The Messenger was an odd little indie title that came out of nowhere and made a big splash. On the surface, it seemed to be a standard Ninja Gaiden clone, but it eventually reached some strange meta spaces where it changed its genre, graphical style, and storyline. Perhaps it was odd to hear that its prequel was going to be a turn-based RPG with almost nothing in common with the original game. As a stand-alone RPG, Sea of Stars is everything one could ask for.

Sea of Stars follows the story of Valere and Zale, heroes who were born during a solstice and gifted with special powers to channel the power of the moon and sun. They are also among the last Solstice Warriors in the world. The Warriors have been battling the evil Dwellers, horrifying creatures left behind by the evil Fleshmancer. The war has taken a heavy toll on both sides, and there only remain a handful of Solstice Warriors and a single Dweller. Valere and Zale prepare to take the battle to their final foe, but there may be more dangers awaiting than they are prepared for.

Sea of Stars is an incredibly earnest and straightforward game. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and the entire story is presented as more of an old-school heroic adventure than anything that deals in moral grays. It's more interested in the idea that helping others is the best thing one can do, and having superpowers comes second. Others may find it to be a touch cheesy, but it works. This isn't Final Fantasy XVI or Baldur's Gate. It's bright and colorful like a Saturday morning cartoon; there are dark moments, but they don't overshadow the title.

Sea of Stars does run into a couple of problems that drag down the story. One is that the villains are among the weakest I've ever run into in an RPG. They don't have personalities or motivations beyond cackling in an evil way, and that can end up being a drain. The most involved villains are shuffled off unceremoniously partway through the plot, and nothing ever quite replaces them. It isn't the end of the world, but by the time I reached the final boss, I realized there wasn't really anything there.I could barely tell you anything about the people I was fighting, except they were bad and had some cool designs.

The other issue is that I genuinely feel like the connection to The Messenger doesn't do anything to aid the plot, and it actually ends up hurting it. It's difficult to discuss without spoilers, but the biggest connection to the previous game ends up undercutting some of the most interesting segments of Sea of Stars. I also don't feel that the tone of the two titles matches up. The Messenger was a silly and meta game, and Sea of Stars, with a few exceptions, tries hard to be earnest and straightforward. A few small tie-ins couldn't hurt, but the level of connection isn't a benefit.

On the surface, Sea of Stars looks like a standard old-school RPG. You go from towns to dungeons to towns, and you beat up bad guys and solve puzzles. There are no random encounters, but static enemy spawn locations à la Chrono Trigger, but you can get the drop on enemies for a bonus in combat. There's a much greater emphasis on verticality and climbing, and you even get access to a cool grappling hook that makes the simple act of exploring much more engaging.

Overall, the dungeon design is strong. As the game progresses, you get more abilities that mix together in the dungeon to create simple but enjoyable puzzles to solve. There's even a degree of Metroidvania in that certain areas are not something you can explore during your first pass of an area, and you're encouraged to backtrack to find special items and hidden side-quests and bosses.

The combat system in Sea of Stars is rather involved. It appears to be a standard turn-based combat system, but there are a few wrinkles. The combat isn't quite turn-based in the way you might think of it. Instead, your party members each get one chance to act per turn. Enemies have a counter that appears over their heads that counts down until they act. Some enemies can only attack once a turn, but some don't have to abide by the turn laws and can attack multiple times in the same turn. This makes it important to prioritize who you want to take down, as weaker enemies tend to attack much faster. You can swap characters at any time, so while you have a party of three, you effectively have full access to everyone in your party at all times.

This also plays into the Lock system. The game has six elements (arcane, blunt, lunar, poison, solar and sword), and all attacks are divided into one or more elements. In addition to their usual elemental strengths/weaknesses, enemies who are charging up powerful attacks have locks appear above them that correspond to a set of elements. Every time you hit an enemy with an attack of the correct element while they are charging, it can break one of the locks. Each broken lock reduces the enemy's damage or healing, and breaking all the locks can prevent the entire attack from going off.

This means a major part of combat is figuring out the exact configuration of skills to break locks. Most characters can only hit two elements (usually blunt/sword and their effective element), so it's important to use the proper skills to hit the most elements. MP is scarce, but you have another option to break locks. Hit an enemy with a regular attack, and not only will you regain MP, but you'll also create "live mana," which sits on the battlefield. If you choose to absorb it during your turn, up to three "orbs" can be available at once. Live mana powers up MP-based attacks, but if you use a regular attack, it hits both the physical element and the character's innate element. A regular attack won't generate more live mana, so you need to balance the spending of live mana with keeping enough in reserve.

