"That means ye gay!" - Ice T. It means in order to get review copies one must network at in person events e.g. gaming conventions. In Armored Core 6 after you complete the first mission you gain the name Raven and you get on a list of mercenaries allowed to operate on rubicon (the games planet) just like ratatoskr got on the reviewer list for this game and hopefuly many others.
The art style makes me feel sad and warm. Very nostalgic, as though this is what our imagination saw these kinds of games as when they released. There's a lot of moving parts yet it still has a clean consice layout that's not confusing.
@7:42 one of my favourite moments was when Yolande was talking with her crew and makes reference to this habit, she said something like "And then he said he never uses his spells on the regular enemies, and only uses the most expensive ones on the boss!" and someone else was like "Well that doesn't sound very fun" lmao
Have you tried Chained Echoes yet? It isn't quite as pretty or mechanically robust as this one, but it seems to address many of the issues you had. The story is consistently good, and the villains' motivations are well presented. It seems to be trying to be a mashup of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Xenogears, and while it never hits the heights of any of those three, the fact that it was able to combine so many aspects of them into a harmonious whole is pretty impressive.
I really enjoyed Chained Echoes, but I wouldn't really say it was harmonious. If anything, trying to be too much like CT, FFT, Xenogears, FF6 and Suikoden gave it a bit of an identity crisis and it struggled a bit. The third act sort of became a mess of tying up character threads and subplots that did not get enough room to breath.
Pro tip from late game. Some locks you cant reduce the power of and have to break them. Make sure to spend hit turns regenerating mana and preparing for locks. Do your damage while breaking the lock so you maintain good mana economy.
This game looks amazing. It releasing at a pretty busy time so I won't have time to play it but will definetly play it in the future. I loved The Messenger and it seems like they managed to deliever again with this game
I've watched ign, noisy pixel, and at least 4 other reviews of Sea of Stars and this one is easily the best. Thanks for the hard work and detailed explanations. ❤
To the food, one interesting thing about that is if you try to always save your MP to heal in combat, or out of it trying to save food, you will run into a lot fights where you start and need to break a "lock" but don't have any MP to do so. Since food is so plentiful, it encourages you to use that instead of casting healing magic out of combat, only to collect mana in the next combat.
I've almost never used food in this game and just run to the campfire to heal. So whole this food system with ingredients was useless and boring for me.
@@Tam4ik i never used up all 10 of my food items in one battle. I didn't even use food items for most of the bosses. There was only 1 or 2 that made me use more than 1 piece of food, if any at all. I could heal my party members to full with a well timed heal press with Zale for most of the game, which only costed 4 mp. I never even used the 100% health/100% mana for entire party food item fighting the last boss.
@@Tam4ik The game is a total joke unless you play with the Tactician’s Mettle relic activated. It gives 60% damage reduction when locks are up, 35% More damage to the player, Food (snacks) can not be used in battle and Campfires recover 50% of HP and do not recover MP. It's really the only way to play if you want the game to be somewhat challenging.
I’m not sold on this one. I played the demo and it wasn’t too impressive. Character dialogue is pretty repetitive and doesn’t change much. The world map was more like the world map in Mario 3. Captain Klee Shae? That’s the kind of thing that pulls me right out of the game. That’s feeling I got from the demo, sort of paint by numbers. Like it’s doing an impression of classic rpg’s but lacks an identity of its own. It felt like it didn’t want me to take it seriously, real goofy and light hearted. I want to take my rpg’s seriously. Otherwise it’s difficult to become invested. Sure classics like chrono trigger had silly moments but it took its story seriously and the world and characters felt very real and grounded. The demo looks great but I would expect that given the technology today vs. the 90’s. The music was good but also felt generic, nothing felt unique or stood out to me. The climbing and ledges feel a little undercooked and don’t seem to serve much purpose, didn’t feel very organic. The character portraits were also a little goofy. Nothing wrong with a light hearted, jokey rpg, just not really my preference.
i felt the same way about the messenger tbh. mostly lacking its own identity, aping better games that came out decades prior. generic music, and the writing never took itself seriously at all, but at the same time was never funny either? definitely competent but constantly a little bit on the nose
@@UsernameyMcUsernameFace I definitely think it’s being over hyped. It might be a decent rpg and I’m sure people will like it. I just don’t think it’s “the return of the golden age of rpg’s” or “deserves a place among games like Chrono Trigger and FF VI.”
@@krammy9goggler I never got around to that one, that’s good to know I’ll probably skip it then. I can appreciate what the studio is trying to do, doing modern takes on classic games. I’m just not a fan of that style of writing.
This game caught my attention. As a fellow Chrono Trigger enjoyer I'm definitely playing this sometime. Sprites look fantastic, and animations are great, too. I especially liked a moment when character used a healing item. He looked into his backpack and showed a played that he has an apple! And then throws it. IDK why, but felt very stylistic.
Planned on checking this game out already but thanks for the review anyway! If you liked this, take a look at Chained Echoes. Beautifully done Jrpg without the nonsense grinding etc.
God I love Chained Echoes. More people should know about it’s awesomeness. It’s my favorite 2d jrpg to release in the last 2 decades (FF tactics and Chrono Trigger are 1 and 2)
I'm so happy that you got the chance to review this early and that it's even on your radar. I adore the Messenger so this game is next on my list right after I finish AC6. Hope you liked it, I'll be back to watch this after I've finished it.
Nice video. I had a great time with Sea of Stars, but didn't know about the shared universe stuffs. Gonna checkout the Messenger! 3:25 Obscure tip, the "turn order" is actually tied to the position slot. So with at least 1 combo points and some swap gymnastic, it's possible to have the same character act twice in a single round. It was fun making the bosses never got their turn by using a certain character skills lol.
