Indie studio Sabotage (The Messenger) announced that its highly anticipated turn-based RPG, Sea of Stars, is coming to Nintendo Switch and revealed a new trailer showcasing all-new gameplay during today’s Nintendo Indie World.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
The studio also confirmed that as optimization on the platform has been ongoing for some time, all footage from today’s trailer was pulled from the Nintendo Switch version. Other platform announcements are planned for Spring 2022 for a Holiday 2022 launch time frame. However, the studio is adamant that if more time is needed to publish a polished, high-quality product, that timeframe may shift, citing quality as the highest priority for the coming title. Sabotage also confirms today that Kakehashi Games is on board as a partner for localization in Japanese and Korean. Kakehashi Games was responsible for the excellent localization of The Messenger in 2018.
The follow-up to the best-selling 2018 title The Messenger and set in the same universe, Sea of Stars tells the story of the Children of the Solstice, uniting players with Valere and Zale, youths fated to become Solstice Warriors. Combining their Sun and Moon powers to perform Eclipse Magic, they are pledged to fight the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer. Set to a stunning soundtrack with original works by legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), who joins Sabotage’s composer Eric W. Brown, Sea of Stars is poised to be one of 2022’s most anticipated games.
Combat challenges players to coordinate adaptive strategies while thwarting opponents with pre-emptive attacks, rewarding carefully timed strikes and interrupted advances. With six playable party members distinct in fighting style and personality, experimentation is key to discovering devastatingly powerful new match-ups. There’s no need to grind to unlock a character’s true potential, either, as character progression is balanced to flow along with the story. Sea of Stars’ journey prioritizes meaningful encounters over enduring dozens of the same fights.
Key Features:
Engaging Turn-based Combat: Pressing the action button in sync with the animations increases damage output while reducing incoming damage. Along with timed hits, combat features multi-character combo attacks, boosting, and a strategic “locks” system offering options to play with different damage types to hinder enemies while they are channeling powerful attacks or spells, all in an immersive take on the genre; no random encounters, no transitions to separate battlefields, and no grinding.
Unshackled Traversal: Swim, climb, vault, jump off or hoist up ledges as you traverse seamlessly through the world with a navigation system based on platformer expertise that breaks free from the classic bound-to-the-grid tileset movement.
A Story Rich Adventure: Dozens of original characters and story arcs will take you on a captivating journey. Sometimes epic, sometimes silly, and other times emotional, Sea of Stars does its RPG duty of exploring classic themes of adventure and friendship while also being chock-full of the unexpected twists and events you’d expect from a Sabotage production.
All Fun, No Tedium: Enjoy combat without fear of hitting a wall and having to grind for experience or items; in Sea of Stars, defeat requires a change in battle plans, not hours of repetition to better the odds in a rematch.
A World You Can Touch: There are many ways to hang out in the world of Sea of Stars if you feel the need for a change of pace in your adventures. Sailing, cooking, fishing, stopping by a tavern to listen to a song or play the infamous tabletop game known as “Wheels”…every system has been designed to deliver an experience that pays respect to retro classics while rethinking in some areas to offer a smooth and modernized experience.
Radiant Lighting: Dynamic light effects pairs with a world-influencing day/night cycle to make every area feel truly alive, pushing the traditional visual limits of classically-styled 2D pixel-art games; the only way to properly tell the story of heroes conjuring the powers of the Sun and the Moon.