In addition to main attacks, you also have Combo and Ultimate attacks. Combo attacks are learned via the plot or by finding scrolls in areas, and as you might guess, they involve two characters unifying their moves. Combo attacks can't be used by regular MP and require combo points, which are earned by performing other attacks. These points are shared among the whole party. By doing combo attacks (or more slowly via regular attacks), you build up an Ultimate bar that each character can spend to carry out an Ultimate attack. These are big attacks that don't require timed presses and do huge amounts of damage.

A major factor in the design is that the stat numbers are very low. By the end of the game, you'll be around level 20, have about 150 HP, and have about 20 MP. That means your actions tend to have more consequences. It also means that Combo attacks have a lot of value for their flexibility, and they don't cost MP in a game where you're lucky to cast two spells in a row before you run out of MP. This is also where live mana and regular attacks come into play, as they offer free ways to replenish MP and break locks.

Also of note is that the game uses a timed attack system similar to Super Mario RPG. If you time your button presses correctly, you can inflict expanded damage and additional effects. This usually involves hitting the button just at the point of impact of an attack. Doing so properly may add an extra hit, bonus damage, or cause a single target attack to split into multi-targets. The same applies to defense, where you can time button presses to block attacks, and you may need to tap multiple times during a single attack to block.

A problem with the timed attack system is that Sea of Stars really underplays how important it is. Early on, it tells you it's "just a fun bonus" and "something to aim for," but the difference between successfully timing attacks and failing the timing is massive, especially with the lock system. For example, a regular hit from a sword-wielding character breaks one lock, while a timed hit breaks two. Early on, a proper timed hit can be the difference between taking an attack versus stopping it entirely.

To the game's credit, it tries to minimize stress for those who don't like timed attacks, but I find the solution to be awkward. You can find "relics" that change how things play, and sometimes it's easier, but sometimes it makes things tougher. In theory, this is supposed to be a customizable handicap mechanic, but it doesn't work so well. You must find or buy relics throughout the game, which means it can be a while until players get a proper relic. The game lumps together every relic with only a blue or red for easier or harder, respectively. Some relics are less handicaps and more rewards, such as an expensive relic that reduces item costs by 10%. I like the idea of relics, but it should have been a separate accessibility option. (It's a similar problem to the narrative in Final Fantasy XVI, now that I'm thinking about it .... )

The combat system is quite fun, but it does overstay its welcome. Your characters each have three moves and a cinematic ultimate attack, which means you use the same moves over and over again. In most cases, I only used one or two specific moves per character, since they were the best at breaking locks. Combo attacks are clearly supposed to build up your arsenal, but they run into the problem of taking too long to charge for a random battle, so you tend to use them in boss fights. Figuring out the correct solution to breaking locks is still fun, but the answer tends to be about one move per character, since almost every character is tied to an element and weapon type.

There's also the slight problem of the immense overpowering effect of Delay. There are several moves that delay enemy actions, including one specific combo attack. This means an enemy's timer can go up as many as five or more turns each use. These moves are so absurdly overpowered that they basically eliminate the need to use anything else, and they work on everything. Not only does it make breaking locks trivial when you're not trying to fit moves in a limited space, but it also means that you can take down dangerous foes in a quarter as many turns as usual. This also means I basically ignored most of the combo attacks, since their upsides couldn't match Delay.

For the first 15 hours of the game, I was having a ton of fun with the combat system, but that's about where its depth ends, but the game lasts longer than that. I kept waiting for a new twist or turn, but it felt like there needed to be another gameplay mechanic or combat twist to make it shine. The timed attacks and generally strong combat design keep it fun throughout.

Despite that criticism, Sea of Stars perfectly scratches the RPG itch. In the moment, I had been enjoying the experience, and many frustrations only became apparent once I had put down the game for a while. It reminds me of playing Lunar: Silver Star Story, where it isn't groundbreaking but extremely well executed, charming and genuinely heartfelt. If you're an RPG fan, you're almost certainly going to get a lot of fun out of Sea of Stars.

Sea of Stars is also a great example of how you don't need a $10-billion budget and insanely realistic graphics to look amazing. While the game has old-school sprite animations, they look fantastic. Every character, environment, and piece of the game is a pure joy to see. The dungeons are distinct and interesting, the characters have tons of incredible animations, and the game generally looks great. I can't go on enough about how well it captured the feel of an SNES RPG while modernizing it enough to look impressive. Likewise, the soundtrack is top-notch and has a load of catchy tunes.

Sea of Stars is a pitch-perfect nostalgic take on a JRPG, with beautiful visuals, a fun combat system, and a top-notch soundtrack. My only major criticism is that the story is a touch weak and disjointed, and the combat system falls off a bit toward the end. Sea of Stars hit its mark hard, and it's a damn impressive first effort from Sabotage Studios. If you've been looking for a simple, fun and lighthearted old-school RPG, look no further than Sea of Stars. It's not quite a new classic, but it doesn't need to be, either.

Score: 8.5/10