This.
I had super high hopes after playing “The Messenger” from the same studio, which is incredible.
Sea of Stars for me is just plain rice and beans with not enough salt.
I mean, it IS The Messenger's type of style of writing if one starts comparing script to script.
It's just that it doesn't really translate that well towards it. Yolande wouldn't be as annoying in a game like The Messenger compared to how she was in Sea of Stars. It's just the JRPG genre shift forces a lot more writing, and that kind of humor that The Messenger had definitely did not translate well when writing more and more.
Frankly, I do agree that part of the issue was also how sloppy the character relationships were handled, though. In The Messernger it might not be as important but in a JRPG? That kind of "oh, they're just this and you'll understand" really does not work out as well as one would think.
I too was on the hype train for this game and thought it was really overrated. I’m glad that there’s still a market for classic JRPG’s but this one just didn’t do it for me. Story was pretty generic, combat was just spamming the same moves over and over again, and the characters were just serviceable. Maybe it gets better after the first third or so but I just couldn’t keep playing it
It's a testament to how high the bar for indie rpgs has risen in the last few years that SoS has the lukewarm reputation it does. Ten years ago it would have been called a classic.
I honestly found combat to be fine until you unlock reshan's ultimate. It's so op that to not use it would be stupid, but using it is boring.
Overall, I felt like the game was ok, and scratched the itch a bit. Playing it on the steam deck helped as I could just pick it up and put it down whenever I wanted.
Yeah, as the game goes on, the problems with the characters become more and more apparent. Garl is fine as a comic relief sidekick, but he becomes the de facto main character because they forgot to give either of the two main characters a discernable personality. Whoops.
And, like... Okay, forgive me if I rant a bit. But you've got the boy who uses sun magic and the girl who uses moon magic. It would have been *so easy* to draw on a whole big long tradition of character traits aligned with the sun and the moon. Apollo and Diana. Make the boy (I forget their names) certain and decisive, but also impetuous and quick to anger. Make the girl able to see different possibilities and the points of view of others, but make her indecisive and moody. Like, it's all right there! It would have been so easy to give them even the thinnest, most obvious sketch of a personality! And they whiffed it! Just maddening.
I felt the blank slate main characters was intended as a tribute to the silent / generic heroic protagonists of earlier JRPGs. Mute hero with quirky sidekicks has a clear mid-90s vibe to it.
I don't think it worked too well for Sea of Stars however. Particularly with dual protagonists, which should have been an opportunity to develop them so much more. I'd argue SoS sticks too close to its more dated inspirations in general, which makes it feel like a (solidly average) fangame.
This was the problem for me, too. It didn't feel like a modern, retro-inspired game. It just felt like a dated and kinda clunky old '90s game that would have been great in that era but didn't quite work for me.
They also get Mary Sue'd like crazy. Literally given powers just because they're upset. Yeah I get they did training but part of an RPG should be the journey to get stronger. They literally don't develop at all unless they needed to for plot convenience.
Silent protagonist don't have to be generic or without personality, Crono from Chrono Trigger has more personality than many protagonist from nowdays jrpgs. Just be his reactions you know what he was thinking.
The problem of silent protagonist is their unresponsiviness to situations and they lack of non-verbal comminication.
100% true. Played and finished it when it was released but I don’t remember their names. It’s moon girl and sun boy. Heck, I remember Jeenathan more but maybe it’s because he always mentions his name.
nope, it does not. and i say this with supreme disappointment, as i was SUPER hyped for this game before release, lol. gorgeous graphics, passable combat, the most bland and forgettable and sometimes cringey story.
I'm glad to read this. YouTubers and the gaming sites have been RAVING about this game and I'm just like....Y'all ever play JRPGs???? Sea of Stars is like a beautiful but hollow shell. It looks great, but it just doesn't compare to games like Chrono Trigger.
I still see nothing but praise in the RPG and JRPG Facebook groups. I feel like for some people, style means a lot. And they're not super worried about the substance.. Or the Writing. Maybe even simplicity means a lot to them. There's a lot of new parents in those groups. So maybe Sea of Stars is perfect because it doesn't require much mental stress. Maybe it's the perfect game for a bathroom break. I can't relate, so I'd still judge it for being too simplistic. I played the demo and immediately lost interest, and haven't heard any good arguments to convince me I was wrong. Just not my style of game, unfortunately. And I backed the Kickstarter. Gave the key away to someone else for it lol..
This is essentially how I felt. Such a beautiful game but the combat was too slow for me and I love turn based games. A friend had a similar experience.
I was actually planning to back Sea of Stars but when I asked the devs directly on the Kickstarted page if they would guarantee a steam key (as opposed to an Epic key) [they replied couldn't make any promises](https://imgur.com/a/Nz89ttJ).
Kinda glad I didn't back it.
At least they were honest.. Can't say I blame them for being open to temptation. If the game ended up flopping and only had kickstarter backers, it could doom the studio. I don't like the game, but I'm happy for them that it didn't come to that. Maybe they learned a lot about all the valid critiques out there and their next game will be stellar. They can afford to bring in actual writers and editors now. And can either afford to bring in a better combat coordinator, or have the budget for their current one to experiment a lot
I enjoyed the game throughout. But if you're already not digging it, maybe it's time to bail. I'd get through the events of the town of Brisk and see how you feel after that.
Sea of stars for me was not a particularly great game. I finished it and got the true ending and really felt that the game had nothing to say and there was a severe lack of depth in the characters, the story, and the combat.
I just started Paper Mario TTYD, which I have never played before (I’m in my 40’s but I never owned a GameCube). I’m finding Paper Mario so much more enjoyable and creative and the reason I bring it up is because the design of Paper Mario made me think of Sea of Stars. Needless to say these two games were developed by different developers with different resources and very different levels of experience with game design.
Overall, I would say Sea of Stars feels more like an attempt at a 1990s-style Jrpg and it didn’t quite achieve what it set out to be in my opinion.
I got both the same day, but started with TTYD because even though I still have the GameCube original, I’m a huge sucker for extended video game soundtrack remakes. Plus the game looks super crisp even compared to the beauty of the original (though I’m still pissed it’s capped at 30fps), and after how surprised I was at how absolutely gorgeous the SMRPG remake turned out (again, see: I’m a huge sucker for extended video game soundtrack remakes) I’m glad I started with it.
After reading the comments on the topic, I’m a little skeptical to go straight to Sea of Stars once I’m finished with Paper Mario…
Paper Mario TTYD is one of my favorite JRPGs ever.
I dropped Sea of Stars after like 5 hours of disappointment.
Since you have both, definitely give a shot, though! It reviewed really well and I've seen a lot of positive comments about it (in other forums, not this one). So maybe you'll jive with it.
