Sea of Stars

 PC
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 271 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 189 out of 271
  2. Mixed: 30 out of 271
  3. Negative: 52 out of 271

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  1. RowanBlack
    Sep 3, 2023
    5
    When I play Pixel retro games I compare them against my experience playing other graphical similar games from the ps1 aera. This one would be a mid ranking game of that time. While the sea of stars is solid I didn't find anything special enough about it when compared against games made 20 years ago. No voice acting, standard story beats, okay characters. Sea of stars was missing modernWhen I play Pixel retro games I compare them against my experience playing other graphical similar games from the ps1 aera. This one would be a mid ranking game of that time. While the sea of stars is solid I didn't find anything special enough about it when compared against games made 20 years ago. No voice acting, standard story beats, okay characters. Sea of stars was missing modern advancements that could have made it more than a mid tier game that could have been made over 2 decades ago. When compared against final fantasy 7 8 or 9, suikoden, xenogears, parasite eve; sea of stars doesn't shine as bright.… Expand
  2. MaeTico
    Aug 30, 2023
    7
    It's a nice, funny game, with excellent art, and an excellent soundtrack, but there's a lot of missed potential on the mechanics/combat system, and it definitely gets repetitive and you kind of lose interest halfway through just asking yourself, is it worth it?
  3. kjloma
    Sep 3, 2023
    0
    The game is slow and boring with nothing to highlight except for the soundtrack
  4. pervas
    Sep 6, 2023
    3
    No es un juego horroroso, pero tampoco nada especial, los gáficos estan bonitos y es soundtrack está ok, las historia es muy lenta y el combate se hace repetitvo demasiado pronto.
  5. Sammouse
    Aug 31, 2023
    4
    Just finished the game, including all the post game content, true ending etc.

    For the first half, I was definitely enjoying myself. Sure the writing is bad, the story is boring and the characters are.. yeah. But whatever - the game was making up for that in spades with it's charm, beautiful graphics and the combat still felt fresh and interesting to me. Traversing the world was    Just finished the game, including all the post game content, true ending etc.

    For the first half, I was definitely enjoying myself. Sure the writing is bad, the story is boring and the characters are.. yeah. But whatever - the game was making up for that in spades with it's charm, beautiful graphics and the combat still felt fresh and interesting to me. Traversing the world was wonderful, dungeons felt well crafted and I was excited for what would come next. The game promises you a lot in those first few hours.

    By the end though, unfortunately I feel like this is a 5/10 game at most. What you experienced in the first few hours of gameplay is what you will experience for the next 20 something hours, and it is painfully tedious.

    To break it down into points -

    Exploration.
    The game gives you this massive open world to explore, but all you can do is walk around. You aren't amply rewarded for going off the beaten path or backtracking when you have some new abilities to use. Everywhere is completely locked off and you are railroaded to do the main story for the most part. I wasted a good few hours exploring until I realised that it was best to just finish the story and just go back to get what I need for post-game content when everywhere is unlocked. There are no secrets to find or well hidden upgrades until the very end.

    Dungeons.
    As you progress through the game, you get more and more tools with the potential to make dungeons an interesting experience with varied, interesting puzzles. However, the puzzles seem to be made for people with a room-temperature IQ and end up mostly being variations of sliding some boxes across the floor repeated ad nauseum. Literally one of the "puzzles" about 70% through the game is a match the cards game with a whopping 3 pairs of cards. Massive wasted potential here.

    Combat.
    By far the worst offender. The combat by end game is mind numbingly boring. The main reason being that the game is just way too easy, the final boss is about as challenging as the first boss (so, not at all). You can just turn off your brain and just cast spells, melee attack to regain mana and heal throughout the entire game. Another issue is there is just not a lot of depth in the combat system. From about the 40% point onwards, you will be using the same strategy for the rest of the game. I think a big reason for this is that it relies solely on the typing + card interrupt system and nothing else. There are no status effects, no buffs, no unique gear choices or anything to bolster the base system so your experience at the very start of the game is going to be the exact same at the very end.

