80%PC

Most of this game is really good. I do have some issues with the pacing of the second part and the true ending. The gameplay alone makes up for that however.

80%PC

Sea Of Stars is a sweet heartwarming homage to the old jRPGs. With a story of friendship, prevalence and eternal battle of light and darkness, wrapped in a grand adventure through lands, worlds and time. Loved the visual style, the modernized jokes and the mini-game. DLC is amazing as well.

85%PlayStation 5

Precioso pixel art y música retro y nostálgica.

90%Xbox Series X/S

Absolutely gorgeous pixel art and beautiful music are the main standouts here, but I was also a big fan of the old-school, Super Mario RPG-style combat system here. Was never quite able to get the timing right 100% of the time, but I always appreciate turn-based combat that still requires you to stay engaged and be on your toes. This kind of throwback was real catnip for me, and while it's not perfect (the story and characters were kind of, whatever), it absolutely captures the vibe and spirit of classic RPGs while adding plenty of QOL improvements that were much appreciated. I also really liked how friendly it was in terms of difficulty, giving you tons of options to make things harder or easier, depending on your personal preferences. Grinding for experience was always my least favorite part of RPGs, and thankfully here that was never really an issue. It was also basically an ideal length, being plenty meaty without overstaying its welcome. Apparently there were a lot more issues when this first came out, but since it took me a couple years to get around to it, as far as I could tell, whatever problems people had initially have been ironed out because I experienced none of it.

100%Nintendo Switch

Um dos melhores jogos que joguei na minha vida, além da história e trilha sonora ser muito boa, o que eu acho maravilhoso nesse jogo é o combate por turno que você precisa acertar o tempo certo para causar mais dano e algumas vezes acerta em área. A história do jogo é algo incrível, eu não imaginei que eles mataria um personagem e achei isso fantástico porque o autor não teve medo de fazer algo para continuar a história e deixar ela ainda melhor.

60%PC

Too dragging & repetitive but the graphics is good for pixel

80%Xbox Series X/S

Loved it. Lots of fun, and nails the best notes of SNES JRPG vibes, which it clearly takes lots of inspiration from. The world was beautiful, there was a lot of great music, and the timed blocking mechanic kept every fight feeling engaging (though I do wish there was a way to skip/run from some fights, especially when backtracking through early areas). Being able to swap party members mid-battle for free was a nice feature. That combined with a party sharing an overall level alleviated my usual issue of just picking one set party and rarely changing, which is what happens in most RPGs that give me more characters than fit in the active party.

The story starts pretty typical for fantasy: kids of destiny are destined to save the world or whatever, and then they, go and try to do that. There are some revelations and twists to mix things up a bit as you go on, and in the end I very much enjoyed it. The characters you meet along the way tend to be charming and memorable (though I found some of the pirate's antics to be repeated a bit too much). Also, if you've played the devs' previous game, The Messenger, you'll notice some familiar people, places, and plots that you dealt with there. As a fan of The Messenger, I loved all the connected lore and felt like I kept doing that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme, but if you haven't played that game, you won't be missing out on what's actually happening in this game.

65%PC

Visually stunning, but that’s where it stops for me. The characters felt flat and hard to connect with, and overall the game didn’t live up to the hype. It looks great, but beyond the presentation, I found it underwhelming.

45%PC

The story in this game is so bad, and the worst part is the whole game is making you sit through the constant filler content to beef up your artificial playtime. They really hired someone incompetent to write the story for them. There isn't enough actual gameplay as most of it is spamming next to skip the shitty story. The movement was pretty cool, and some of the art, but the same cant be said about the pixel characters. They needed a bit of work and they often looked nothing like their image / animated scenes. Like the girl protag having a burnt scar on her forehead in her pixel version which is supposed to be just a poorly done shadow.

I obviously didn't really get deep enough to see all the fight mechanics and world interactions, but from the fights and exploring I've done so far I'd favor other games from this genre type. Though again granted, I've only played 10mins, which most of it was skimming and then skipping most of the trash story setup.

60%PC

Good game for kids

95%Nintendo Switch

10/10 Amazing RPG.

