As of this writing, it’s not too late to pledge to Sea of Stars and help unlock all the stretch goals.
The indie games market may be saturated with pixel-art games, and some of them are very well done. But they mostly exist in the realm of the “roguelike Metroidvania.” Which is a fine world, I suppose. But it doesn’t seem like that many indie devs have the guts to dive deep into the world of old-school JRPGs. Maybe that’s why thirsty fans have pledged to Sea of Stars developers Sabotage Studio on Kickstarter.
Sea of Stars looks very much like a classic top-down RPG experience a la Chrono Trigger, but promises to upgrade the genre to a more modern experience.
According to their Kickstarter page, “Sea of Stars aims to modernize the classic RPG in terms of turn-based combat, storytelling, exploration and interactions with the environment, while still offering a hearty slice ofnostalgia and good old, simple fun.”
It’s easy to believe Sabotage Studio knows what they’re doing. Their previous game, The Messenger, impressed all retro-minded indie gamers with its faithfulness to classic platformer combat (a la Ninja Gaiden) and attention to detail and modern senses.
And Sea of Stars certainly impresses with its graphical style, familiar-yet-modern boss teaser (see above), and gorgeous pixel animation. They also promise interactive turn-based combat with timed hits, synergistic combos between characters (there are “six very distinct playable characters”), spell-breaks, boosts and more.
The game offers players freedom of movement like hasn’t been seen in a top-down game. As Sabotage says, “Putting our platformer experience to good use, we make a point for moment-to-moment gameplay to present satisfying controls, micro challenges, and varied traversal opportunities.”
Basically, you can maneuver your character freely and uncover hard-to-reach or secret areas that will reward you for your curiosity.
I don’t know about you, but I think Sea of Stars looks absolutely amazing. But there’s a long wait still. The current predicted release is not until 2022. But we know these developers and they’re definitely good for it.
Go visit their Kickstarter page to learn everything and go ahead and reserve a copy.