    In conclusion, Sea of Stars feels like it took the surface details of other classics such as Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun giving you a familiar feeling, but completely misses what made those games actually good. It's a hollow, boring, beautiful shell of an RPG    … Expand
  6. Yura2K
    Aug 30, 2023
    2
    Good sound and art, but no more, story, dialogs and characters are trivial, gameplay is boring 2/10.
  7. seojoon98
    Sep 5, 2023
    6
    The fact that it is a Western-made JRPG and the existence of a cut scene is worthy of high praise, but the character's development is monotonous and the story is unattractive.
  8. TheW4tchT0wer
    Sep 6, 2023
    5
    I'm glad to see, at the time of writing, that others feel there is something off about this game. I really enjoyed this studio's other game, The Messenger, so when I heard they were making a JRPG like Chrono Trigger, I was rather stoked. When the demo dropped over this past summer, I downloaded it immediately - and was left a bit disappointed. I knew they would have to cut certain featuresI'm glad to see, at the time of writing, that others feel there is something off about this game. I really enjoyed this studio's other game, The Messenger, so when I heard they were making a JRPG like Chrono Trigger, I was rather stoked. When the demo dropped over this past summer, I downloaded it immediately - and was left a bit disappointed. I knew they would have to cut certain features out for that, so I still held out some hope that the full product would lay my doubts to rest. Except they didn't.

    The graphics and music are all very well done and hearken back to the golden days of SNES JRPGs. However, the plot, pacing, and characters are all lacking. I feel like perhaps one of the reasons the game felt off was that there is a lot of telling, but not so much showing. Old JRPGs, you'd have the goofy character knocking things around or something like that. While there are some from other NPCs, the early cast of the game (before ultimately refunding) had their own personalities, but felt flat. The promise of it eventually getting better wasn't enough to keep me hooked. Hopefully this studio takes a crack at another retro style of game, as they do have a lot of talent! I think they just need to learn from this experience if they try for another JRPG; or hire a better writer and scenario planner.    … Expand
  9. Fate49
    Sep 10, 2023
    6
    After Chained Echoes who really understood what makes a good old school RPG, Sea of Stars is a disapointment.
    Visuals are incredible and the soundrack is nice, but that's pretty much it
    Pacing is really weird, chara development is nearly non existent and battles are legit awful and repetitive. I really wanted to like this game but whenall you're thinking is "Chrono Trigger was doing    After Chained Echoes who really understood what makes a good old school RPG, Sea of Stars is a disapointment.
    Visuals are incredible and the soundrack is nice, but that's pretty much it
    Pacing is really weird, chara development is nearly non existent and battles are legit awful and repetitive.
    I really wanted to like this game but whenall you're thinking is "Chrono Trigger was doing this better 30 years ago", then it means Sea of Stars failed to do what it was meant to.    … Expand
  10. Xanos12
    Sep 11, 2023
    5
    The beginning of the game starts promising. But after around 10 hours the story and dialogue get worse and worse. The battlesystem gets boring and annoying, you are using the same attack pattern as in the beginning of the game. The difficulty is WAY too easy. XP Scaling and leveling up feels not rewarding.
    I quit the game after 20h.
  11. lPhantom_v2
    Sep 8, 2023
    9
    Sea of Stars is a love letter to classic JRPG's like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger with small inspirations from games like Octopath Traveler.

    This is a relaxing game with a great story and beautiful characters and art direction that everyone should experience, I can't wait to see what Sabotage Studio has in store for us after this game.
  12. adrianompo
    Sep 10, 2023
    7
    Definitely overhyped.

    The gameplay and exploration are decent, but the progression is sloppy, rendering even the good mechanics boring and repetitive over time. The soundtrack is good, but nothing really memorable. Same goes for the graphics and technical aspects. It's a pleasant but not amazing experience on this regard. The story, however... it is a pile of trash. Poorly written,    Definitely overhyped.

    The gameplay and exploration are decent, but the progression is sloppy, rendering even the good mechanics boring and repetitive over time.

    The soundtrack is good, but nothing really memorable. Same goes for the graphics and technical aspects. It's a pleasant but not amazing experience on this regard.

    The story, however... it is a pile of trash. Poorly written, shallow protagonists/villains and close to non-existant character development. A few funny dialogues here and there, but those were unfortunately rare exceptions rather than the rule.

    Though I support games like these being released (especially) by small teams. it didn't justify the hype received. The first hours were a blast, but it felt like doing chores not long after that.

    Comparing Sea of Stars with Chrono Trigger is completely exaggerated. Whoever says that is being fooled by their own nostalgia.    … Expand
  13. Jonnythedark
    Sep 4, 2023
    6
    The funny thing about nostalgia is that it clouds our judgement and creates bias. Sea of stars very much does play the nostalgia gimmick by pulling things you loved from Chrono trigger, wild arms and golden sun but one thing it doesn't do is create originality. The one game I wish it pulled from is its modern peer chained echoes, with a depth to its story you don't see in a lot of NRPGsThe funny thing about nostalgia is that it clouds our judgement and creates bias. Sea of stars very much does play the nostalgia gimmick by pulling things you loved from Chrono trigger, wild arms and golden sun but one thing it doesn't do is create originality. The one game I wish it pulled from is its modern peer chained echoes, with a depth to its story you don't see in a lot of NRPGs (nostalgia RPGs) chained echoes took everything the classics did and amplified it. Sea of stars is a good game... Don't get me wrong but it also takes a solid 15 to 20 hours to have it's "lavos" moment. That moment when you see the depth of the bigger picture. 15/20 hours in to a 25/30 hour game for the "holy sh**" moment seems like too long.

