Sea of Stars

 PlayStation 5
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 186 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 131 out of 186
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 186
  3. Negative: 44 out of 186

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Das_Boots
    Sep 11, 2023
    2
    Trash Gimmick

    Sabotage lives up to their name . they took 7 years to develope this and delivered a turd of a finished project. Garl is insuffereable at times I just wanted to punch him in the face through the dialogue he is the ultimate tool and kissass of the group!! , the rest of the party have no identity or personality thats ever shown , plot wise things just... happen.. without    Trash Gimmick

    Sabotage lives up to their name . they took 7 years to develope this and delivered a turd of a finished project.
    Garl is insuffereable at times I just wanted to punch him in the face through the dialogue he is the ultimate tool and kissass of the group!! , the rest of the party have no identity or personality thats ever shown , plot wise things just... happen.. without further explanation or followup; the combat is very very basic the only innovation is the moonorang ability blue haired chick has everything is is just timing the button at the right time ; slow movement and tons of backtracking ; in order to get the True Ending a ton ton ton of backtracking is required to unlock it along with some very very hard minigames ; the story pacing is completely awful and at times you'll just be skipping walls of dialogue that dont seem to EVER end and just go on and on and on; on top of all that I dont know about you guys but I hate puzzles in RPG'S the amount of puzzles you do in 1 dungeon is hair pulling and nerve racking ; you'll do 2-4 tedious puzzles EVERY dungeon some even more! and it completely takes you out of the element. the occasional one would have been fine but why did they think having multiple puzzles that range from simple but time consuming to medium difficult to solve and thought it would be ok??

    The character sprites are not even 16 bit they morely resemble something in between 10 bit -12 bit and dont reflect the jrpg's on the Snes ; think Neo-Geo graphics ; it doesnt even compare to the Snes titles of the Snes like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Breath of Fire, Illusion of Gaia and other Jrpg's that came out that era ; this game is trash worse than a story pacing that was placed on the NES with below cookie cutter story telling, tons of Grammital Errors, no side quests, 1 mini game in the form of a rigged wannabe Might & Magic ripoff that you'll spend hours trying to win at ; this game is an absolute dogturd and it took them 7 YEARS to make this filth ; yeah Sabotage is correct because they are Sabotaging your hard earned money of 31 $ when this game belongs on Google PlayStore for FREEE!!!!!    … Expand
  2. essjaydubya
    Sep 11, 2023
    9
    The best RPG with the word “Star” in the title released in 2023. Beautiful pixel art, amazing music, fun combat, and a story that takes a while to get going, but gets really great.
  3. Playstationsuck
    Sep 11, 2023
    0
    Very poor looking, I have this game on my Xbox and it looks and runs way better PlayStation is a joke
  4. Parannoids
    Sep 10, 2023
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. the game was excellent, receiving top marks for me, until I got to the reconstruction of Brisk, my game freezes and I can't do anything else. I already cleared the cache, recreated my video game database, uninstalled the game and reinstalled it. nothing resolved. For me, a game that I can no longer play deserves a ZERO rating… Expand
  5. Aszach
    Sep 8, 2023
    8
    20 hours in the game, man this was a surprise and a hidden gem in regards to classic JRPG like genra.

    At first, I just played this game just to have some game to play before Starfield, but holly molly in a short period of time I got hook, The story is interesting I haven't finished everything so I can't comment on that (and currently on hold due to Starfield taking so much of my time),    20 hours in the game, man this was a surprise and a hidden gem in regards to classic JRPG like genra.

    At first, I just played this game just to have some game to play before Starfield, but holly molly in a short period of time I got hook, The story is interesting I haven't finished everything so I can't comment on that (and currently on hold due to Starfield taking so much of my time), Characters so far are a hit or miss, the main characters are rather bland but Garl definitely stands out from the rest.

    Combat is what made this game great, an added element in a Turn-based JRPG like game where you can block attacks, can interract with some abilities such as the boomerang which was awesome, or even get an extra hit on your attack.

    Overall the game so far is very good, and if you're a old fan of the JRPG with turnbase combat then this one is a must play!    … Expand
  6. WithFieryTruth
    Sep 8, 2023
    4
    One of the biggest disappointments or 2023.
    It has beautiful pixel art and a nice soundtrack, but that's pretty much all it has going for it. The awful combat system singlehandedly ruined the whole experience for me by turning the game into a tedious slogfest. To make things somewhat easier to follow, I'm going to break it up into parts.
    1. Combat animations are extraordinarily slow,    One of the biggest disappointments or 2023.
    It has beautiful pixel art and a nice soundtrack, but that's pretty much all it has going for it. The awful combat system singlehandedly ruined the whole experience for me by turning the game into a tedious slogfest. To make things somewhat easier to follow, I'm going to break it up into parts.

