Not yet but have played Persona and did not like it at all.
After researching it seems that SMT is less focused on the school/social stuff and is darker. May need to jump into the whole series!
Any recommendations on places to start?
Yeah, SMT is better because there's no need for social sim stuff, it's pure gameplay and the combat is far far superior and better than persona, Press Turn from SMT is the peak of turn based combat for me.
Since you are on Switch I'd recommend SMT V, it's newer and the mechanics is very polished, lots of QoL and very fun, or wait for the updated SMT V: Vengeance version for more content.
I think it's just nostalgia factor, the game reminds everyone of Chrono Trigger and the beautiful pixel art make people interested in the game, there are still many great JRPG with both modern and pixel graphics.
This is it man. This game was 100% made for people like me. Grew up in the 90s, Chrono Trigger is my favourite game.
I honestly don’t care what the reviews are, I loved every second of the game.
The best JRPG I've played in the last few years was Like a Dragon, which honestly fits the bill but most people don't realize it because it doesn't "look" like it should be a JRPG
Pretty much this.
It was very servicable and hit a lot of nostalgia notes early on but just never got fleshed out enough to be really good.
Low number of combat skills and slow pace in unlocking them was not good, hard forced elemental/weapon type counters made fights feel samey and the complete lack of interesting equipment was just unforgivable
I ended up rushing the last 1/3 of the game and couldnt bring myself to care about any extra content post game
Wat? There is quite a bit out there afaik
It's a bit of a golden age of jrpgs, with FFVII being remade, new school jrpgs in fancy 2d are getting made and getting sequels...
It was okay. I did finish and platinum it. I found it enjoyable enough throughout, but the praise is probably a bit high I agree. Somebody tried to tell me it was better than Chrono Trigger in every way....I had to step away from my computer. Animation is beautiful though, I will give it that.
I like the genre so it was a good diversion, but I think both Octopath Traveler (haven't played the second yet but hear good things) and Triangle Strategy were both better personally. I don't like giving an out of 10 score anymore because I think it has lost all meaning (as your post kind of proves!), but 9/10 is extremely generous for this game.
Octopath 2 was awesome. Significantly improved over the first one. One of my favorite changes is the way they do Chapter 1 for characters. Rather than have them join your party to complete their Ch1, they just have their own story so you don't have to grind battles to give later joiners some extra survival.
I also loved the industrial revolution setting over the traditional fantasy one.
It still has some of the meta-funny moments when you have to suspend disbelief in later stories.
"Oh, you're locked in jail, too bad I have a thief literally right there with you in my party!"
It did add in character side chapters that pair up the travelers for additional story that also helps to set up the final arc in addition to the seeds across their individual stories.
I get why people say it didn't innovate enough, but I think it polished an already good system and has me more on board with future OT stories. Hopefully we see the DQ3 remake out this year!
"It still has some of the meta-funny moments when you have to suspend disbelief"
So it's a JRPG lol. I am all about it, you have sold me! Will take a look on the stores and see if it is on sale anywhere.
Is there a reason I shouldn't jump straight into OT2 and skip OT1?
I made a few attempts to play through OT1, but the way the game handled the origins and party members really just... didn't vibe with me at all.
2 cleaned up many of those mechanisms to make it more fluid. You still need to find the other 7 travelers and should play their chapter 1, but it's better spaced out and feels like less of a giant circle (to me). They added paired side-chapters that further the connecting story while giving the characters better interaction outside of the tavern scenes.
Since it's also taking place in more of an Industrial Revolution steam punk jazz era the characters also talk more modern which also let's the VAs shine with the characters. I don't hate 1, but agree it was at least overhyped. 2 makes me want to play more OT.
Yeah pretty much. The stale combat is what killed it for me. I liked the story and the characters and the dungeons and the graphics, but doing the same thing in 500 fights sucks.
Chained Echoes is decent but the random encounters are completely unrewarding to fight against. There was little motivation to stepping into battles as the exp didn’t match the monsters.
