4/5 ★ – BlooMoon's review of Sea of Stars.

I really enjoyed this game. Artwork, combat, difficulty options, world building, music, so many amazing aspects. There are so many varied locations all with their own music and atmosphere that contribute to the game always feeling fresh. The movement on the overworld is snappy, and though there are a few parts where it feels a little cumbersome or drawn out for how simplistic it is (run in a direction and press parkour button) for the most part the overworld and dungeon sections keep moving at a breakneck pace to keep things fresh. That's probably the best part about this game. Right when an area was starting to grow boring, it's over. Right when a boss was starting to get a little too long, and I was gearing up for the long haul, suddenly it was over. It has all the varied levels, enemies, locations, and story beats of a 100 hour JRPG, but condensed into a tight 30. Though this breakneck pacing did take the wind out of my sails a few times (I often got to the point in a boss where I needed to start using powerful items, only to beat it on my next turn), this isn't a huge issue due to the numerous difficulty balancing options offered up. The relics offer an in depth menu of stats and properties to tweak, so as to fine tune the overall balance. While I think this many options can make it easy to throw encounter and area design out of whack, if you ever feel like something isn't right, you can just turn all relics, easy and hard, off to immediately reset to intended difficulty. No making a new file, no penalty or condescension from the game for playing easy mode, no sweat in live tweaking your difficulty over the course of one playthrough. This is amazing. More options are always better. Biggest complaints I am seeing about this game are its story, and how it works optional content into its ending. Regarding story, I tried going in with zero expectations and ended up pleasantly surprised at several points. I haven't even played this game's number one inspiration, Chrono Trigger, but I've played enough JRPGs to have an idea of what I was in for. The story repeatedly offered very interesting concepts, characters, and scenarios. They clearly did a lot of worldbuilding and were eager to show it off. I particularly enjoyed the traveling historian and the stories she would tell about your artifacts and key items. It kept you guessing - would this story factor in later? Some anecdotes become central plot points and entire dungeons. Others are only mentioned in a few scattered lines of dialogue - ultimately trivial if you ignored Teaks' stories, but it heightens the worldbuilding if you're paying attention. Overall I really enjoyed the story, it seemed a little all over the place, but in a good way for the most part. It feels like you're being pulled all over to one area or macguffin after another, but it's fine because they often tie together in interesting ways later down the line and the moment to moment gameplay is so fun. It only stumbles at the end, where the "flying by the seat of its pants" writing style and story pacing never really lets up. Rather than tying everything together in a neat bow, it sort of just ends. This feels a little anti climactic, if not more realistic in hindsight. But with how many interesting ideas they were throwing out, I was just hoping for some more thematic cohesion at the end. Regarding side content, I should start by saying I haven't completed much of it, and have yet to get the true ending. I was excited to do these character specific side quests I saw people talking about. Those are always great for expanding the depth of party members. However the game keeps a breakneck pace, especially at the back half, to where it never felt like I had time to pause everything and pursue side content. Worse yet, the game doesn't prompt you to go on any side quests until right before the final dungeon. At that point, I have a hard time imagining anyone would shatter the pacing and go do 4 character side quests back to back. The intention here is for this to be post game, which I don't think was the right way to go. The adventure desperately needed some optional side quests much earlier in the run time to spice things up. Prior to this, all you have in the way of side content are conch shells which are a backtracking pain to go back and collect - and just as much of a pain to cash in (until easier fast travel is unlocked... again right before the final dungeon) and the Wheels minigame, which seems interesting but is entirely different from the normal gameplay and I never felt like pausing the game to learn how to play. Overall, an odd approach to side content and I wish they'd spread things out for a more even experience. That seems like a lot of complaining, but in the grand scheme of the game it's not too bad as I still was greatly enjoying myself 90% of the time. The combat loop of breaking locks, regaining MP with normal hits as well as generating floating boost power, charging up combo attacks and ultimates, and free swapping of party members, all came together to be a super enjoyable experience. Greatly recommend to anyone who is a fan of Mario RPGs, Dragon Quest, pixel art, good worldbuilding, and turn based combat.