To me, writing is the most important aspect in JRPGs. I feel like Sea of Stars might check the "vibes" of what makes a JRPG: music, atmosphere, visuals. But it fails in the writing: dialogue, characters, story. I find it interesting that depending on what JRPG forum, community or comment section you are in this game seems to either be universally praised or universally criticized. Maybe this is me being selfish (because I know a lot of people genuinely enjoyed Sea of Stars) but we don't get many 2D turn-based JRPGs nowadays, so I wish the few we'll get in the future will be very different from Sea of Stars: not vibes-based but with a strong narrative foundation.
If I recall correctly you only need the 60 conches and complete every party member side quest for the true ending. Wheels and the Trivia minigame are required just for a secret easter egg. Also I didn't find the rainbow conch side quest thaaaat tedious, there ARE a handful that are super hidden will need a complete 100% re visit of a particular area, but if you're thorough you can get like 45 - 55 by just exploring.
Atlus sponsoring RPG content creators for P5 Tactica is genius. They really do be marketing to the right audience. Love seeing Lady P getting the sponsorship deals!
I felt that the story of the game kept showing its teeth many times, but never quite biting. The attempts of making EVERY bit end off in a heartfelt of ... idk, "cozy" way gets really tiring, especially because Garl is the one carrying most of those AND OH GOD, this game tried so hard for me like Garl and I was impatiently waiting for the twist you can see 10 MILES AWAY. I like the game so much, but.... MAAAAAANNNNNN....
SPOILERS: no, you dont need to do wheels, maybe all the inns? Dependiong on the rainbow conches, which can be made easier with the parrot relic that tells you what you are missing in each area, you only need rainbow conches and optional bosses, the thing you get from wheels, the hammer, is 1/4 to get to the easter egg
**CORRECTION: You don't need to do Wheels to get the true ending. Fake news! U_U (I'm so sorry) Thank you so much for watching!! Look forward to an SMT 5 review, and...something else. ;D Thank you Atlus for sponsoring todays video: persona.atlus.com/p5t/?gsid=1ee864464a7b659cbae2ae72abf9447c&gsc=1 And please be sure to support me on Patreon! Thank you for your support!! www.patreon.com/PelvicGaming
Great review. Just want to say though - people should not think of the TRUE ENDING as such. It should be considered an optional, alternative ending. It's more of a wish fulfillment ending than a TRUE ending, one that makes people feel better than anything that's necessarily more canonically meaningful or sensical. Cuz in the end - SPOILER WARNING - the ultimate bad guy still gets away. You dont actually kill him in either situation. So really, the only impactful difference between the main and so-called 'true' ending is that you get a certain character back.
If the original ending is the true ending that makes it even worse. It doesn't help me to think of it this way because the issue is that neither ending provides the proper closure the game needed.
@@EdreesesPieces 100%. Both endings suck and actively will make me remember this game for being worse than the fun I had playing most of it, because of the bad taste they left in my mouth.
Agreed. It felt like the game was forcing me to like Garl, so much so that I disconnected. Especially when the game wanted me to have a very specific emotional response when “it” happens. It felt like a young writer’s mistake, not trusting that the audience will feel the correct thing, so the other characters telegraph the correct emotions to the player by crying and talking about how sad it is. But if you cry, the audience won’t.
Great review as always! But, man, I'm just gonna say it, I did NOT like Garl, and it was one of my biggest issues with the game as a whole. Writing likable characters definitely isn't easy, so I don't want to be too harsh to Sabotage here, but, constantly TELLING the audience that Garl is this amazing, perfect individual doesn't MAKE him that. At every given opportunity, it felt like every single NPC in the game was praising Garl, to the point where it almost felt... juvenile? I think you nailed it, though. This game tripped at the finish line. The world building is amazing, I was already a fan of The Messenger's lore and world, so getting more of that was great. The locations were fantastic, as was the music, but even with the true ending, it just felt incomplete. It both wanted to build up to The Messenger (which, is a little odd since they spaced them THOUSANDS of years apart) and also do its own thing and tell its own story, but because of that, everything just felt so incomplete towards the end. Plot points left unfinished, questions unanswered. Sure, it might come in DLC, but that's a whole issue if the DLC is required for a full experience. Anyway, at the end of the day, Sea of Stars IS a fun game, which is all that really matters, but, I do hope Sabotage can stick the landing with the DLC.
Great review. I backed this on kickstarter and though I enjoyed it well enough it failed to live up to my expectations. It looks absolutely stunning but I actually got really fed up of bouncing that damn boomerang back and forth. I assumed that the fireball and boomerang would be one of many different abilities each character would get but we end up relying on those a ton. Likewise the story and characters did very little for me. I finished it but at the halfway point I was really only pushing through to not have it sit on my backlog. I actually enjoyed ara fell a lot more which I played just before this one. Still, I am always happy to support devs bringing old school jrpg goodness our way and the boss theme is awesome! :)
I enjoyed Sea of Stars but you should give Chained Echoes a shot. One of the best indie rpgs in recent memory and got overshadowed due to releasing in December 2022. Everything in that game hits right: the story, music, combat system, characters, it all works and the presentation is phenomenal.
I think I will probably pick this up. I mean, I already was considering it, but your review really makes me feel confident that, warts and all, this looks like a good time.
I've avoided this game because of everything I've read about it. I know there is a ver low level cap which bugs me but is grinding an option and is there level scaling for the enemies? I've been playing the Star Ocean 2 remake since release and it has what I want in a game.
I just picked up my copy of Tactica on my way home 15 minutes ago! Can't wait for your review! Thanks for sponsoring Pelvic Gaming, Sega! I've been a fan of yours since I got a Master System, and you've been my game company of choice ever since! Now, if we could get Phantasy Star V sometime before my 50th birthday...? Please??? 🥺
I'm glad it wasn't just me who was SUPER confused by the collectathon thing at the end. Thankfully I didn't have to do wheels (that may have driven me insane) but doing the arena was kinda boring, collecting the conches was tedious. And then after all that work finding out I had to go back and catch every fish felt straight up cruel. JUST LET ME BEAT THE GAME why are you holding me hostage!? I did really enjoy it outside of the ending though
I can understand locking a secret cutscene or special item behind a 100% collectathon. But the True Ending? Of an RPG? Just absurd and frankly unacceptable. Did they even give an in-game explanation for why those conch chests or whatever were required for the true ending?
Wonderful review. I must admit I found the rainbow conch search tedious, but I did find the true ending worth it, to me it felt more satisfying (with that said I loved all the other extra material needed for the true ending and as ShiftyBread said, Wheels and Trivia completion is only needed for a secret easter egg that I've looked up and found to be not worth it). Personally I absolutely loved Sea of Stars (more than any other game it got me into JRPG's so much that I've later started playing both Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveller 2, I wasnt that familiar with the genre before), but I can admit looking back on it that a big part of it was timing. I was going through the loss of a loved family member as I played it and that made me feel a very personal connection to parts of the game. I also feel that Sea of Stars is a great introduction to battle mechanics that I feel are more deeply developed in both Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveller 2, making me glad I played through Sea of Stars first, if that makes sense. And I really loved Garl as a character personally, but admittedly Sea of Stars is a game that if you do love Garl you'll love it and if you don't like him much of the game falls apart because he in so many ways feels like the real main character.