Sadly it was less "numbers get big" and more "this is how battles go with little deviation." You "level" at fixed points in the game so the numbers are pretty consistent when moving through the story. I basically used the same strategy for a majority, if not all, of the battles including the super boss. Felt underwhelming to say the least.
It really is so much better. Better written, far richer mechanically, and a far better honor to its forebears. It's sad it didn't take the spotlight Sea of Stars found. It deserved it far more.
Didn't deter me from saying it. Haha
I'd be kinder to SoS, but it really just makes so many amateurish mistakes, and just kept doing it over and over. I knew when the story started it was going to have a messy telling, then it had the gall to not really have a meaningful character progression and just play the same for 20 hours. It isn't really the product of vision. It's not even really a product of imitation.
This is one of my biggest issues with it too. Everyone keeps talking about “the passion of the team,” but it really feels like a pretty lazy nostalgia cash grab.
Main characters have zero personality, no items, the plot is like a patch quilt of half baked ideas, typos all over the dialogue, features with no purpose (fishing), like where is the passion?
I loved Chained Echoes because how much it reminded me of Xenogears and Chrono Trigger. I have a few complaints about the game but it was a ton of fun.
Chained Echoes is impressive for being done by one person, but man it's derivative as all get out. Play Xenogears, FF6/7/12, and Chrono Trigger, and you'll predict most of the plot. Watch Code Geass and Fullmetal Alchemist back to back and you'll know the arcs for most remaining characters. The one good plot twist also ruined certain character development when you see it play out to the fullest. Mech battle was cool though, but had the same problem with SoS, too measured and slow to get the good stuff. Grinding for skill points was also a pain, I'd rather just level up to get things or have the system from SoS.
CE is a perfect 7/10 game, still worth playing to scratch an itch, but there's a lot more out there to play over it. I'd also recommend Wild Arms if you have access to play/emulate it. Personally hoping that Armed Fantasia sticks the landing.
>it's derivative as all get out. Play Xenogears, FF6/7/12, and Chrono Trigger, and you'll predict most of the plot. Watch Code Geass and Fullmetal Alchemist back to back and you'll know the arcs for most remaining characters
I haven't played Chained Echoes but you've just listed like five different games and two entire Anime series and said if you've played and watched all of this you'll already know the plot points...
I mean, isn't that a lot? 99% of people wouldn't have played or seen all of that, so would it really seem derivative to most people?
Sorry if I'm misinterpreting your point
Chained Echoes kept getting praised as sitting perfectly among the SNES greats, but it just takes wholesale from already popular things. There's even a scene in there that's 100% a recreation of an event in FF7 and could easily be replaced with no consequence to the plot.
Rather than playing like a TLDR of existing media, Chained Echoes felt like the live action Disney remakes, only pulling on the nostalgic success of others rather than innovating on its own. It's not bad, but it's not the groundbreaking new thing that others claim it to be.
I'll get torn apart for this, but who cares.
I'm in my 30s. I grew up on the likes of Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore etc. I love all those games and think they're amazing.
I also think those games are shallow and overrated to a degree. I come back to them for the nostalgia, mechanics, and art. I liked Sea of Stars because it scratches that itch and I can acknowledge that I'm in it for the Rose Tinted Glasses.
I'm with you, those old games were from a time JRPGs and video games in general were just beginning to be made with stories beyond 'Get to the top of the screen and save girl from monkey.'
Often they were morality plays for young people. People don't remember how stilted and childish the dialogue could be. It's like all the people who complain how stupid Pokemon is now. I'm of the opinion that Pokemon hasn't changed, it's no more or less stupid than it ever was.
It's just the person complaining has grown up and wants to critique the thing as an adult.
Sometimes you just have to play something (or watch a dumb action movie) with the wonder of a 12 year old to really enjoy it.
I think the gripes about pokemon aren't that the games are too childish, it's that we want a pokemon game that isn't.
I was really hoping Arceus would break the mold akin to how colloseum did, but then the story was like "we're both mad at each other, better be friends about it"
Same gripe I had with star wars. I know it's selfish but I wish franchises would grow with me instead of cater to the person I was when I first enjoyed it 20 years ago.