    1. Combat animations are extraordinarily slow, with long wind-up times even for basic skills. Since there's no way to turn animations off or increase the combat speed, a ton of time is wasted in each battle just watching the same animations over and over and over again.

    2. Another element of combat in this game is a timing system where you deal extra damage or lower the damage you take by pushing a button whenever an attack is about to hit. It sounds like it would add depth to the combat and make it more fun, but it feels like they've also deliberately made the fights slower just to make the window of opportunity for the timed inputs somewhat easier to hit. This obviously means that the whole combat, which is slow enough already, gets even slower.

    3. Many enemies are completely immune or heavily resistant to damage, and you'll need to hit them with regular attacks to make them drop orbs that you can then absorb and use on the next turn to actually deal damage.
    The system seems kinda interesting on paper, but what it really means is that you're wasting time and turns on dealing little to no damage, prolonging the battles even further. You can also only attack once for every time you absorb orbs, so you're forced to waste half of your turns just to make new orbs appear so that you can deal actual damage with a single attack on the following turn.

    4. Bosses have way too much HP. It doesn't really add to the difficulty in any meaningful way, so it just serves as yet another timesink, further adding to the tediousness of the gameplay.
    To top it off, some bosses (and regular enemies) can even heal themselves, making the fights longer and even more boring than they already were.

    5. When enemies are charging skills/spells, they get temporary weaknesses which you can exploit to cancel their turn if you hit them with the right attack. Problem is, they're usually just casting for 1-2 turns, while the weaknesses you need to hit are more than that. What this means is that even if you actually take the time to use attacks that they're temporarily weak against, it's impossible to cancel their attack since it'd take more turns to hit all different weak points than it takes for them to finish the cast.

    6. You can only ever have three party members participate in battle, even if there are others present. That only applies to you, though. Both regular enemies and bosses will often fight you in groups of 4-5, but you'll never be able to utilize your full party against them. I would've understood if the rest of the characters were busy elsewhere or hanging out back at a base, but they're literally right there in the same scene with you, and yet they're not participating in the battle despite the enemy outnumbering you.

    Honestly, I find it baffling that this game has been under development for 5 years, and at no point in time did anyone on the development team consider that "Okay, the combat could probably use some improvements or customization options."
    There are so many things they could have done to improve the situation, yet they didn't, and now we're stuck with this atrocity.

    Combat aside, my biggest issues with the game are probably these:

    1. The story is littered with clichées and lacks a real conclusion (even in the true ending). To avoid spoiling anything, I'll just say that there are a whole bunch of plot points that are never addressed or concluded, and important characters that just disappear without you ever encountering them again.

    2. The text speed is extremely slow and there's no way to increase it.

    3. The dialogue/narration has some serious lack of punctuation, making me think the developer didn't even bother having someone proofread it.

    4. No (or very few) autosaves. I lost a lot of progress once because the game crashed when I'd forgotten to make a manual save for quite some time.

    5. One of the worst minigames in the history of gaming. It's completely reliant on luck, so you'll have to replay the same matches again and again until you're finally lucky enough to get decent rolls. There's also no way to quit a match once you've started it, so if you accidentally start the wrong one or notice early on that there's no way you're winning, you'll still have to sit through the whole thing until you're able to retry.

    I'm going to end this review with a simple recommendation:
    If you're looking for a modern game with a retro JRPG feeling, go play Chained Echoes instead.    … Expand
  7. Isakius
    Sep 8, 2023
    10
    Un juego que te trae la mejor fórmula de rpg. Una mirada a los viedeojuegos de hace años pero con mecánica actualizadas. Artes precioso y temas musicales que recordarás. Un historia cautivadora con personajes interesantes. Para mí, el indie del año.
  8. DarkxHeero
    Sep 8, 2023
    9
    Jogo incrivel ! a história dos protagonistas principais, eu particularmente acho sem graça, se fossem pessoas normais como o resto da party, faria muito mais sentido e seria bem melhor.
  9. Funtempa
    Sep 7, 2023
    10
    One of the best love letter to old RPG with some modern add. Its also free for PS plus extra and premium users +++ :)
  10. EmreAkkaya
    Sep 7, 2023
    8
    Gameplay
    The game takes about 20-22 hours and the main characters gain 4 powers during this process. Since we manage a team, we can also play with other mpcs and this adds depth to the game. Enemies also start to replay after the first 10 hours and the fights become overwhelming. The puzzles are sufficient and entertaining. It's not too difficult, but it's not simple either. Fighting the    Gameplay
    The game takes about 20-22 hours and the main characters gain 4 powers during this process. Since we manage a team, we can also play with other mpcs and this adds depth to the game. Enemies also start to replay after the first 10 hours and the fights become overwhelming. The puzzles are sufficient and entertaining. It's not too difficult, but it's not simple either. Fighting the enemies we encounter in the open world can sometimes take a long time and be boring. In general, you enjoy the combat system, puzzles and the skills of the team we manage. Gameplay is 7/10 in my opinion.