The ending really did leave me "Nah, this game is overpraised." I did everything except finding all 60 conches because all of that other stuff was actually fun, and some of it had story to it all on it's own. Finding the conches I missed, even with the parrot telling you which islands still had stuff on them was too much of a headache for me. I WAS going to do it, I started off the whole process when the bird told me I was missing a treasure at the Sacrosanct Spires, so I went back through the whole spires. Found nothing. At that point I decided I wasn't going to do any conch hunting beyond what I had found through normal gameplay, only to find out that the conch hunting was "required". Okay. Got the normal ending and moved on.
I kickstarted Sea of Stars and the more their social media team put out the more excited I got - so with that understand I have a bit of a bias, a bias so bad my discord had to put up with a channel named "SOLSTICE WARRIOR TRAINING ACADEMY". Its release interrupted my BG3 run, another game I was incredibly excited about and had been playing for YEARS in Early Access. I think the music and art carried the game incredibly hard, so much that every new zone I would scream something akin to "THIS IS SO GOOD, THEY CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT". They took all the right inspiration from the Chrono Triggers and Illusion of Gaias, etc. I just think the minigames were weak (fishing) to just frustratingly unfun (Wheels) and the writing wasn't great, handcuffed by their need to make Garl lovable and important and even more handcuffed by the need to connect Sea of Stars to The Messenger. Regardless, I think the game itself is incredibly fun and worth everyones money and time as long as you're not expecting the next best story and a game that is going to challenge you.
My luck with this game was that i loved Garl the moment i saw him when he appears grown up. I think if it wasn't for that i would had a worse time with everything that happens. A discussed it with a friend that played this game along with me is that Garl is an insert character, and of a person that was REALLY loved by the developers or the main scenario writer.
Omg the conch thing. I felt EXACTLY the same as you. I felt robbed of getting the proper ending myself and looked on UA-cam too. I felt it wasn’t valuing my time. Like fuck off with an arbitrary collectathon how come they’re so important to the story it doesn’t make sense! I was bitching about it so bad to my husband.
Oh no that Rainbow Conch list from was up for my entire playthrough. No way am I hunting all that down like that when easy enemies will chase you down while backtracking
I never ever play games like this. But, I had to play this because of The Messenger which, is my favourite indie game. I absolutely loved Sea of Stars also.
I got like 2 hours in and it was just.... Okay? Neither of the characters were interesting or easy to get invested in. I was so happy with Star Ocean: Second Story R coming out for some real good retro jrpg goodness.
I had heard of this game repeatedly, but I’ve seen a million pixel art games that claim SNES & “Chrono Trigger” in their DNA at this point. But it was your breakdown of the story & comparison to “Ni No Kuni” that got me interested!
i agree with pretty much everything you said the characters were Extremely underwhelming but everything else was great. Valere and zale were really boring protagonists but i still kinda enjoyed them i don’t know what it was their Designs their fighting styles or the fact that they were completely broken in combat i don’t downright dislike them like some people might. i loved Garl sure the game tried way to hard to make you care about him but i still like his character. he’s funny happy has a cool design and some people might not agree with me but his death was one of the saddest deaths i’ve seen in a while. serai had a great design cool backstory and motives and is easily one of the coolest characters in the game. the only problem is is that she has zero personality. i can’t tell what she was supposed to be at one point she’s the serious edgy type and then when you get to her world I couldn’t tell what her personality was supposed to be. i still enjoyed her despite this though. i also loved reshan i see a lot of people saying he was wasted potential and i Don’t really agree with that. i could see why people think that was because of how he just kinda left out of nowhere after a cutscene that didn’t even explain Much. but like serai said he played his part and made his own decision. loved his design He was broken in combat And i thought it was hilarious the way he just sat on the ground the whole time you fought the dweller. he was overall a chill dude and one of my favorite characters bst was also a cool character i loved his design he’s adorable and i loved how they added another physical attacker after garl died. not much to say about him seeing as he joined so late though
I wish that Lady Pelvic gets to play and review the long current-running JRPG Legend of Heroes Trails series : The Legend of Heroes : Trails in the Sky : 1-3 Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure Trails of Cold Steel : 1-4 Trails into Reverie Trails to Daybreak (Soon to be released in 2024 on NA) All of the games are connected, and take place in the same world, and still ongoing until now, with cliff hanger and plot twist at the end of each game
Agree, however, the games are heavily connected with each other, if you do not play it in order, you will get confused or spoiled to what happened in the previous games, since recurrence characters, NPC, antagonist appear referrencing past games
Great review as always ❤️ My interest kinda dropped after a few hours when Garl was really the only highlight plot wise 😅 Also, congrats on the Sega(and Atlus) sponsorship 🎉
I can’t believe your favorite song from the game wasn’t by Eric! He makes absolute bangers; those Boss Themes were some of the best music I’ve heard in years
Kinda blows my mind how many youtubers are uncritically starry-eyed for this massive disappointment. Gorgeous graphics and an incredible soundtrack, sure, but that doesn't make up for a combat system and character non-growth system with less complexity to them than many NES RPGs. Couldn't believe it when I realized those three abilities you have are really all you ever get. It legitimately feels like they forgot to finish the game. Add to that a forgettable, predictable plot with cardboard cutout characters making bad jokes that desperately need a proofreader and the whole thing just becomes a mess. The lack of abilities ends up ruining the lock system too, as with so few options the lock system is literally just telling you what to press and in what order. Literally every fight is the same from the very first to the very last. That Moonerang minigame is the only thing going for it and I don't know how that keeps people entertained after like three fights. Sometimes the minigame is green, I guess, that's exciting Play Chained Echoes it did everything better but the graphics/sound and it's no slouch in those either. Sea of Stars would have been an all-time banger in 1996 but in 2023 it's a wet fart
I enjoyed the game a lot but you're right that UA-camrs papered over the flaws of this one. Makes me trust them less and my trust was already at rock bottom.
Great review! I understand everyone's opinion about getting the true ending being odd. That being said, I did feel that the game was built to be 100 percent completed fairly easily. Wheels is more strategy than luck, especially as you gain better figures and wheels. Building the town was fairly easy, and each part built gives you a bonus. Each piece of the collectathon rewards you for completing it. In total, I think I got the normal ending at like 35 hours, and 100 percent completion at 50 hours. Love this game!
The accuracy! It burns! I’ve been saying this for months now. Instead of a naive, plucky young hero who cannot brook injustice, we have TWO naive, plucky young heroes who cannot brook injustice. Lucca and Marle had far better dynamics with the Chrono Trigger cast. The rest of game was great, though.
I'm not surprised that the dialogue and characters are the worst aspect of Sea of Stars considering that I just recently beat The Messenger which felt well polished in most aspects except the dialogue and writing. It was bad enough to leave a lasting impression on what was otherwise a very solid game.
THANK YOU for explaining Sequent Flare (and Relics)! I haven’t been checking the relics, but I was wondering why every UA-cam review I saw had the flares shooting off. Also thanks for the head’s up on the TE.
