Sea of Stars (2023; PC, PS4, PS5, Switch)

[Koby]

Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics. It tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.

 

 

Engaging Turn-Based Combat

Pressing the action button in sync with the animations increases damage output while reducing incoming damage. Along with timed hits, combat features multi-character combo attacks, boosting, and a strategic « locks » system offering options to play with different damage types in order to hinder enemies while they are channeling powerful attacks or spells, all in an immersive take on the genre; no random encounters, no transitions to separate battlefields, and no grinding.

 

Unshackled Traversal

Swim, climb, vault, jump off or hoist up ledges as you traverse seamlessly through the world with a navigation system based on platformer expertise that breaks free from the classic bound-to-the-grid tileset movement.

 

A story rich adventure

Dozens of original characters and story arcs will take you on a captivating journey. Sometimes epic, sometimes silly, and other times emotional, Sea of Stars does its RPG duty of exploring classic themes of adventure and friendship, while also being chock-full of the unexpected twists and events you’d expect from a Sabotage production.

 

A world you can touch

There are many ways to hang out in the world of Sea of Stars if you feel the need for a change of pace in your adventures. Sailing, cooking, fishing, stopping by a tavern to listen to a song or play the infamous tabletop game known as « Wheels »…..every system has been designed to deliver an experience that pays respect to retro classics, while rethinking in some areas to offer a smooth and modernized experience.

Dynamic Lighting

Lighting is 100% rendered dynamically, meaning things such as day and night cycles, weather effects, eclipses or blood moons all happen seamlessly, recoloring the world and faithfully rendering shadows.

As fully fledged Solstice Warriors you will eventually get full control over the sun and moon, so whether you just want to chill in your favorite area in the ambiance of your choice, need to solve a complex puzzle related to lighting, or there is a magic door that only opens at midnight, the control will be yours, all in real time.

Playable Characters

[Koby]

SEA OF STARS LAUNCHES AUGUST 29!

Sea of Stars will release on all target platforms on August 29th 2023, precisely (even though not intentionally) 5 years after the launch of their previous game, The Messenger.

 

A DEMO WILL COME TO STEAM LATER THIS YEAR

You might have heard already that a demo is available on Nintendo Switch. Good news, the demo will also come to Steam eventually. Going for a single platform is a decision we had to make in order not to delay the release date. We will roll it out to other platforms as soon as possible, so stay tuned!

 

 

DEMO + Q&A STREAM THIS FRIDAY AT 4PM EST / 1PM PST

For the occasion, we will close this week with a long overdue stream where Thierry will play the demo while answering questions from the community! Going live on Friday, February 8.

 

 

THAT'S IT FOR NOW

Time for us to get back to dev. We are currently in the midst of the final stretch of production- the BETA (content complete) milestone is in clear view, and we are happy to report that the game sings in all the ways we were hoping it would.

The team's morale is soaring and everyone is doing well, save for the sting of grief creeping up with an occasional reminder that we will one day not be working on this dream project anymore.

 

 

 

[Koby]

I finished the Switch demo.

 

 

I got the relic it mentions cause I found the hidden shop lmao.. but I ain't about to replay that final boss using that relic. It reduces your HP by -90% but with successful blocks you'll only take 1 dmg per hit. But still I never actually used the block mechanic at all lmao.

 

Even without my HP reduced though, the boss in the demo had a certain skill it'd occasionally use that'd nearly wipe your whole party out even when they were full healed. He used it against me three times.

 

An interesting mechanic in this is that if a party member is KO'd, they'll auto-revive after a few turns. So as long as you don't get a full wipe, you're okay if you can manage to hang on until they revive... but that is easier said than done sometimes.

 

Anyhow, really enjoyed the demo!

[Koby]

 

 

Patch Notes 1.0.46059

• Fix soft-lock that could occur when leveling up in X'tol's Landing.
• Fix issue where combat result bar could display negative XP.
• Reduced time before displaying boat controls while sailing to increase the chances players will visit their crew!
• Adjusted repulsor physics on an NPC that could cause dragging.
• Reimported English texts to included latest corrections.