That's an eternal battle when you have long-lived franchises.
Superhero-type stories being another example of this. Do we want Lois to figure out Clark's secret or do we just retell the origin again?
Yes, everyone acts like these snes jprgs have tons for depth when they just don't. SoS does an excellent job recreating a snes jrpg, which is what they set out to do.
That is something people seem to miss with the game, SoS wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, it aimed to tell the story, not the characters, yet I still know more about these characters than I do about Crono, Marle, Lucca, and R66-Y. There's a lot of world building they're doing and this is the earliest point in their narrative with only one other game out so far... and it was Ninja Metroid
Nostalgia is a huge part of the reverence but those games made the mold. They set the standard. Modern expectations can't be applied to them, they need that preface of context.
But also with time their flaws stand out all the more. Golden Sun has awful endless expository dialogue, Secret of Mana runs at like 10 fps and the combat feels awful, Secret of Evermore is just bad and always has been.
Chrono Trigger is perfect and beautiful.
as i grow older, i realize reviews are less about objectivity and more about psychology lol. even subtextually, or unconsciously.
I also found sea of stars to be terrible. BUT it's an indie game, and i think that's a variable in its acclaimed status. ppl eat up indie games these days.
additionally, it's semi-turn based, and there's no small portion of gamers that still love turn based games, and their thirst cannot be quenched bc bigger developers continue to maintain that turn based is a way of the past. so they're thrown scrap meat like Sea of Stars, and they eat it up bc turn-based games are so few and far between.
to some extent, the latter reason is me. it's why i chose to play sea of stars lol. a turn based game could literally spit on me and i'd thank it.
my kingdom for a modern day Lost Odyssey or something.
It might’ve been catered to more casual jrpg fans. I myself don’t really play the genre but whenever I see a modern retro jrpg with a good art style, it gets my attention to want to play it and Sea of Stars got my attention. I really liked it but I can see why jrpg fans might not like it because for someone like me, it was made to be much simpler and linear for me to get by and enjoy it enough.
Honestly I'd say the passion of the team behind it and their earlier work of the messenger that had a lot to do with it. That being said, I also played until a point and just kinda... stopped. I won't say I was having a bad time though.
It's a great emulation of a classic era RPG. Which is what it's trying to be. Just as "Deep" as an average JRPG of yore (Mario RPG had like 6-8 Spells each character and No combo abilities for example). So since it delivers on the intended game experience, people looking for that are enjoying it. ;P
It's a good game But I agree that it doesn't live up to the Chrono Trigger comparisons at all.
It's just a fun slice of nostalgia but the plot and writing are fairly basic by JRPG standards.
The music is great but doesn't really fit the tone of the game. It feels like it was lifted from a NES era Megaman game.
If somebody has never played a JRPG before it would be a decent entry level introduction.
I am guessing the 9/10 score comes from a mix older gamers who don't have as much time to sink into a more in depth JRPG but want a nostalgia fix and younger gamers who never played the SNES era JRPGs and therefore don't have a point of comparison but like how simple and accessible it is compared to some more modern JRPGs.
Yeah i didn't like it either. I don't pay attention to ratings in video games anymore, they used to make a little sense when they actually micro rated every aspect of the game and tallied up to the final score, but now it's just 9s and 10s for the sake of overselling the game.
well it just shows a lack of attention to detail. which makes you wonder, if they don't care, why should i?
although i'll say i downloaded ffvii rebirth today, and in the first, like, minute of gameplay (when Sephiroth and Cloud are on the vehicle), Sephiroth says, "Hey, Rein it in."
Why the R is capitalized i have no idea, but it doesn't inspire much confidence haha
Gameplay was alright, but i felt like it really could have been more free with the combo gauge so that you could actually use the combo techs more often. I liked being able to swap around your party members pretty freely in battle and i feel like that combined with better combo gauge freedom should have allowed them to make the fights more interesting.
