This review contains spoilers
Sea of Stars is a fantastic and creative JRPG that places its bets safely close to its direct inspirations. Leaving those roots briefly to deliver on incredible and heartwarming storybeats and transformative gameplay moments.
Sea of Stars has exceptional art direction, sound design, and writing. Despite how beautiful this game looks, sounds, and plays the real star of the show here is the writing. The core story here is great, I adore the dynamic of Garl, Zale, and Valare. It's one of the best approaches to a silent-protagonist rpg dynamic I've seen. Garl being there with his warm and caring disposition to be the face of the party, while Zale and Valare remain quiet, driven and slightly awkward "hero" types sets up some beautiful writing moments. So much so that I think this is one of the only games where the "true" ending is a massive step down from the normal ending.
For the first two thirds of the game, Garl is the face for Zale and Valare. He is the first person to introduce himself and his friends in every social encounter, he is warm and kind and constantly sees the best in people, but also isn't someone who is naive or taken advantage of. He's worked hard to get to where he is, he cares, and he makes up for his lack of combat prowess by being a not-often-seen charismatic logistics wizard for the group. Its a very cool and engaging role in an rpg I haven't been exposed to before.
Garl's active role in conversation is one of the great writing set-ups of this game. Because Garl's death isn't used as a vengeance or revenge fuel for angry protagonists, they grieve and they move forward. V&Z don't lose their purpose or drive, they don't change like Cloud does when Aerith dies, or any traditional JRPG tragic death moment. Instead the absence of Garl is felt in every single social interaction the party takes after. V&Z lost the warmth, they lost the kind and open charismatic face to the whole group. The dialogue takes a turn in the last act of the game because of it, when you have Seraii leading the dialogue instead. The gloom comes from a direct absence, not from a change in personality or story or tone. Its a really beautiful way to depict grief and feeling the absence of a fundamental relationship of the main trio.
Garl was my favorite part of the game, he is such an exceptionally well written character and him owning his death on his own terms is really elegant. The true ending isn't.
That surmounts to one of my few gripes with the game. The true ending, the overplaying of the hand on being a messenger prequel towards the last act of the game, and B'st. B'st doesn't feel like the same caliber of writing the rest of the game had. Wasn't a fan of his design either. I would have gravely preferred someone like Malkomud joining the party instead.
Anyway, this game is more than worth anyones time. Beautiful, well written, and an exceptional fun and tight experience even when for going for full completion. The Queen that Was, Chromatic Apparition, and Elysan'darëlle were really fun fights that had such great spectacle and art direction.
Sea of Stars has exceptional art direction, sound design, and writing. Despite how beautiful this game looks, sounds, and plays the real star of the show here is the writing. The core story here is great, I adore the dynamic of Garl, Zale, and Valare. It's one of the best approaches to a silent-protagonist rpg dynamic I've seen. Garl being there with his warm and caring disposition to be the face of the party, while Zale and Valare remain quiet, driven and slightly awkward "hero" types sets up some beautiful writing moments. So much so that I think this is one of the only games where the "true" ending is a massive step down from the normal ending.
For the first two thirds of the game, Garl is the face for Zale and Valare. He is the first person to introduce himself and his friends in every social encounter, he is warm and kind and constantly sees the best in people, but also isn't someone who is naive or taken advantage of. He's worked hard to get to where he is, he cares, and he makes up for his lack of combat prowess by being a not-often-seen charismatic logistics wizard for the group. Its a very cool and engaging role in an rpg I haven't been exposed to before.
Garl's active role in conversation is one of the great writing set-ups of this game. Because Garl's death isn't used as a vengeance or revenge fuel for angry protagonists, they grieve and they move forward. V&Z don't lose their purpose or drive, they don't change like Cloud does when Aerith dies, or any traditional JRPG tragic death moment. Instead the absence of Garl is felt in every single social interaction the party takes after. V&Z lost the warmth, they lost the kind and open charismatic face to the whole group. The dialogue takes a turn in the last act of the game because of it, when you have Seraii leading the dialogue instead. The gloom comes from a direct absence, not from a change in personality or story or tone. Its a really beautiful way to depict grief and feeling the absence of a fundamental relationship of the main trio.
Garl was my favorite part of the game, he is such an exceptionally well written character and him owning his death on his own terms is really elegant. The true ending isn't.
That surmounts to one of my few gripes with the game. The true ending, the overplaying of the hand on being a messenger prequel towards the last act of the game, and B'st. B'st doesn't feel like the same caliber of writing the rest of the game had. Wasn't a fan of his design either. I would have gravely preferred someone like Malkomud joining the party instead.
Anyway, this game is more than worth anyones time. Beautiful, well written, and an exceptional fun and tight experience even when for going for full completion. The Queen that Was, Chromatic Apparition, and Elysan'darëlle were really fun fights that had such great spectacle and art direction.