[Koby]

Patch Notes 1.0.46074

• Fixed soft-locks that could occur in certain areas depending on party composition.
• Fixed an inventory glitch regarding Antsudlo's pearls.
• Fixed an reported issue where Garl would be remain deactivated when swapping party members before reconvening in the Humble Boast's Kitchen.
• Fixed an issue where Antsudlo could be entered too early, causing an improper state on the big door.
• Added a check to update save files ensuring they are compatible with latest fixes.
• Retro actively added Cerulean Expanse story artifact to those who missed it prior to the fix.
• Re-imported text in all languages to include all pending update .

 

[Koby]

Patch Notes 1.0.46131

- Fixed a softlock that could occur when using Hurl Smash to break locks against a certain final boss.

- Fixed a glitch that could occur when swapping the party leader while standing on a pressure plate.
- Fixed a trigger that could cause Khukharr's dialog to start when returning from a fast travel.
- Added a check to prevent a conflict when attempting to start flying on the exact same frame as landing in boat form.
- Chef Bass's shadow should now remain within bounds at all times.
- Sea of Nightmare: added a check to prevent initiating combat while a crystal break cutscene is playing.
- Sunken Ruins: moved the stone activation cutscene to trigger after opening the chest rather than after beating the boss, to fix rare occurrences of it not activating when completed before Elysan'darëlle.
- Adjusted raft collisions in Half-Sunken Tower area.
- Adjusted collisions in Moraine's office (Zenith Academy).
- Added a check to properly reset gravity modules in Forbidden Cavern's room to the right.
- Fixed a rare softlock which could happen when triggering an encounter with a scripted cutscene intro while a follower isn't done bouncing from a graplou strike.
- Adjusted collisions on Skybase's pushable blocks.
- Added detection to prevent the player from getting stuck when using the graplou to move up a slope.
- Fleshmancer's Lair: added a check to super prevent the teleporter from being used while camping.
- Adjusted collisions in X'tol's Landing.
- Adjusted collisions in one of the Molekin houses.
- Sacrosanct Spires: added a check to prevent triggering the sealed entrance's cutscene while camping.
- Adjusted collisions in Antsudlo's entrance.
- Adjusted collisions in Clockwork Castle's clock tower section to prevent an issue when players could get stuck.
- Fixed null ref that would occur when attempting to browse when the level up screen only shows one option.
- Adjusted a puzzle in Derelict Factory to remove the player's ability to lock themselves in and remain stuck.
- Fixed possible softlock in Solstice Shrine #4's puzzle.
- Added a check to disable interaction with the world map's docks while transitioning to camping to prevent softlocks caused by conflicting transitions.
- Fleshmancer's Lair: fixed softlock that could occur with the eyeballs puzzle due to physics.
- Fixed an issue that could occur when collision with an enemy while zipping through a propulsion gate (Antsudlo, Air Skyland).
- Trek to center: adjusted triggers to prevent a rare occurrence of bad zoning when jumping down.
- Updated level loading code to include more null ref checks.
- Fixed a softlock that could occur when an enemy would play its attack animation while in hurt state.
- Added a check to prevent duplication of Malkomud and Rockie's sprites when they both get KO'd at the same time.
- Fixed a softlock that could occur when reentering the Golden Pelican after being teleported out.
- Infinite Abyss: fixed a softlock in Dweller of Dread's encounter that demanded a very specific setup and sequence of party composition, KO states, and boss attacks.
- Added a check to prevent softlock when an encounter is triggered while the player is zoning or teleporting.
- Flooded Graveyard: fixed a crash that could occur when using the graplou specifically on the climb wall in the chapel from the second floor.
- Fixed an issue where the paincone projectile could get pooled before reaching its target when running the game at very high fps.
- Updated combat management to prevent targets that have left the encounter from checking against damage zones (i.e. fixing a softlock when defeating Romaya with conflagrate while she's on the bone pillar, who will now instead be properly immune to damage in this situation).

