, it really feels entirely vestigial to the rest of the game.

 

[Jarrito3002]

I understand the function, it's just that it's not implemented on the same level as the rest of the game's mechanics.

I've never really had to grind for food or money. I heal at campfires or during battle (the healing combo that doesn't even cost MP); the game rarely strings more than three fight encounters before a campfire shows up, and if it does you're never more than a stone's throw away from the last campfire. As a result I'm always at 10/10 healing meals. I usually only just eat them to make room for a new picnic basket item.

Same with money, I've never been short. Most merchants sell stuff I get for free just by playing the game, and accessories I just get by doing side stuff. Selling the stuff I no longer use covers pretty much any extra expense.

The fights, the merchants, the collectables all happen naturally just by staying on the main path. Everything gets a (lengthy) introduction. Conversely, fishing exists entirely within its own separate areas, is never introduced or explained by anybody, and offers rewards I'm already getting by naturally playing the game and I don't even need. And it's just not that much fun either.

Maybe it comes into play later on. Right now I'm with Yahtzee, it really feels entirely vestigial to the rest of the game.

Maybe because its nice easy and quick I kind of like the fishing game. Its very easy to the hang of and I was able to get one of the rainbow conches from a guy needing 40 filits which I was dreading was going to be lengthy side grind into some thing nice, quick and back on to the story. Probably my second favorite fishing game my favorites being Dark Cloud 1&2.

I want to delve into Wheels some more I was very different from most kind of games I am familiar with in meat space but I will give some more chances it might be Machine Strike from Horizon as my current favorite game within a game or hopefully get a corporeal version.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm enjoying it a lot. Nothing like arriving at a new town in a "J"RPG and running around opening all the chests, searching all the nooks and crannies. As a matter of personal taste I generally despise how excitable everybody you meet is, and how you're immediately best friends with just about anybody (history waifu, the pirates). But I also like how the game is relatively earnest about characters and humor. I was expecting something more jokey and parodic like The Messenger. And I guess the pirates are basically that. But so long as they're quarantined as the comedic relief I'm good.

I think I'm near the end of the game and yes, the pirates seem to be the designated comic relief team. Teaks is a little bit of a hyper active nerd(though it's most notable when you first meet her and it simmers down after that) and Garl is the heart of the team. Which is good because the two solstice warriors don't have much distinctive personality of their own.

 

[sXeth]

Yeah the Solstice Warriors are kind of a dull blank paste. I get they're spiritual stand ins for a Crono (and by that standard, are dynamic and lively) but feels like they could've given them a bit more flavor (or just had one you could choose your flavor and some other character would adjust their theme)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I wouldn't mind so much if there was a single blank slate as protagonist (as is usually the case). Having two of them seems wasteful.

Garl stands out as Mr. Personality. I think the problem with him is that, other than having character (and acting on it), he's basically the same as Zale and Valere. Same hometown, same rough backstory, same overall purpose. All three start off as very good friends and that seems to be the extent of that particular dynamic. Like, good for them, but they're not very interesting to follow around.

Most famous trios tend to fall into an id/ego/superego dynamic. Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, The Three Amigos... Hell, Henry, Tommy and Jimmy in Goodfellas. Ash/Misty/Brock. Sora/Donald/Goofy. Spike/Faye/Jet. Rocko/Heffer/Filburt. Michael/Jim/Dwight. To one extent or another there's the impulsive one, the cerebral one and the one in the middle. There's a mixture of friction and balance going on that makes their interactions fun or tense or interesting. Nothing like that going on with Zale, Valere and Garl. They agree on everything, they act the same way, they speak with the same voice.