So, you only needed to do the side quests (which I wanted to do anyway since I love getting ultimate weapons in RPGs) and get all 60 conches. Thankfully you didn't have to do the Wheels challenges, which I was so thankful for because I was AWFUL at Wheels. Once I learned that, I spent like 30 minutes getting the conches I missed and got my true ending.
Fair review the game is fun but its hard to keep coming back to with the bland characters and basic story. Im 20 hours in but will return back to it after star ocean 2R and mario rpg cause im having wayyyyy too much fun with those 2 games that the developers went above and beyond with
Omg youre right about the wheels. Wtf I swear I read somewhere you did but now looking it up again youre 100% right. I am so embarrassed. Thanks for the correction! But as for the conchs that still annoys me. I'll die in that hill.
@PelvicGaming oh yeah , I didn't like getting the conches either. Almost gave up on it, specially when the parrot doesn't really tell you about all of them. I had to backtrack to so many places, it was irritating.
I do agree with a lot of what was said. While I liked Garl, he came off as the DMPC, and too much of a Christ-like figure (Golden Pelican scene, anyone?). Things like that get very annoying. Zale and Valere (how the hell do you pronounce that name?) came off as shadows in their story, an afterthought. Really, all the characters did, except Garl. I have to say the last act was very subpar in comparison to the rest of the game. I would have liked to have learned more of the last area instead of “you’re here, go do things”. It just felt… cheap? Lifeless? Even the buildup for the final bosses didn’t feel that great, except the true ending (which even that needed a little more work). Wheels wasn’t too bad, I enjoyed it for the most part. Yes, screw the conch hunt. So annoying. I have to say the pirates were probably the worst cast members. They reminded me too much of those weird kids in school that think they’re funny but are really obnoxious and you want them to go away. Despite my criticism, and lack of playing The Messenger, I enjoyed this title. I’ll admit I got a little emotional at the crypt, seeing all the memorial statues and stuff. Had I known about the fund raising campaign I probably would’ve jumped on that reward too. If there’s one thing I’ve loved about your reviews, you’re honest, and not a lot people are like that these days. Keep that quality, Lady. You are awesomeness personified.
Great review as always. I thought this was a great game but I also thought the retro-simping JRPG community overrated it quite a bit. Dungeons are fantastic, visuals and music are some of the best ever, battle system is quite fun (though it does get old). Customization is not really there, but that's not a big issue. Not every RPG has to be customization heavy. The main problem for me was the story. Despite some well done emotional scenes near the end, it was very "this will do." It's like the story was there just because it had to have one.
I can’t believe this studio. Besides JRPG, I also love platformers, specially the “hard” ones from the NES. Like Castlevania 1,2,3 and IV for the SNES, I think that Super Castlevania IV is one of the greatest games of all time. But something weird is that we also got Ninja Gaiden 1,2,3 for the NES, but not a single game for the SNES!!! It’s something I’ve been wanting for years, and this studio made it happened, a true spiritual sequel of Ninja Gaiden, I love that game so much. And I also love that they didn’t got stuck with that, they made an awesome JRPG. Thanks for the review Pelvic!!! I agree 100% with you, and now I am so devoted to this game studio, so exited to see what else they will make in the future.
This is the first review ive seem that even mentions the true ending grind! Had no idea about that before, not usually the kind of thing that bothers me, even if it's a bit grindy, but absolutely something i want to know about before starting the game - ty for the info!!
With all the golden era rpgs getting HD remakes. Better off playing one of those. They nick most of those ideas anyway, but do them poorly. Best thing is the visuals. Wouldnt mind remakes of those games to be done with SoS graphics
Really loved this game. I still haven't finished it (and you can blame that sliding mirror puzzle you had to use a guide for). Maybe I should go and just finish it instead of completing it, but I'm really curious to see how the game 'truly' ends
I need something between now the release of Eiyuden . Just bought legend of Dragoon for 7 quid on ps5 , been considering this 1 too since wild arms 2 seems to be pretty meh according to most reviews .
Long time subscriber. First time viewer. That will be corrected now. Enjoyed the review. I was on the fence because I'm actually NOT a Chrono Trigger fan, but everyone loves this game. The TRUE ending McGuffins are a no-go for me. They're gonna have to patch that for completionists only. Also, you might kick yourself with your pronunciation of "conch" when you find out, lol.
I personally didn’t think the conch thing was too overbearing. Once I beat the regular ending I already had like 54 or 55 shells. The very fact that the exploration was so fun led me to finding them by accident in most cases. I also kind of feel like it’s standard retro rpg fare to check every nook and cranny. You’re not the only person I’ve seen touch on this but it’s just odd to me. I guess it being tied to the true ending is the part that frustrated people but if you didn’t do *everything* the game wouldn’t even reach 45 hours. I felt like doing that made sure you got the total hours you’re used to in a rpg.
Not gonna lie. After watching this I’m not sure I want to play it now. Which is a shame because I already bought it. But I hate it when games make you do the most for the “True Ending”. Like how Dragon Quest 11 forces you to play that 3rd act that overstays its welcome, or how Triangle Strategy makes you do a new game + to get the best ending.
Tbh even with that problems with the story I’ll still get the game it’s 40€ for me, it looks nice, plays nice and sounds so nice. Maybe it’ll become my favorite even with it’s problems, I have a habit of liking games other people aren’t fans of hahaha
Tbh i dont think a game hiding a secret ending behind competing the game is bad at all. Even moreso when a collectable is the more difficult aspect of completion.
Great video! I'm planning to play it as soon as the physical edition gets released early next year. In the meantime, do you think one would enjoy Sea of Stars more if they played Chrono Trigger previously?
I would say that having NOSTALGIA for Chrono Trigger might increase your enjoyment of Sea of Stars. But merely having played it? I don't think that would really change much.
@@jmporkbob I see. It's hard to have nostalgia for a game that was released two years before you were born lol. I guess I'll just continue to wait for Chrono Trigger to be ported/remade for the modern platforms.
Honestly, I wasn't a fan of this game. Didn't think it was 'bad' or anything, but... I also didn't think it was better than average. Graphics and animation are great. Soundtrack has some nice tracks and I love the ones with a good beat, but it's not too memorable. Last good thing I'd say are the boss battles. Combat is somewhat enjoyable, but the timed hits should've been better implemented and since the characters don't have a lot of moves, it also gets kinda repetitive since you're pretty much doing the same thing and not changing tactics around much. Weakest part of the game are the characters and story. The main 2 you start with are just very bland and dull. You'd think you'd see a little bit more of the bond they developed training together, but nope. Their friend pretty much takes up all of the story for himself... and the worst part is that their friend who takes up all that time & story for himself... is about as boring and bland as it gets. And it's a shame since the start made for a pretty good setup, but after that the story just becomes kinda meh and stays meh. The other characters aren't even worth mentioning, that's just how bad they are. Oh yes, let's not forget the dungeon areas. They're also pretty bad. Just run, fight enemies, press a button when there's an obstacle. The puzzles can't even be called puzzles for most part. There were like 3 that made me think a little bit in some endgame sidequests, that's it. And one personal subjective beef I have... I'm not too fond of the forced diversity. I'm not white and I'm not black, but it sticks out like a sore thumb and comes across as unnatural to me (in the real world, skin colour & culture affect many things and it can been seen and felt all around you. So completely ignoring things like that doesn't do any favors for the world building). In terms of presentation & visuals this game is among the best indie JRPG's out there. But sadly... the game doesn't offer much more than that. Was looking forward to it with all the praise it got, but... I was pretty disappointed. Currently playing the Mario RPG remake and despite it having no story, it's infinitely more enjoyable. And it's not like I played the original all that much. In fact, until Nintendo pretty much started ruining the Mario RPG games with trash like Sticker Star, I considered RPG to be the weakest entry in the RPG series (Mario RPG, Paper Mario games and Mario & Luigi games). Now it's somewhere in the middle since almost all of the Mario RPG games since Sticker Star are worse.
