KickStarter Sea of Stars - a retro-inspired turn-based RPG

[polo]

Out tomorrow, reviews are very positive.

 

[Jermu]

reviews

 

[Elthosian]

Devs must be a bit annoyed at having accepted a Game Pass deal from Microsoft. With such nice reviews they’re probably going to sell way better than they had expected even in such a crowded month.

Day 1 purchase for me, dunno why they didn’t set up pre-order on Steam.

 

[Abu Antar]

They also have a deal with Sony for their streaming service.

 

[Jinn]

The absolute deluge of releases that I'm interested in right now. Good problem to have, but damn, I think I'm going to have to squeeze this one in too.

 

[Elthosian]

Already bought it, nice to see it's doing this well!

 

[normie]

is it good

 

[Grauken]

Hey Falksi another new jRPG inspired by Chrono Trigger among others. Sounds like a thing you would enjoy

 

[Atlet]

That's my type of Jrpg right here, with SNES-like graphics and turn based combat a la Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveler 2.

Obviously, it's an easy day 1 purchase.

Feels good to live in the GOLDEN ERA of pc gaming. One great title after another, unstoppable incline.

 

[Axel_am]

Is this codex approved?

Not the biggest fan of jRPGS, but if this get a recommendation from here I might give it a shot.

 

[Grauken]

Is this codex approved?

 

[normie]

ok who cares I'll grab the clean steam files somewhere and play it until I feel like I owe the dev money

 

[Elthosian]

Is this codex approved?

Not the biggest fan of jRPGS, but if this get a recommendation from here I might give it a shot.

Might want to wait at least a couple days. The game released at midnight for like half of the US.

I loved the demo though. Will deffo try it tomorrow to get a small break from AC6.

 

[Axel_am]

Nice, thnx. I'll keep an eye out. The art and sound in the trailer are very cozy. So is the light dynamic. Hopefully, this is one of the better releases.

 

[Falksi]

Hey Falksi another new jRPG inspired by Chrono Trigger among others. Sounds like a thing you would enjoy

I have had to chuckle about the constant "inspired by Chrono Tigger" claims lol. The first thing which struck me about it when I saw it was that they'd ripped one of the main character designs from Beyond Oasis, and just made it a bit more kiddish...

A good mate has bought it and he says it's fun so far, but keeps crashing. Some of the reviews elude to that too...

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Jermu]

can't change O to confirm instead of X with ps controller.
technology is just not there yet.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Settings and options for this are almost non existent. It should have an option to at least auto advance the dialogue boxes.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Hey Falksi another new jRPG inspired by Chrono Trigger among others. Sounds like a thing you would enjoy

I have had to chuckle about the constant "inspired by Chrono Tigger" claims lol. The first thing which struck me about it when I saw it was that they'd ripped one of the main character designs from Beyond Oasis, and just made it a bit more kiddish...

It seems to be a common design for "arabian nights hero", they all look like yassified Alladin.

Speaking of copying/homage and CT, this was a nice interview

https://www.nintendolife.com/featur...ng-homage-to-childhood-rpgs-with-sea-of-stars

[...]

Regarding Sea of Stars' development, you've talked multiple times about inspiration from Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Illusion of Gaia. But with those classics, is there anything you're conscious about not doing?

Absolutely. The main thing I try to avoid is I don't want to copy something. In my mind, it's okay to pay homage, it's okay to borrow, but the ticket is you want to make sure that you elevate. And what that means is you don't pick directly what something did, but you honor the essence of what was done there.

You mentioned Illusion of Gaia, which I still feel is underrated! But those who know, they really get it, right? And so you start in class and the first thing that I did was go on the roof, I met the big face that was talking, and you get to jump down off the roof — and in just that moment, it felt like, "I've never done that." I've played platformers, and I've played games that are more action, but for some reason, there was something that felt as though that game wasn't supposed to be able to do that. The way that it presented the jump with the type of story and the gameplay that it promised, it always felt as if it was doing something more That was a really big click moment for me. So, for example, playing Chrono Trigger, — which is my number one of all time and why I do this for a living — I wished there could have been something else to that world, a sense where I'm touching the world just a little bit more.