85%Xbox Series X/S

87%

90%PC

- Gameplay: really happy to see a game that embraces and develops mechanics from games like Chrono Trigger.
- Puzzles: pretty straightforward, nothing too mind-bending but either something too easy, appreciated them. It's not the same for the DLC, puzzles there are e bit harder, which isn't a bad thing, but the solutions were kind of redundant.
- Art & Music: they were really cohesive with one another throughout the game, great expressions and great themes.
I gave it a 9 because, it's still a really solid game, but i didn't appreciate the story arcs of the protagonists, i would've wanted a stronger moment where they struggled with their powers / themselves, which it did happen in the DLC, and it was great, but it was too short.

The DLC is 10/10, Zale and Valere are corny at times, but still gigachads.

100%Xbox Series X/S

Video games are in fact art. When society looks back at the beginnings of this medium, I genuinely hope that this game stands side by side with Chrono Trigger, as equals. This game is so very clearly a love letter to SNES era JRPGs and it executes it with a finesse and energy that is just captured so damn faithfully. I have played dozens of games that are attempting to recreate the lightning in a bottle that this game so effortlessly displays. I could write about this game for hours, and while I do have some minor gripes with the game, if it would mean potentially turning someone away I will not even bring them up. For they are so minor that even pretending that they detract from the game enough to prevent someone from playing it would be a shame. Fan for life man.

100%Nintendo Switch

A must play for all RPG and JRPG fans.

85%Nintendo Switch

Current progress : Only missing the shells

I played with the story cheats on for this review, so I'm not tooo focus on the combat strat

I really like the game ! The characters are compelling, the story is always on the move and the slow down are very well placed. The musics are really cool tho some got really repetitive overtime for me.
I love all the art design they went with, the colors, the chara design, the landscapes... Really my cup of tea !
The traversal feels really good and they answered one of my biggest fear from the beginning quickly.

The combat felt really good ! Each characters felt awesome ,,aside from Garl for me. I like the idea of his character but the spotlight on him felt just a little too forced sometimes which annoyed me and didn't make me attached to him overall.
Seraï is my top 1 from them all. She is just so awesome and the reasons of why she is this way made me want to rush to the next plot point.
The alchemist is right now, my top 2, I wish we could have seen more of him and not get his puppet ( even tho I know he can still control it, which made me happier )
The twins are cool ! Nothing to say much, they complement each other well.
The "blob" one is great but sadly didn't grow much on me. I struggle with his character design but it isn't has bad as when I first saw him.
And Garl well... His chara design fits well.. But compared to them all he isn't memorable much if it wasn't for the story

Gameplay wise for me all worked, aside from once again garl, I ended up ditching him soo quickly when I wasn't required to use him.

Loved the extra content before the final boss to get all the best gear. It really was well put in and felt natural. Most NPC's are really memorable ! I love Hortence... And many more I don't recall the name of :'D

Edit : F* the shells. I hate having to backtrack to gather useless collectables that just serves to make the play time longer. Collecting 60 shells is so useless if you don't gather them all on your way directly.

70%PC

Why did you have to waste so much effort into refining an essentially forgettable experience?

100%PC

Amazing classic-style JRPG, absolute banger

100%PC

Sea of Stars é um RPG por turnos que bebe direto da fonte dos clássicos JRPGs — especialmente Chrono Trigger — e entrega uma experiência moderna com alma retrô.

A duração do jogo é na medida certa: longa o bastante para construir uma jornada épica, mas sem se arrastar. O que mais impressiona de imediato é a pixel art, simplesmente uma das mais belas que já vi. Cada cenário é um quadro, cada animação, um carinho visual. É o tipo de jogo que você para pra admirar o horizonte digital antes de continuar.

A história é envolvente, cheia de nuances e momentos de coração aberto. Os personagens são tão cativantes que, em vários momentos, arrancam lágrimas — e não apenas pela dor, mas pela beleza das conexões que criam ao longo da jornada.

Sea of Stars é um presente para os fãs do gênero e um lembrete de que RPGs por turno ainda têm muito a dizer. Um jogo que emociona, inspira e deixa saudade quando os créditos sobem.

85%Nintendo Switch

Excellent RPG. Dynamic combat, funny puzzles, great story. A brilliant surprise maybe. I am not into turn based combat games but this keep very engaged and enjoyed. I highly recommend to all retro RPG lovers. Pixel art is also incredible. What a banger

85%PlayStation 5

I honestly think the trophy hunting took some of the enjoyability out of this game, especially ‘What a Technique’. Despite that, this is really beautiful and the story is amazing and super heartfelt. I will say though it’s disappointing how… nothing the main characters are when everyone else is so layered and dynamic. The combat didn’t get very boring for me at all, but I do know that turn-based combat isn’t everybody’s thing.