    I have sea of stars 6 out of 10 because despite being born of the classics it's done nothing new for itself other then play the part of homage.    … Expand
  14. projectjacky
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    The writing is at a high school fiction level, with middle school grammatical mistakes. Chained Echoes had a writer but not an editor. Sea of Stars has neither a competent writer nor an editor at all. The art is gorgeous and the gameplay is nice (for the first couple hours) but repetitive. It's the same gameplay loop in hours 1-2 as it is in hours 25-26 of your playthrough. TimedThe writing is at a high school fiction level, with middle school grammatical mistakes. Chained Echoes had a writer but not an editor. Sea of Stars has neither a competent writer nor an editor at all. The art is gorgeous and the gameplay is nice (for the first couple hours) but repetitive. It's the same gameplay loop in hours 1-2 as it is in hours 25-26 of your playthrough. Timed attacks/blocks are ambiguous and unsatisfying. Very overrated and it shows critics may have only tested the game for a few hours. As you can see user score continues to go down.… Expand
  15. Massraider
    Aug 30, 2023
    5
    A childish, naive plot. Standard mechanics. In my opinion, this game is overrated. I liked only the graphics.
  16. eded9999
    Sep 2, 2023
    2
    Another game ruined by a "Dumb down the game for me" toggle on settings... just put that "Tale Relic" in ON and you're invincible... What's the point of play the game?
    Dropped until they add some hard mode or something.
  17. Dash_Bannon
    Sep 2, 2023
    4
    Average game

    the amount of glow-up reviews im seeing just boils my blood ; either by fake bot accounts or ppl shilling HARD for this game ; the combat is fun for the first hour and then its very repetitive soon after ; im like halfway into the game and each character still only has 2 abilities with a very limited mana pool so you can only cast basically once each battle , theres team    Average game

    the amount of glow-up reviews im seeing just boils my blood ; either by fake bot accounts or ppl shilling HARD for this game ; the combat is fun for the first hour and then its very repetitive soon after ; im like halfway into the game and each character still only has 2 abilities with a very limited mana pool so you can only cast basically once each battle , theres team attacks but you have to build up a meter to use them and usually the monsters are already long dead before you can even utilize them at all , basically for bosses its only useful for

    I felt at times I was mashing X to speed up the wall of text I was all too accustomed to not wanting to read to progress the story forward , theres no option to unequip items and accessories and amulets are very missable with areas becoming non-acessible once you've cleared certain story points ; at times it really feels like a playstore android JRPG game behind a 31 $ price tag when those games are for free or very low cost

    I really cant recommend with the limited content the game has , some ppl praise the combat system but really its very shallow and you'll get bored of it almost immediately , how does this draw inspiration from past games when this game has the look, the feel of something you can make out of RPG-MAKER on the Playstation? theres no sidequest, theres a couple of secrets sure but nothing too wow about it , npcs talk on and on and on to the point you just want to progress , the story was so forgettable or barely explained I honestly forgot halfway through what the end goal for the two characers was supposed to be and frankly its a narrative I hardly cared for ; its not worth 30$ for what it is with and that is a very very basic JRPG that doesn't even come close to the 90's JRPG its somewhere in the NES level of content of JRPG and even some NES JRPG's blow this game out the water in content , storetelling, and combat mechanics    … Expand
  18. karnix
    Sep 1, 2023
    1
    The game it's ok, a nice soundtrack and a beautiful pixel art but the text speed is slow and the gameplay is boring with no depth at all.
  19. Carlax
    Sep 2, 2023
    0
    A game of which the only thing that stands out are the excellents graphics and art; a childish story with unbearable characters and slow combat without depth that gets very repetitive and boring.
  20. yusufulas
    Sep 8, 2023
    8
    Stunning pixel-art graphics, a smooth turn-based combat system with different combat mechanics and levels that you can explore in real-time make for a great adventure.
  21. Shadowslayer64
    Sep 11, 2023
    7
    TL;DR version: Not as good as Chrono Trigger. Play that instead.