 

[Koby]

Patch Notes 1.0.46981

- Added a new Relic: Tactician’s Mettle.
- Updated all campfire rest scenes to offer more varied placement and animations.
- Sea of Nightmare: Fixed an issue that could cause the break crystal cutscene to not play entirely, locking the player in Sea of Nightmare. Save files that are locked in Sea of Nightmare should be fixed after a reload.
- Adjusted the logic on the Parrot to properly offer insight regarding Fishing Island’s conches.
- Fixed props flickering, clipping and adjusted collisions in multiple levels.
- Fixed known typos in all languages.
- Fixed crash that could occur when spamming the “back” button while the end game save screen appeared.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the player’s death count to be incorrect.
- Fixed issue where dying after an auto-save could also overwrite the manual save.
- Adjusted Bs't’s animations in some cutscenes where the combat pose could be playing when not intended.
- Adjusted animations on some characters to prevent idle breaker animations from playing during Stormcaller and Acolytes fights outro cutscenes.
- Adjusted party advice to avoid lines about going to Settler Island while already on the island.
- Made sure that Clockwork Castle’s name is displayed properly in the hud when loading the scene from Mirth.
- Conflagrate should no longer emit scorch marks after the fire pillar has disappeared.
- Fishing: removed water VFX that could appear when bobber lands on land.
- Adjusted some enemies in Dweller's Fall Arena to make sure they don't give XP.
- Fixed an issue that caused Three's idle animation to interrupt the "low health idle" animation.
- Added checks to ensure that the level up music plays properly in Maelstrom Point and Trek to Center of the World.
- Added checks to ensure the player icon can be seen on the map screen even when the player is near the borders.
- Added checks to ensure consistent letterboxing during the "Sea of Stars Sequence" camera shift.
- Fixed a glitch in the Game Menu's character portrait tray when switching between gamepad and keyboard.
- Changing the PixelPerfect video option during Fishing minigame will now update the letterboxing.
- Fixed character misplacement that could occur when spamming pause while using the clock tower's big lift.
- Added Sequent Flare timing VFX and SFX to Arcane Barrage combo move.
- MossyCache: Added a check to prevent a character potentially getting stuck in running animation.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to change resolution for a few moments during loading screens.
- Fixed an issue that caused the character sprites in the loading screen to flicker and run too fast.
- Added checks to make sure all "boat triggers" that remove map fog can also be triggered while flying.
- Cooking: added a check to prevent the quantity selector SFX to play while grayed out.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Resh'an's puppet to unintentionally have dialogue.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the player to do negative damage in some cases.
- Fixed an issue that caused the pirate music track 36 to not play properly.
- Fixed an issue that caused Gaëtan Piment's hand to flip after talking to him a few times.
- Stonemasons Outpost: Made sure that the right cutscene is played for the water pump and statue.
- Wraith Island Docks: Made sure that the raft is still visible after loading a save file.
- Fixed an issue that could cause undiscovered area names to not display properly if the language is changed while they are displayed.
- Brisk Arena: Fixed an issue that could cause the camera to follow B’st after exiting the arena.
- Cerulean Expense: Disabled probe during level up sequence.
- Fixed an issue that caused no attack name to be displayed while Romaya summons Lonzon or Revenant
- Cursed Woods: Fixed an issue that could prevent the player from accessing menus after playing the cutscene for opening the passage.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the camera to be locked after yeeting to X’tol or Y'eet.
- Antsudlo: Fixed an issue with climbing and changing water level.
- Antsudlo: Adjusted follower behavior to prevent them from getting stuck mid air.
- Added an auto full heal to the party before the Dweller of Woe encounter.
- Fixed possible softlock when using a combat move after the Dweller of Strife encounter.
- Added a full heal after each Boss fight in the arena.
- Fixed an inconsistency in diagonal flight speed that occurred depending on whether D-pad or joystick was being used.
- Now disabling all in-game hud panels during encounter outros.
- Fixed the locked TOD (time of day) when loading a save file on the second planet after defeating Dweller of Dread.
- Fixed an issue with focus crystal activation zones when swapping the party leader.
- Adjusted a chest that could be found floating in the air in the Cursed Woods.
- Fixed an issue with the light ball trigger position after a failed landing.
- Added a check to cancel avoidance when a character gets selected, to prevent them from potentially getting stuck in the avoid state and softlock the encounter.
- Antsudlo: Added a failsafe to make sure the water's level is correct after reloading the save.
- Vespertine: added a check to muffle the pirate music in Resh'an's room.
- Added a check to resurrect KO'd party members in-between Catalyst phases.
- Sea of Nightmare: Fixed an issue that caused interaction with a stone totem to show outdated information after shattering the crystals.
- Fixed an issue that caused Shimmering Shard to not actually increase damage against undead.
- Fixed crash that could occur after 5 or more strife minion eyeballs exploded in a single move.
- Wizard Lab: Fixed an issue where the user could miss out on a chest if they did the purple room first and didn't use the pearl stand. Fix has been implemented retroactively, so anyone missing a chest should now find it in the magenta room.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the title to become unresponsive if the player changes party order at the very start of combat.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when trying to change the equipped weapon of a character while having a certain quantity of duplicates.
- Fixed a possible crash when sending the leader to the back row while a "loot notification queue" is running.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a crash if the player receives a loot notification after the Golden Pelican sequence.
- Increased compatibility to help the PC version of the game run on some older cpus.
- Fixed a specific encounter's intro which could result in a crash if the player initiated combat with a sneak attack.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when a follower gets deactivated or stops following the leader while a geyser is waiting for them.
- Fixed an issue that could cause some SFX to persist throughout the credits if both the player and World Eater die on the same frame.
- Fixed B.S. Roulette to prevent the "back" button from being used during the dialog choice.
- Dweller's Fall Arena: Fixed an issue that could cause loss of HP/MP when entering/exiting.
- Fixed a crash/softlock that could happen while B'st was the first follower and entered a climb zone from the top.
- Fixed a softlock/crash that could occur if the Dweller of Strife died on the same hit as the crystal device got fully charged.
- Fixed an issue where the tight ropes could disappear when the player landed on them.
- Fixed an issue where a crash could occur when teleporting or talking to an NPC at a specific time during their pathfinding.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash if the Graplou was used immediately after combat.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Duke Aventry's sprite to vanish from the cutscene if the party leveled up by beating him.