I'm at the spoiler stop point and this is where I will end it. Thank you so much for this review. It was very well put together and it flowed well. I was able to listen to it, podcast style while cooking dinner for the family and I was able to keep up. #subscribe
Completely completely agree on everything. The story is the one thing that sea of stars doesn’t really nail, and it’s unfortunate because the rest of it is so nice. And the most damning part about it is that it actually has a lot of intriguing elements to its concepts, but they’re only really slightly elaborated on in side content. Hopefully a DLC expands upon some of the more “questionable” decisions. Because it certainly could fix some of the issues Part of me feels that it was intentional in a way….that they wanted to prevent the story from getting too extreme, and to keep it aligned with its influences (chrono trigger especially)
I loved the writing of The Massenger & I'm glad it's connected to Sea of Stars, I was laughing most of the time reading the dialogue between characters 😂
I’m really glad to hear your perspective on the story as a whole, because that’s what matters to me most as well. I’m very interested to hear about what you thought of the writing of the dialogue as a whole too though. That’s what really threw me when I started it today. It all feels very generic and devoid of much feeling or style
I think it strongly resembles the type of writing you saw in the games that influenced it. It feels a lot like chrono trigger. The characters are all kind of simple and one-note, which can be charming, but it also doesn’t get very grandiose in any way. And unfortunately some things are elaborated on via stories that you read while you rest at camp. my theory is that perhaps they did this because they knew that if some of the events/stories described were to actually take place in the game, they would have to give the characters a lot more dialogue and personality, which would’ve maybe changed the stakes and made the game more dramatic than they really wanted it to be. It seems like they wanted the game to move at a specific pace, and to retain a mostly lighthearted/nostalgic feel. Just my stupid theory though
Yeah it's really weird how the level writing differs across different levels. The world building was really interesting to me, the overall story was very good (although the ending felt a bit incomplete), but any dialogue that doesn't contribute to these other two was really.... generic and bad. Dit you end up continuing the game? I felt that the writing got a little bit better later on because there was more context and story to it.
i played the demo on PC when it came out and you can really tell that they took alot of influence from chrono trigger and evolved it im def adding to my collection
@@morriganrenfield8240 I just mostly don't like the story and gameplay of JRPGs in general. I like RPGs, I like turn based RPGs like CRPGs. JRPGs I just don't like so much. Sidenote: I played Nier Automata, I just don't really consider it a JRPG. Its closer to a hack and slash or spectacle fighter than a JRPG. Even if it has the story of one, which I didn't like all that much.
@@trollconfiavel if Fallout 1 had an anime style, say like Fist of the North Star, would it now be a JRPG? The themes, the enemies, the mechanics, combat, story, everything else remains the same. The only difference is the artstyle which is now "anime", would it now be a JRPG? I would say no, it's not a JRPG. For me, a JRPG is a game with a set protagonist rather than an avatar, a set story with little to no choices, many times it's also a party/companion filled story focused on character growth and development, fighing against ever increasing power (which many times ends in a diety). They tend to have a party turn-based combat, or cooldown based like FF6 which feels very turn-based, with a heavy enphasis on increasing numbers. There is a difference between phisical damage and "special" damage, almost everyone (party members) is able to wield magic. Chinese food dosen't need to come from china, nor does it require to arrive in a small cardboard box. Videogame genres are more than just a style, that can be very superfluous.
I'm hearing a lot of design-philosophy similarities to Chained Echoes, which I really enjoyed. I'm pretty excited for this game, I'm just trying to decide how highly I should prioritize it!
I really appreciated this. I’m at Fated Hour and I think I’ll take a break to play The Messenger first, then come back. I’m having such a good time with this game, and I’m aiming for The Best Ending. But it sounds like I’m missing some context that will improve the overall experience, which so far has been quite positive.
Meh. I found The Messenger to be overrated. It didnt feel like Ninja Gaiden to me other than some of the gameplay elements. The music is great at times but nothing near as good as Ninja Gaiden. Also I dont like how they tried to deliver a big story through slow old school textboxes. Ninja Gaiden was revolutionary for its time for delivering its story through cutscenes. Thus looks decent though and Ill try it out later today.
Rata have you ever played Crosscode? Its a german indie jrpg and i just have to mention it because its really really good and nobody is talking about it.
I see there are some environmental puzzles around. If you played it, would you say they are in the scale and type of golden sun on the GBA? one of my fondest memories was solving those puzzles, so having a game with that level of puzzling plus no random encounters would be very enticing for me, even if the story is weaker
Just throwing my two cents in, as a fellow Golden Sun fanboy, this game hit all the right notes for me, including the puzzles. They're always just complex enough, and just short enough, to give a good "A-ha!" before moving on to the next combat or puzzle.
I wonder if any devs have thought about how to balance greater dmg recoveries (eg. limit breaks, AOE, multi-targets) not just by attacking/waiting to charge/absorbing points/mad jukes but perhaps party combo attacks/assists? Basically, the easier your party members can be taken out, the harder attrition combat becomes. So good party dynamics and affinities will matter a lot.
I still need to finish Chained Echoes. I still need to finish Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I still need to finish Alllllll of the Crossbell arc of Trails. I still need to finish TOTK. If they could just stop pumping out games for a minute then maybe I could catch up. I want Sea of Stars and I’ll get it but it’s gonna sit for a minute
Bro finish xc3 and the dlc - peak fiction. But yes also relatable - I'm like halfway into totk, got halfway into xenografts a couple years ago so rip, got a good 5 hours into replicant, read first route of the tsukihime VN, read 2 routes of full metal daemon muramasa yet I'm playing BG3 rn 🤣
I used to think that then I played Octopath Traveler 2 and it reminded me how good it could be like in my all favourites ff4,5 and 6. There’s still a place for both styles.