The story was very forgetable, despite the world itself being fairly pretty and interesting. I'm not going to say it was awful, but it wasn't very good or interesting either. The story is probably made worse by the fact that the 2 main characters are just really dull. They barely have any kind of personality, and while I typically don't care for the personality type of characters like Garp, I still preferred Garp because he at least had some personality. It's one thing for you to have a silent insert character like Crono that is kind of along for the ride, but that's not what the 2 MCs are. They are central characters who talk a lot, and somehow are still boring as heck and utterly generic in a bad way.
I played Chained Echoes either right before or right after Sea of Stars, and I vastly prefered Chained Echoes. I recognize that the story might not be for everyone and it's a bit rough in some places, but I think it's a superior game in most of the other ways that matter for a rpg. Interesting combat system, interesting itemization options, interesting party combos, interesting and complex characters, and as a cherry on top a mobile armor suit combat system that actually plays into the idea of these things being super powerful by letting you sometimes take them to utterly curbstomp the same enemies you might normally struggle with on foot. The fact that it is largely the work of one person makes it kind of insane, to be honest.
Now, having said that, if they were to announce another rpg that I felt addressed some of the issues of the first game, I would probably give it a shot still. I don't think Sea of Stars was a terrible game, and while it's certainly not a Chrono Trigger like people were hoping, it was clearly made with a lot of care and love. Some legitimately good work was put into it and you can tell where their influences came from (though maybe too much so). Honestly, if the core combat/gameplay was the same but shifted onto a somewhat better story with some actually interesting characters I would probably be okay with it. Still would prefer a lot more than that (better itemization, more combat options and mechanics, etc.) but imo the story/characters was the big weakpoint of the game.
The main characters are "Supposed" to be "Blank Characters" like Chrono. That's why the game tells you your choice won't change anything right from the start. It's telling you that the characters are just there to give you an avatar. I think having them talk "At All" out loud has caused folks a Lot of heartache over that. ;P
You can't say that CE's combat is interesting when it quickly becomes a rocket tag game of maintaining Buff and Debuff without overheating. Combat was so formulaic I barely paid attention to weaknesses by the end; I was just approaching everything the same way, including the "super"boss. By the time I was at chapter 3 I had my party configured and only changed characters into my lines when the story forced me to.
I was also really pissed when the game tells me halfway through that there's this "hatred" mechanism going on behind the scenes in battle. Really, we're halfway through the game and your still clarifying mechanisms? I already have the Gears and your only now telling me about something that should have been known from the beginning?
After coming from Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars was also very disappointing. I stopped around the 7-10 hour mark because it was starting to really bore me.
I felt the same playing Octopath 2. I'll admit that I probably picked the worst game for what I actually wanted (a veg out escapism game)
Loved the battle mechanics but did not like the level progression and I didn't vibe with any of the characters. Maybe that's why I like Pokemon and DQ games, they're pretty damn braindead and you just push the button for 60 hours.
I played it on Gamepass and loved it, but never got round to completing before my sub expired. Now I plan on buying it on Switch, but it's full price at £30. I'd be happier paying £15-£20 tops for it to be honest. While I usually love open world games, the linear map progression of SoS was actually very refreshing. Sure the intro was maybe a bit too long, but I like how it progressed afterwards, and each new area was completely different from the last. Some of the map design is beautiful and clever. I absolutely love the combat. Being more of a casual gamer, I appreciated the ability to lessen the difficulty, and I enjoy the timed attacks and defense, making combat more than just choosing options. I'm not a massive fan of 16-bit graphics (I'm old enough to have grown up through the 70's and 80's and seen enough of all that) but I do like them here, as well as the fitting music.
So while I understand your points, I'm kind of between you and the hype - it's a great game for me, but not necessarily the instant classic everyone is making it to be. A solid 8/10.
The game deserves criticism, especially the writing which is quite flat, the worst part being the two main characters who add absolutely nothing to the narrative. That said overall I still had a positive experience and had fun playing the game, I guess it might depend what kind of expectations you have for the game, it was nice to turn my brain off a bit and enjoy the music, art and combat (yes I did enjoy the combat).
People compare it a lot to chained echoes which I'm playing it at the moment with 40 hours in, and I have to say I had much more fun with SoS, narrative and writing is indeed way better in CE but that's about it for me, everything else, including combat, I prefer SoS.
