Sea of Stars uses RPG simplicity as a secret weapon

digitaltrends.com:

The Messenger, an intricately designed 2D platformer inspired by the likes of the Ninja Gaiden sreies, is one of the best indie games of the last decade. That’s why it was surprising when developer Sabotage revealed that its next project was Sea of Stars, a radically different turn-based RPG inspired by games like Chrono Trigger.

While it might seem like a wildly different direction for Sabotage to go in, it’s actually part of a broader world that Thierry Boulanger, studio president and creative director has crafted since he was in elementary school. I got an early, hands-off look at Sea of Stars, and it’s clear that Boulanger is expanding the world he has inside his head with a game that takes all of the correct lessons from classic RPGs.

Typically, when a development studio launches a new game in a new genre, they like to declare it a new IP completely separate from past works. Just look at what Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games is doing with Mina the Hollower.

Sabotage is going in the opposite direction, as Boulanger is not ready to let go of the world he became a game designer to create. Instead, Boulanger embraces the fantasy world he started crafting as a child.

“I have this fantasy world that I’ve been building since I was in elementary school, so we’re basically telling story arcs from that world,” Boulanger tells Digital Trends. “All these things, in some form, were already in my head when I was like eight or something. Now it’s coming together in a more concrete format, but it’s all connected.”

While Sabotage doesn’t plan to give this world an official name, Boulanger says its fans call it the “Saboverse.” Sea of Stars is set long before the events of The Messenger in the Saboverse, back when there was