God I’d thought no one would say it. I am so sick of hearing people say Garl is the best character or a good character. He’s extremely one note with one personality trait and kind of feels like a Mary sue.
I've been meaning to play this, but I've been busy with other games. I'm looking forward to taking a bite out of this baby. It's looking like a ton of fun. Thanks for the review, LP.
Gods, same brain on all of this. Fun gameplay and exploration, Garl is great, and I love Wheels. But Zale and Valere (Vale-ear?) are such nothing characters, the pain in the ass requirements for the True Ending, and then the True Ending itself was so disappointing. Great review!
Great review! I've been thinking about checking this game out for a while now. What you said about the true ending is a bit off putting... Locking the best ending behind basically having to do 100% is a bit weird but I THINK I can deal with it. I think I'll pick it up when it's on sale sometime.
The main character almost all typically lack a lot of character. There are some exceptions of course. It could be just trying to make the player associate with the main guy. The side main characters have always been the meat for me.
I was pretty into the game before realizing the story was mediocre and the characters was the most bland characters ever created. Crono, a literal silent protagonist, has more personality than these characters and I’m not even a Chrono Trigger fan…
This is not related to the review, but as I said on another review of this game, it's weird that FFXVI was absolutely mauled for not having deep customization but this game wasn't when it has much less than FFXVI does (on top of not coming remotely close to having a story as good as FFXVI). It's like there's this weird antagonism toward AAA games and an equally weird amount of leeway for quaint nostalgic games.
I heard this game described as follows : Neat, but your characters have zero agency and are just there when NPCs do things with you as if they were the main characters and you were just a random NPC. Which sounds super weird. Anyone else feel this is somewhat true? I know Reddit thinks this way but Redditers tend to be "Special" in a "He/she is special" kind of way so...
Regardless of the fact that you didn't like the collectathon that was something you wasn't clear about that you didn't tell people. It's the fact that there's a new game plus and when you collect that stuff it carries over to New game Plus so you won't have to collect it again
For me, the shift from 16-bit to 32-bit has always been mainly defined by the greater psychological depth. I think it was a conscious decision to make this 16-bit game have straightforward protagonists, and I think it was the right one. The simplicity of the game's story is to its benefit.
Once again, an exceptional review Pelvic. Hey, can you review Rise of The Third Power sometime? It's an underappreciated gem. Also, it definitely has a main cast with a lot more personality & interactions. Accompanied by an excellent story, solid gameplay, and very interesting main & side content. Just give it a try
I liked the characters in that game a lot, it kind of had the breezy Avatar TLA style writing where all the leads were charismatic. Sucks that game got kind of buried under the Sea of Stars/Chained Echoes megahype
Next indie RPG to play that is super fun and has its own amazing art style is Small Saga. Started playing it the other day and I can't stop recommending it!
Sea of Stars is on my shortlist of games to play after Super Mario RPG and P5:Tactica which both just came out, so I appreciate the spoiler-free review. Is Chained Echoes on your radar for games to play? It's another indie game that came out last year, which I just beat, which has gotten universal praise from the JRPG community. It's also in discussion because, with Sea of Stars being one of the contenders for Indy GotY (and winning the Golden Joystick), a lot of the discourse is on how it's unfair that Chained Echoes, which came out last November so outside the 2022 award time-frame, wasn't on any GotY lists when it was considered by most to be a better game.
I appreciate this review so much; you've saved me a lot of heartache by talking about how to get the true ending. When this was announced, I was SUPER excited, because The Messenger is one of my all-time favorite games; the gameplay was dynamic and challenging, the visuals were spectacular, the soundtrack was killer, and the writing was clever and kept me laughing throughout the whole adventure. So, I tried the Sea of Stars demo, and my biggest takeaway was how incredibly dull the writing was; where was the wit of my wisecracking demon buddy!? I loved the visuals, but nothing else really struck me, and I thought this would be a pass. Then EVERYONE acted like this thing was the second coming of RPG-zus, and SNESDrunk's review pushed me not quite off the fence, but leaning enough that I figured I'd pick it up at some point. If I'd gotten to the end of the game and found out that the real ending was locked behind a bunch of "optional" content (SO sick of having to put that in quotes), including a luck-based minigame (my favorite 😒), I would've been FURIOUS; you can look up collectible locations, and you can cheese tough bosses, but you can't force luck. Thanks, as always, for your detailed and honest reviews; you're the only one who mentioned all of this.
To me, writing is the most important aspect in JRPGs. I feel like Sea of Stars might check the "vibes" of what makes a JRPG: music, atmosphere, visuals. But it fails in the writing: dialogue, characters, story.
I find it interesting that depending on what JRPG forum, community or comment section you are in this game seems to either be universally praised or universally criticized.
Maybe this is me being selfish (because I know a lot of people genuinely enjoyed Sea of Stars) but we don't get many 2D turn-based JRPGs nowadays, so I wish the few we'll get in the future will be very different from Sea of Stars: not vibes-based but with a strong narrative foundation.
If I recall correctly you only need the 60 conches and complete every party member side quest for the true ending. Wheels and the Trivia minigame are required just for a secret easter egg. Also I didn't find the rainbow conch side quest thaaaat tedious, there ARE a handful that are super hidden will need a complete 100% re visit of a particular area, but if you're thorough you can get like 45 - 55 by just exploring.
Atlus sponsoring RPG content creators for P5 Tactica is genius. They really do be marketing to the right audience.
Love seeing Lady P getting the sponsorship deals!
I felt that the story of the game kept showing its teeth many times, but never quite biting. The attempts of making EVERY bit end off in a heartfelt of ... idk, "cozy" way gets really tiring, especially because Garl is the one carrying most of those AND OH GOD, this game tried so hard for me like Garl and I was impatiently waiting for the twist you can see 10 MILES AWAY.
I like the game so much, but.... MAAAAAANNNNNN....
SPOILERS: no, you dont need to do wheels, maybe all the inns? Dependiong on the rainbow conches, which can be made easier with the parrot relic that tells you what you are missing in each area, you only need rainbow conches and optional bosses, the thing you get from wheels, the hammer, is 1/4 to get to the easter egg
**CORRECTION: You don't need to do Wheels to get the true ending. Fake news! U_U (I'm so sorry)
Thank you so much for watching!! Look forward to an SMT 5 review, and...something else. ;D Thank you Atlus for sponsoring todays video: persona.atlus.com/p5t/?gsid=1ee864464a7b659cbae2ae72abf9447c&gsc=1
And please be sure to support me on Patreon! Thank you for your support!! www.patreon.com/PelvicGaming
Great review. Just want to say though - people should not think of the TRUE ENDING as such. It should be considered an optional, alternative ending. It's more of a wish fulfillment ending than a TRUE ending, one that makes people feel better than anything that's necessarily more canonically meaningful or sensical. Cuz in the end - SPOILER WARNING - the ultimate bad guy still gets away. You dont actually kill him in either situation. So really, the only impactful difference between the main and so-called 'true' ending is that you get a certain character back.