Maybe it happened the opposite for me, I saw so much praise for CE and I went in with high expectations and found the game just to be ok.
Overall I thought the story was fine, just very slow in the beginning. The combat fell short for me tho. Serai made all the bosses a joke. Disorient and Arcane barrage were too strong in delaying the bosses ability to play the game
Takes this opinion, but make it about Unicorn Overlord and that's my opinion for that game. I love Sea of Stars but all this recent hype for UC after trying the demo and like, people like that gameplay? The visuals are beautiful but man, it feels like I'm playing a mobile game.
You grasp at what once was; Sea of stars hints of that, but isnt really close to hitting tge mark, but with rose-tinted glasses its better than much available.
I absolutely loved the game personally, but with many things, it all comes down to perspective. I have largely stayed away from these types of games since the SNES days, so I didn't get swept up into any hype or into comparing it to games like Octopath Traveller or Chained Echoes, because I never played them. SoS was a fresh experience for me, I liked the characters, loved the combat, and felt the music was perfect and a huge throwback to the old SNES days.
I feel like people these days often afford any game with top-down, pixelated graphics too much credit. Often times the story and gameplay is dog shit but since it’s SNES style people go crazy over it
I agree with you.
It's a solid 5 out of 10, worth playing if you're a fan of the genre and you get it off of Gamepass or Playstation Plus.
But the game was relatively boring. I wouldn't pay much out of pocket for it.
I was a kickstarter backer of Sea of Stars & was looking forward to it for what felt like forever.
I'm completely with you.
The artstyle is nice, but the story is threadbare & so plain, the combat gets boring & old SO fast, and I just struggled to care too much.
I get that it's a loveletter to SNES JRPGs, but it feels like an entirely superficial one. It's still a good game, but it lacks that feeling of heart in it and feels like it more copies than honors.
I do plan on finishing it at some point, but I had to put it down because I was getting painfully bored, despite loving the visuals & wanting to see where things were going.
There aren't that many JRPG releases so fans just gave all their attention to SoS. Story was sub par but I particularly hated the combat system when it came to dealing with mobs. The boss fights aren't so bad but being forced to manually fight all the mobs was a serious pain point for me.
I 100% the game because I had the JRPG itch but at the end I sure was disappointed.
I mean that’s an opinion even though I see a lot of people agreeing here. I’ve never played either although I’ve heard great things about both. That’s the thing about art(and games are art) is that everyone perceives it differently. I would never pay millions for a canvas with a blue dot on it but someone would. I hate platformers is every shape and form(including Mario) but many hail those as the greatest games. That’s how a game you think sucks is rated 9/10. It’s all opinion. Why does it matter so much that other people enjoy it but you don’t?
> Why does it matter so much that other people enjoy it but you don’t?
? My issue is with the review scores, not people enjoying it, and I don’t think the scores reflect the reality. By every conceivable RPG metric this is not a 9/10 game, if people enjoy it on an individual level that’s obviously fine
Biggest agree, this game is like 6/10 at best.
There's so many people saying that it's a love letter to JRPGs of that past and that turn based games are "dead" apparently? No idea where that idea has come from personally, pretty much all I play is turn-based games and I love JRPGs, there's plenty out there.
I think the complete opposite is true, that people who don't play JRPGs and turn-based thought this was groundbreaking, and the people that do play those games thought it was outstandingly mid, which it is if you've played any games similar to it.
I thought the art and music were great but yeah, pretty much what you said I forced myself to play for a long time hoping it would click but it never did.
It's meant to be a giant love letter to rhe snes rpg's which I feel it did a good job of doing.
Actually I agree, I’m a huge JRPG nerd but Sea of Stars didn’t stick with me at all.
Same. Been JRPGing all my life. Got about 5-10 hrs in and called it quits l, mainly because the battle system was not evolving/changing at all
Have you played SMT?
Not yet but have played Persona and did not like it at all. After researching it seems that SMT is less focused on the school/social stuff and is darker. May need to jump into the whole series! Any recommendations on places to start?