 

[Zemekis]

I want to be interested and support an indie JRPG-styled game, but the Tumblr art freaks me out. Is the art style reflected in the story/characters, or can I safely overlook that?

[Koby]

3 hours ago, Zemekis said:

Is the art style reflected in the story/characters, or can I safely overlook that?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I put 30 hours into and 100% the game and loved every bit of it. It'd be tough to decide if it was my game of the year over Trails into Reverie or not but both games to me were my favorites of 2023.

 

There is apparently a DLC coming that may arrive in 2024 focusing on a side story with one of the characters you meet in the game. Very much looking forward to jumping back into Sea of Stars when that hits.

 

Also, not sure if you know this, but Sea of Stars is set in the same universe as The Messenger. Though they're set far enough apart in the story that I wouldn't exactly call this a prequel to that one, but there are certainly easter eggs and "aha" moments if you've played The Messenger prior to diving into this one. Though that game isn't a turn-based jrpg... it's more akin to a metroidvania so certainly understandable if it's not your cup of tea. I'm not big on those kinds of games so rather than play The Messenger myself, I watched a youtuber's let's play of it.

[Zemekis]

6 hours ago, Koby said:

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I put 30 hours into and 100% the game and loved every bit of it

 

That's all I needed to know. If you don't know what I mean, then my concerns were unwarranted.

 

6 hours ago, Koby said:

Also, not sure if you know this, but Sea of Stars is set in the same universe as The Messenger. Though they're set far enough apart in the story that I wouldn't exactly call this a prequel to that one, but there are certainly easter eggs and "aha" moments if you've played The Messenger prior to diving into this one. Though that game isn't a turn-based jrpg... it's more akin to a metroidvania so certainly understandable if it's not your cup of tea. I'm not big on those kinds of games so rather than play The Messenger myself, I watched a youtuber's let's play of it.

Never heard of the Messenger. Metroidvanias aren't my favorite genre, but I've completed Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Chasm, and a few others. Looking into The Messenger, it's not for me. I don't know anything about Sea of Stars aside from it being an RPG of some sort, though the art style raised some red flags for me so I checked out pre-maturely it seems. I'll put this on the back-burner while I finish the remainder of the Trails series. No need to buy/download anything while I have a few things left on my plate, but I'm glad to know it's good! I want to support modern turn-based releases if possible. Thanks for the info!