If the original ending is the true ending that makes it even worse. It doesn't help me to think of it this way because the issue is that neither ending provides the proper closure the game needed.
@@EdreesesPieces 100%. Both endings suck and actively will make me remember this game for being worse than the fun I had playing most of it, because of the bad taste they left in my mouth.
I hardly disagree. The true ending (the one that needs to be unlocked) makes much more sense and ends the story in a more satisfying way.
Agreed. It felt like the game was forcing me to like Garl, so much so that I disconnected. Especially when the game wanted me to have a very specific emotional response when “it” happens. It felt like a young writer’s mistake, not trusting that the audience will feel the correct thing, so the other characters telegraph the correct emotions to the player by crying and talking about how sad it is. But if you cry, the audience won’t.
Great review as always! But, man, I'm just gonna say it, I did NOT like Garl, and it was one of my biggest issues with the game as a whole. Writing likable characters definitely isn't easy, so I don't want to be too harsh to Sabotage here, but, constantly TELLING the audience that Garl is this amazing, perfect individual doesn't MAKE him that. At every given opportunity, it felt like every single NPC in the game was praising Garl, to the point where it almost felt... juvenile?
I think you nailed it, though. This game tripped at the finish line. The world building is amazing, I was already a fan of The Messenger's lore and world, so getting more of that was great. The locations were fantastic, as was the music, but even with the true ending, it just felt incomplete. It both wanted to build up to The Messenger (which, is a little odd since they spaced them THOUSANDS of years apart) and also do its own thing and tell its own story, but because of that, everything just felt so incomplete towards the end. Plot points left unfinished, questions unanswered. Sure, it might come in DLC, but that's a whole issue if the DLC is required for a full experience.
Anyway, at the end of the day, Sea of Stars IS a fun game, which is all that really matters, but, I do hope Sabotage can stick the landing with the DLC.
Great review. I backed this on kickstarter and though I enjoyed it well enough it failed to live up to my expectations. It looks absolutely stunning but I actually got really fed up of bouncing that damn boomerang back and forth. I assumed that the fireball and boomerang would be one of many different abilities each character would get but we end up relying on those a ton. Likewise the story and characters did very little for me. I finished it but at the halfway point I was really only pushing through to not have it sit on my backlog. I actually enjoyed ara fell a lot more which I played just before this one. Still, I am always happy to support devs bringing old school jrpg goodness our way and the boss theme is awesome! :)
Ara fell is a pretty good game. Although the character portraits leave a little to be desired.
@@Alliclare agreed. They are even worse in rise of the third power. The companies next jrpg after ara fell lol.
I enjoyed Sea of Stars but you should give Chained Echoes a shot. One of the best indie rpgs in recent memory and got overshadowed due to releasing in December 2022. Everything in that game hits right: the story, music, combat system, characters, it all works and the presentation is phenomenal.
Watching a review of an RPG while playing an RPG is how one truly RPGs
I think I will probably pick this up. I mean, I already was considering it, but your review really makes me feel confident that, warts and all, this looks like a good time.
If you can there is a demo for you to try, I get this was 4 months ago but still if you haven’t gotten it yet, I encourage it!
I've avoided this game because of everything I've read about it. I know there is a ver low level cap which bugs me but is grinding an option and is there level scaling for the enemies? I've been playing the Star Ocean 2 remake since release and it has what I want in a game.
I just picked up my copy of Tactica on my way home 15 minutes ago! Can't wait for your review! Thanks for sponsoring Pelvic Gaming, Sega! I've been a fan of yours since I got a Master System, and you've been my game company of choice ever since!
Now, if we could get Phantasy Star V sometime before my 50th birthday...? Please??? 🥺
I'm glad it wasn't just me who was SUPER confused by the collectathon thing at the end. Thankfully I didn't have to do wheels (that may have driven me insane) but doing the arena was kinda boring, collecting the conches was tedious. And then after all that work finding out I had to go back and catch every fish felt straight up cruel. JUST LET ME BEAT THE GAME why are you holding me hostage!?
I did really enjoy it outside of the ending though
Couldn’t wait for your review of this. I’m waiting to buy physical on the switch.
I can understand locking a secret cutscene or special item behind a 100% collectathon. But the True Ending? Of an RPG? Just absurd and frankly unacceptable.
Did they even give an in-game explanation for why those conch chests or whatever were required for the true ending?
I'll just do it normally and then watch the damn 'true ending' on youtube
Wonderful review. I must admit I found the rainbow conch search tedious, but I did find the true ending worth it, to me it felt more satisfying (with that said I loved all the other extra material needed for the true ending and as ShiftyBread said, Wheels and Trivia completion is only needed for a secret easter egg that I've looked up and found to be not worth it). Personally I absolutely loved Sea of Stars (more than any other game it got me into JRPG's so much that I've later started playing both Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveller 2, I wasnt that familiar with the genre before), but I can admit looking back on it that a big part of it was timing. I was going through the loss of a loved family member as I played it and that made me feel a very personal connection to parts of the game. I also feel that Sea of Stars is a great introduction to battle mechanics that I feel are more deeply developed in both Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveller 2, making me glad I played through Sea of Stars first, if that makes sense. And I really loved Garl as a character personally, but admittedly Sea of Stars is a game that if you do love Garl you'll love it and if you don't like him much of the game falls apart because he in so many ways feels like the real main character.
The ending really did leave me "Nah, this game is overpraised." I did everything except finding all 60 conches because all of that other stuff was actually fun, and some of it had story to it all on it's own. Finding the conches I missed, even with the parrot telling you which islands still had stuff on them was too much of a headache for me. I WAS going to do it, I started off the whole process when the bird told me I was missing a treasure at the Sacrosanct Spires, so I went back through the whole spires. Found nothing. At that point I decided I wasn't going to do any conch hunting beyond what I had found through normal gameplay, only to find out that the conch hunting was "required". Okay. Got the normal ending and moved on.
I kickstarted Sea of Stars and the more their social media team put out the more excited I got - so with that understand I have a bit of a bias, a bias so bad my discord had to put up with a channel named "SOLSTICE WARRIOR TRAINING ACADEMY". Its release interrupted my BG3 run, another game I was incredibly excited about and had been playing for YEARS in Early Access.
I think the music and art carried the game incredibly hard, so much that every new zone I would scream something akin to "THIS IS SO GOOD, THEY CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT". They took all the right inspiration from the Chrono Triggers and Illusion of Gaias, etc. I just think the minigames were weak (fishing) to just frustratingly unfun (Wheels) and the writing wasn't great, handcuffed by their need to make Garl lovable and important and even more handcuffed by the need to connect Sea of Stars to The Messenger.
Regardless, I think the game itself is incredibly fun and worth everyones money and time as long as you're not expecting the next best story and a game that is going to challenge you.
