Sea of Stars Review

ign.com:

I had to go back and play a little of Chrono Trigger just to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me about the obvious similarities between that classic RPG and Sea of Stars. This brand-new yet old-school game doesn’t present nearly as much time-hopping or world-traveling as its clearest inspiration, but its seafaring adventure still has plenty of twists and turns that fill up a solid 30 hours of linear spelunking. Rich and often funny character-driven stories wrap up with surprising twists that give weight to the story and provide a reason for its visually wild and mechanically interesting boss fights. At the same time, there’s just not that much depth to its combat options, and its 16-bit graphics generally satisfy nostalgic cravings rather than inspiring shock and awe all over again.

By its name alone, Sea of Stars may immediately sound like a generic knockoff of its forebears. The opening scenes present a story about two decently written albeit occasionally overly talkative teenage protagonists who set off to save the world by skipping over to a neighboring island to kill off the big bad once and for all. Fortunately, saving the world is never so simple, and the story’s true form begins to take shape before too long. The brilliance of this is how many times it twists and turns in a completely unexpected direction before the real ending, and I’m pleased by how it unfolds into a story about the importance of each individual.

It conveys the story competently, without frontloading too much exposition after letting you loose within its first hour or so. I’m impressed by how it introduces its villains, magic, and the stakes of its world organically, and if you want to know more you can simply return to camp and speak to the