90%PC

Story (30%) - 83 - 24.9%
Sound (20%) - 92 - 18.4%
Visuals (20%) - 96 - 19.2%
Gameplay (30%) - 91 - 27.3%

Final - 89.8 - 90%

60%PC

Game was a bit of a letdown. The story was meh, characters were not that good with a few exceptions of interesting ones and the gameplay was a bit basic. Art was great, setting was cool and music was nice. I know they have updated a lot since i last played and plan to replay it now the dlc is out.

70%Xbox Series X/S

Too much backtracking
Basic writing
Boring main characters with no growth
Garl obsession seems unearned

90%PC

Это было невероятное приключение! Настолько, что я пошла в новый для себя тип контента и снимала летсплеи: на стримах она зрителям не зашла, а дропнуть ее было бы очень обидно.

Полностью фэнтезийный мир, в котором существуют монстры, порождаемые Сеятельницей ужаса, и воины Солнцестояния, обладающие силой Солнца и Луны – только они способны справиться с Сеятельницей. А в появлении Сеятельниц виноват некто вроде местного злого бога, и чтобы навсегда избавить мир от всех бед, нужно в конце концов разобраться с ним. Мы, конечно же, играем за воинов Солцестояния, брата и сестру, и проходим с ними этот нелегкий путь с детских лет – но по ходу дела к нам присоединятся и другие храбрые ребята, которые помогут справиться со злом.

Геймплей – исследование мира и пошаговые бои, которым прибавили динамики за счет необходимости вовремя прожимать кнопки для защиты или успешного выполнения удара. У каждого персонажа свой набор скиллов, и они по-разному выполняются, так что иногда приходится попотеть не только над стратегией боя, но и над техникой. Что касается исследования мира – есть разные секретки, сокровища и коллекционные штуки, причем в какой-то момент игра, так скажем, замотивирует их собирать.

Мир Sea of Stars по настроению мне напоминал разные мифологические системы. Знаете, вот это ощущение – тут у нас континент с огромной горой, забраться на которую можно только по одной маленькой дорожке, а вокруг этой горы уложился кольцами и спит вечным сном огромный летающий змей, уникальный и единственный в своем роде. В череде своих друзей можно обнаружить, скажем, привидение, еще кого-нибудь супер-древнего, но живого, и кого-нибудь металлического. Как все это (и еще миллион других подобных деталей) сочетается друг с другом и уживается в одном мире – непонятно, но – это работает. Я не великий фанат сюжета, в котором надо побеждать мировое зло, но мир оказался таким обаятельным, что захотелось исследовать его полностью.

Минус балл только за большие неудобства в интерфейсе и управлении. Мне постоянно не хватало более удобного доступа к карте; миникарты; журнала, в которой записывались бы побочные задания и какие-то подсказки, куда дальше идти, а то если прослушал – все, ищи вслепую. И более удобного перемещения по миру: вот это постепенно открывается с прохождением, но как по мне – поздновато, все равно беготня туда-сюда занимала очень, очень много времени. Наверное, почти все эти неудобства обусловлены жанром jRPG и движком, но я прямо много на это раздражалась, так что минус существенный. И еще они одну механику ввели только на битве с финальным боссом, ну кто так делает?

Классное и очень эмоциональное фэнтези-приключение, которое не раз удивит. От финального плот-твиста я вообще обалдела!

75%PC

The core gameplay is mostly fun, the combat and the exploration of towns and dungeons for treasure, but the story is mediocre and the characters are either dull or annoying.

85%PC

Super beautiful classic RPG. Looking like a SNES game put out in 2023. The combat system is simple and nice, the story is heart-breaking and heart-warming all at a time.

70%Nintendo Switch

Excellent Rpg a l'ancienne, rappel un peu chrono trigger parfois. Du contenu endgame se débloque. Un beau travail de cet équipe canadienne.

50%Xbox Series X/S

Not a terrible game, but I did not find anything that would catch me up.

80%PC

Faltou apenas os búzios arco-íris para fazer o final verdadeiro, mas fiquei com preguiça de voltar procurando em tudo quanto é lugar👍🏿

95%PC

El juego es muy muy bonito. Los personajes están muy bien. El final normal me ha dejado un poco frio pero el otro lo arregla. Las mecánicas están guapas pero se me queda un poco simple el juego. Una dificultad mas alta puede que hubara estado bien. Hay maneras de subirla pero no son del juego base como tal y me ha parecido un poco raro. Indudablemente lo mejor los gráficos y los personajes.