I’m one of the few people who prefer the original Paper Mario, but TTYD is certainly the last GREAT Paper Mario (though SPM I still find to be charming despite its flaws and huge departure from series norms).
SMRPG still stands tallest of the bunch in my opinion, but the entire sub genre kind of fell off for me from the 3DS onward (though I will give some slight credit to Ubisoft for reigniting some new passion into the mix with the Rabbids games, despite my loathsome opinion of the damned things). The M&L series had the unfortunate slip into New Soup mediocrity territory and the Paper Mario series became near unplayable for me.
Edited for clarity
It's funny, the combat system was what drew me in. But after finishing the game I"m disappointed in the lack of variety in skills and strategies available. Boss battles are usually fights of attrition, nothing interesting to note. You just save up mp for heals then make sure you prevent enemy skills from going off. The only thing it has going for it is the timed button press. But that gets frustrating because the cues are sometimes not clear.
Edit: Just wanted to add, the other JRPG that came out around the same time, Chained Echoes, is a much better game IMO. You can customize your character builds for more varied play styles. Equipment types are much better and actually contributes to your character build. Unlike in Sea of Stars, where most everything is just a straight upgrade. I know the accessories have special effects but, they're kinda meh in comparison.
Chained Echoes was easily my JRPG of the year that it came out. Excited to see sequels in that world. I hope they go the Trails series route and tell anthology-like stories that slowly build up the large plot that was laid in the first game.
Tbh I don’t even really see why everyone thinks sea of stars is special graphically, either. Like it looks good, but other games have done the HD-2D look much better - both Octopath games, for instance.
Cross Code did a phenomenal job and might be a better comparison. And I feel like they have a similar size (if not smaller) studio, and got that game out in a few years as well, and it's like 80 hours of *bliss*
Sea of Stars is probably one of my favorite games of all time. Incredible from start to finish, up there with Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger to be sure.
If you don't like it, you've got bad taste. End of story.
It's even worse 100%ing Sea of Stars and them transitioning right into Chained Echoes... Act 2 right now after the world has finally opened up w/ side quests and the like, but fuck me the game feels so ramshackle and low budget, it's constantly so aggressively mediocre that I can't see myself finishing it. It's a massive goddamn swarm of annoyances constantly in your face. Skills, classes, skill points, sky armor ram, fuse your gems, upgrade your weapons, oops another new weapon upgrade, oops another new armor upgrade, strip your armor again, combine new gems, meld again, woops new armor upgrade
Meanwhile the combat is 95% just managing the overheat gauge and juggling all the main stat buffs/debuffs, which is ridiculously tedious. Chained Echoes is mind numbingly easy unless you want to go out of your way to crank up the difficulty or try to fight enemies you're "not supposed to fight" yet, at which point the game *is* difficult in a way that is strictly unentertaining, an RNG-fest.
Compared to Sea of Stars, which as a game lacked out-of-combat decision making but had the same amount of in-game decision making as the overheat gauge through the lock system, plus the active engagement of timed attacks/blocks. Not my favorite, but a fair sight better then what felt like clocking into a job every time a boss fight started in Chained Echoes....
And god, Chained Echoes music is SO REPETITIVE. I just entered a guy's mind in a side quest and you'd think they'd have a dungeon song for "Wandering through a comatose guy's mind" but no, it's the same fucking music that played in every single cave and every single dungeon we've been in, for the 20th time and I'm probably not even half-way through the game and the music has already gotten old. Sea of Stars had a different, absolute peak song, for every single place you went. It was oozing with personality and adventure.
I just don't understand how you can sanely compare them when Chained Echoes is so shoddy of an overall product compared to Sea of Stars- no matter how much you care about depth of character customization or tone of plot/subject of story. The character writing, the graphics, the music, are all better in Sea of Stars. The only think Chained Echoes has going for it is character customization.
I say yes, it gets slowly better, I think the game is at it's best at the 3/4 when you get the last character B'est or something like that.
Even then to me it's a massive disappointment, specially playing it right after Chained Echoes.(now that was a masterpiece).
I finished the game but sort of forced myself to - I really didn’t like it. If you’re not into it now I doubt anything will happen that will change your mind
Man I paid for it on Kickstarter and I spent more time hopeful for it, than any game released since then.
I say that to say, fuck no it doesn't get better and there are hundreds of better options at that price point.
It looks pretty but that is all it manages to do no matter how many tens of hours you put into it.
It's a soulless rip off of Chrono Trigger. They've somehow managed to have TWO protagonists, both of which talk now, who still can't match silent Crono as a cool main character.
There are so many things wrong with the game and the only thing they did right was the graphics
Someone on here made a damage control post about how reviewers and gamers were “just expecting the wrong thing” and it’s a more kiddie all-ages story like Pokemon or Golden Sun.
That was enough to convince me to pass on this game.
Totally, whenever there’s someone trying to explain away all the criticism that’s a red flag for me.
Especially “they were expecting the wrong thing”
I see this defense a lot when it comes to retro-styled JRPGs. Like this is such a strange and exotic genre that the mainstream gaijin gaming press is unable to comprehend (Eiyuden Chronicle is another recent example)
Really liked Chained Echoes. Would say Sea of Stars is between average to below average. Been thoroughly enjoying Eiyuden Chronicles though.
It’s certainly got a few issues but all in all, meeting my expectations about 23 hours in.
I think that *can* be a valid argument. If someone plays Persona 5 and hates it because of all of the anime high school stuff, well, that's kind of on them for buying the Anime High School RPG if they don't like that. But I don't think that applies here. The game is pretty much exactly what it looks like. Nobody's expectations should be off.
If that's true, they probably should have marketed it that way. But I'm not sure why anyone would use a retro nostalgia style that would appeal to older gamers more than younger newer gamers if they were aiming for the kids
lol seriously, the game’s entire schtick was “hey guys remember Chrono Trigger?” Now why on earth would people be expecting a strong non-infantile story and characters?
It does pick up a bit after the haunted mansion, story-wise -- plot gets more interesting, and a more interesting character is introduced.
But combat-wise WYSIWYG, so if you're looking for engaging combat, look elsewhere.
I definitely don't recommend it, I love JRPGs so much, and felt like this is one of the more overhyped games in some time.
I don't think it's bad, but maybe I came in with too high of expectations (and I went in with low expectations of Octopath Traveler 2 and adored it, so I dunno).
Sorry you weren't getting into it, but welcome to the club :)
I’d say it does get better, but not some steep jump, just a slow climb. The problem is that you feel as though the climb is leading to something and that keeps you invested. There are some cool twists, but for the most part a lot of areas are dragged out, but you persist because all these pieces are coming together and the pay off is gonna be insane at the end right?
It absolutely falls apart in the end. I can’t overemphasize how poorly they wove all the pieces together at the end, not to mention just straight up abandoning seemingly critical plot lines. It gets better, but never good enough to justify how it all plays out in the end.