    Story
    The story is not very original and I think it is unnecessarily extended. The game basically has two endings and I think the whole story can be told in 13-15 hours. Despite the duration, the play successfully tells what it wants to say. The dialogues are funny and understandable. Some events can make you cry. Character developments and backgrounds are made visible to the player in detail. The game is a classic JRPG in terms of story. The lore of the world we are in in the story is not explained much. I wish it was explained more. The story is generally successful, but do not expect an original and shocking presentation. 7/10

    Music
    The music is simply amazing. It's like the legendary music of old classic pixel art games. Thriller, comedy, sadness and action. Available in a music game for all emotions. 10/10

    Visuality
    Game design and visuals are of very high quality. The world in which the game takes place is detailed and carefully designed. Sometimes you may not be able to find the path you are looking for due to 8-bit visuals. The color choices are also very successful. I especially loved the hand-drawn visuals in the cutscenes, I wish they were used more. In general, the game offers all the visual and design features expected from a pixel art game. 8/10    … Expand
  11. skyla182
    Sep 7, 2023
    10
    for old rpg lover this is game is for you, good music, pixel art is nice the story is ok
  12. Maradum
    Sep 7, 2023
    9
    Sea of Stars is a turn based RPG inspired by 90's RPGs like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and many more. It has an absolute beautiful pixel art style, amazing character design, a great soundtrack and a fun and engaging story.

    In terms of length the main story took me 25h and another 5-10 for True Ending/Plat. Exactly enough game, it does not drag ever and has an amazing pacing. The    Sea of Stars is a turn based RPG inspired by 90's RPGs like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and many more. It has an absolute beautiful pixel art style, amazing character design, a great soundtrack and a fun and engaging story.

    In terms of length the main story took me 25h and another 5-10 for True Ending/Plat. Exactly enough game, it does not drag ever and has an amazing pacing. The main story is engaging at all time, always giving you new bits of lore that will keep you playing. Same goes for characters and their development. In every (good) way it feels like an old school RPG with a lot of fresh paint.

    The combat is good aswell, but possible the weakest point as it can get repetitive after a while. Every character has a basic attack, 3 skills and 1 ultimate, battles have the same scheme overall, hence the combat system could offer a bit more, but due to the rather short length for a RPG, it is still absolutely valid.

    Sea of Stars can easily hold its place among the best games of 2023.    … Expand
  13. Xenomorph121
    Sep 7, 2023
    9
    Tenía años sin jugar un RPG por turnos, decidí probar con este título por su estética, ahora no despego mis manos del mando, el combate es simple pero entretenido, la música y el arte son sobresalientes, en contenido me parece bien, con minijuegos agradables, creo que lo mejor es el diseño de niveles que me recuerda a los primeros Zelda en vista casi cenital, pero con un toque propio; unTenía años sin jugar un RPG por turnos, decidí probar con este título por su estética, ahora no despego mis manos del mando, el combate es simple pero entretenido, la música y el arte son sobresalientes, en contenido me parece bien, con minijuegos agradables, creo que lo mejor es el diseño de niveles que me recuerda a los primeros Zelda en vista casi cenital, pero con un toque propio; un juego ampliamente recomendado si quieres darle una oportunidad a los RPG por turnos… Expand
  14. brunostar
    Sep 7, 2023
    9
    O jogo é excelente! Os gráficos realmente estão muito caprichados e com uma trilha sonora memorável, que lembra os bons tempos de JRPGs dos anos 90.
    A história, apesar de simples é leve e agradável de jogar, inclusive pela ótima jogabililidade. Recomendo a todos que gostam desse estilo de jogo.
  15. Eerokina
    Sep 7, 2023
    3
    Nice game, probably 8/10, but 6 hours ng+ rush for last trophy is boring and stupid, devs are using cheap methods to increase playtime
  16. lonelydevil90
    Sep 6, 2023
    10
    Very good game overall!