Will definitely be picking up Persona 5 Tactica because of Lady Pelvic's endorsement
My luck with this game was that i loved Garl the moment i saw him when he appears grown up. I think if it wasn't for that i would had a worse time with everything that happens.
A discussed it with a friend that played this game along with me is that Garl is an insert character, and of a person that was REALLY loved by the developers or the main scenario writer.
Omg the conch thing. I felt EXACTLY the same as you. I felt robbed of getting the proper ending myself and looked on UA-cam too. I felt it wasn’t valuing my time. Like fuck off with an arbitrary collectathon how come they’re so important to the story it doesn’t make sense! I was bitching about it so bad to my husband.
Congrats on the Sega and Atlus sponsor!
Oh no that Rainbow Conch list from was up for my entire playthrough. No way am I hunting all that down like that when easy enemies will chase you down while backtracking
I never ever play games like this. But, I had to play this because of The Messenger which, is my favourite indie game.
I absolutely loved Sea of Stars also.
as in JRPGs or...?
@@ataridc... Yes, I've never played a JRPG.
This reminded me to look up the secret ending to be disappointed again. Thanks! Otherwise that the game is great!
I got like 2 hours in and it was just.... Okay? Neither of the characters were interesting or easy to get invested in. I was so happy with Star Ocean: Second Story R coming out for some real good retro jrpg goodness.
You pulled up with this review
I had heard of this game repeatedly, but I’ve seen a million pixel art games that claim SNES & “Chrono Trigger” in their DNA at this point. But it was your breakdown of the story & comparison to “Ni No Kuni” that got me interested!
Interesting! Well I'm glad to reel you in with magic~
i agree with pretty much everything you said the characters were Extremely underwhelming but everything else was great. Valere and zale were really boring protagonists but i still kinda enjoyed them i don’t know what it was their Designs their fighting styles or the fact that they were completely broken in combat i don’t downright dislike them like some people might. i loved Garl sure the game tried way to hard to make you care about him but i still like his character. he’s funny happy has a cool design and some people might not agree with me but his death was one of the saddest deaths i’ve seen in a while. serai had a great design cool backstory and motives and is easily one of the coolest characters in the game. the only problem is is that she has zero personality. i can’t tell what she was supposed to be at one point she’s the serious edgy type and then when you get to her world I couldn’t tell what her personality was supposed to be. i still enjoyed her despite this though. i also loved reshan i see a lot of people saying he was wasted potential and i Don’t really agree with that. i could see why people think that was because of how he just kinda left out of nowhere after a cutscene that didn’t even explain Much. but like serai said he played his part and made his own decision. loved his design He was broken in combat And i thought it was hilarious the way he just sat on the ground the whole time you fought the dweller. he was overall a chill dude and one of my favorite characters
bst was also a cool character i loved his design he’s adorable and i loved how they added another physical attacker after garl died. not much to say about him seeing as he joined so late though
Greaat review! Keep up the amazing work
I wish that Lady Pelvic gets to play and review the long current-running JRPG Legend of Heroes Trails series :
The Legend of Heroes :
Trails in the Sky : 1-3
Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure
Trails of Cold Steel : 1-4
Trails into Reverie
Trails to Daybreak (Soon to be released in 2024 on NA)
All of the games are connected, and take place in the same world, and still ongoing until now, with cliff hanger and plot twist at the end of each game
Agree, however, the games are heavily connected with each other, if you do not play it in order, you will get confused or spoiled to what happened in the previous games, since recurrence characters, NPC, antagonist appear referrencing past games
Love seeing sponsorships. Get it
Thank you
Great review as always ❤️ My interest kinda dropped after a few hours when Garl was really the only highlight plot wise 😅
Also, congrats on the Sega(and Atlus) sponsorship 🎉
Great vid! I keep trying with this game but just cant get into the storyline
I can’t believe your favorite song from the game wasn’t by Eric! He makes absolute bangers; those Boss Themes were some of the best music I’ve heard in years
I do love the boss theme!!! Its just when I got to the coral area I was just stunned.
Kinda blows my mind how many youtubers are uncritically starry-eyed for this massive disappointment. Gorgeous graphics and an incredible soundtrack, sure, but that doesn't make up for a combat system and character non-growth system with less complexity to them than many NES RPGs. Couldn't believe it when I realized those three abilities you have are really all you ever get. It legitimately feels like they forgot to finish the game. Add to that a forgettable, predictable plot with cardboard cutout characters making bad jokes that desperately need a proofreader and the whole thing just becomes a mess.
The lack of abilities ends up ruining the lock system too, as with so few options the lock system is literally just telling you what to press and in what order. Literally every fight is the same from the very first to the very last. That Moonerang minigame is the only thing going for it and I don't know how that keeps people entertained after like three fights. Sometimes the minigame is green, I guess, that's exciting
Play Chained Echoes it did everything better but the graphics/sound and it's no slouch in those either. Sea of Stars would have been an all-time banger in 1996 but in 2023 it's a wet fart
I enjoyed the game a lot but you're right that UA-camrs papered over the flaws of this one. Makes me trust them less and my trust was already at rock bottom.
I was shocked too when I learned it’s a very short list of individual abilities.
Great review! I understand everyone's opinion about getting the true ending being odd. That being said, I did feel that the game was built to be 100 percent completed fairly easily. Wheels is more strategy than luck, especially as you gain better figures and wheels. Building the town was fairly easy, and each part built gives you a bonus. Each piece of the collectathon rewards you for completing it.
In total, I think I got the normal ending at like 35 hours, and 100 percent completion at 50 hours.
Love this game!
The accuracy! It burns!
I’ve been saying this for months now. Instead of a naive, plucky young hero who cannot brook injustice, we have TWO naive, plucky young heroes who cannot brook injustice. Lucca and Marle had far better dynamics with the Chrono Trigger cast.
The rest of game was great, though.
Tbf neither Lucca nor Marle were great characters either. Although Lucca did have that good sidequest.
Since I was planning on doing all the Optional content anyway, I was not bothered at all by the true ending requirements
Pelvic Gaming is the closest thing to a mother I've ever had.
I-
Yeah, I don't think that she's old enough to take that as a compliment...
Feel bad for you.
"Worst thing she can say is no"
Pelvic: I-
😂😂
@Sh1ft3r1 "It's this one, officers."
I'm not surprised that the dialogue and characters are the worst aspect of Sea of Stars considering that I just recently beat The Messenger which felt well polished in most aspects except the dialogue and writing. It was bad enough to leave a lasting impression on what was otherwise a very solid game.
THANK YOU for explaining Sequent Flare (and Relics)! I haven’t been checking the relics, but I was wondering why every UA-cam review I saw had the flares shooting off.
Also thanks for the head’s up on the TE.
Haha, you're welcome! I didn't realize it was a commonly used relic!!
So, you only needed to do the side quests (which I wanted to do anyway since I love getting ultimate weapons in RPGs) and get all 60 conches. Thankfully you didn't have to do the Wheels challenges, which I was so thankful for because I was AWFUL at Wheels.
Once I learned that, I spent like 30 minutes getting the conches I missed and got my true ending.