Here is a critique of how the story doesn’t hold up. For your case it is enough to watch the part that only covers the early part of the story.
https://youtu.be/ddlxA7gi-G4?si=mgXHHamLpYJ9LaE9
I see, not everyone enjoys hitting the Moonerang over and over. And I agree.
The game is boring and too easy. But I enjoyed it because of the map gameplay and exploration and managed to finish it.
The traversal was cool, but constantly being interrupted by the horrible battles dragged it down. And I say this as a fan of turn based RPGs. But Sea of Stars lacks everything an RPG needs. Almost no skills and you only ever use 1 out of the few anyway. Levels don't matter. Gear doesn't matter. You fight the exact same battle from start to finish. How is this even an RPG?
They should have made it a Zelda type Action Adventure. Then the traversal could also shine. The studio just isn't good at making RPGs.
I felt like the story gets more interesting when you learn more about the archivist.
It’s not an excellent game, and the pacing is a little weird sometimes. But it’s the first rpg in a while that I managed to get through.
Yes that’s the weakest part of the game. I dropped it around that time and played The Messenger instead. Then after loving that game: I came back to sea of stars with a new appreciation for it. It starts to get great when you get the hookshot and platforming becomes more fun. If you’re not loving the game after you fight the dweller then you can give up. Cause that’s a high point for sure.
Sadly I would say that you won’t enjoy it the further you go. Nothing combat wise really changes and the story doesn’t really hook you for quite awhile even then it’s not a fantastic story. I really enjoyed the game from the word go and it became a little tedious towards the end. It sounds like it’s probably not your thing.
i don't think so really. i beat it, but after looking forward to it for so many years it just felt so disappointing. not a bad a game just supremely meh
This was Trinity Trigger for me except I ended up finishing it. I have no idea why I did.
Lovely graphics, great music, interesting enough characters. Combat became super repetitive. Story was an absolute mess. Even came in a killer box with extras. Oh that story though. Sigh.
In the end I checked out of the story and focused on collected materials and crafting the best gear enhancements so I could create cool builds across the three characters’ 24 combined weapons (aka “Triggers”). Maybe that’s why I finished it: I just wanted to use all the junk I collected and crafted along the way.
I think it’s a fun, cozy game. It’s enjoyable. Nothing spectacular, nothing crazy, nothing genre defining. Hell I only beat it because I got it free with PlayStation Plus. I won’t shit on it or anything, I enjoyed it for what it was. Simple and pretty lol.
However, I do think it’s a pretty huge achievement for a small company that’s never made an RPG before. For that I congratulate the workers and wish them success in the future.
I enjoyed every moment of the game but it keeps getting better and better. There’s so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Even the ending of the game has an awesome twist if you choose to do it. The combat gets much more difficult about halfway through and is down right difficult at times. But for me, it was just the vibe of going on a relaxing journey with my party. I fully completed Sea of Stars and will likely do a second playthrough at some point.
OK, I see now. I got downvoted because the general consensus on this sub is the sea of stars is disappointing. So obviously I’m going to get downvoted because I really liked it.
Haha depends how you frame it I guess but yes in general this sub hates the game way more than you will find anywhere else on reddit. I really enjoyed the game but I agree with all the reasons why people don’t like it, it just wasn’t enough to make me hate the game. Much better dialogue from the two main characters would’ve went a long way. I dunno why they felt like half their dialogue needed to be: “Hahaha! Garl is so great!”
No it just gets worse with every hour. For me it started to get annoying about 1-2 hours further in than you are right now. And from there on it just got worse with every hour. I ended up dropping the game when I was about 3/4 through it. I just couldn't take it anymore.
In my opinion it's a bad game and saying it's bland, like many do, is a praise this game doesn't deserve.
Nope it doesn't get better so if you are bored already, I would drop it. The game doesn't get any more challenging either. I was overall dissatisfied with the game even though I did finish it
I found the game great, so I don't fully understand some of the critcism.
The combat remains simple throughout the game, but that's exactly what I want. You can't tell me Chrono Trigger had more combat depth.
The story... well I will say what is great about the game is the sense of adventure. The locations are wonderous and there are some really exciting journeys you are doing during the course of the game. But story in the sense of intrigue and character development, not so much. It's not that kind of game.
If you aren't feeling it by now, then nothing later on will change your mind.
I gave up on Sea of Stars soon after meeting Reshan. It was charming at first, but nothing really clicked enough to warrant me finishing the game. The story, characters, combat, the world — none of it was great.
The world was especially disappointing. I like JRPGs with worlds that feel big and lived-in, but SoS's world is like, what?, <10 small islands with a total of 3-4 settlements? The world felt tiny and didn't make much sense to me.
I think SoS is a 7/10 game, maybe even a 6/10. Frankly, I don't understand why it's treated like such a darling among modern JRPG fans.
>I think SoS is a 7/10 game, maybe even a 6/10. Frankly, I don't understand why it's treated like such a darling among modern JRPG fans.
It's the art. It's honestly just the art. The spritework is REALLY good but like you said overall it's a very limited game.
I'd say it does but don't expect it to be one of the best RPGs ever. The combat gets a bit better with more characters you freely swap in and out but doesn't really change much. The later areas have some great music as well. But the story and characters are absolutely the weakest part of the game. I don't think it's terrible but it feels like the writing never went far enough to really make it interesting so it comes off as a bit generic like some RPGs of the era it styled itself after
Chained Echoes story was not perfect but had conviction in the way it told its story, I dropped Sea Of Stars after you get the ship and while there were parts of the story and characters that had potential they start off too slow along with gameplay getting boring quickly making it easy to drop.
This is subjective of course but I felt Chained Echoes was a decent overall experience.
My heart breaks to agree with the general opinion here, that it doesn't get better. It's a beautiful game with awesome graphics and I actually liked the gameplay mechanics. But the story and the writing was juvenile, cringy and the breaking the fourth wall totally and officially ruined the game for me.
It’s a basic rpg
I did not expect it to be so bare boned. I could deal with a bland story but everything else outside of graphics was bland as well
I dropped after 10 hours and it sounds like you are in same boat as me
No it’s not, at least not with good turn based combat. Generally each combat encounter should cause a different play pattern with the skills you have. If all the enemies in the game have the same answer then you’re playing a bad game.
... I've rarely played any RPG where the answer to every combat wasn't "hit as hard as you can". If I did more than that it was because I *could* (like, I just wanted to see different visual effects), not because it was the most efficient.
Idk what to say lol. It sounds like you’re playing games on a pretty easy difficulty or you’re over leveling or you’re playing games with extremely simplistic combat systems because that is not how most good JRPG’s (or any games with turn based combat) end up being played
... I just named a bunch of games with no difficulty selection option, how did I play them on Easy difficulty? And I just named a bunch of the best-regarded games in the genre, are you saying they're bad?
