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

[normie]

And the world fails completely to convince that it's alive and inhabitted.

Yeah the game world felt weird.

I don't feel like the game world is a real world with people actually living there. When I travel through the world like in FF7 or Skies of Arcadia I actually feel like this is a real world with people having things going on.
SoS had maybe 3 towns and a few random islands.

it might be intentionally retarded
"jrpg worlds don't make sense so we'll make ours extra retarded so it's like a joke about rpgs!!! "

 

[newtmonkey]

The biggest problem with this game imo is that it's written in the style of an English translation of a 16-bit JRPG (specifically Square RPGs on the SNES), but it's also far more wordy than any of the games it is aping, so the awkwardness is much more apparent. It's like reading a pastiche of Lovecraft written in 2023, where the writer tries to ape Lovecraft's style 100%. It comes off as extremely amateurish and unlikeable.

It would have been much better to just write like a normal person, even if the game is a bunch of 16-bit JRPG cliches. Just because you are aping the look and style of SNES Square, doesn't mean you need to write like them.

 

[MasPingon]

The biggest problem with this game imo is that it's written in the style of an English translation of a 16-bit JRPG (specifically Square RPGs on the SNES), but it's also far more wordy than any of the games it is aping, so the awkwardness is much more apparent. It's like reading a pastiche of Lovecraft written in 2023, where the writer tries to ape Lovecraft's style 100%. It comes off as extremely amateurish and unlikeable.

It would have been much better to just write like a normal person, even if the game is a bunch of 16-bit JRPG cliches. Just because you are aping the look and style of SNES Square, doesn't mean you need to write like them.

Most irritating thing is how long it takes for the next line of text to pop out. It takes forever, I got enought after 30 minutes of playing. They took an inspiration from Chrono Trigger my ass.

 

[Grauken]

Western "JRPGs" never nail the mood of what they want to copy.

It's like the difference between the first gen of game developers who made games inspired by original things outside of games and the following gens who grew up inspired mainly by games, same with Japanese devs, they didn't consciously tried to make jRPGs, they tried to make games first based on their various interest and that became a style that inspired some western devs to make games in that style. It's basically down to a copy of a copy, it only gets weaker

 

[Ivan]

Really difficult to pick a top 5, but here goes nothing.

home

while the combat got stale, this sure didn't. reminds me of the Chrono Trigger battle theme

Garl's effervescent optimism <3

music to ease blood pressure

a Wheels favorite

 

[HoboForEternity]

The plot uses like a bajillion prophecies to advance the story and they are all annoyingly specific and true it pisses me off.

I like garl, but i completely hate

garl da boy

the mist guy is like "oh no you dead bro, come to me here a prophecy you need to save the day, that you probably should have known 20 hours ago.

Still credit's where credit due, the level design and style doesn't tire me. The dungeon are somewhat fun and each bosses has some unique mechanics that made me power trough the sludge of kindergarten level anime writing. The game still look fantastic and the music is generally great (though even i still think CHained echoes got better soundtrack in general, esp the flower field of Perpetua)

 

[Tavar]

This game is so boring. I'm now 8 hours in and I despair at the thought of having to invest more then 20 hours to beat this. Everything feels so stretched out. There is way too much busy work and too much combat against boring enemies. This would be somewhat okay if level ups or better items had any impact as then you'd at least be happy about the experience and the drops. However, both level ups and better items don't have any noticable impact. It is a shame as the game looks and sounds great and was obviously crafted with a lot of care, but it just isn't fun.

 

[VonMiskov]

This game is so boring. I'm now 8 hours in and I despair at the thought of having to invest more then 20 hours to beat this. Everything feels so strechted out. There is way too much busy work and too much combat against boring enemies. This would be somewhat okay if level ups or better items had any impact as then you'd at least be happy about the experience and the drops. However, both level ups and better items don't have any noticable impact. It is a shame as the game looks and sounds great and was obviously crafted with a lot of care, but it just isn't fun.

Same here. And I don't like the combat with it gimmick especially that it's sometimes hard to tell when enemy attack will connect. You can feel that the combat was redone a couple of times and finally got released with this compromise.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Just play bug fables: the everlasting sapling if you want paper mario like combat and cozy adventure. The characters are much better written than SoS too.

 

[HoboForEternity]

jeeeeeeezuz that true ending sucks especially with how much work you put into getting it like holy shit.

ending

basically just different final boss battle that have bajillion HP and the ending resolve nothing, they kicked fleshmancer's ass, then the alchemist appear out of a random portal and save him and they go into the portal and i dunno happened after that. literal asshole who commanded genocide of multiple races/planets just walk away then the normal ending footage ensue.

such a stark contrast between ASTLIBRA's post game and true ending which is awesome, fulfilling, and chock-filled with new feature and genius progression system.

 

[Tarkleigh]

Finished this yesterday (normal ending, can't be arsed to attempt the true ending) and I am conflicted. Some things are really great but others are strangely lacking. First I want to emphasize that the game is beautiful and probably the best-looking pixel graphics ever made. All involved people should get Renaissance-style statues of them created (heroic nudes would probably be appropriate) and placed before their office. The soundtrack is also very good and I found the world-building interesting. Some parts of the story were also great

minor story descriptions

(the relationship between the Alchimist and the Fleshmancer and the Dweller of Woe island, for instance)

while others fell strangely flat (and quite a few were never properly resolved). Also, I really hated one character for being an insufferable Mary Sue cunt which was a shame as the game was really in love with him and clearly wants the player to like him.

The big flaw is the combat system. It is perfectly adequate but frankly boring and as you are doing it a lot, I mostly played the game with a podcast or a Youtube video running in the background. While it is useful to have games like this, it is not a good sign if it is a game you are playing for the first time. Also, I found the controls frustrating as the game sometimes glitches out and doesn't let you jump from or onto a platfrom even though it is supposed to work. After some tries it always worked but this is really annoying given that the game only uses a couple of buttons and it is not unreasonable to ask for them to actually work 100% of the time.

Also, the RPG system is very reduced, you just pick a couple of passive stats and swap the equipment (but the equipment is always strictly better or worse, so there is very little choice there). There is no option to change a character's play style or anything. Also, the story does not have any CoC which surprised me. Maybe this always was the case in the genre - I had a Mega Drive as a kid but did not play any JRPGs - but it definitely surprised me.

Overall, it was a very mixed bag. Not sure, if I would recommend it to people.

 

[Infinitron]