Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG from Sabotage Studio, a Québec based indie developer. Their Kickstarter smashed through its original goal, accruing a total of $1,628,126 CAD.
The early demo released on August 20, 2020, and will be open to backers until September 20, 2020. It follows two Solstice Warriors, Valere and Zale, as they search for [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] (this is actually used in the demo) who has presumably been taken by the game’s villain, the Fleshmancer.
Shades of the Past
Sea of Stars is heavily influenced by retro JRPGs, but the most notable influence is Chrono Trigger. Sea of Stars features beautiful hand-drawn sprites, vibrant backgrounds that are filled with life, and an overall style that will feel familiar to fans of old school RPGs. Maybe most notable, no separate battle screens. All combat happens directly on the dungeon map.
And there are team attacks, which will also be familiar to Chrono Trigger fans. These allow Valere and Zale to combine their abilities to make them stronger. Team attacks work differently from Chrono Trigger’s Double Techs. They use Assist Points, which are gained by breaking enemy ‘spell locks.’ Spell locks require you to hit an enemy with specific damage types (lunar, solar, physical, etc.) before the counter reaches zero. If successful, then the spell is interrupted and you gain an Assist Point.
Linking team attacks and Assist Points to spell locks is a great way to add an extra challenge to combat, and I really loved trying to plan out my attacks so I could break spell locks before their counter reached zero.
It’s one of the ways the folks at Sabotage are taking from the old but adding the new. The game’s aesthetics, sound, visuals, and story all feel reminiscent of retro games many of us love. But they aren’t beholden to any of it, there might be glimpses of JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, but there’s a whole lot of new innovative ideas in Sea of Stars that shine all on their own.
Elegant Simplicity
Sea of Stars also features ‘timed hits,’ similar to Super Mario RPG. When making an attack, you can press the A button (or X button on a Dualshock-style controller) just as the attack is about to hit, and do bonus damage. When enemies attack you, pressing the A button just before the attack lands will reduce the damage.
This also applies to special abilities, where getting the timed hit just right will increase its damage or boost an ability’s healing. The special abilities are especially fun though. Valere’s Moonerang is a great example, when she tosses it out, it’ll bounce off enemies and back to her. Press the timed hit just as it touches Valere and she’ll launch it back at the enemy. It’ll go on for as long as you can get the timed hits right, gaining speed with each strike, becoming an extremely fun form of pain volleyball.
I love how all this is mapped to one button. It makes it simple and straightforward, it’s easy to pick up exactly what you have to do for each attack and ability. Once you understand there are timed hits, the learning curve for each new attack type is quick.
I think of a few games that had Super Mario RPG’s style of timed hits, but tried to build upon what it started. Games like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and The Legend of Dragoon. TLoD had combos for its basic attacks, which had the player hitting a variety of inputs at the right time. But these always felt like quick-time events, and could sometimes be more frustrating than satisfying. Paper Mario: TTYD had a whole range of inputs, everything from swirling the analog stick, to pressing the Z button along with the shoulder buttons, to full-on mini games in the middle of combat.
These were all fun at the time, but looking back I think they’d frustrate me now. Paring it down to the simplest, most straightforward form is an elegant solution that still allows for a lot of variance in combat.
And when combat in Sea of Stars gets rolling, everything clicks into place. Going from trying to get the timed hits right, to blocking multiple attacks one after another, to planning out your special abilities to break spell locks. It falls into a rhythm that’s both challenging and satisfying. I had the most fun in battles where the enemies would fling everything they had at you, forcing you to use every tool at your disposal.
But Gimme A Minute
Sea of Stars uses turn-based combat and doesn’t use an Active Time Battle system. A subset of turn-based combat, ATBs make a game’s flow entirely different. They became common among a lot of old school RPGs (Chrono Trigger used it as well), and lasted into the PlayStation 1 era. I’ve always preferred turned-based combat without ATBs, even though some of my fondest memories are of Final Fantasy games that use it (more on that in a future blog post 👀).
ATBs definitely instill a sense of urgency in combat, but don’t think Sea of Stars can’t match it just because you can take a second to think. When you’re trying to figure out if you can break a spell lock before the counter runs out, while also trying to get the timed hits right to both defend from incoming attacks and do more damage, the combat naturally creates tension without the need for ATBs.
All in All
Sea of Stars is looking amazing. The early demo is a lot of fun and already has a ton of polish. The game is expected to release in two years, and I can only imagine the things the folks at Sabotage Studio will do to truly elevate the experience. This is definitely a game you should keep your eye on.
Interested in reading more about retro gaming?
Then I’d suggest checking out Aidan Moher’s work (Twitter). He just recently released “Timeless: A history of Chrono Trigger,” a monumental deep dive into the history of Chrono Trigger and the people that made it. I highly, highly, recommend it.