Returning to gaming: Sea of Stars is my first game to try
So it's been a few months since I last even switched on my trusty PS4 and things have been good in those times. I got a lot of things done in my life and started socializing more and even doing a bit of exercise. I was also going to bed super early and started taking sleeping pills because I would be sitting here not knowing what to do haha.
So the other day I finally bit the bullet and renewed my PS Plus Extra account and immediately set off to finding a game to play. It was important to me that I start out with something that I know I will find interesting but not something so complicated that I feel like I need to go to school in order to be able to play it. It was also important that it not be too easy, but also not too difficult.
I know I know.... I"m fussy
I landed on Sea of Stars in part because I have played it a little bit before and already knew that I thought it was just fine.
This game looks as though it probably could have been released on the SNES other than the music and the few video cutescenes that I have seen. I'm ok with that because that was a golden age of gaming in my mind. I also don't like it when a game NEEDS all of the 27 buttons on a controller because I am going to forget them, take a break for a few days, get frustrated, and then quit.
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Sea of Stars looks an awful lot like many other turn-based RPGs that have ever existed and again, that is fine by me. The turns are a bit different in that if you want, you can time a button strike on both offense and defense in order to do a much better hit or to parry some of the damage you might take on defense. You don't HAVE to do these things, but it certainly makes things more entertaining especially when casting spells that are capable of hitting all enemies on screen but will hit them more frequently the better you are at timing the hitting of the circle button.
It's fun!
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The dungeons and bosses are interesting enough and I liked the above necromancer fight the best so far because when it starts she has a pile of "mean" and "bone" next to her on the ground and if you decide to attack these enemies full on at the start instead of attacking her or any minions she summons, she will lose the ability to conjure new enemy minions. I dunno, I find things like this interesting.
They don't spend too much time in bothering you with a massive amount of weapons to choose from. Just like many RPG's that have come before the weapons that match the difficulty of the level that you are currently standing in will be offered either in treasure chests or at the market and it is basically the only option you have for each character in your party at the time.
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This has been called a "traditional RPG" and I think that is a great way of describing it. I first fell in love with RPG's when this was the only real option, so doing a throwback to it is just fine by me!
There are a couple of things they did very well
Level design is innovative even though it kind of only consists of wandering around. There are hidden passageways that reminded me of old-school Final Fantasy games
There are no "random RNG encounters with enemies" which is a big plus because that was the most annoying thing about RPG's back in the day. You can see all the creatures that you are going to have to fight and for the most part you have the option of running around them if you aren't feeling up to it
making the combat something that you can be actively involved in if you want to was an interesting touch. If you don't feel like doing it you don't have to and you will still do damage. Of course you are going to do considerably more damage if you do.
THEN THERE ARE A FEW things that I think they could have done better
There is a lot of dialogue that is broken up into tiny bubble windows that is typical of RPG games from days gone past. There is also no way to skip this. The story is just OK, so I don't necessarily want to be forced to watch this
The options they make available to you for making the game easier if you want it to be is actually a bit TOO generous to the point where you can easily make the game too easy and therefore not fun or challenging. I guess I understand why they would do this but the easiest setting (which I only tried for a bit) is so easy that you quickly get bored. Obviously, you can always turn them off but this simply encourages someone to switch them back on the first time they ever encounter something difficult at all.
I like the game and have decided that I am going to stick with it to completion instead of jumping around from game to game. My attempt at reviewing every single PS Plus game that I did before is something I am going to put behind me because it was instrumental in making me not want to game anymore
Sea of Stars is currently part of the PS-Plus catalogue and for old school RPG fans, this will be something that I think they will enjoy.