"Sea Of Stars" Is An Excellent Tribute To SNES RPGs

By Sabotage - Giant Bomb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72375507

I just finished playing Sea of Stars, which is a turn-based RPG from Sabotage Studio, which has had heavy influence from the Super Nintendo RPGs that came before it. There is so much influence from those SNES RPGs that Sea of Stars feels like a tribute game, or a love letter, to that genre on that system. Part of the fun of Sea of Stars is identifying which classic games influenced this game.

The overall story of two Solstice Warriors harnessing the power of the sun and moon to fight evil draw heavy influences from games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. I would even include Golden Sun in this influence here as well, which was a critically-acclaimed Game Boy Advance RPG. The turn-based combat mechanics are like those RPGs, but now with timing mechanics of attacking and blocking taking the mechanics of games like Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and the Paper Mario series. There are many puzzles to solve in Sea of Stars as well, which feel eerily like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past. Moving around in the overworld is just like Chrono Trigger as well. Sea of Stars is the developers taking the best parts of classic 16-bit era RPGs and making a brand-new adventure.

I want to talk about the overall visual style as well. Even though the visuals look like the Super Nintendo RPGs, I noticed some modern touches that gave Sea of Stars its own distinction. The visuals are polished, and there are modern animations to the movement of the characters and the enemies that complement the classic visuals well. Even the animated cut-scenes have a distinct animation style that I have never seen in any other video game. I am also happy to say that the soundtrack is quite good as well, with some pleasant cuts.

Sea of Stars is what I would like to call a "modern-retro classic". This game does not reinvent the wheel by any stretch, or is not particularly innovative, but that is perfectly fine. If Sea of Stars came out during the Super Nintendo era, we would talk about this game in the same way as critically-acclaimed games such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. However, I am also glad Sea of Stars came out recently, as not only did the game use their influences, it improved upon their game mechanics to deliver a fluid, seamless experience.