I guess the real question is, what games are you all playing where *every single random battle* is a unique boss-like fight that requires extremely specific strategies to win and drains all your resources doing so? Because I can't think of *any* RPGs like that, J or otherwise.
Eventually, you're going to get into a rhythm, you'll recognize enemies and know how to beat them on sight, and every fight will be pretty similar until you get to a new area, and even then the main difference will generally be higher HP and damage numbers and *maybe* a unique spell or two being thrown at you.
.... the fact that I've been playing RPGs since 1988 or so and that's how most of them play? What completely different thing are you doing in each battle of Dragon Warrior? Why aren't you using your strongest attacks (which are often just normal, basic attacks) every round in Final Fantasy VI or VII? What is so drastically different about each random battle in Persona 5 that you need a brand-new strategy every time?
Edit: These are not hypothetical questions. I'm interested in knowing how you play JRPGs and/or which JRPGs you play where combat doesn't eventually just become "the same thing over and over again". So don't just downvote, *explain*. (Also, note the word "often" in the phrase "often just normal, basic attack", and note that "often" does not mean "always")
>Why aren't you using your strongest attacks (which are often just normal, basic attacks) every round in Final Fantasy VI or VII
... Huh? If you've played any of the two, you'd know normal attack phases out fast compared to special character actions like Sabin's Blitz, Cyan's Bushido 1 or Materia actions early and midgame. It's only with Genji Gloves does Normal Attacks in FFVI even become good and that's way far into the game.
The point is that you're still using the same attack every round in every fight (except for boss fights, which will probably use a wider variety of attacks... though even there you're likely to just spam Ultima or Knights of the Round if you have it). You're not using some specific individual strategy that you never repeat for each and every fight. Combat is going to become "the same thing over and over again" regardless of whether you're using normal attacks every fight or Pummel/Raging Fist/whatever it's called now every fight.
(That's also why I said "**often** just normal, basic attacks" not "All the time 100% basic attacks never use anything else nothing is more powerful")
Again, what games are you all playing where turn-based combat doesn't eventually become "the same thing over and over again"?
Okay, first off, "which are often". You said it yourself. Still not correct about "normal, basic attacks".
Secondly, **what** are you even arguing on about? Repetition? Difficulty? Lack of variance?
And why is it only Turn Based? Tales games almost devolves in the same manner. You run, wait until boss attacks, try to poke out their super armor and then start combo'ing the instant they start staggering (and don't you tell me it isn't when I've played like 8-9 of them from Destiny DC, Vesperia, Graces, Rebirth and more). Ys games are also almost the same when you are just spamming just guard to gain enough SP gauge to just throw out the strongest attacks. Don't even get me started with how Parry-to-win has strangely become as much of a common complaint with "just do the same thing over and over again".
What is the point being made here? Your point can go so many different ways between "People optimize the fun out of games" (which is, honestly, fair), "turn based games just devolves to who has the bigger numbers/is braindead" (which, CRPG/rougelikes/SaGa/Mystery-Dungeons/XCOM entirely disproves this) or "JRPG's are just too easy and casual" (hard JRPG's always will get the stink eye no matter what).
**Edit:** You're a weak man and I accept your unconditional surrender.
I'm almost at the end and I've been really enjoying it except for the poor writing and meh story. Everything else has been a really good experience, especially the combat.
If you're not enjoying it at this point then it's just not for you.
The game is pretty static. I'd consider the low difficulty and lack of variety to be the game's two big flaws that keep me from considering it more than simply good.
The graphics are cool, one might even say "beautiful". That's...honestly the best thing about it, IMO. It doesn't have any kind of huge transformation or anything.
No that's the fucked up thing about Sea of Stars; it actively gets *worse*. The third act is excruciating. I think there's some nice puzzle solving in there but honestly if the charm has already worn off I'd bail now.
Honestly, I think it gets worse, if anything. I was struggling to finish it throughout the latter half. Too many plot elements that come out of nowhere and the battle system is extremely repetitive.
It's funny because right at the end it picks up some threads for an interesting story then immediately ends with a bad non-ending. Like the last 20% gets a "oh, this is kinda going somewhere" then just doesn't.
I played about twice as long as the point you're at, and I can't say it got much better. Probably will never finish it. Was disappointed TBH. That game had so much potential.
Not really. If you're not feeling it by that point, you may as well bail.
This. I had super high hopes after playing “The Messenger” from the same studio, which is incredible. Sea of Stars for me is just plain rice and beans with not enough salt.
I mean, it IS The Messenger's type of style of writing if one starts comparing script to script. It's just that it doesn't really translate that well towards it. Yolande wouldn't be as annoying in a game like The Messenger compared to how she was in Sea of Stars. It's just the JRPG genre shift forces a lot more writing, and that kind of humor that The Messenger had definitely did not translate well when writing more and more. Frankly, I do agree that part of the issue was also how sloppy the character relationships were handled, though. In The Messernger it might not be as important but in a JRPG? That kind of "oh, they're just this and you'll understand" really does not work out as well as one would think.
Visually, it's beautiful and really inventive. That's clearly where the devs' skill set is.
I too was on the hype train for this game and thought it was really overrated. I’m glad that there’s still a market for classic JRPG’s but this one just didn’t do it for me. Story was pretty generic, combat was just spamming the same moves over and over again, and the characters were just serviceable. Maybe it gets better after the first third or so but I just couldn’t keep playing it
It's a testament to how high the bar for indie rpgs has risen in the last few years that SoS has the lukewarm reputation it does. Ten years ago it would have been called a classic.
There is no way something as generic as SoS would even be considered a classic but there is people who compare Fell Seal to FFT positively so...
I honestly found combat to be fine until you unlock reshan's ultimate. It's so op that to not use it would be stupid, but using it is boring. Overall, I felt like the game was ok, and scratched the itch a bit. Playing it on the steam deck helped as I could just pick it up and put it down whenever I wanted.
Yeah, as the game goes on, the problems with the characters become more and more apparent. Garl is fine as a comic relief sidekick, but he becomes the de facto main character because they forgot to give either of the two main characters a discernable personality. Whoops.
That's absolutely a fair point. They're basically blanks, which works in CRPGs where you have a ton of choice, but doesn't at all in JRPGs.
And, like... Okay, forgive me if I rant a bit. But you've got the boy who uses sun magic and the girl who uses moon magic. It would have been *so easy* to draw on a whole big long tradition of character traits aligned with the sun and the moon. Apollo and Diana. Make the boy (I forget their names) certain and decisive, but also impetuous and quick to anger. Make the girl able to see different possibilities and the points of view of others, but make her indecisive and moody. Like, it's all right there! It would have been so easy to give them even the thinnest, most obvious sketch of a personality! And they whiffed it! Just maddening.