    Game is a mish-mash of systems from different JRPGs, but unlike those JRPGs, these systems serve no purpose in this game other than to just "be there." Just to say, "remember that JRPG you loved? We have that mechanic in this game yeahhhh." Music is not memorable like Chrono Trigger. Yasunori Mitsuda is in the credits, but    TL;DR version: Not as good as Chrono Trigger. Play that instead.

    Game is a mish-mash of systems from different JRPGs, but unlike those JRPGs, these systems serve no purpose in this game other than to just "be there." Just to say, "remember that JRPG you loved? We have that mechanic in this game yeahhhh." Music is not memorable like Chrono Trigger. Yasunori Mitsuda is in the credits, but he must have composed only like 1 track for the marketing. Writing and story is god awful. Little to no attention to detail on the lore and worldbuilding either.

    The best thing I can say about this is the visual style, and that's what attracted me to it, but the more I play, the more disappointed I get. Puzzles are also average at best. Hit a lever, step on a switch, put the key in a hole; basic stuff. Nothing that will stimulate your IQ. Game is also woke, which is surprising for a JRPG, but it's a western developer we're talking about (Sabotage Studio is from Quebec Canada), so that's not completely off the table either. When you do a JRPG right, you can't be woke. Japan is a homogenous culture.

    Also, it's not challenging in combat either. Pretty brain-dead. If a character dies, will resurrect for free with 50% HP. So even if you're asleep at the helm, you would likely still win.    … Expand
  22. Czod7
    Sep 6, 2023
    10
    The game is beautiful. I have not seen or witnessed any error in it. The game is absolutely perfect
  23. Odradek
    Sep 4, 2023
    0
    After 15 hours played something "funny" happened. I got killed by some random birds and chose the option "continue" to keep playing. So the game loaded a file -who knows how -of a past saved game where I had been playing for just 4 hours-ish... Needless to say this means goodbye for me playing this game. Might check the ending on youtube. Thanks for making me waste that time...
    I wanted    After 15 hours played something "funny" happened. I got killed by some random birds and chose the option "continue" to keep playing. So the game loaded a file -who knows how -of a past saved game where I had been playing for just 4 hours-ish... Needless to say this means goodbye for me playing this game. Might check the ending on youtube. Thanks for making me waste that time...
    I wanted to end it in order to have a complete opinion. But here goes nothing.
    (Clears throat)
    Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. Specially because it is all about what you understood of an entertainment product when your brain was not fully developed. And there comes the problem of this game. You just need a few hours to noticed how half-baked it is. Sea of Stars shows a colorful and attractive visual style... and that's it. It's OST is extremely overrated,it's combat system is too simple and repetitive and it's dialogues are far from funny or interesting. There's no dramatic weight whatsoever during the story, some characters make decisions completely out of the blue and only to make the story move on artificially. Let alone it has the most obnoxious, irritating, shallow character ever written in all fiction story. I'm serious, the main engine that kept me playing the game was the hope to see this character die alone in pain. Every like spoken by this character was worse than the previous. Just terrible.
    After wasting all these hours my only hope is that somebody reads this and decides not to play this game. Or at least waste their money on it. Thank the gods I played it on Game Pass.
    If you are thinking about checking it out, don't. Go play (or re-play) Chrono Trigger. Revive your own nostalgia. Don't let others try to convince you of their vision of what was cool, or funny, or moving, or epic, or just fun... this game is not.    … Expand
  24. w_shine_w
    Aug 30, 2023
    0
    Nice soundrack, thats it. Maybe pixelart is ok, but nothing more, really. Not gonna recommend it to my friends.
  25. CelsoBr
    Sep 8, 2023
    10
    Jogo maravilhoso principalmente para o pessoal das antigas, muito bem feito
  26. Ipurua
    Aug 30, 2023
    10
    Necesitaba este juego para quitarme el mal sabor de boca de Diablo 4, gracias Sabotage Studio por crear algo de calidad y no algo mediocre como el 99% de juegos de hoy en día.
  27. LeBetaTesteur
    Sep 6, 2023
    10
    Sea of Stars is clearly an RPG inspired by the games we had access to when we were young. Featuring great graphics even though it's pixel art, a jaw-dropping soundtrack even though it's 16-bit, thrilling battles for its turn-based look, and a story told with intensity and humor, it will appeal to "old timers" who have loved games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy IV, FinalSea of Stars is clearly an RPG inspired by the games we had access to when we were young. Featuring great graphics even though it's pixel art, a jaw-dropping soundtrack even though it's 16-bit, thrilling battles for its turn-based look, and a story told with intensity and humor, it will appeal to "old timers" who have loved games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and many more like these.