Fair review the game is fun but its hard to keep coming back to with the bland characters and basic story. Im 20 hours in but will return back to it after star ocean 2R and mario rpg cause im having wayyyyy too much fun with those 2 games that the developers went above and beyond with
Oh, you don't need to do the wheels. Just need everyone's ultimate weapons and the conches. Getting the conches already nets you the blueprints.
Omg youre right about the wheels. Wtf I swear I read somewhere you did but now looking it up again youre 100% right. I am so embarrassed. Thanks for the correction!
But as for the conchs that still annoys me. I'll die in that hill.
@PelvicGaming oh yeah , I didn't like getting the conches either. Almost gave up on it, specially when the parrot doesn't really tell you about all of them. I had to backtrack to so many places, it was irritating.
I do agree with a lot of what was said. While I liked Garl, he came off as the DMPC, and too much of a Christ-like figure (Golden Pelican scene, anyone?). Things like that get very annoying. Zale and Valere (how the hell do you pronounce that name?) came off as shadows in their story, an afterthought. Really, all the characters did, except Garl. I have to say the last act was very subpar in comparison to the rest of the game. I would have liked to have learned more of the last area instead of “you’re here, go do things”. It just felt… cheap? Lifeless? Even the buildup for the final bosses didn’t feel that great, except the true ending (which even that needed a little more work). Wheels wasn’t too bad, I enjoyed it for the most part. Yes, screw the conch hunt. So annoying. I have to say the pirates were probably the worst cast members. They reminded me too much of those weird kids in school that think they’re funny but are really obnoxious and you want them to go away.
Despite my criticism, and lack of playing The Messenger, I enjoyed this title. I’ll admit I got a little emotional at the crypt, seeing all the memorial statues and stuff. Had I known about the fund raising campaign I probably would’ve jumped on that reward too.
If there’s one thing I’ve loved about your reviews, you’re honest, and not a lot people are like that these days. Keep that quality, Lady. You are awesomeness personified.
And to add, congrats on the sponsorship! I’m looking forward to playing P5T soon. I need a better tactics game than Digimon Survive.
Great review!
I'm happy you passed the 50K mark 😊.
Us too! Thank you!
Great review as always. I thought this was a great game but I also thought the retro-simping JRPG community overrated it quite a bit. Dungeons are fantastic, visuals and music are some of the best ever, battle system is quite fun (though it does get old). Customization is not really there, but that's not a big issue. Not every RPG has to be customization heavy. The main problem for me was the story. Despite some well done emotional scenes near the end, it was very "this will do." It's like the story was there just because it had to have one.
I can’t believe this studio. Besides JRPG, I also love platformers, specially the “hard” ones from the NES. Like Castlevania 1,2,3 and IV for the SNES, I think that Super Castlevania IV is one of the greatest games of all time.
But something weird is that we also got Ninja Gaiden 1,2,3 for the NES, but not a single game for the SNES!!! It’s something I’ve been wanting for years, and this studio made it happened, a true spiritual sequel of Ninja Gaiden, I love that game so much.
And I also love that they didn’t got stuck with that, they made an awesome JRPG. Thanks for the review Pelvic!!! I agree 100% with you, and now I am so devoted to this game studio, so exited to see what else they will make in the future.
Great review, fair criticisms and portrayed my thoughts better than I could. Cheers!
Thank you so much!! I appreciate the kind words!
This is the first review ive seem that even mentions the true ending grind! Had no idea about that before, not usually the kind of thing that bothers me, even if it's a bit grindy, but absolutely something i want to know about before starting the game - ty for the info!!
Hi. That hairstyle suits you super well
With all the golden era rpgs getting HD remakes. Better off playing one of those.
They nick most of those ideas anyway, but do them poorly. Best thing is the visuals. Wouldnt mind remakes of those games to be done with SoS graphics
Really loved this game. I still haven't finished it (and you can blame that sliding mirror puzzle you had to use a guide for). Maybe I should go and just finish it instead of completing it, but I'm really curious to see how the game 'truly' ends
I might try this. If you haven't, you should also try Child of Light great RPG.
I need something between now the release of Eiyuden . Just bought legend of Dragoon for 7 quid on ps5 , been considering this 1 too since wild arms 2 seems to be pretty meh according to most reviews .
Long time subscriber. First time viewer. That will be corrected now.
Enjoyed the review. I was on the fence because I'm actually NOT a Chrono Trigger fan, but everyone loves this game.
The TRUE ending McGuffins are a no-go for me. They're gonna have to patch that for completionists only.
Also, you might kick yourself with your pronunciation of "conch" when you find out, lol.
Just wish they release a physical. I’m playing it as I watch this and just discovered you aswell.
They are! But we just gotta be patient... Also welcome to the channel!
This game looks fantastic! Gives me nostalgia. Wonderful review!! I LOVE your hair.
Awesome game. Was definitely taking mental notes lol
I personally didn’t think the conch thing was too overbearing. Once I beat the regular ending I already had like 54 or 55 shells. The very fact that the exploration was so fun led me to finding them by accident in most cases. I also kind of feel like it’s standard retro rpg fare to check every nook and cranny. You’re not the only person I’ve seen touch on this but it’s just odd to me. I guess it being tied to the true ending is the part that frustrated people but if you didn’t do *everything* the game wouldn’t even reach 45 hours. I felt like doing that made sure you got the total hours you’re used to in a rpg.
I am a grinky bingus. This was a great video. Thank you.
Solid review as always.
I wonder what you'd think of Chained Echoes?
I was waiting for my physical copy but...sadly don't think that's gonna happen.
@@PelvicGaming Oh, why not? I thought it was coming out on Switch, is it not anymore?
For whatever reason i couldn't get into this but loved chrono trigger etc
Not gonna lie. After watching this I’m not sure I want to play it now. Which is a shame because I already bought it. But I hate it when games make you do the most for the “True Ending”. Like how Dragon Quest 11 forces you to play that 3rd act that overstays its welcome, or how Triangle Strategy makes you do a new game + to get the best ending.
Tbh even with that problems with the story I’ll still get the game it’s 40€ for me, it looks nice, plays nice and sounds so nice. Maybe it’ll become my favorite even with it’s problems, I have a habit of liking games other people aren’t fans of hahaha
Tbh i dont think a game hiding a secret ending behind competing the game is bad at all. Even moreso when a collectable is the more difficult aspect of completion.
Great video! I'm planning to play it as soon as the physical edition gets released early next year. In the meantime, do you think one would enjoy Sea of Stars more if they played Chrono Trigger previously?
I would say that having NOSTALGIA for Chrono Trigger might increase your enjoyment of Sea of Stars. But merely having played it? I don't think that would really change much.
@@jmporkbob I see. It's hard to have nostalgia for a game that was released two years before you were born lol. I guess I'll just continue to wait for Chrono Trigger to be ported/remade for the modern platforms.
Please do Star Ocean Second Story R next
Honestly, I wasn't a fan of this game. Didn't think it was 'bad' or anything, but... I also didn't think it was better than average. Graphics and animation are great. Soundtrack has some nice tracks and I love the ones with a good beat, but it's not too memorable. Last good thing I'd say are the boss battles. Combat is somewhat enjoyable, but the timed hits should've been better implemented and since the characters don't have a lot of moves, it also gets kinda repetitive since you're pretty much doing the same thing and not changing tactics around much.