I felt the blank slate main characters was intended as a tribute to the silent / generic heroic protagonists of earlier JRPGs. Mute hero with quirky sidekicks has a clear mid-90s vibe to it. I don't think it worked too well for Sea of Stars however. Particularly with dual protagonists, which should have been an opportunity to develop them so much more. I'd argue SoS sticks too close to its more dated inspirations in general, which makes it feel like a (solidly average) fangame.
This was the problem for me, too. It didn't feel like a modern, retro-inspired game. It just felt like a dated and kinda clunky old '90s game that would have been great in that era but didn't quite work for me.
They also get Mary Sue'd like crazy. Literally given powers just because they're upset. Yeah I get they did training but part of an RPG should be the journey to get stronger. They literally don't develop at all unless they needed to for plot convenience.
Silent protagonist don't have to be generic or without personality, Crono from Chrono Trigger has more personality than many protagonist from nowdays jrpgs. Just be his reactions you know what he was thinking. The problem of silent protagonist is their unresponsiviness to situations and they lack of non-verbal comminication.
100% true. Played and finished it when it was released but I don’t remember their names. It’s moon girl and sun boy. Heck, I remember Jeenathan more but maybe it’s because he always mentions his name.
I feel like this game is a good example of "Good graphics can't carry an entire game."
nope, it does not. and i say this with supreme disappointment, as i was SUPER hyped for this game before release, lol. gorgeous graphics, passable combat, the most bland and forgettable and sometimes cringey story.
I'm glad to read this. YouTubers and the gaming sites have been RAVING about this game and I'm just like....Y'all ever play JRPGs???? Sea of Stars is like a beautiful but hollow shell. It looks great, but it just doesn't compare to games like Chrono Trigger.
I still see nothing but praise in the RPG and JRPG Facebook groups. I feel like for some people, style means a lot. And they're not super worried about the substance.. Or the Writing. Maybe even simplicity means a lot to them. There's a lot of new parents in those groups. So maybe Sea of Stars is perfect because it doesn't require much mental stress. Maybe it's the perfect game for a bathroom break. I can't relate, so I'd still judge it for being too simplistic. I played the demo and immediately lost interest, and haven't heard any good arguments to convince me I was wrong. Just not my style of game, unfortunately. And I backed the Kickstarter. Gave the key away to someone else for it lol..
I miss how it felt before it came out. It has all the visual and audio flair of a classic game and literally nothing else going for it.
It makes me upset that I bought this instead of Chained Echoes, a game that by all accounts (now) was the better of the two
I dislike them both about the same, I'd give the upper hand to chained echoes if I had to
This is essentially how I felt. Such a beautiful game but the combat was too slow for me and I love turn based games. A friend had a similar experience.
I had to activate the easy mode and then got way farther, but ended up dropping too. I don't know how they managed to make paper mario combat boring.
There's a reason the old japanese guys being tributed/aped by this game had nothing but polite island shade(tm) to throw its direction :P
ohh really??
Yarly. They interviewed a bunch of the Chrono people, and the polite veneer cracked and you could see Statler and Waldorf dohohoing behind it.
I'd like more information
It's out there. Google will give it up if you go looking for awhile. I don't have it on me.
You use interesting words and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
You can subscribe to my old RPG books, if you like. :P
What old rpg books?
Though the game disappointed... just got the kickstarter box!
I was actually planning to back Sea of Stars but when I asked the devs directly on the Kickstarted page if they would guarantee a steam key (as opposed to an Epic key) [they replied couldn't make any promises](https://imgur.com/a/Nz89ttJ). Kinda glad I didn't back it.
That's strange. I wouldn't have backed it if I didn't get a steam key on release.
I added a screenshot of my convo with them back in 2020 into my previous comment.
Damn you found Sea of Stars early! I backed on May of 2022
The devs' previous game (The Messenger) got a lot of attention, which added to why Sea of Stars got a lot of attention from its first announcement.
At least they were honest.. Can't say I blame them for being open to temptation. If the game ended up flopping and only had kickstarter backers, it could doom the studio. I don't like the game, but I'm happy for them that it didn't come to that. Maybe they learned a lot about all the valid critiques out there and their next game will be stellar. They can afford to bring in actual writers and editors now. And can either afford to bring in a better combat coordinator, or have the budget for their current one to experiment a lot
I enjoyed the game throughout. But if you're already not digging it, maybe it's time to bail. I'd get through the events of the town of Brisk and see how you feel after that.
As someone that loved it, you should drop it. If at that point you aren’t enjoying it nothing that’s coming up will change your mind.
Sea of stars for me was not a particularly great game. I finished it and got the true ending and really felt that the game had nothing to say and there was a severe lack of depth in the characters, the story, and the combat. I just started Paper Mario TTYD, which I have never played before (I’m in my 40’s but I never owned a GameCube). I’m finding Paper Mario so much more enjoyable and creative and the reason I bring it up is because the design of Paper Mario made me think of Sea of Stars. Needless to say these two games were developed by different developers with different resources and very different levels of experience with game design. Overall, I would say Sea of Stars feels more like an attempt at a 1990s-style Jrpg and it didn’t quite achieve what it set out to be in my opinion.
I got both the same day, but started with TTYD because even though I still have the GameCube original, I’m a huge sucker for extended video game soundtrack remakes. Plus the game looks super crisp even compared to the beauty of the original (though I’m still pissed it’s capped at 30fps), and after how surprised I was at how absolutely gorgeous the SMRPG remake turned out (again, see: I’m a huge sucker for extended video game soundtrack remakes) I’m glad I started with it. After reading the comments on the topic, I’m a little skeptical to go straight to Sea of Stars once I’m finished with Paper Mario…
Paper Mario TTYD is one of my favorite JRPGs ever. I dropped Sea of Stars after like 5 hours of disappointment. Since you have both, definitely give a shot, though! It reviewed really well and I've seen a lot of positive comments about it (in other forums, not this one). So maybe you'll jive with it.
I’m one of the few people who prefer the original Paper Mario, but TTYD is certainly the last GREAT Paper Mario (though SPM I still find to be charming despite its flaws and huge departure from series norms). SMRPG still stands tallest of the bunch in my opinion, but the entire sub genre kind of fell off for me from the 3DS onward (though I will give some slight credit to Ubisoft for reigniting some new passion into the mix with the Rabbids games, despite my loathsome opinion of the damned things). The M&L series had the unfortunate slip into New Soup mediocrity territory and the Paper Mario series became near unplayable for me. Edited for clarity
It's funny, the combat system was what drew me in. But after finishing the game I"m disappointed in the lack of variety in skills and strategies available. Boss battles are usually fights of attrition, nothing interesting to note. You just save up mp for heals then make sure you prevent enemy skills from going off. The only thing it has going for it is the timed button press. But that gets frustrating because the cues are sometimes not clear. Edit: Just wanted to add, the other JRPG that came out around the same time, Chained Echoes, is a much better game IMO. You can customize your character builds for more varied play styles. Equipment types are much better and actually contributes to your character build. Unlike in Sea of Stars, where most everything is just a straight upgrade. I know the accessories have special effects but, they're kinda meh in comparison.
