This game is still 5 stars for so many reasons. As a huge Chrono Trigger fan this game appealed to me right from the first trailer, and its homage to the game is present throughout. I took screenshots and videos along the journey of moments that were either loosely inspired or directly lifted from Chrono Trigger....I might need to make another post showing these comparisons. Let's get into it.
GAMEPLAY - 5 stars
This is a traditional, turn-based JRPG by and large. You'll explore various islands while on the hunt for the bad guys, level up your characters through battle (more on combat later). If you've played Chrono Trigger, you can see the obvious inspirations all over, but thankfully it feels like an homage, not a clone of it.
Modern amenities are included, for example there are relics you can purchase to streamline your experience. I tried to avoid these, especially those that reduced damage, but at one point I caved and bought the relic that reduces the price of items at all shops. This took away any grinding for money and allowed me to stay focused on the main story. You can set up camp from the overworld or any campfire, where you can speak with your party members to catch up recent story points and craft food to heal your party. That's a nice feature when you play in small bursts and can't keep track of the story on your own. These campfires are always set up right before boss fights - losing progress after a difficult battle is never an issue.
Traversing the world is just fun. You'll walk over tightropes, dive off waterfalls, spin through underwater currents, collect cooking ingredients, jump across pillars, push large objects and control night and day. This variety of mechanics makes exploration much more interesting.
COMBAT - 4 stars
Sea of Stars combat system is the one area that could use improvement. Like Chrono Trigger, you'll use 3 party members at a time in turn-based battles. There is a timed attack mechanic, much like Mario RPG, where pushing a button at the right time makes it a critical attack, heal, or block of an enemy attack. Some of the moves like Valere's moonarang involve repeated button pushing to do more damage and strike more enemies. Unfortunately, each character only has 4 special and 1 ultimate move. There are team attacks with 2-3 characters that change the flow of combat (and give a much needed boost) but overall I ended up spamming the same moves over and over. There should have been more special moves, or some other mechanic to add more dimension to the combat system. I'd also add that the game is easy; there is one relic that can increase the difficulty, but I think Sabotage could have made this a harder game (or at least offered post-game optional tough dungeons and battles) apart from just requiring more grinding.
GRAPHICS - 5 stars
Sea of Stars is beautiful. It's full of rich, vibrant environments and the style is reminiscient of its 16-bit inspirations with modern polish. Charming animated cut scenes sprinkled throughout the game make this feel like a Saturday morning cartoon adventure. They aren't doing anything new here, but I came for a nostalgia trip and that's what I got.
STORY - 5 stars
It starts out with two teenagers, Zale and Valere, growing up with their friend Garl while training to be the Solstice Warriors they were destined to be. You guessed it, they have to save the world from an evil being. A few hours later the story unfolds, the overworld opens up and plot twists come your way. Each party member has their own narrative, and none seem forced. Zale and Valere are solid lead characters, though personality-wise they are a little bland compared to Serai (the Portal Assassin!) and Garl (the Warrior Cook!) especially.
There's a good pace to the story (and the gameplay in general) - only one area felt like a slog to me, and Sabotage went ahead and cut that area shorter in a recent patch! The ending is satisfying, but the TRUE ending (which requires completing a handful of sidequests) is divine. If you're on the fence about putting in the extra time for this ending...just do it, believe me.
MUSIC - 5 stars
The soundtrack is excellent. Sabotage's music maestro Eric Brown put composed a couple hundred tracks that match the environments and emotions being conveyed. Lots of chiptune and arcade-like sounds elevate the uptempo songs. But the secret sauce are the handful of tracks by guest composer Yasinori Mitsuda, the mastermind behind the Chrono Trigger and Xeno series soundtracks. Hearing a '90s Mitsuda town theme in the 2020's is really special, check out the the town of Mirth's song:
Town of Mirth
Hiring Mitsuda nails their goal of paying homage to Chrono Trigger. Not only did he compose songs, but he had a hand in the sounds of the game - which do seem straight out of an SNES RPG. The beeps and boops of the menus, clashing battle noises and more transport me back to the classics of my youth.
Finally, in each town you'll find a merry band of pirates in the inn. They play new, for lack of a better word "piratey" versions of songs from the game. At first it's a small sample of tracks, but their library grows as you collect more sheet music hidden throughout the world.
THE MINIGAME - 5 stars
Wheels is the main minigame here. In it, you have two figurines with different abilities, and your goal is to attack your opponent until their health reaches zero. You roll "wheels" similar to dice to charge up attacks, build up defences, and gain XP to level up the figurines. I went from hating it to loving it within the span of a few games. I think a lot of people lose these initially, but once you start figuring out the strategy it's a very engaging and winnable game.
In closing, while I am clearly the demographic for this game (a massive 90's JRPG fan), it's a polished experience that has something for everyone. Even better, there's more to come with Throes of the Watchmaker free DLC coming next year! I'm looking forward to that, but in the meantime I'll join my son in his playthrough now that 3 player local co-op has been added.