100%PC

Sou MUITO grato por ter sido apresentado à essa obra por meio de um vídeo qualquer no YouTube.
Foi uma experiência lifechanging pra mim e vai ficar pra sempre na minha memória por talvez ter sido o principal "JRPG" que eu mergulhei com força.

É claramente uma carta de amor aos antigos JRPGs clássicos, principalmente Chrono Trigger e Super Mario RPG e portanto me apresentou conceitos e gimmicks com os quais eu não estava acostumado e fiquei muito feliz em conhecer.

É impecável em todos os aspectos, tanto artísticos quanto técnicos. O level design é incrível, a gameplay é muito gostosa e consistente, o design de personagens, criaturas e cenários é espetacular (o que cria uma atmosfera inesquecível) e a trilha é uma delícia, de vez em sempre ouço os álbuns.

Percebi que pra veteranos no gênero acaba sendo um pouco batido e repetitivo, mas pra alguém que tava sendo introduzido nesse meio, foi uma experiência espetacular.
Recomendo a qualquer um que se interesse por RPGs top down em pixel art e queira jogar algo mais moderno com bastante qualidade de vida.

100%Xbox Series X/S

Best game I've played in a long time. Brings me back to my youth when I played a lot of RPG however, it offers quality of life improvements such as scene skip, it's not too grind heavy, and the platforming/action based parts have very solid controls. Rarely missed an input. Addicting to say the least.

90%PC

9.2/10.0

70%PC

No fui muy fan de su estilo artistico sin embargo los mundos es otro tema los escenarios pixealeados encajaban muy bien.

85%PC

Sea of stars un gioco incredibile ma che si perde un pochino sulla strada

Voto 8.5/10

Pro: Entrambi i protagonisti sono fantastici e quasi tutti gli altri membri del party sono molto ben scritti
Il mondo di gioco e di come viene scritto è molto ben fatto
Le mosse che richiedono il perfetto tempismo con il controller sono una goduria

Contro: Sembra strano da dire ma dura troppo, arrivato a un certo punto certe parti potevano benissimo ridurle verso i 3/4 della campagna
Il cattivo principale è super banale una volta scoperto tutto

80%Nintendo Switch

A love letter to games like Chrono Trigger, it does a darn good job of....everything. Even not lasting longer than it should, all around, if you loved those RPGs on the SNES, then don't pass this one up, because it will do a good job of scratching that itch.

100%PC

The bestest turn-based gameplay i ever played...

Where's the second installment???

90%Nintendo Switch

Excellent fun to play classic style RPG. 100% recommended!

85%Nintendo Switch

The climbing/jumping down/"platforming" stuff was pretty cool. Puzzles could've used a little more complexity. Music ranged from awesome to dinky at times. Graphics and animations were great. Story was generally decent, though Garl was a bit too in-your-face.

I could accept one or two Chrono Trigger references, but damn, they got a little carried away. Queen Zeal battle, machines processing humans, mountains're nice, character revival, immortal ally suffering in silence for a long time while it's a blink of the eye for the party, pirate crew doing the Gate Key pose, to name a few big ones.

The endgame completionist grind was a bit rough. I went back to the Watchmaker so many times wondering why I couldn't challenge them. Turns out you can walk around in your boat and find one more challenger, something that was not well established. Spent quite a bit of time backtracking to try and collect everything.

Anyway, it's a good game bogged down a bit by endgame backtracking and too many Chrono Trigger references. Ending was a bit underwhelming.

100%Nintendo Switch

Nice.

85%PlayStation 5

The game was good, but I decided not to get the true ending due to them locking it away from collecting all the items of a specific item, and also, the backtracking was just not fun. I could not figure out a way to find a skill or menu that allowed me to leave the map instantly, so I would have to leave the area entirely if I wanted to get out of there if I went back to find an item.

The combat was engaging and the boss fights were good.

70%Xbox One

I understand people's interest in this game. It just doesn't meet mine. Not big on JRPG 16 bit games.