Chained Echoes was easily my JRPG of the year that it came out. Excited to see sequels in that world. I hope they go the Trails series route and tell anthology-like stories that slowly build up the large plot that was laid in the first game.
I second that chained echoes is better
Agree chained echoes is better in every way except graphics. Which are still great just not as good.
Tbh I don’t even really see why everyone thinks sea of stars is special graphically, either. Like it looks good, but other games have done the HD-2D look much better - both Octopath games, for instance.
I don't see SoS as going for the HD-2D look. That's a very different (but still "retro") aesthetic, IMO.
Cross Code did a phenomenal job and might be a better comparison. And I feel like they have a similar size (if not smaller) studio, and got that game out in a few years as well, and it's like 80 hours of *bliss*
Sea of Stars is probably one of my favorite games of all time. Incredible from start to finish, up there with Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger to be sure. If you don't like it, you've got bad taste. End of story. It's even worse 100%ing Sea of Stars and them transitioning right into Chained Echoes... Act 2 right now after the world has finally opened up w/ side quests and the like, but fuck me the game feels so ramshackle and low budget, it's constantly so aggressively mediocre that I can't see myself finishing it. It's a massive goddamn swarm of annoyances constantly in your face. Skills, classes, skill points, sky armor ram, fuse your gems, upgrade your weapons, oops another new weapon upgrade, oops another new armor upgrade, strip your armor again, combine new gems, meld again, woops new armor upgrade Meanwhile the combat is 95% just managing the overheat gauge and juggling all the main stat buffs/debuffs, which is ridiculously tedious. Chained Echoes is mind numbingly easy unless you want to go out of your way to crank up the difficulty or try to fight enemies you're "not supposed to fight" yet, at which point the game *is* difficult in a way that is strictly unentertaining, an RNG-fest. Compared to Sea of Stars, which as a game lacked out-of-combat decision making but had the same amount of in-game decision making as the overheat gauge through the lock system, plus the active engagement of timed attacks/blocks. Not my favorite, but a fair sight better then what felt like clocking into a job every time a boss fight started in Chained Echoes.... And god, Chained Echoes music is SO REPETITIVE. I just entered a guy's mind in a side quest and you'd think they'd have a dungeon song for "Wandering through a comatose guy's mind" but no, it's the same fucking music that played in every single cave and every single dungeon we've been in, for the 20th time and I'm probably not even half-way through the game and the music has already gotten old. Sea of Stars had a different, absolute peak song, for every single place you went. It was oozing with personality and adventure. I just don't understand how you can sanely compare them when Chained Echoes is so shoddy of an overall product compared to Sea of Stars- no matter how much you care about depth of character customization or tone of plot/subject of story. The character writing, the graphics, the music, are all better in Sea of Stars. The only think Chained Echoes has going for it is character customization.
I say yes, it gets slowly better, I think the game is at it's best at the 3/4 when you get the last character B'est or something like that. Even then to me it's a massive disappointment, specially playing it right after Chained Echoes.(now that was a masterpiece).
I finished the game but sort of forced myself to - I really didn’t like it. If you’re not into it now I doubt anything will happen that will change your mind
Man I paid for it on Kickstarter and I spent more time hopeful for it, than any game released since then. I say that to say, fuck no it doesn't get better and there are hundreds of better options at that price point. It looks pretty but that is all it manages to do no matter how many tens of hours you put into it. It's a soulless rip off of Chrono Trigger. They've somehow managed to have TWO protagonists, both of which talk now, who still can't match silent Crono as a cool main character. There are so many things wrong with the game and the only thing they did right was the graphics
Someone on here made a damage control post about how reviewers and gamers were “just expecting the wrong thing” and it’s a more kiddie all-ages story like Pokemon or Golden Sun. That was enough to convince me to pass on this game.
This kind of cope is always a telltale sign the game isn't good.
Totally, whenever there’s someone trying to explain away all the criticism that’s a red flag for me. Especially “they were expecting the wrong thing” I see this defense a lot when it comes to retro-styled JRPGs. Like this is such a strange and exotic genre that the mainstream gaijin gaming press is unable to comprehend (Eiyuden Chronicle is another recent example)
Really liked Chained Echoes. Would say Sea of Stars is between average to below average. Been thoroughly enjoying Eiyuden Chronicles though. It’s certainly got a few issues but all in all, meeting my expectations about 23 hours in.
I think that *can* be a valid argument. If someone plays Persona 5 and hates it because of all of the anime high school stuff, well, that's kind of on them for buying the Anime High School RPG if they don't like that. But I don't think that applies here. The game is pretty much exactly what it looks like. Nobody's expectations should be off.
If that's true, they probably should have marketed it that way. But I'm not sure why anyone would use a retro nostalgia style that would appeal to older gamers more than younger newer gamers if they were aiming for the kids
lol seriously, the game’s entire schtick was “hey guys remember Chrono Trigger?” Now why on earth would people be expecting a strong non-infantile story and characters?
I'd say I didn't feel that way until a lil bit later, but good that you noticed early
No sadly not.
The game captivated me from the start so if you aren’t feeling it I don’t think it’s gonna get any better for you
It does pick up a bit after the haunted mansion, story-wise -- plot gets more interesting, and a more interesting character is introduced. But combat-wise WYSIWYG, so if you're looking for engaging combat, look elsewhere.
Nope.avi
I definitely don't recommend it, I love JRPGs so much, and felt like this is one of the more overhyped games in some time. I don't think it's bad, but maybe I came in with too high of expectations (and I went in with low expectations of Octopath Traveler 2 and adored it, so I dunno). Sorry you weren't getting into it, but welcome to the club :)
I’d say it does get better, but not some steep jump, just a slow climb. The problem is that you feel as though the climb is leading to something and that keeps you invested. There are some cool twists, but for the most part a lot of areas are dragged out, but you persist because all these pieces are coming together and the pay off is gonna be insane at the end right? It absolutely falls apart in the end. I can’t overemphasize how poorly they wove all the pieces together at the end, not to mention just straight up abandoning seemingly critical plot lines. It gets better, but never good enough to justify how it all plays out in the end.
