Sea of Stars is almost a perfect game, and I mean that in the worst way possible. The presentation of the game is fantastic; it might have the best pixel art I've ever seen. The music is superb and many of its songs have become regulars in my playlist. The gameplay is excellent and challenges itself to solve common pitfalls of JRPGs, like players hoarding their resources. The combat itself is like a blend of Chrono Trigger x Mario & Luigi, and I mean that in a really good way. Overworld traversal is surprisingly fun too with the equipment Sea of Stars gives you combined with great level design.
If any of what I just said is what you care about most for a game, you can stop reading the review now. Sea of Stars will be an amazing experience for you and I highly recommend it. For me, though? It had one of the most disappointing stories I've ever seen and turned what could have been one of my all time favorites into just another "pretty good" game.
I don't like making reviews filled with spoilers, since I feel it defeats the purpose of a review. It's difficult for me to give my full thoughts on the game without spoiling the entire story, so I will instead give a list of what I didn't like about the story while staying as vague as possible.
-The character writing is some of the worst I've seen in a JRPG, especially for the protagonists Valere and Zale. I honestly struggled to remember their names for the first few hours of the game because their characters are such nothing pieces and they never go anywhere interesting.
-The main antagonist of the game is a brilliant idea that's, in my opinion, executed horribly. There's many ways they could have showed the villain's impact on the world, or explored relationships the villain has with other characters more, but Sea of Stars just doesn't do anything with it.
-The "normal" ending was so horribly unsatisfying that I honestly don't know why they bothered putting it in the game, let alone making seeing it a requirement to get the "true" ending. The true ending is honestly worse in some aspects, but is at least better gameplay wise.
-The writing as a whole is pretty bad. From my understanding, Sea of Stars did not have a professional writer and it unfortunately shows. Really badly. In the English translation at least, grammar issues are common and characters often don't speak in a natural way. While the meaning of what they say is still clear, it makes the game feel a lot more unpolished than it should be.
-I'm aware this game is a prequel to The Messenger, but I haven't played it so I'm unaware of how its story is supposed to connect to that game. However, there are several major characters in the story whose arcs are literally left hanging and we never hear from them again even though their plotlines aren't resolved, so as a standalone story, Sea of Stars fails miserably in terms of dealing with loose ends. At least an acknowledgement of what happened to them would have been appreciated.
The story of a game tends to be what I remember the most about the game. I loved playing Sea of Stars, but I fear its really bad story will make my opinion of the game only get lower with time. If it even had a passable story or half-decent character writing I would have been comfortable giving the game a 10/10. The other aspects of the game really are that great, but I struggle to find anything redeemable about the story. For that, I'll have to limit it to an 8/10 at the absolute highest.
3 months later edit: Yeah it was just as I feared. The story/writing soured my opinion on the game as a whole and I'm almost actively disliking it now.
If any of what I just said is what you care about most for a game, you can stop reading the review now. Sea of Stars will be an amazing experience for you and I highly recommend it. For me, though? It had one of the most disappointing stories I've ever seen and turned what could have been one of my all time favorites into just another "pretty good" game.
I don't like making reviews filled with spoilers, since I feel it defeats the purpose of a review. It's difficult for me to give my full thoughts on the game without spoiling the entire story, so I will instead give a list of what I didn't like about the story while staying as vague as possible.
-The character writing is some of the worst I've seen in a JRPG, especially for the protagonists Valere and Zale. I honestly struggled to remember their names for the first few hours of the game because their characters are such nothing pieces and they never go anywhere interesting.
-The main antagonist of the game is a brilliant idea that's, in my opinion, executed horribly. There's many ways they could have showed the villain's impact on the world, or explored relationships the villain has with other characters more, but Sea of Stars just doesn't do anything with it.
-The "normal" ending was so horribly unsatisfying that I honestly don't know why they bothered putting it in the game, let alone making seeing it a requirement to get the "true" ending. The true ending is honestly worse in some aspects, but is at least better gameplay wise.
-The writing as a whole is pretty bad. From my understanding, Sea of Stars did not have a professional writer and it unfortunately shows. Really badly. In the English translation at least, grammar issues are common and characters often don't speak in a natural way. While the meaning of what they say is still clear, it makes the game feel a lot more unpolished than it should be.
-I'm aware this game is a prequel to The Messenger, but I haven't played it so I'm unaware of how its story is supposed to connect to that game. However, there are several major characters in the story whose arcs are literally left hanging and we never hear from them again even though their plotlines aren't resolved, so as a standalone story, Sea of Stars fails miserably in terms of dealing with loose ends. At least an acknowledgement of what happened to them would have been appreciated.
The story of a game tends to be what I remember the most about the game. I loved playing Sea of Stars, but I fear its really bad story will make my opinion of the game only get lower with time. If it even had a passable story or half-decent character writing I would have been comfortable giving the game a 10/10. The other aspects of the game really are that great, but I struggle to find anything redeemable about the story. For that, I'll have to limit it to an 8/10 at the absolute highest.
3 months later edit: Yeah it was just as I feared. The story/writing soured my opinion on the game as a whole and I'm almost actively disliking it now.