    Sabotage had one thing in mind: to offer an “old school” role-playing game and they more than delivered the goods with more than thirty hours of play to find everything.

    I've been saying for 28 years that there's no RPG game, especially in retro ones, that doesn't come close to Chrono Trigger because it had a great story, great fights, stunning visuals for 16 -bits and a soundtrack that kicks asses. Well, I have to admit that Chrono Trigger has finally been dethroned and what a pleasure to announce that it is, in my opinion, the best indie game of the year to date. I even want to see it as a Game of the Year Contender at The Game Awards this year.    … Expand
  28. LilacZ
    Sep 7, 2023
    8
    As of writing this review I have 100%'d the game.

    Well made, enjoyable game with an overwhelming amount of effort put in. The game is slow paced and is fairly consistent from start to end and this can be both a good and bad thing Liked: + Stunning graphics and animations, this was the strongest part of the game + An impressive amount of love put in, everything feels deliberate and    As of writing this review I have 100%'d the game.

    Well made, enjoyable game with an overwhelming amount of effort put in. The game is slow paced and is fairly consistent from start to end and this can be both a good and bad thing

    Liked:
    + Stunning graphics and animations, this was the strongest part of the game
    + An impressive amount of love put in, everything feels deliberate and even side content felt fleshed out, this can be applied to every point even the things i disliked
    + Late game side content was rewarding and interesting
    + Ingredients and cooking great system, and I prefer this to usual RPG consumables

    Mixed:
    = Almost every aspect of the game stays fairly consistent and does not evolve/change too much. Anything you like or dislike, you will feel the same way for the whole game, some things like combat became a bit stale over time as a result
    = Interactive combat means combat animations has to be slower, combined with generally slow story pacing means the game can feel very slow for some

    Disliked:
    - OST and sound design felt forgettable, credits to there being multiple versions of songs and ingame jukebox though
    - Minigames were weak. "Wheels" favored 1 strat throughout and fishing was extremely frustrating and dull until upgrades (which required fishing)
    - Felt lack of certain battle mechanics like buff/debuffs, dots etc

    Bugs:
    - Encountered a bug near water dungeon that sequence broke couple locations forward, got me stuck and I lost about 1.5 hours of progress
    - Sometimes in combat characters go off screen and makes it impossible to time actions since you cannot see them    … Expand
  29. HokagePace
    Sep 7, 2023
    10
    I am so thankful for this games existence, a great throwback to games I loved growing up. Good combat, beautiful scenery and great characters
  30. AsrielDreemur
    Aug 31, 2023
    8
    If there's a game that pays homage to olden JRPG, the name Sea of Stars comes right into mind. From the art, combat and soundtrack, the game definitely took inspiration from games like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. The game has all the fun aspects that I missed from olden JRPG games and Sea of Stars has helped my craving for a good classic pixel rpg game.

    The game despite some of    If there's a game that pays homage to olden JRPG, the name Sea of Stars comes right into mind. From the art, combat and soundtrack, the game definitely took inspiration from games like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. The game has all the fun aspects that I missed from olden JRPG games and Sea of Stars has helped my craving for a good classic pixel rpg game.

    The game despite some of its shortcoming such as story pacing and the story isn't as mesmerizing as other rpg games that came out this year, the combat feels fluid and the artwork is gorgeous, not to mention the person who helped to produce the soundtrack is none other then Yasunori Mitsuda and just like his other works, the soundtrack slaps in this game.

    If you're a fan of pixelated rpg games such as Chrono, Golden Sun and Secret of Mana franchise, I would highly recommend this game and I urge people who just want to play a solid rpg game to give this a try as well.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Best PC Game of 2023
20
#20 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 48
  3. Negative: 0 out of 48
  1. Impulsegamer
    May 13, 2024
    86
    Sea of Stars is wonderfully evocative of the RPGs of yesteryear, recalling strong memories of Chrono Trigger and the like. Gorgeous pixel art is backed up with a soundtrack that for the most part is very pleasant to listen to, even if some of the loops do tend to repeat themselves a little too quickly. It seldom distracts, and almost always adds to the scene.
    Read full review
  2. GameMAG
    Dec 6, 2023
    60
    Sea of Stars is an old-school JRPG, cut on modern molds, which because of its dragging and template solutions turns from a fun adventure into a routine work.
    Read full review
  3. GameSpace
    Nov 2, 2023
    90
    Sea of Stars will keep players on their toes for dozens of hours with a huge variety of locations, enemies, bosses, side quests, riddles and puzzles. I have always kept both Chrono games very close to my heart, and now Sea of Stars took place next to them.
    Read full review
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