Sea of Stars
By CometGoblin
1 September 2023
Turn-based RPG
Comfort food with gorgeous lighting, and comfort food is not an insult.
Sea of Stars is a love letter to a very specific era of turn-based role playing games, the kind with two heroes, a world map, and battles where landing a hit at the right moment matters. If that sentence made you feel something, this game was built for your exact nostalgia.
The combat leans on timed hits: press at the right frame to boost an attack or soften a blow. It is a small thing that keeps you leaning in during every fight, and it means even routine battles ask for your attention. There are no random encounters either, which is a mercy modern players will feel in their bones.
The pixel art with real-time lighting is the prettiest thing we put on this whole site, and it is not close.
Where it plays it safe
The story is warm but predictable, and the difficulty stays gentle throughout. This is not a game that wants to hurt you or shock you. It wants to wrap you in a blanket made of everything you loved about the genre twenty years ago, and it does that beautifully.
It pairs perfectly with Tunic if you are on a retro kick, and it earned a spot on our 2023 list next to some very loud company.