    JRPG with simple pixel art graphic, still quite detailed and with superb soundtracks always very immersive. All characters have their story, their role and feel unique in the game. Story and narration is just incredible and never obvious, it really reminds me good old times. Combat is modern and always interesting since you need to have a good timing for hits    Very good game overall!

    JRPG with simple pixel art graphic, still quite detailed and with superb soundtracks always very immersive.
    All characters have their story, their role and feel unique in the game. Story and narration is just incredible and never obvious, it really reminds me good old times.
    Combat is modern and always interesting since you need to have a good timing for hits and parry, enemies are always at your level so they never feel boring. Only cons I can tell are combats being slow sometimes and limited moveset.

    i'm totally loving the run to get all achievements, this game is so much fun!    … Expand
  17. resh_aykut
    Sep 6, 2023
    9
    Tüm sonları görmüş ve oyunu %100'lemiş biri olarak rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim ki Persona 5 Royale'dan bu yana oynadığım en güzel JRpg'lerden biriydi Sea of Stars. Retro yapısı, karakterleri hikayesi, oynanışı, dünyayı keşfetme yapısı çok güzel dizayn edilmiş. Müzikleri de çok keyifli. Yasunori Mitsuda'nın projede yer alması özellikle daha da meraklandırmıştı beni. Karakterlerle yapılanTüm sonları görmüş ve oyunu %100'lemiş biri olarak rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim ki Persona 5 Royale'dan bu yana oynadığım en güzel JRpg'lerden biriydi Sea of Stars. Retro yapısı, karakterleri hikayesi, oynanışı, dünyayı keşfetme yapısı çok güzel dizayn edilmiş. Müzikleri de çok keyifli. Yasunori Mitsuda'nın projede yer alması özellikle daha da meraklandırmıştı beni. Karakterlerle yapılan kombolar, bazı fırlatılabilen skilleri tuşa basarak deflect yapabilmek en beğendiğim dövüş mekaniği oldu. Ardından ilerledikçe çokça çeşitleniyor dövüşler. Puzzle'ları da çok eğlenceliydi. Yaklaşık 30 saatte ana hikaye 40 saatte alternatif son, 50. Saate ulaştığımda neredeyse her şeyi toplamıştım. Alternatif son çok güzeldi mutlaka ulaşın derim. Jrpg oyunlardan hoşlanıp bir nostalji arıyorsanız oyunun grafik yapısı zaten bu yönde. Oldukça keyif alırsınız bir şans verin derim. Tek eksisi türkçe desteğinin olmaması. İngilizcesi ağır değil kesinlikle fakat Türkçe yakışırmış.… Expand
  18. jadge
    Sep 6, 2023
    10
    Kicks ass. Best implementation of action elements in JRPG combat since Mario & Luigi. Your brain will literally grow in size from all the moves you'll want to learn timings for.
  19. mpop
    Sep 6, 2023
    7
    For me I really am not enjoyint the story, but I do want to coment on the combat system. I think the devs have some GREAT ideas on the combat system. and while I did not enjoy the story, I really hope the devs do another game with a diffent story, and iterate on the combat system, as I feel the combat system has GREAT potental on moving the turn based combat system ideas ahead.
  20. Mourning_star
    Sep 6, 2023
    9
    Absolutely a wonder game that borrows from all the past great games and creates something new. The combat is really fun once you get it down. The pixel art in this game is absolutely beautiful along with the phenomenal music. The characters are heart warming and the story gets interesting. The level design and puzzles were just so much fun. Some feedback for this great dev team would be toAbsolutely a wonder game that borrows from all the past great games and creates something new. The combat is really fun once you get it down. The pixel art in this game is absolutely beautiful along with the phenomenal music. The characters are heart warming and the story gets interesting. The level design and puzzles were just so much fun. Some feedback for this great dev team would be to have a more detailed video on attack animations as nailing those down are more crucial than they let on Also some more moves would be nice. I would love if you guys make another game like this doesn't have to be a sequel or anything but keep up the great games… Expand
  21. Osman5678
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    Jeugazo, los que le ponen 0 todo bien en casa? Este juego es divertido y muy dinámico, su arte es bella y su historia entretenida, ya no se hacen juegos con tanto amor.
  22. Swazzey
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    This is a fantastic game highly recommend don’t listen to negative reviews they are mad they can’t make a good game such as this one
  23. Atreus69
    Sep 5, 2023
    2
    Ni sé que le ven con esos gráficos de cartón,gracias al plus que lo he podido jugar por qué no vale ni 10 euros.Se tiene que premiar el esfuerzo y con esos gráficos de los 80 no se puede jugar en el 2023
  24. Vzobel
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    This is a great homage to everything known as a classic JRPG, while at the same time being something by itself, kudos to the developer.
    Music is great!
    Combat is very satisfying
    The story goes to so many places, it reminds me of all the classics