All of that under the big umbrella of what we call traversal in production for Sea of Stars --hoisting up, jumping off of ledges, the climbing, the tightrope walking, how it's seamless in and out of water — all of that came from the spark, the click moment from jumping off that roof in Illusion of Gaia. I was looking for more similar interactions and how they could be fleshed out even more. For me, there was a big — I don't wanna say opportunity in terms of business, but creatively in terms of providing an experience that feels fresh for people who fondly remember that flavor of games.

Going back to Chrono Trigger specifically, how terrifying is it to be compared to that game?

(laughs) Yeah, I mean... where it's not so intimidating is that we didn't lead with that in terms of marketing. Often when we talk to other indies, one of the first pieces of advice that we try to give is don't lead with "Oh it's Zelda meets Pokémon" because everyone understands that you don't have any of these brands and that you are very unlikely to get any of them right to that degree.

If you show up with the essence of something, then people notice it, and then they mention it, then great because that means that the game speaks for itself. You're trying to propose something else and then people are starting to appropriate because they can find a reference, then you're in a really strong position. As a writer, I'll never come up to someone and say "You should play this. It's really funny. There's a lot of great jokes, and they're all from a great writer!" You just do your best. You let people judge it. And then if any positive comments come from someone else then it has sort of credibility because it's not you trying to sell something.

So to your question, is it intimidating? Absolutely. We understand the mandate that people decided was on us now, which is, "Give me, make me feel that way again." And part of that challenge is what I can't do is make you be nine years old again. (laughs) We don't have those ingredients so what we should do is create something that is as good as our memories of those games.

Looking at Chrono Trigger, outside of combat, your character (Crono) has sprites and animations for up, down, left, right, walking, running, and then climbing a ladder at a single angle. So that's, if we're generous, we get eight walking and running animations and one climbing one, so that's nine total. So [Sea of Stars] has eight angles instead of four: we can climb in multiple directions; there's all the jumping at different heights; jumping down; all the swinging and everything else. We probably have about 60 navigation animations per character. When you cross-reference all the use cases, when people play [Sea of Stars], they don't go, "Oh wow, this is way richer than what the other one did." They just go, "Yeah, that feels right." That's the amount of effort that it takes for it to compensate and be as good as what you remember.

[...]

 

[Jinn]

I have had to chuckle about the constant "inspired by Chrono Tigger" claims lol. The first thing which struck me about it when I saw it was that they'd ripped one of the main character designs from Beyond Oasis, and just made it a bit more kiddish...

It's actually astounding how many influences from the era I've noticed both in terms of style and gameplay. I think you're spot on with Beyond Oasis. I'm catching Illusion of Gaia and Wild Arms vibes as well. Then of course Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. I'm sure there's going to be more I see as well.

But as much as I pick up on those influences, this game hasn't once felt derivative or ham-fisted to me. It is definitely its own thing, with some neat mechanics. I'm only a couple hours in and I could go for a touch more challenge, but it could be an early game curve. Not to imply fights have been boring. They've all been engaging and fun. There's also "Relics", which augment certain aspects of the game to increase or decrease difficulty. I know at some point you can get one where enemies do 40% more damage to you.

Anyway, very impressed so far. Already exceeding my expectations.

 

[Jermu]

so far 5 hours in and its pretty good not much to complain.
combat is harder than I thought (still pretty easy have not died yet) but you can make a lot of recovery items which trivializes bosses.
you can change difficulty with using relics which gives you some special stuff such as full recovery after combat, enemies deal less dmg and so on if you happen to be an journalist.

pretty cozy game and premise is your standard heroes go defeat evil boss. graphs are indeed wonderful.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

But how does it compare with Jap-GermanRPG Chained Echoes?

 

[Jermu]

So far I would say Chained Echoes is better (combat + customization) but I probably finish this game in couple days so can't say for certain yet

 

[Ivan]

2/3 hours in this is very dope. Pacing is fantastic, art style is gorgeous, and the music is damn fine.

 

[Jinn]

Oh yeah, zero crashes for me at 5 hours in. Windows 10, decent system.