@@makasete30 that was one of the few things I disliked about Octopath 1 and 2. Imo it adds nothing to the game, and makes backtracking through and revisiting areas way worse than if there were no random encounters.
@makasete30 Octopath 2's gameplay is almost ALL battles, and while there's an argument for saying, "Well, if the bosses were so carefully crafted, just do that for evey battle in the whole game!" it's already difficult for them to make the combat work for 8 different characters going down the same paths across the map, or maybe teleporting halfway to their next chapter, or maybe the player wanted to do a different chapter in the same region, but ran into somebody's chapter battles because they happened to be on the team... It'd probably be a mess. Plus, random encounters in Octopath 2 are at least consistently engaging. Break the enemies? Brute force them right outta the gate? Buff yourself to brute-force their HP bars better? Maybe Analyze so you know their HP for next time? Or if you want more out of a fight, Steal or Collect from them for your troubles?
I just finished the game today. I played The Messenger earlier this year. I do agree that the world building between them is impressive, but I don't really know what to make of the story in Sea of Stars. As a string of events moving you from one area to the next, it did it's job. But the villain's side is very muddy. I really want to play it again with what I know and see if it comes together any better, or if the holes are even wider.
As a 90s kid I never got into the turn-based games. I never got into Rpgs until fable two came out on Xbox 360. After that I fell into the world of Elder scrolls Oblivion, and to this day I love Rpgs. So of course I got BG3 which is my first real turn based RPG game. Loved it, then decided to give this a shot because of the tern based RPG style. The nostalgic vibes also I appreciate. Surprisingly very well done game. Some of the areas reminded me of the legend of Zelda a link to the past from my super Nintendo days.
I was never really a JRPG fan, but I bought into the Completionists hype. (Yt channel) now 50 hours later I’ve done all but the 10 bosses on hard mode achievement. It was a fun enough time. I’m giving the messenger a try now.
Thanks for the review. What do you think about Chrono Cross? I recently played for the first time Chrono Trigger and have just started CC and the first impression is that it looks incredible
i wonder if future games from the studio will benefit from such an overarching world building architecture, or if say a single game, like sea of stars, suffer when compared with the larger visions of the development studio. does making everything connect damage their current individual projects or support everything as a whole?
There is a Relic that straight up just makes the game harder with some tweaks, it removes 95% the character's HP, but timing blocks downs the damage to 1, and timing attacks doubles damage, so it's still making it harder but gives some advantages
I love how noticeably smooth and slow the review narration is. Plus, your voice is so soothing that it makes me sleepy. I would listen to a storytime with your nice voice narration. Anyways, awesome video!
Great review - 2 questions 1.What's the tone like? Light and tropey like say DQ11 or dark and serious like FF Tactics? 2.Any decisions/role playing/story branching? Very rare in JRPGs but always worth asking
Verrry light tone (although I'm picking up on serious undertones) and the characters actually made me laugh a couple times. I havent reached any branching story points yet after 8 hours
If you played Chrono Trigger, it's similar to that tone. There's an ever-present, looming, seemingly unstoppable threat that causes people to experience loss and despair, but the focal point of the game is its characters and how they grow, in addition to building the universe that Sabotage Studios is making. I personally think that makes for a great story (I don't really get Ratatoskr's negative views on it, but to each their own) and is reminiscent of the games from the 90's: simple, but effective storytelling.
One way to improve healing items system in RPGs would be to adopt what other genre does: in RPGs food spoil if you don't eat it. Imagine if an RPG used this system? They would make their games better! 1. You are encouraged to use your items. 2. You are discouraged to amass items because they go to waste after a few hours. They could do that for any healing item. A) Food spoils. Spolit food can cause poisoning or just be unedible. B) Potions could lose (part of) their effects, or even become cursed (weird, negative effects and debuffs) Yeah, RPGs can learn a lot from RPGs.
shocked this isnt an ac6 video. more shocked this is a game im going to have to play(love how the turnbased combat looks). also completely annoyed there is another game i really want to play. best i can do right now is wishlist. too many games lol
I know, I bought AC6 then I was going to wishlist this but it’s on PS+ and Gamepass so since I have PS+, I now have to play it since it was one of my highly anticipated games for this year. Too many games and too little time to play them.
What a time to be alive! I'm kinda bummed a friend got me to play Diablo 4 with him, because it's nowhere near as good as what's available these days. I find myself seeking excuses to not play D4 🤦🏻♂
Very interesting and disappointing to hear that it is highly recommended that people play the messenger first. I want to check this game out and get the most out of it, but I haven’t played the messenger, and I have no interest in playing it.
I don’t think you have to play that one, this one is a prequel, there are things on the messenger that you may get some explanations here and some mysteries there, but it’s not required.
Would’ve been nice if you broke a sun/moon lock for every living mana you use (up to 3) on a normal attack, rather than just 1 regardless of how many you use.
@@LevantineR1 Same lol. There were a lot of times where an enemy had a lock for 2+ suns… there were only like 2 combos where you could accomplish that I believe. I think it would’ve added more depth to the combat if each mana broke an extra sun/moon lock.
@@williamraboine2462 I'm fine with how things are; the doubled icons give more value to Re'shan's Ebb attack and Seraï's Disorient. Zale in general just felt a bit lacking in having a niche.
Can we get a "why you're playing AC6 wrong" video? I think you'd have a field day if you checked out a couple big streamers, people are having a hard time with this one I know it's not related to sea of stars but I don't care about this gene and I'm commenting to bring wealth to the Rat King, leave me alone
Hey ratatoskr, have you seen Under The Mayo's AC6 review? I think he made some reaaaalllly bad takes in that video and I would love to hear you talk about your opinions on AC6 and maybe make a response to him, like you did in the past with people having bad takes on elden ring
The complaints about the ending in particular, about the ending being abrupt, largely are resolved by the true ending. Thats not to say that the main plot is now made breathtaking with it, but its above average. As for Aephorul’s motivations, I think it’s fairly obvious what they are especially if you listen to Teaks story on him. A scientist at heart that along the way goes off into depravity and cruelty, who is content on playing a grand zero sum game with Re’shan for the sake of that experimentation. Erlina & Brugraves on the other hand are characters with weak motivations. That just is what it is. Moraine also I think falls victim to that for what occurs with him around the game’s mid point.
