Many makes an attempt have been made to recapture the JRPG’s glory days. In Tokyo RPG Manufacturing unit, Sq. Enix based an entire studio devoted to the craft, and extra not too long ago Squeenix’s “HD-2D” fashion has come to outline each their very own retro work and that of others. Nevertheless it’s arguably the RPGs from exterior Japan which were doing a greater job of propping up the SNES nostalgia tent. Final yr’s Jack Transfer and Chained Echoes have been each infinitely extra refreshing to me than the marginally drained Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler sequels, for instance, and now we’ve The Messenger studio’s newest, Sea Of Stars, which might be one of many few Japanese-inspired RPGs I’ve performed within the final decade that is even come near bottling the mighty Chrono Set off and lived to inform the story. In the event you’re the kind to cry, ‘They simply do not make ’em like they used to anymore’, properly, you possibly can dry your tears, as a result of Sea Of Stars is the one which is.
It is a handsomely made RPG that follows Zale and Valere, two kids of the Solstice who, as a consequence of their fortuitous birthdays on the celestial calendar, have been chosen to turn out to be magical, world-saving warriors. Their future is to cleanse the world of its evil Dweller monsters so the remainder of humankind can proceed to stay in peace and concord, and what follows is strictly the type of grand, hero’s journey fare you may count on. There are twists and turns aplenty as you cowl the breadth of its island-based world map, relentlessly good and upbeat protagonists to befriend, and only a sprint of fate-altering timey-wimeyness. It won’t have the deep, narrative penalties of one thing like Chrono Set off, but it surely strikes alongside at a equally first rate clip, and maintains its momentum throughout its 30-odd hours a lot better than, say, Eastward ever did.
The actual stand-out, in fact, is its turn-based battle system. With monsters roaming the map in plain sight, fight by no means comes as a shock, and your get together of three will immediately leap into motion proper there on the map. It borrows and pilfers from different RPG programs brilliantly, mixing the timed button presses of the Mario & Luigi video games to deal additional injury with Chrono Set off’s character-based combo assaults to satisfying impact. Common assaults will even recharge your restricted pool of magic factors, and later you possibly can sub in additional get together members without charge, similar to Remaining Fantasy X.
The latter turns into importantly once you’re confronted with attempting to cancel a robust enemy spell. Monsters all point out through a little bit clock what number of turns you have to go earlier than their assault lands, for instance, however extra highly effective strikes can both be softened or outright halted by unpicking their respective ‘locks’, proven as a grid of varied weapon and elemental sorts you may have to hit them with earlier than their flip depend hits zero. It is nice enjoyable, and helps to present each struggle a full of life and strategic power to them.
It is also not the kind of RPG that requires you to grind, because the variety of fights obtainable are exactly calibrated to be precisely what that you must face its spectacular bosses. You may nonetheless have to struggle every thing you see, thoughts – if solely as a result of they’re mildly unattainable to keep away from – however this is not an RPG that forces you to backtrack or spend ages flip-flopping between space boundaries to refresh its native monster depend. As a substitute, Sea Of Stars makes levelling up really feel like an occasion – you may possibly do it as soon as per hour, if that, and once you do, you may spend minute or so deciding which of your stats you wish to pump to an additional bundle of factors into. Magic factors, for instance, are all the time at a premium – even 15 hours in, you may most likely solely have sufficient to forged two spells max earlier than having to change again to melee assaults to recharge it – and this sense that each level counts is strictly why Sea Of Stars feels so finely tuned and well-balanced.
The places you may be visiting are equally beautiful and wealthy in visible element, and by the tip you may really feel such as you’ve gone on an actual journey with these heroes. A not significantly difficult journey, admittedly – regardless of being an apparent step-up from the cookie-cutter corridor-battle arena-corridor mannequin of I Am Setsuna on the floor, for instance, functionally Sea Of Stars’s maps fall into comparable pitfalls. There’s possibly a chest or two off the overwhelmed path for those who search for it, however there’s little or no to discover past that. There may be one route, and one route solely by means of these locations, and its very gentle traversal puzzles are so simply deciphered at a look that they barely really feel like puzzles in any respect.
It is all very frictionless, which is okay for essentially the most half, however I believe that is the primary motive why I can solely muster myself to ‘like’ this sport versus ‘love’ it. It is superb at what it does, and I might fortunately suggest it to anybody. Nevertheless it additionally did not ignite that sense of surprise and risk in me that different JRPGs have accomplished up to now. Even after you have full entry to the world map, its islands are gated in such a method which you could solely ever observe the primary goal, and there is little or no to chew on exterior its superb fight system. Its central forged are all go-getting, honourable sorts with a robust sense of justice and duty, and even its villains are fairly vanilla – the type of clearly evil, doubtful agenda followers that we have seen a dozen occasions earlier than.
It’s, in impact, precisely like these 16-bit video games many people performed in our youth, albeit with a 2023 tech glow-up, and that’s completely okay. For some, this might be their favorite sport of the yr, and all of the extra energy to you. For me, although, it is simply missing that little additional crunch to make it actually particular. It is nonetheless one of the best sport like Chrono Set off I’ve performed in lengthy whereas, however to take a extra fashionable instance, it is also a bit Remaining Fantasy 16, in that it is exceedingly polished and properly put collectively in comparison with what got here earlier than it, but it surely additionally lacks these weirder, rougher edges like these in Remaining Fantasy 15, say, to present it that loveable, quirkier sense of character. There is definitely lots to love about Sea Of Stars, and it does certainly seize these JRPG golden years to an absolute tee. However for those who’re much less beholden to the glory of the style’s previous, then chances are you’ll want its star burned just a bit bit brighter.
This evaluate was primarily based on a retail copy of the sport offered by builders Sabotage Studio.