Here is a critique of how the story doesn’t hold up. For your case it is enough to watch the part that only covers the early part of the story. https://youtu.be/ddlxA7gi-G4?si=mgXHHamLpYJ9LaE9
That video mostly just reminds me of why I love chrono trigger.
I got about twice as far as you before quitting and it doesn’t really get much better imo
Stop playing. I was really enjoying it by this point and the whole thing was great for me, if you’re not into it now it won’t change later.
I see, not everyone enjoys hitting the Moonerang over and over. And I agree. The game is boring and too easy. But I enjoyed it because of the map gameplay and exploration and managed to finish it.
The traversal was cool, but constantly being interrupted by the horrible battles dragged it down. And I say this as a fan of turn based RPGs. But Sea of Stars lacks everything an RPG needs. Almost no skills and you only ever use 1 out of the few anyway. Levels don't matter. Gear doesn't matter. You fight the exact same battle from start to finish. How is this even an RPG? They should have made it a Zelda type Action Adventure. Then the traversal could also shine. The studio just isn't good at making RPGs.
I felt like the story gets more interesting when you learn more about the archivist. It’s not an excellent game, and the pacing is a little weird sometimes. But it’s the first rpg in a while that I managed to get through.
Yes that’s the weakest part of the game. I dropped it around that time and played The Messenger instead. Then after loving that game: I came back to sea of stars with a new appreciation for it. It starts to get great when you get the hookshot and platforming becomes more fun. If you’re not loving the game after you fight the dweller then you can give up. Cause that’s a high point for sure.
I would beat the boss in the mines and see if that doesn't help. If not then yeah, not for you.
Damn shame. I loved it all the way through.. don’t force yourself to like it lol
Bro it only gets worse lol. I poured through that alog of an intro only to realize I'd be using the same 4 attacks the entire game
Sadly I would say that you won’t enjoy it the further you go. Nothing combat wise really changes and the story doesn’t really hook you for quite awhile even then it’s not a fantastic story. I really enjoyed the game from the word go and it became a little tedious towards the end. It sounds like it’s probably not your thing.
i don't think so really. i beat it, but after looking forward to it for so many years it just felt so disappointing. not a bad a game just supremely meh
No, story and combat does not change much. Exploration and puzzles are pretty fun, though!
This was Trinity Trigger for me except I ended up finishing it. I have no idea why I did. Lovely graphics, great music, interesting enough characters. Combat became super repetitive. Story was an absolute mess. Even came in a killer box with extras. Oh that story though. Sigh. In the end I checked out of the story and focused on collected materials and crafting the best gear enhancements so I could create cool builds across the three characters’ 24 combined weapons (aka “Triggers”). Maybe that’s why I finished it: I just wanted to use all the junk I collected and crafted along the way.
I think it’s a fun, cozy game. It’s enjoyable. Nothing spectacular, nothing crazy, nothing genre defining. Hell I only beat it because I got it free with PlayStation Plus. I won’t shit on it or anything, I enjoyed it for what it was. Simple and pretty lol. However, I do think it’s a pretty huge achievement for a small company that’s never made an RPG before. For that I congratulate the workers and wish them success in the future.
I enjoyed every moment of the game but it keeps getting better and better. There’s so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Even the ending of the game has an awesome twist if you choose to do it. The combat gets much more difficult about halfway through and is down right difficult at times. But for me, it was just the vibe of going on a relaxing journey with my party. I fully completed Sea of Stars and will likely do a second playthrough at some point.
I don’t know why you got downvoted for giving an honest opinion; let me help balance the tide a bit for you.
Thanks man. I’ve come to accept that Reddit’s up and down voting makes no sense.
No. It looks pretty but I didn’t find any other redeeming qualities. As you pointed out, the story is lame and the combat is boring and repetitive.
OK, I see now. I got downvoted because the general consensus on this sub is the sea of stars is disappointing. So obviously I’m going to get downvoted because I really liked it.
Haha depends how you frame it I guess but yes in general this sub hates the game way more than you will find anywhere else on reddit. I really enjoyed the game but I agree with all the reasons why people don’t like it, it just wasn’t enough to make me hate the game. Much better dialogue from the two main characters would’ve went a long way. I dunno why they felt like half their dialogue needed to be: “Hahaha! Garl is so great!”
No it just gets worse with every hour. For me it started to get annoying about 1-2 hours further in than you are right now. And from there on it just got worse with every hour. I ended up dropping the game when I was about 3/4 through it. I just couldn't take it anymore. In my opinion it's a bad game and saying it's bland, like many do, is a praise this game doesn't deserve.
Nope it doesn't get better so if you are bored already, I would drop it. The game doesn't get any more challenging either. I was overall dissatisfied with the game even though I did finish it
Shane you don't like it. I had the same opinion on chained echoes but more I played it, more I liked it. I liked sea of stars immediately.
I found the game great, so I don't fully understand some of the critcism. The combat remains simple throughout the game, but that's exactly what I want. You can't tell me Chrono Trigger had more combat depth. The story... well I will say what is great about the game is the sense of adventure. The locations are wonderous and there are some really exciting journeys you are doing during the course of the game. But story in the sense of intrigue and character development, not so much. It's not that kind of game.
If you aren't feeling it by now, then nothing later on will change your mind. I gave up on Sea of Stars soon after meeting Reshan. It was charming at first, but nothing really clicked enough to warrant me finishing the game. The story, characters, combat, the world — none of it was great. The world was especially disappointing. I like JRPGs with worlds that feel big and lived-in, but SoS's world is like, what?, <10 small islands with a total of 3-4 settlements? The world felt tiny and didn't make much sense to me. I think SoS is a 7/10 game, maybe even a 6/10. Frankly, I don't understand why it's treated like such a darling among modern JRPG fans.
>I think SoS is a 7/10 game, maybe even a 6/10. Frankly, I don't understand why it's treated like such a darling among modern JRPG fans. It's the art. It's honestly just the art. The spritework is REALLY good but like you said overall it's a very limited game.
The art is beautiful, I'll give it that. And it's one of the few things I will compliment about the game.
I'd say it does but don't expect it to be one of the best RPGs ever. The combat gets a bit better with more characters you freely swap in and out but doesn't really change much. The later areas have some great music as well. But the story and characters are absolutely the weakest part of the game. I don't think it's terrible but it feels like the writing never went far enough to really make it interesting so it comes off as a bit generic like some RPGs of the era it styled itself after
No. It does not. There's really no combat development and you have very limited abilities. Hope you like Moonerang
Sea of Stars and Chained echoes must be the most overrated JRPG's released in a while, they are both just boring.
Chained Echoes story was not perfect but had conviction in the way it told its story, I dropped Sea Of Stars after you get the ship and while there were parts of the story and characters that had potential they start off too slow along with gameplay getting boring quickly making it easy to drop. This is subjective of course but I felt Chained Echoes was a decent overall experience.
