Contains no spoilers.

I waffled for a while err week about whether to drop $30 on a brand new game--reading and watching every review, playing the demo a time or two, trying everything to convince myself not to buy it. But, boy, am I glad that I finally ultimately got this game. I haven't played anything else since. I currently intend to 100% and New Game+ it. I also as of now intend to write one of my longer reviews on its behalf. Here goes.

I've been aware of Sea Of Stars ever since its Kickstarter campaign, but for whatever reason I failed to participate other than sharing in the sheer hype. A throwback JRPG? From the creators of The Messenger? Featuring contributions from composer Yasunori Mitsuda? I probably wanted to but couldn't, for reasons similar to one outlined above: $$$. It was early 2020, afterall, wasn't it... World events, etc. etc.

On the Steam store page, the positive reviews are overall more correct than the negative reviews, I would say. For instance, Sea Of Stars really does achieve the difficult duty of taking me back exactly to where I most long to be... Back to golden sunny summers of enjoying easy-going SNES games (via both classic hardware and shiny new Wii's Virtual Console), back to cozy Christmases of Chrono Trigger DS from my parents' backseat to my grandma's fireplace to my bedtime blanket burrow--back to when life was comparatively simple and clean and free. There are myriad means by which Sea Of Stars achieves this feat.

To start [design!], the art design[!] and sprite work are breathtakingly beautiful, especially in tandem with environments, lighting, and re-lighting which never fall short of impressing, surprising, and delighting! That includes somewhat novel implementation of "physical" lighting, in a slightly different and arguably superior fashion to HD-2D Square games like Octopath Traveler.

The music is practically perfect, and fits supremely well everywhere it's heard. Surprisingly, Mitsuda's contributions don't tend to stand out from the rest like a sore thumb as one might eagerly expect, but feel somehow simultaneously right at home and yet still his signature style. The overall sound design and implementation is equally exceptional. The audio director (returning from The Messenger, Eric W. 'RainbowDragonEyes' Brown, who is also the main music composer) even ensured that sound effects cut layer(s) from the music most of the time, much as they would on a real retro console. The archivist's theme contains a very cheesy piano sample (think Apple GarageBand's default instrument circa 2008) that I've long loathed any 'n' every way 'n' where that I still hear it, so I wince a little extra every time the game cuts away to him (to disrupt and slow the game's pace and flow for seemingly no reason, might I add), but I suppose it's subtle enough.

Based on some negative reviews and on my time with the demo, prior to playing I believed that the combat and most of its mechanics would wear out their welcome fast. But in my playing thus far, that notion has yet to prove true. If anything, continuing to master every button press prompt and the nuances of each attack and animation's timing windows only grows more rewarding the further I progress through the adventure. It's fun in the [Paper] Mario RPGs and Mario&Luigi RPGs and Bug Fables, so naturally it's fun here.

The writing and characters and plot, while not nearly as bad as negative reviews might lead one to believe, could be better. Even after the September 1st patch, the English grammar is occasionally questionable--including at least one absentee Oxford comma. The two protagonists are not necessarily lifeless, but basic and naive, like blank slates for the player to project onto, most likely intentionally so.

I can understand a kneejerk contempt for Garl's constant courage and overflowing optimism, but I've found his and the game's sincerity and earnestness refreshing. I highly recommend a YouTube video entitled "The Problem With Irony - David Foster Wallace" that explains how I've come to feel about the characters. TL;DR: hope, love, and authenticity are rare and underrated--severely so, nowadays, yet more by the day.

Many reviews mention that the writing gets better further into the game, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. That is, the writing starts good [*enough*] and hardly changes at all in essence or quality, and rather it's primarily the game itself that gets better and more complex, while the narrative coincidentally does both in tow. My theory, then, is that players grow more acclimated to and therefore more appreciative of the game's tone, style, and 'voice' through exposure and experience. Admittedly the earliest section of the game is kind of long and slow, but in hindsight I've found that it did make me more invested and enthralled in the long run than I might've been otherwise, and that to adjust or trim the start at all (any more than they must've done already) would accomplish more harm than good to the game overall.