85%Nintendo Switch

I had a very good time with Sea of Stars overall. The ways that you move through and interact with the world are some of the most enjoyable I've experienced in any JRPG, let alone a pixelated one. And it's a beautiful world to be in. The graphics here are so pretty to look at, and all of the sprites are extremely expressive. It goes a long way to making the 2D art pop off the screen. I was honestly just excited to look around and move around most of the time. The locales are great and varied. And there's even anime/cartoony cutscenes that were nice little touches.

The combat is probably the high point of the whole experience. The active/timing based nature of the turn based combat is very satisfying. Constantly trying to block on time, get extra hits, reveal the locks and everything makes for an involved and satisfying combat experience. You wind up locking in even with basic enemies just to stay on top of the timing. I did find it weird that you only get new combo skills, not regular skills for individual characters, especially as there aren't many of them (about one oer character if you mainline the story like I did). The ability to swap characters whenever and their unique abilities kept it from getting too stale, but it all definitely starts to feel a bit repetitive by the end of a playthrough. But overall, the combat is very satisfying and it kept me engaged.

The story here has a lot of heart. The concept didn't feel super original, but the lore and the characters really come through. Garl is definitely the heart and soul as he is pretty hard not to like and root for. But Zale and Valere have a warm dynamic (plus Garl) that is fun to watch, and the dialogue is pretty funny the whole time. That being said, these protagonists are not extremely memorable (besides fantastic character designs). They're pretty one note, but I found them and the rest of the cast charming. The team that you wind up with by the end is fascinating and varied.

Also, I'm not a huge video game music critic, but nothing here stuck. I should be fair and point out that I wasn't often playing with volume high or with head phones though, so it was gonna be harder to stick no matter what. It was all fine. But nothing that really made me lock in and appreciate it consistently.

I also appreciate that the game took less than 30 hours for me to beat (no real side questing). It felt like a solid length overall, despite the combat wearing a bit thin for me by the end. It doesn't demand all of your time and that's something I value personally.

Overall, this is a very fun rpg with a lot of heart. It's a good game by any standard I think, but especially for an indie team. You can tell how much love was put into it and it's well worth playing for any 2D JRPG fan.

75%PC

Sea of Stars is fun and charming. The sprites and character artwork are nice, the music is catchy, the combat is rewarding without being too tricky. Fans of SNES and early PS1 era JRPGs will enjoy what it has to offer. Unfortunately, for me Sea of Stars overstayed its welcome. The samey puzzles, slow pacing, and meandering story had lost their appeal. After getting what I assume is the normal ending, I had no interest in continuing with side quests in pursuit of the "true" ending. It felt like the game either needed more variety, or needed to be about ten hours shorter. Despite all my gripes, the good stuff in Sea of Stars is very good. I'm excited to see what a sequel could bring in the future.

70%Xbox Series X/S

Ending feels abrupt but a stunning RPG nonetheless. Can’t wait for the sequel/DLC

80%PC

It's a great game with a good battle system, wonderful visuals, a good soundtrack and a very fluid progression. However, the characters are not that captivating, the game gets a little tiring towards the end and there are achievements in cooperative mode that, in my opinion, don't make sense for this type of game.

Score: 8,0 (4 stars).

80%Nintendo Switch

Great game, beautiful, good story, not much filler. Combat can be a bit slow.

85%PlayStation 5

No soy el mayor fan de los JRPGs pero Sea of Stars me ha encantado, ese uno de esos juegos en los que se aprecia el cariño, esfuerzo e ilusión que los devs le han puesto.

Es un muy buen juego, la historia es muy decente, con una recta final a nivel de guión brutal, el pixel art es precioso, la banda sonora es genial, el combate está muy bien diseñado, y el diseño de niveles es absolutamente maravilloso, lo mejor que tiene el juego junto al apartado artístico en mi opinión. Bueno y el detalle final tras completar el 100% es absolutamente precioso.

La única pega que le saco al juego es que el ritmo de las 10-15 primeras horas es muy lento, las zonas son muy largas y realmente hay poco progreso en la historia, además hay demasiado combates y aunque esté muy bien diseñado a veces se hace un poco repetitivo. Aún asó lo he completado al 100%. Más allá de eso me parece un juego super disfrutable incluso para los que no son especialmente fans de los RPGs por turnos como yo, además de que no es demasiado complicado para lo frustrante que puedo llegar a ser este género con la dificultad y aun así, el sistema de reliquias permite balancear mucho la dificultad del juego a gusto practicamente completo del jugador.

Sobra decir que si el género te gusta, vas a amar Sea of Stars. Un juegazo, 8.5