😊 I just quit playing it once I got to the end game and I don't know why but I'm thinking it's because the story kind of bored me. Other than that I really liked it. Need to go back and finish it
Im back after finishing the game. And yes, those two motivation was terrible. But I was fine for the self contained stakes, since the emotion was there, so I dont really care about the cosmic wars in the background.
Alright, just wrapped on the game. I really want to rate this higher. It does a lot of things right. The combat mechanics are a lot of fun. They do bring genuine pathos to some of the characters. The design work is really nice. Simple yet evocative and adding detail when it's really necessary. Tons to praise about the game. But the ending, it's rough. Locking the ending behind a collectathon sucked. They had the weapon quests. That would've been perfect. Try to recall what places I'd been or had not been for the collectathon? No. Why would you do this to me? Locking post game bonus stuff behind completionist busy work sucked. I dinged Paper Mario Origami King for this too. What is this weird obsession with quizzes? Also, most egregiously,I didn't like the ending. They genuinely got me with that mid-game down turn. Having that undone at the end? By BS timey wimey magic? Nope. Dislike. Undermined some really effective tragedy all for some feel good anime one liners. I stopped reading super hero comics a long time ago for this exact sort of thing. Also, nitpick more than anything, there's a lot of great art down in the crypt. But it's such a pain to view any of it. Meanwhile they had this loooooong list of backers at the credits. Would've been the perfect space to show off some of that art instead of just giving me the hyper speed button. Also, I gotta disagree with Rata. You don't need to play The Messenger at all. Unless old school Ninja Gaiden puzzle platformers are your thing, you can skip it without a care in the world. The references to The Messenger in SoS are just that, references. They don't impact the game or inform your understanding of it at all. At most you get an, "Oh, so that's going to become that? Nifty." from some of the connections. Overall it's a solid game and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's curious. But it doesn't stick the landing and that's really unfortunate. It had potential to be one of the greats of 2023. But by the last few hours I was more than ready for it to be over, rather than wanting to turn around and play more.
Игры
This game is free on release on Gamepass and PlayStation Extras.
Thanks for the heads up on that bit of info, I was about to buy it on the switch.
I have hemorrhoids
Will definitely be downloading this one
Ooh, now I'll be sure to check it out!
Thank god. I can't spend any more money this month on video games
Someone has been networking on the rooftop lounges of gaming conventions. Welcome to the list raven!
What does this mean..
"That means ye gay!" - Ice T.
It means in order to get review copies one must network at in person events e.g. gaming conventions. In Armored Core 6 after you complete the first mission you gain the name Raven and you get on a list of mercenaries allowed to operate on rubicon (the games planet) just like ratatoskr got on the reviewer list for this game and hopefuly many others.
The art style makes me feel sad and warm. Very nostalgic, as though this is what our imagination saw these kinds of games as when they released. There's a lot of moving parts yet it still has a clean consice layout that's not confusing.
Why sad?
@@na01jsnnostalgia can cut both ways
@@Farkararka true
@7:42 one of my favourite moments was when Yolande was talking with her crew and makes reference to this habit, she said something like "And then he said he never uses his spells on the regular enemies, and only uses the most expensive ones on the boss!" and someone else was like "Well that doesn't sound very fun" lmao
And than you do exactly than in game because regular battles too short and yes that was not fun.
I feel so validated by your spoiler discussion about character motivations! I had the exact same experience. Great review as always
Have you tried Chained Echoes yet? It isn't quite as pretty or mechanically robust as this one, but it seems to address many of the issues you had. The story is consistently good, and the villains' motivations are well presented. It seems to be trying to be a mashup of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Xenogears, and while it never hits the heights of any of those three, the fact that it was able to combine so many aspects of them into a harmonious whole is pretty impressive.
@@k.constantinewhat does that even mean lol
Didn't enjoy that game. Never felt like I was making progress with a lack of a proper leveling system. Seems this game has similar issues.
I really enjoyed Chained Echoes, but I wouldn't really say it was harmonious. If anything, trying to be too much like CT, FFT, Xenogears, FF6 and Suikoden gave it a bit of an identity crisis and it struggled a bit. The third act sort of became a mess of tying up character threads and subplots that did not get enough room to breath.
@@narkona1084 Haha, see, I look at the third act being rushed as part of the Xenogears influence. :p
@@brianlinden3042 I actually thought that myself, but still :P
Pro tip from late game. Some locks you cant reduce the power of and have to break them. Make sure to spend hit turns regenerating mana and preparing for locks. Do your damage while breaking the lock so you maintain good mana economy.
This game looks amazing. It releasing at a pretty busy time so I won't have time to play it but will definetly play it in the future. I loved The Messenger and it seems like they managed to deliever again with this game
I've watched ign, noisy pixel, and at least 4 other reviews of Sea of Stars and this one is easily the best. Thanks for the hard work and detailed explanations. ❤
To the food, one interesting thing about that is if you try to always save your MP to heal in combat, or out of it trying to save food, you will run into a lot fights where you start and need to break a "lock" but don't have any MP to do so. Since food is so plentiful, it encourages you to use that instead of casting healing magic out of combat, only to collect mana in the next combat.
You can also use healing skills outside of battles
@@ghad311I’m almost done with the game and I didn’t know that lol
I've almost never used food in this game and just run to the campfire to heal. So whole this food system with ingredients was useless and boring for me.