Weakest part of the game are the characters and story. The main 2 you start with are just very bland and dull. You'd think you'd see a little bit more of the bond they developed training together, but nope. Their friend pretty much takes up all of the story for himself... and the worst part is that their friend who takes up all that time & story for himself... is about as boring and bland as it gets. And it's a shame since the start made for a pretty good setup, but after that the story just becomes kinda meh and stays meh. The other characters aren't even worth mentioning, that's just how bad they are. Oh yes, let's not forget the dungeon areas. They're also pretty bad. Just run, fight enemies, press a button when there's an obstacle. The puzzles can't even be called puzzles for most part. There were like 3 that made me think a little bit in some endgame sidequests, that's it. And one personal subjective beef I have... I'm not too fond of the forced diversity. I'm not white and I'm not black, but it sticks out like a sore thumb and comes across as unnatural to me (in the real world, skin colour & culture affect many things and it can been seen and felt all around you. So completely ignoring things like that doesn't do any favors for the world building).
In terms of presentation & visuals this game is among the best indie JRPG's out there. But sadly... the game doesn't offer much more than that. Was looking forward to it with all the praise it got, but... I was pretty disappointed. Currently playing the Mario RPG remake and despite it having no story, it's infinitely more enjoyable. And it's not like I played the original all that much. In fact, until Nintendo pretty much started ruining the Mario RPG games with trash like Sticker Star, I considered RPG to be the weakest entry in the RPG series (Mario RPG, Paper Mario games and Mario & Luigi games). Now it's somewhere in the middle since almost all of the Mario RPG games since Sticker Star are worse.
God I’d thought no one would say it. I am so sick of hearing people say Garl is the best character or a good character. He’s extremely one note with one personality trait and kind of feels like a Mary sue.
I've been meaning to play this, but I've been busy with other games. I'm looking forward to taking a bite out of this baby. It's looking like a ton of fun. Thanks for the review, LP.
Thank you for watching! And rest assured this game isn't going anywhere.
you should make a Chained Echoes review and see how you like it compared to SoS
Gods, same brain on all of this. Fun gameplay and exploration, Garl is great, and I love Wheels. But Zale and Valere (Vale-ear?) are such nothing characters, the pain in the ass requirements for the True Ending, and then the True Ending itself was so disappointing. Great review!
I'm really curious how they handled the characters wading through water.
Great review! I've been thinking about checking this game out for a while now.
What you said about the true ending is a bit off putting...
Locking the best ending behind basically having to do 100% is a bit weird but I THINK I can deal with it.
I think I'll pick it up when it's on sale sometime.
The main character almost all typically lack a lot of character. There are some exceptions of course. It could be just trying to make the player associate with the main guy. The side main characters have always been the meat for me.
I was pretty into the game before realizing the story was mediocre and the characters was the most bland characters ever created. Crono, a literal silent protagonist, has more personality than these characters and I’m not even a Chrono Trigger fan…
"something the Persona series excels in"
(laughs in Haru)
Listen I'm not a Haru fan either, in fact P5 might have my least favorite cast out of the Persona's I've played, but they're not *bad*
The mf boomerang!!!
This is not related to the review, but as I said on another review of this game, it's weird that FFXVI was absolutely mauled for not having deep customization but this game wasn't when it has much less than FFXVI does (on top of not coming remotely close to having a story as good as FFXVI). It's like there's this weird antagonism toward AAA games and an equally weird amount of leeway for quaint nostalgic games.
I heard this game described as follows : Neat, but your characters have zero agency and are just there when NPCs do things with you as if they were the main characters and you were just a random NPC. Which sounds super weird. Anyone else feel this is somewhat true? I know Reddit thinks this way but Redditers tend to be "Special" in a "He/she is special" kind of way so...
Regardless of the fact that you didn't like the collectathon that was something you wasn't clear about that you didn't tell people. It's the fact that there's a new game plus and when you collect that stuff it carries over to New game Plus so you won't have to collect it again
For me, the shift from 16-bit to 32-bit has always been mainly defined by the greater psychological depth. I think it was a conscious decision to make this 16-bit game have straightforward protagonists, and I think it was the right one. The simplicity of the game's story is to its benefit.
I started this game for about an hour, but then I fell off the Warframe wagon. I'm coming back to it when I'm back on the Warframe wagon.
yeah i mostly agree with all the bad things about this game but in the end i definitely still had a really good time, awesome game
Girl you just'veE GOT to play Chained echoes. its the best game of 2022
Once again, an exceptional review Pelvic. Hey, can you review Rise of The Third Power sometime? It's an underappreciated gem. Also, it definitely has a main cast with a lot more personality & interactions. Accompanied by an excellent story, solid gameplay, and very interesting main & side content. Just give it a try
I liked the characters in that game a lot, it kind of had the breezy Avatar TLA style writing where all the leads were charismatic. Sucks that game got kind of buried under the Sea of Stars/Chained Echoes megahype
Next indie RPG to play that is super fun and has its own amazing art style is Small Saga. Started playing it the other day and I can't stop recommending it!
I think her name is Wah-leh-reh
Sea of Stars is on my shortlist of games to play after Super Mario RPG and P5:Tactica which both just came out, so I appreciate the spoiler-free review.
Is Chained Echoes on your radar for games to play? It's another indie game that came out last year, which I just beat, which has gotten universal praise from the JRPG community. It's also in discussion because, with Sea of Stars being one of the contenders for Indy GotY (and winning the Golden Joystick), a lot of the discourse is on how it's unfair that Chained Echoes, which came out last November so outside the 2022 award time-frame, wasn't on any GotY lists when it was considered by most to be a better game.
Woohooo!! You’re doin great out there 😎
Thank you!! 😁
My game of the year.
It's close but... Octopath Traveler 2 and Tears of the Kingdom.
@@PelvicGaming All damn fine games.
always happy to see a notification from THE Lady Pelvic ❤ makeup and hair is awesome btw (ﾉﾟ0ﾟ)ﾉ~
Glad to see ya back in the game!
Please grace me with the reason behind the channel's name 😊
I appreciate this review so much; you've saved me a lot of heartache by talking about how to get the true ending. When this was announced, I was SUPER excited, because The Messenger is one of my all-time favorite games; the gameplay was dynamic and challenging, the visuals were spectacular, the soundtrack was killer, and the writing was clever and kept me laughing throughout the whole adventure. So, I tried the Sea of Stars demo, and my biggest takeaway was how incredibly dull the writing was; where was the wit of my wisecracking demon buddy!? I loved the visuals, but nothing else really struck me, and I thought this would be a pass. Then EVERYONE acted like this thing was the second coming of RPG-zus, and SNESDrunk's review pushed me not quite off the fence, but leaning enough that I figured I'd pick it up at some point. If I'd gotten to the end of the game and found out that the real ending was locked behind a bunch of "optional" content (SO sick of having to put that in quotes), including a luck-based minigame (my favorite 😒), I would've been FURIOUS; you can look up collectible locations, and you can cheese tough bosses, but you can't force luck. Thanks, as always, for your detailed and honest reviews; you're the only one who mentioned all of this.