The pixel art in this game is among the most beautiful I've seen this year with great lighting effects to showcase the cool glowing auras of the characters and the glowing visual effects for the attacks and skills. The music seems basic at first, but as you progress in the game and the story it becomes increasingly fun. It may also be nostalgic for SNES rpg fans.

The combat is super interactive and unique and allows you to affect how much damage a move does or which targets it affects depending on where you use it by pressing certain button inputs during a movie or at the right time a spell hits, etc. In this game there are also combos and ultimate attacks, which are both special moves that you can perform in battle by building up a meter throughout. These moves typically involve performing a skill with another party member and unleashing your ultimate signature move to deal tons of damage, respectively. Mechanics like these in combat is what makes sea of stars very fun and memorable and prevents it from becoming repetitive. As you unlock new party members, progress the story, and explore new areas, you will unlock new ultimate attacks and combos to use in battle. The combat also takes place in real time rather than entering a loading screen or some flashy animation to start combat. When you engage a target, or vice versa, the characters hop into place and immediately are ready for battle. It's practically seamless and is another reason why the combat doesn't get stale, unlike some rpgs like Pokemon with its extremely repetitive and long intro random encounters.

Another cool feature is that you can cook meals in this game. Instead of your standard elixirs and potions you would normally find in other rpgs, this game allows you to cook meals at rest spots like bonfires or stoves with ingredients you have collected along the way or bought from a merchant. each meal has amazing and appetizing pixel art in the menu as you cook them, and of course their own healing and mana restoration effects. Little deviations like the aforementioned from the standard formula of an rpg is what makes Sea of Stars such a breath of fresh air.

The story is really cool from the start, but picks up even further around halfway through the game to tell an epic story of all the characters you will meet. I don't want to spoil anything because it's so great so I won't say more on it, but if you're looking for a story-centered or story-driven rpg, I 100% would recommend this game. All of the different aspects I have mentioned as well as the story cement this game as my 2023 GOTY for sure. Buy it!

decent gameplay but its filled with bots, cheaters, and extremely microtransaction oriented. The game plays and feels like mobile game because im pretty sure it is/was one. The core gameplay though as previously mentioned isnt bad but theres really nothing special about it, just your standard issue third person shooter battle royale. There are characters with unique abilities to set it apart from other third person battle royales, but obviously Apex Legends pioneered this idea way before anyway. It is free but its just not that much fun so why would I recommend a game thats not fun

I played through the game on hard mode so I can't speak for how the game feels on easy, but the combat is super fast paced and engaging due to all of Ekko's mechanics like being able to rewind time, a slowly advancing projectile that you can speed up and empower and eventually comes back to you like a boomerang, a slow motion bubble that slows time in an area, etc, its all really fun and has a nice and short story. I like both 2D platformers and league of legends so this was a no brainer for me to pick up

Sea of Stars is a fun and impressive jRPG. I've seen criticisms of the writing and certain gameplay elements, but these pertain mostly to the first half. The writing is low-key as the adventure ramps up until fully coming into its own after the events of Mesa Island. That said, what follows is genuinely impactful and moving and proves Sea of Stars is more than just a Chrono Trigger nostalgia project. As for the gameplay, while it true that each character only gets 3 skills plus ultimates, in the late-game and especially post-game the MP and combo management, sequencing, and lock complexity are developed enough that the experience remains engaging throughout, and the swap mechanic introduces choice fluidity that makes up for a limited skill-set. I'd love more skills, sure, but I was never bored by the number in the game and the varied timing on different attacks and blocks kept me engaged throughout. The lock system is a novel approach to introducing player engagement to the turn-based combat formula, and I'm excited to see how it can be further developed in the DLC. "The spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger" was always an impossibly tall order to fill, but it's clear that Sea of Stars was made by people who loved Chrono Trigger as much as us. The result is a very strong genre entry that not only satisfies old-school jRPG fans starved for content but could very well turn the uninitiated into fans and send them back toward the classics.