@@Tam4ik i never used up all 10 of my food items in one battle. I didn't even use food items for most of the bosses. There was only 1 or 2 that made me use more than 1 piece of food, if any at all. I could heal my party members to full with a well timed heal press with Zale for most of the game, which only costed 4 mp. I never even used the 100% health/100% mana for entire party food item fighting the last boss.
@@Tam4ik The game is a total joke unless you play with the Tactician’s Mettle relic activated. It gives 60% damage reduction when locks are up, 35% More damage to the player, Food (snacks) can not be used in battle and Campfires recover 50% of HP and do not recover MP. It's really the only way to play if you want the game to be somewhat challenging.
i love ur reviews. they are so relaxing and you never fail to point out everything i want to know about these games before purchasing
I’m not sold on this one. I played the demo and it wasn’t too impressive. Character dialogue is pretty repetitive and doesn’t change much. The world map was more like the world map in Mario 3. Captain Klee Shae? That’s the kind of thing that pulls me right out of the game. That’s feeling I got from the demo, sort of paint by numbers. Like it’s doing an impression of classic rpg’s but lacks an identity of its own. It felt like it didn’t want me to take it seriously, real goofy and light hearted. I want to take my rpg’s seriously. Otherwise it’s difficult to become invested. Sure classics like chrono trigger had silly moments but it took its story seriously and the world and characters felt very real and grounded.
The demo looks great but I would expect that given the technology today vs. the 90’s. The music was good but also felt generic, nothing felt unique or stood out to me. The climbing and ledges feel a little undercooked and don’t seem to serve much purpose, didn’t feel very organic. The character portraits were also a little goofy. Nothing wrong with a light hearted, jokey rpg, just not really my preference.
i felt the same way about the messenger tbh. mostly lacking its own identity, aping better games that came out decades prior. generic music, and the writing never took itself seriously at all, but at the same time was never funny either? definitely competent but constantly a little bit on the nose
I backed this game back in the day and I must agree the demo was pretty mediocre. I'll give the full game a chance of course.
I appreciate this comment. You saved me £25.
@@UsernameyMcUsernameFace I definitely think it’s being over hyped. It might be a decent rpg and I’m sure people will like it. I just don’t think it’s “the return of the golden age of rpg’s” or “deserves a place among games like Chrono Trigger and FF VI.”
@@krammy9goggler I never got around to that one, that’s good to know I’ll probably skip it then. I can appreciate what the studio is trying to do, doing modern takes on classic games. I’m just not a fan of that style of writing.
This game caught my attention. As a fellow Chrono Trigger enjoyer I'm definitely playing this sometime. Sprites look fantastic, and animations are great, too. I especially liked a moment when character used a healing item. He looked into his backpack and showed a played that he has an apple! And then throws it. IDK why, but felt very stylistic.
The grin on my face when I stepped foot onto Glacial peak and the music started playing was huge. The Messenger is a must play before this game.
This looks very awesome. I will definitely be playing this. Great art, lots of charm, fun combat, and no random encounters.
Planned on checking this game out already but thanks for the review anyway!
If you liked this, take a look at Chained Echoes. Beautifully done Jrpg without the nonsense grinding etc.
God I love Chained Echoes. More people should know about it’s awesomeness. It’s my favorite 2d jrpg to release in the last 2 decades (FF tactics and Chrono Trigger are 1 and 2)
@@conaldeugenepeterson2147chroni trigger was more than 20 years ago lol
@@conaldeugenepeterson2147 This is actually painful for me to say but, both FFT and Chrono Trigger released more than two decades ago.
I'm so happy that you got the chance to review this early and that it's even on your radar. I adore the Messenger so this game is next on my list right after I finish AC6. Hope you liked it, I'll be back to watch this after I've finished it.
Nice video. I had a great time with Sea of Stars, but didn't know about the shared universe stuffs. Gonna checkout the Messenger!
3:25 Obscure tip, the "turn order" is actually tied to the position slot. So with at least 1 combo points and some swap gymnastic, it's possible to have the same character act twice in a single round. It was fun making the bosses never got their turn by using a certain character skills lol.
proceed to kick evwrything into oblivion.
I love your reviews. They always seem thoughtful and answer all the questions I have for a game to have me hyped to play it without spoiling anything
This game has been on my radar for quite some time and I can't wait to play it tomorrow!
I'm at the spoiler stop point and this is where I will end it. Thank you so much for this review. It was very well put together and it flowed well. I was able to listen to it, podcast style while cooking dinner for the family and I was able to keep up. #subscribe
Leaving a like even though I'm stopping at the first spoiler warning. I'll be back to watch the rest in a couple weeks ✌️
I backed this on Kickstarter so I’m glad to hear your thoughts!
I was sold the second you said it was by the messanger devs. I love that game.
Have you played it yet? I love the messenger but just haven’t gotten around to getting SoS
I’ve been waiting so long for this game, so excited for all the reviews
Hype for how this one turns out
Completely completely agree on everything. The story is the one thing that sea of stars doesn’t really nail, and it’s unfortunate because the rest of it is so nice. And the most damning part about it is that it actually has a lot of intriguing elements to its concepts, but they’re only really slightly elaborated on in side content. Hopefully a DLC expands upon some of the more “questionable” decisions. Because it certainly could fix some of the issues
Part of me feels that it was intentional in a way….that they wanted to prevent the story from getting too extreme, and to keep it aligned with its influences (chrono trigger especially)
Man that Soundtrack is fire🔥
I loved the writing of The Massenger & I'm glad it's connected to Sea of Stars, I was laughing most of the time reading the dialogue between characters 😂
Ive been looking out for this game for a while, so excited
I’m really glad to hear your perspective on the story as a whole, because that’s what matters to me most as well.