    This is a masterpiece!
  25. pirs_san
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    Qu elle plaisir ce jeux!!! ça nous renvoie a l'époque des Golden sun final fantasy 3 et consorts ça ma renvoyé en enfance merci pour ce bijoux
  26. cosmicelegy
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    A game that continues to find new ways to impress even after you've beat it the first time. People's nostalgia glasses are stuck to their face and they have a hard time liking anything new. There's multiple 0/10 reviews that mention they never made it past the first few hours. Seriously. Play the game before you review it.
  27. Albertomhg
    Sep 5, 2023
    9
    Un gran juego y sin duda de los mejores indies de lo que llevamos de año, un apartado visual precioso, combate por turnos clásico pero con un giro de tuerca que le da más profundidad, y una buena historia que cumple. El único defecto que se le puede encontrar es que puede llegar a ser algo repetitivo en algunos tramos, pero el juego es lo suficiente divertido para pasar esto por alto.
  28. Vegal
    Sep 5, 2023
    9
    En mi opinión es un Excelente juego, hace mucho que un RPG no me divertía tanto, entiendo que para algunos el pixelart no es de lo mas agradable pero en este caso me sorprendió lo que se puede hacer con este recurso grafico. Respecto a el apartado grafico es muy bueno, su diseño de niveles es muy explorable y entretenido, el combate es genial y dinámico para ser un rpg por turnos. En suEn mi opinión es un Excelente juego, hace mucho que un RPG no me divertía tanto, entiendo que para algunos el pixelart no es de lo mas agradable pero en este caso me sorprendió lo que se puede hacer con este recurso grafico. Respecto a el apartado grafico es muy bueno, su diseño de niveles es muy explorable y entretenido, el combate es genial y dinámico para ser un rpg por turnos. En su música y sonido no destaca demasiado pero está bien, su historia no es nada del otro mundo pero cumple. Algo que me gustó mucho es su desarrollo de personajes ya que solo usando unos textos puedes imaginar su personalidad y motivaciones, si te gustan los rpgs te recomiendo mucho este juego para que revivas una época donde los videojuegos aún te hacían soñar… Expand
  29. Wunpleum
    Sep 5, 2023
    10
    Old school rpg that I used to loved. This game reminds me a lot of Golden Sun and that is one of the best JRPG for me. The gameplay is great, turn-based with some style that you can get addicted with. Soundtracks really brought me back when I was a kid. But the greatest part is its story. The story takes you to another level. I really love the story and all of the characters in this game.
  30. Skydog
    Sep 4, 2023
    5
    The good:
    - retro combat obviously influenced by Chrono Trigger and actually I'd say somewhat the older Final Fantasy games. Probably the best pro of the game.
    - Art style is really cool and actually makes it look modern Bad: - tons of spelling errors, nonsense word usage, and just bad writing overall. I've never witnessed such bad writing in my life in a game honestly. - The    The good:
    - retro combat obviously influenced by Chrono Trigger and actually I'd say somewhat the older Final Fantasy games. Probably the best pro of the game.
    - Art style is really cool and actually makes it look modern

    Bad:
    - tons of spelling errors, nonsense word usage, and just bad writing overall. I've never witnessed such bad writing in my life in a game honestly.

    - The characters aren't really likeable at all. I could have cared less if they all fell off the boat (later on) and drowned truthfully lol.

    - A lot of backtracking to platinum the game. When the game itself is very average. Which makes me refuse to do so.

    A very average game overall. Don't get the 9/10s at all.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

17
#17 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2023
22
#22 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 17, 2024
    100
    The game world looks fairy-tale beautiful and at the same time sufficiently adult and dark. The traversal of the world is then supplemented by small environmental puzzles. It's more of a diversion, nothing that would fundamentally break the game and cause one to get stuck on annoying puzzles while playing. The number of secondary activities is not overwhelming, which is very beneficial to the game's pace. [Issue#331]
  2. PLAY
    Nov 23, 2023
    80
    While it’s not without its flaws, Sea Of Stars is a tremendous love letter to JRPGs and a huge achievement for a studio as small as Sabotage. [Issue#33, p.80]
  3. Edge Magazine
    Oct 5, 2023
    70
    A fine effort, then, but a new Chrono Trigger it is not - and directly inviting such a comparison only highlights the areas in which it falls short. [Issue#390, p.133]
See all critic reviews »