I'm normally of the mind that games are for gameplay, not so much story or lore-y... which is why I'm not bothered if the world, tone, cast, or narrative happens to be ever so slightly on the whimsical or even juvenile side of the spectrum, and I'm plain entertained by the thread the game spins.

Despite the 16:9 aspect ratio, the game is absolutely perfect for playing on the Steam Deck. The black bars are negligible, nostalgic even. Plus, I like keeping an eye on Deck's performance in the top bar.

Another honorable mention that helped sell me is both the demo and the full game including native support for different gamepads, such as the PS5's DualSense, even down to the correct controller glyphs represented in-game. Simply disable Steam Input for Sea Of Stars, then enjoy!

My main nitpick thus far is a wallet that apparently caps out at 999.00 gold. It's possible this changes later though, like in an old Zelda game. Relatedly, the 10-meals-cooked cap is kind of annoying and I would argue unnecessary, just like meals themselves. I avoid using them because I have yet to find any Relics that make the game harder instead of easier. I only cook meals to sell them, for the most part. And when NPCs or chests try to give me meals but my meal inventory AND party status/health pool is full, it's a tiny bit irritating.

And, once or twice, my character (Valere) disappeared behind some level geometry when I activated the Moonerang which completely threw off my attack pattern if only because it was so surprising. If I'd reacted quicker I would've probably still kept the rhythm just fine, at least for a bit. The two or three patches full of fixes since launch would indicate that complaints like this one are only temporarily relevant.

I may update this review again soon--it's taken me over 90 minutes, and it's past my bedtime. But the point is, I don't regret my purchase, and neither will you, reader. Thanks, and have fun! I'll see ya in stars.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3040271146

>Be me.
>Walk into first town first time.
>Unprovoked, immediately begin smacking the ♥♥♥♥ out of strangers' chickens.
>Brace for chickens to swarm and demolish me like they do in Zelda.
>Nothing.
>Keep smacking chickens.
>Feel bad about it, 'cause chickens are decent people. (Ain't never seen a news headline 'bout a chicken goin' home drunk and beatin' the pieces out of his hen, y'know?)
>Quickly get over it.
>Smack smack smack.
>Health bars do nothing.
>Keep on smacking chickens.
>Still no candy comin' out, either.
>Smack. Smack. Smack. Smack. Smack.
>100 hit combo.
>Achievement achieved. Epic nice.
>250 hit combo.
>Antici-- 'pointment.
>Leaves town, no one the wiser.

I opted into 'Lunatic' difficulty hoping for fun and challenge, but I found neither. The combat has no substance, consistency, or tangible flow to engage with whatsoever. It inadvertently encourages and rewards mindless mashing of buttons.

Even on Lunatic difficulty, enemies do barely any damage, seemingly. Lunatic should be like Ghost Of Tsushima's 'Lethal' difficulty or whatever it's called--essentially, requiring practically no-hit since a single hit can be Lethal.

The dialogue is in dire need of voice acting. The text bubbles are too small, even on my 90+ inch projector screen, and that's saying something.

The music (much like the characters themselves throughout the game) seems awkwardly separate from the surrounding scenery, at least in the town areas. Texturally and tonally, the music cue is ever so slightly more dour than the color palette suggests or supports. If I was keeping this game in my library, I'd consider this a ripe'portunity to practice my own music scoring skills, but alas.

The map screen doesn't pause the world action, so I got attacked while trying to gain my bearings, but this is arguably a feature seeing as how one of the things this game appears to aspire to is Souls-like.

The tutorial would be better if each action was disabled until I was told about it. As it stands, I had used up my Rage meter before the game even told me about B-button special attacks, and was unable to practice them when the game finally told me to.

86 cents, but 86 cents better spent on some fresh hot french fries, iReckon. Play something like Blasphemous or Salt And Sanctuary first, if you're more interested in good games than in anime tiddies.