I’m very interested to hear about what you thought of the writing of the dialogue as a whole too though. That’s what really threw me when I started it today. It all feels very generic and devoid of much feeling or style
thats my fear been 20 years since a JRPG had good dialogue or tone for me
@@DJSnafu adults who grew up in the 20th century knew about life and how to write with culture. It's never going to be the same again
I think it strongly resembles the type of writing you saw in the games that influenced it. It feels a lot like chrono trigger. The characters are all kind of simple and one-note, which can be charming, but it also doesn’t get very grandiose in any way. And unfortunately some things are elaborated on via stories that you read while you rest at camp.
my theory is that perhaps they did this because they knew that if some of the events/stories described were to actually take place in the game, they would have to give the characters a lot more dialogue and personality, which would’ve maybe changed the stakes and made the game more dramatic than they really wanted it to be. It seems like they wanted the game to move at a specific pace, and to retain a mostly lighthearted/nostalgic feel. Just my stupid theory though
@@DJSnafu then you have never played xenoblade
Yeah it's really weird how the level writing differs across different levels. The world building was really interesting to me, the overall story was very good (although the ending felt a bit incomplete), but any dialogue that doesn't contribute to these other two was really.... generic and bad.
Dit you end up continuing the game? I felt that the writing got a little bit better later on because there was more context and story to it.
i played the demo on PC when it came out and you can really tell that they took alot of influence from chrono trigger and evolved it im def adding to my collection
I had played the demo a month ago and loved it. Glad to see this review
Mr de la Toska making me consider getting a JRPG for the first time since the SNES.
You’ve been missing out. Whether it’s jrpgs that lovers of jrpgs like, or must play titles like nier automata, there’s something there.
@@morriganrenfield8240 I just mostly don't like the story and gameplay of JRPGs in general. I like RPGs, I like turn based RPGs like CRPGs. JRPGs I just don't like so much.
Sidenote: I played Nier Automata, I just don't really consider it a JRPG. Its closer to a hack and slash or spectacle fighter than a JRPG. Even if it has the story of one, which I didn't like all that much.
@@rvg3250 what exactly are you calling a JRPG? A JRPG is just an RPG with anime style.
@@trollconfiavel if Fallout 1 had an anime style, say like Fist of the North Star, would it now be a JRPG? The themes, the enemies, the mechanics, combat, story, everything else remains the same. The only difference is the artstyle which is now "anime", would it now be a JRPG? I would say no, it's not a JRPG.
For me, a JRPG is a game with a set protagonist rather than an avatar, a set story with little to no choices, many times it's also a party/companion filled story focused on character growth and development, fighing against ever increasing power (which many times ends in a diety). They tend to have a party turn-based combat, or cooldown based like FF6 which feels very turn-based, with a heavy enphasis on increasing numbers. There is a difference between phisical damage and "special" damage, almost everyone (party members) is able to wield magic.
Chinese food dosen't need to come from china, nor does it require to arrive in a small cardboard box. Videogame genres are more than just a style, that can be very superfluous.
@@rvg3250 so FFXIV is not JRPG?
Cant wait for the physical! Great review
I'm hearing a lot of design-philosophy similarities to Chained Echoes, which I really enjoyed. I'm pretty excited for this game, I'm just trying to decide how highly I should prioritize it!
I really appreciated this. I’m at Fated Hour and I think I’ll take a break to play The Messenger first, then come back. I’m having such a good time with this game, and I’m aiming for The Best Ending. But it sounds like I’m missing some context that will improve the overall experience, which so far has been quite positive.
So you did get it early! I thought so. Right on, good job. Great video.
You explained the difficulty so well... I only ever died if I was doing something stupid
The music alone is amazing.
Mitsuda also did music for Inazuma Eleven 😁⚽
My favourite composer for sure!
Meh. I found The Messenger to be overrated. It didnt feel like Ninja Gaiden to me other than some of the gameplay elements. The music is great at times but nothing near as good as Ninja Gaiden. Also I dont like how they tried to deliver a big story through slow old school textboxes.
Ninja Gaiden was revolutionary for its time for delivering its story through cutscenes.
Thus looks decent though and Ill try it out later today.
Thanks for the review!
Rata’s got the ability to make me interested in a game bad or not
This looks sick cant wait
Rata have you ever played Crosscode? Its a german indie jrpg and i just have to mention it because its really really good and nobody is talking about it.
People talked about it a heck of a lot when it first came out, just not quite as much as your Hollow Knights and whatnot.
I had forgotten that this game was coming to exist. Thanks for reminding me.
I see there are some environmental puzzles around. If you played it, would you say they are in the scale and type of golden sun on the GBA? one of my fondest memories was solving those puzzles, so having a game with that level of puzzling plus no random encounters would be very enticing for me, even if the story is weaker
Just throwing my two cents in, as a fellow Golden Sun fanboy, this game hit all the right notes for me, including the puzzles. They're always just complex enough, and just short enough, to give a good "A-ha!" before moving on to the next combat or puzzle.
I stopped at the last spoiler because I'm playing through it right now. thx though. great video. 👍🏽
I wonder if any devs have thought about how to balance greater dmg recoveries (eg. limit breaks, AOE, multi-targets) not just by attacking/waiting to charge/absorbing points/mad jukes but perhaps party combo attacks/assists?
Basically, the easier your party members can be taken out, the harder attrition combat becomes. So good party dynamics and affinities will matter a lot.
Might pick this up while I wait for Born of Bread
I enjoyed the artful relic in the demo. Took me 15 attempts before i finally beat the demo boss with that turned on
Your videos are really well written, a lot of cool insight, would be amazing if you could improve your audio/mic quality
Excellent review, I agree wholeheartedly. The gameplay systems here were all so well done, but the story does leave much to be desired.