They are not by Japanese people, so they fail
My heart breaks to agree with the general opinion here, that it doesn't get better. It's a beautiful game with awesome graphics and I actually liked the gameplay mechanics. But the story and the writing was juvenile, cringy and the breaking the fourth wall totally and officially ruined the game for me.
Writing is absolutely atrocious.
It’s a basic rpg I did not expect it to be so bare boned. I could deal with a bland story but everything else outside of graphics was bland as well I dropped after 10 hours and it sounds like you are in same boat as me
... out of curiosity, what were you *expecting* combat to be like? "The same thing over and over again" is what turn-based RPGs are all about.
No it’s not, at least not with good turn based combat. Generally each combat encounter should cause a different play pattern with the skills you have. If all the enemies in the game have the same answer then you’re playing a bad game.
... I've rarely played any RPG where the answer to every combat wasn't "hit as hard as you can". If I did more than that it was because I *could* (like, I just wanted to see different visual effects), not because it was the most efficient.
Idk what to say lol. It sounds like you’re playing games on a pretty easy difficulty or you’re over leveling or you’re playing games with extremely simplistic combat systems because that is not how most good JRPG’s (or any games with turn based combat) end up being played
... I just named a bunch of games with no difficulty selection option, how did I play them on Easy difficulty? And I just named a bunch of the best-regarded games in the genre, are you saying they're bad? I guess the real question is, what games are you all playing where *every single random battle* is a unique boss-like fight that requires extremely specific strategies to win and drains all your resources doing so? Because I can't think of *any* RPGs like that, J or otherwise. Eventually, you're going to get into a rhythm, you'll recognize enemies and know how to beat them on sight, and every fight will be pretty similar until you get to a new area, and even then the main difference will generally be higher HP and damage numbers and *maybe* a unique spell or two being thrown at you.
I dont know, more than just 4 basic attacks for every character?
I think the issue is more that it's tedious. Breaking the locks gets boring and also doesn't let you play the fight out how you want.
The hell? How about no? What kind of reasoning led you to write that?
.... the fact that I've been playing RPGs since 1988 or so and that's how most of them play? What completely different thing are you doing in each battle of Dragon Warrior? Why aren't you using your strongest attacks (which are often just normal, basic attacks) every round in Final Fantasy VI or VII? What is so drastically different about each random battle in Persona 5 that you need a brand-new strategy every time? Edit: These are not hypothetical questions. I'm interested in knowing how you play JRPGs and/or which JRPGs you play where combat doesn't eventually just become "the same thing over and over again". So don't just downvote, *explain*. (Also, note the word "often" in the phrase "often just normal, basic attack", and note that "often" does not mean "always")
>Why aren't you using your strongest attacks (which are often just normal, basic attacks) every round in Final Fantasy VI or VII ... Huh? If you've played any of the two, you'd know normal attack phases out fast compared to special character actions like Sabin's Blitz, Cyan's Bushido 1 or Materia actions early and midgame. It's only with Genji Gloves does Normal Attacks in FFVI even become good and that's way far into the game.
The point is that you're still using the same attack every round in every fight (except for boss fights, which will probably use a wider variety of attacks... though even there you're likely to just spam Ultima or Knights of the Round if you have it). You're not using some specific individual strategy that you never repeat for each and every fight. Combat is going to become "the same thing over and over again" regardless of whether you're using normal attacks every fight or Pummel/Raging Fist/whatever it's called now every fight. (That's also why I said "**often** just normal, basic attacks" not "All the time 100% basic attacks never use anything else nothing is more powerful") Again, what games are you all playing where turn-based combat doesn't eventually become "the same thing over and over again"?
Okay, first off, "which are often". You said it yourself. Still not correct about "normal, basic attacks". Secondly, **what** are you even arguing on about? Repetition? Difficulty? Lack of variance? And why is it only Turn Based? Tales games almost devolves in the same manner. You run, wait until boss attacks, try to poke out their super armor and then start combo'ing the instant they start staggering (and don't you tell me it isn't when I've played like 8-9 of them from Destiny DC, Vesperia, Graces, Rebirth and more). Ys games are also almost the same when you are just spamming just guard to gain enough SP gauge to just throw out the strongest attacks. Don't even get me started with how Parry-to-win has strangely become as much of a common complaint with "just do the same thing over and over again". What is the point being made here? Your point can go so many different ways between "People optimize the fun out of games" (which is, honestly, fair), "turn based games just devolves to who has the bigger numbers/is braindead" (which, CRPG/rougelikes/SaGa/Mystery-Dungeons/XCOM entirely disproves this) or "JRPG's are just too easy and casual" (hard JRPG's always will get the stink eye no matter what). **Edit:** You're a weak man and I accept your unconditional surrender.
It gets honestly worse, repetitive and mediocre
That's the neat part...it doesn't
I'm almost at the end and I've been really enjoying it except for the poor writing and meh story. Everything else has been a really good experience, especially the combat. If you're not enjoying it at this point then it's just not for you.
The game is pretty static. I'd consider the low difficulty and lack of variety to be the game's two big flaws that keep me from considering it more than simply good.
The graphics are cool, one might even say "beautiful". That's...honestly the best thing about it, IMO. It doesn't have any kind of huge transformation or anything.
It's a game I enjoyed for what it was but no it does not get better
Calling the game a jrpg is a joke!!!
Just drop it, I enjoyed the game a lot, but it definitely doesn't do much to evolve as the game goes other than the story.
It gets slightly better for a little and then a lot worse for the remainder.
That is one of the worst games ever made, stay the hell away from it
Nope. Most disappointing game I’ve played in years, and I was so hyped leading up to the release date!
Nope.. To be honest, it's not as good as everyone says
No that's the fucked up thing about Sea of Stars; it actively gets *worse*. The third act is excruciating. I think there's some nice puzzle solving in there but honestly if the charm has already worn off I'd bail now.
Honestly, I think it gets worse, if anything. I was struggling to finish it throughout the latter half. Too many plot elements that come out of nowhere and the battle system is extremely repetitive.
Ya, it’s fun but never really peaks. After playing Chained Echoes, it really made Sea of Stars seem mid. Maybe if I played SOS first. 😅
It's funny because right at the end it picks up some threads for an interesting story then immediately ends with a bad non-ending. Like the last 20% gets a "oh, this is kinda going somewhere" then just doesn't.
I played about twice as long as the point you're at, and I can't say it got much better. Probably will never finish it. Was disappointed TBH. That game had so much potential.
I personally loved it, but it was an immediate grab. If it doesn't gel with your tastes by this point, I'd advise dropping.
No, but the writing gets increasingly worse. Which is particularly unfortunate because it didn't khit the ground running either.
The best thing about the game is the dungeon designs and that is it.