I still need to finish Chained Echoes. I still need to finish Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I still need to finish Alllllll of the Crossbell arc of Trails. I still need to finish TOTK. If they could just stop pumping out games for a minute then maybe I could catch up. I want Sea of Stars and I’ll get it but it’s gonna sit for a minute
I think this is the last big game of the summer, thankfully. I can't recall anything else of note that comes out, not until this fall.
@@tbnwontpop8857there’s a little known game called Starfield releasing soon.
Bro finish xc3 and the dlc - peak fiction. But yes also relatable - I'm like halfway into totk, got halfway into xenografts a couple years ago so rip, got a good 5 hours into replicant, read first route of the tsukihime VN, read 2 routes of full metal daemon muramasa yet I'm playing BG3 rn 🤣
Finish Xenoblade 3 first.
No random encounters is how *all* turn based jrpg’s should be done.
These days most are done that way.
I used to think that then I played Octopath Traveler 2 and it reminded me how good it could be like in my all favourites ff4,5 and 6. There’s still a place for both styles.
@@makasete30 that was one of the few things I disliked about Octopath 1 and 2. Imo it adds nothing to the game, and makes backtracking through and revisiting areas way worse than if there were no random encounters.
@makasete30 Octopath 2's gameplay is almost ALL battles, and while there's an argument for saying, "Well, if the bosses were so carefully crafted, just do that for evey battle in the whole game!" it's already difficult for them to make the combat work for 8 different characters going down the same paths across the map, or maybe teleporting halfway to their next chapter, or maybe the player wanted to do a different chapter in the same region, but ran into somebody's chapter battles because they happened to be on the team... It'd probably be a mess.
Plus, random encounters in Octopath 2 are at least consistently engaging. Break the enemies? Brute force them right outta the gate? Buff yourself to brute-force their HP bars better? Maybe Analyze so you know their HP for next time? Or if you want more out of a fight, Steal or Collect from them for your troubles?
Why all?
I just finished the game today. I played The Messenger earlier this year. I do agree that the world building between them is impressive, but I don't really know what to make of the story in Sea of Stars. As a string of events moving you from one area to the next, it did it's job. But the villain's side is very muddy. I really want to play it again with what I know and see if it comes together any better, or if the holes are even wider.
As a 90s kid I never got into the turn-based games. I never got into Rpgs until fable two came out on Xbox 360. After that I fell into the world of Elder scrolls Oblivion, and to this day I love Rpgs. So of course I got BG3 which is my first real turn based RPG game. Loved it, then decided to give this a shot because of the tern based RPG style. The nostalgic vibes also I appreciate. Surprisingly very well done game. Some of the areas reminded me of the legend of Zelda a link to the past from my super Nintendo days.
I played the demo and loved it. Nothing absolutely revolutionnary but excellent fundamentals.
I was never really a JRPG fan, but I bought into the Completionists hype. (Yt channel) now 50 hours later I’ve done all but the 10 bosses on hard mode achievement. It was a fun enough time. I’m giving the messenger a try now.
I wonder what this stuido will create next. I like that they are making games they loved as kids. I would love a definitive edition of the FFT genre.
this feels like more explaining the game’s systems than a review
The massager was a great game ! I’ll be buying sea of stars once I get some money to buy it 😊
Thanks for the review. What do you think about Chrono Cross? I recently played for the first time Chrono Trigger and have just started CC and the first impression is that it looks incredible
he says he likes it when talking about the composer
i wonder if future games from the studio will benefit from such an overarching world building architecture, or if say a single game, like sea of stars, suffer when compared with the larger visions of the development studio. does making everything connect damage their current individual projects or support everything as a whole?
There is a Relic that straight up just makes the game harder with some tweaks, it removes 95% the character's HP, but timing blocks downs the damage to 1, and timing attacks doubles damage, so it's still making it harder but gives some advantages
I love how noticeably smooth and slow the review narration is. Plus, your voice is so soothing that it makes me sleepy. I would listen to a storytime with your nice voice narration.
Anyways, awesome video!
Have you tried Chained Echoes any any chance?
They shot for Chrono Trigger and hit it, but also got -Super Mario 64- Super Mario RPG in there. Looks wonderful, a simple and satisfying experience.
You mean Super Mario RPG?
@@steel5897 lol yes, mb. was pretty tired when I wrote that.
Great review - 2 questions
1.What's the tone like? Light and tropey like say DQ11 or dark and serious like FF Tactics?
2.Any decisions/role playing/story branching? Very rare in JRPGs but always worth asking
Verrry light tone (although I'm picking up on serious undertones) and the characters actually made me laugh a couple times.
I havent reached any branching story points yet after 8 hours
If you played Chrono Trigger, it's similar to that tone. There's an ever-present, looming, seemingly unstoppable threat that causes people to experience loss and despair, but the focal point of the game is its characters and how they grow, in addition to building the universe that Sabotage Studios is making. I personally think that makes for a great story (I don't really get Ratatoskr's negative views on it, but to each their own) and is reminiscent of the games from the 90's: simple, but effective storytelling.
@@tbnwontpop8857Because some people want more than simple storytelling, especially after years of playing games
One way to improve healing items system in RPGs would be to adopt what other genre does: in RPGs food spoil if you don't eat it. Imagine if an RPG used this system? They would make their games better!
1. You are encouraged to use your items.
2. You are discouraged to amass items because they go to waste after a few hours.
They could do that for any healing item.
A) Food spoils. Spolit food can cause poisoning or just be unedible.
B) Potions could lose (part of) their effects, or even become cursed (weird, negative effects and debuffs)
Yeah, RPGs can learn a lot from RPGs.
Reminds me of Golden Sun especially with elemental powers
exciting!
shocked this isnt an ac6 video. more shocked this is a game im going to have to play(love how the turnbased combat looks). also completely annoyed there is another game i really want to play. best i can do right now is wishlist. too many games lol
I know, I bought AC6 then I was going to wishlist this but it’s on PS+ and Gamepass so since I have PS+, I now have to play it since it was one of my highly anticipated games for this year. Too many games and too little time to play them.
What a time to be alive! I'm kinda bummed a friend got me to play Diablo 4 with him, because it's nowhere near as good as what's available these days. I find myself seeking excuses to not play D4 🤦🏻♂
This seems _very_ Chained Echoes esque. Definitely playing this cuz CE is amazing.
Very interesting and disappointing to hear that it is highly recommended that people play the messenger first. I want to check this game out and get the most out of it, but I haven’t played the messenger, and I have no interest in playing it.
I don’t think you have to play that one, this one is a prequel, there are things on the messenger that you may get some explanations here and some mysteries there, but it’s not required.
This RUclips dude is the only one who claims this.
I think the spirit in which it was meant is, if you plan to play both then play the messenger first. Otherwise, it doesn't matter.
😂
You do not need to play The Messenger first.
Would’ve been nice if you broke a sun/moon lock for every living mana you use (up to 3) on a normal attack, rather than just 1 regardless of how many you use.
Every single time I'd see two suns, I'd think to myself "if only".
@@LevantineR1 Same lol. There were a lot of times where an enemy had a lock for 2+ suns… there were only like 2 combos where you could accomplish that I believe. I think it would’ve added more depth to the combat if each mana broke an extra sun/moon lock.
@@williamraboine2462 I'm fine with how things are; the doubled icons give more value to Re'shan's Ebb attack and Seraï's Disorient. Zale in general just felt a bit lacking in having a niche.
I just finished the game, I loved all of it EXCEPT the ending. I was very confused by how it all wrapped up.
Can we get a "why you're playing AC6 wrong" video? I think you'd have a field day if you checked out a couple big streamers, people are having a hard time with this one
I know it's not related to sea of stars but I don't care about this gene and I'm commenting to bring wealth to the Rat King, leave me alone
I only use the relic that helps get two moves in at once lol
Hey ratatoskr, have you seen Under The Mayo's AC6 review? I think he made some reaaaalllly bad takes in that video and I would love to hear you talk about your opinions on AC6 and maybe make a response to him, like you did in the past with people having bad takes on elden ring
I'm curious if you played Chained Echoes? IMO It has the best story in this genre.
That's a big claim 😮
Okay y’all gotta relax 😂😂
The messenger is so fun
I seriously appreciate the breadth of games rataoskr covers. Definitely not afraid to cover what he enjoys vs what might get views
The complaints about the ending in particular, about the ending being abrupt, largely are resolved by the true ending. Thats not to say that the main plot is now made breathtaking with it, but its above average.
As for Aephorul’s motivations, I think it’s fairly obvious what they are especially if you listen to Teaks story on him. A scientist at heart that along the way goes off into depravity and cruelty, who is content on playing a grand zero sum game with Re’shan for the sake of that experimentation. Erlina & Brugraves on the other hand are characters with weak motivations. That just is what it is. Moraine also I think falls victim to that for what occurs with him around the game’s mid point.
😊 I just quit playing it once I got to the end game and I don't know why but I'm thinking it's because the story kind of bored me. Other than that I really liked it. Need to go back and finish it
Ratatoskr you gotta play Chained Echoes.
Sooo armored core review when?
So true
Im back after finishing the game. And yes, those two motivation was terrible. But I was fine for the self contained stakes, since the emotion was there, so I dont really care about the cosmic wars in the background.
Golden Sun vibes....
AC6 REVIEW WHEN
Did you do the true ending? Or just the first one?
The first one.
I hope you can play Chained Echoes.
I'm going to watch a little bit but I am only an hour in the game so few far
Total pass for me bot worth it 😮💨
Alright, just wrapped on the game. I really want to rate this higher.
It does a lot of things right. The combat mechanics are a lot of fun. They do bring genuine pathos to some of the characters. The design work is really nice. Simple yet evocative and adding detail when it's really necessary. Tons to praise about the game.
But the ending, it's rough.
Locking the ending behind a collectathon sucked. They had the weapon quests. That would've been perfect. Try to recall what places I'd been or had not been for the collectathon? No. Why would you do this to me?
Locking post game bonus stuff behind completionist busy work sucked. I dinged Paper Mario Origami King for this too. What is this weird obsession with quizzes?
Also, most egregiously,I didn't like the ending.
They genuinely got me with that mid-game down turn. Having that undone at the end? By BS timey wimey magic? Nope. Dislike. Undermined some really effective tragedy all for some feel good anime one liners. I stopped reading super hero comics a long time ago for this exact sort of thing.
Also, nitpick more than anything, there's a lot of great art down in the crypt. But it's such a pain to view any of it. Meanwhile they had this loooooong list of backers at the credits. Would've been the perfect space to show off some of that art instead of just giving me the hyper speed button.
Also, I gotta disagree with Rata. You don't need to play The Messenger at all.
Unless old school Ninja Gaiden puzzle platformers are your thing, you can skip it without a care in the world.
The references to The Messenger in SoS are just that, references. They don't impact the game or inform your understanding of it at all. At most you get an, "Oh, so that's going to become that? Nifty." from some of the connections.
Overall it's a solid game and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's curious. But it doesn't stick the landing and that's really unfortunate. It had potential to be one of the greats of 2023. But by the last few hours I was more than ready for it to be over, rather than wanting to turn around and play more.
man wish you'd check out Chained Echoes if you want a game to recapture the spirit of chrono trigger
I cant seem to get past the tumblr/calarts-esque art style.
Super Nintendo
This game will be a GOTY contender.