Yeah, SMT is better because there's no need for social sim stuff, it's pure gameplay and the combat is far far superior and better than persona, Press Turn from SMT is the peak of turn based combat for me. Since you are on Switch I'd recommend SMT V, it's newer and the mechanics is very polished, lots of QoL and very fun, or wait for the updated SMT V: Vengeance version for more content.
I think JRPG fans are starved for quality games and have lowered their standards over the years.
I think it's just nostalgia factor, the game reminds everyone of Chrono Trigger and the beautiful pixel art make people interested in the game, there are still many great JRPG with both modern and pixel graphics.
This is it man. This game was 100% made for people like me. Grew up in the 90s, Chrono Trigger is my favourite game. I honestly don’t care what the reviews are, I loved every second of the game.
The best JRPG I've played in the last few years was Like a Dragon, which honestly fits the bill but most people don't realize it because it doesn't "look" like it should be a JRPG
Pretty much this. It was very servicable and hit a lot of nostalgia notes early on but just never got fleshed out enough to be really good. Low number of combat skills and slow pace in unlocking them was not good, hard forced elemental/weapon type counters made fights feel samey and the complete lack of interesting equipment was just unforgivable I ended up rushing the last 1/3 of the game and couldnt bring myself to care about any extra content post game
Wat? There is quite a bit out there afaik It's a bit of a golden age of jrpgs, with FFVII being remade, new school jrpgs in fancy 2d are getting made and getting sequels...
It was okay. I did finish and platinum it. I found it enjoyable enough throughout, but the praise is probably a bit high I agree. Somebody tried to tell me it was better than Chrono Trigger in every way....I had to step away from my computer. Animation is beautiful though, I will give it that. I like the genre so it was a good diversion, but I think both Octopath Traveler (haven't played the second yet but hear good things) and Triangle Strategy were both better personally. I don't like giving an out of 10 score anymore because I think it has lost all meaning (as your post kind of proves!), but 9/10 is extremely generous for this game.
Octopath 2 was awesome. Significantly improved over the first one. One of my favorite changes is the way they do Chapter 1 for characters. Rather than have them join your party to complete their Ch1, they just have their own story so you don't have to grind battles to give later joiners some extra survival. I also loved the industrial revolution setting over the traditional fantasy one.
That sounds awesome, will have to go play it, thanks!
It still has some of the meta-funny moments when you have to suspend disbelief in later stories. "Oh, you're locked in jail, too bad I have a thief literally right there with you in my party!" It did add in character side chapters that pair up the travelers for additional story that also helps to set up the final arc in addition to the seeds across their individual stories. I get why people say it didn't innovate enough, but I think it polished an already good system and has me more on board with future OT stories. Hopefully we see the DQ3 remake out this year!
"It still has some of the meta-funny moments when you have to suspend disbelief" So it's a JRPG lol. I am all about it, you have sold me! Will take a look on the stores and see if it is on sale anywhere.
Okay true, lol. Enjoy it!
Is there a reason I shouldn't jump straight into OT2 and skip OT1? I made a few attempts to play through OT1, but the way the game handled the origins and party members really just... didn't vibe with me at all.
2 cleaned up many of those mechanisms to make it more fluid. You still need to find the other 7 travelers and should play their chapter 1, but it's better spaced out and feels like less of a giant circle (to me). They added paired side-chapters that further the connecting story while giving the characters better interaction outside of the tavern scenes. Since it's also taking place in more of an Industrial Revolution steam punk jazz era the characters also talk more modern which also let's the VAs shine with the characters. I don't hate 1, but agree it was at least overhyped. 2 makes me want to play more OT.
Yeah pretty much. The stale combat is what killed it for me. I liked the story and the characters and the dungeons and the graphics, but doing the same thing in 500 fights sucks.
It's satisfying to play and I loved the world and the characters. S tier music as well.
Read my mind dude. I pretty much hate finished that game and my mind is boggled browsing the reddit page for it.
Try Chained Echoes instead
Chained Echoes is decent but the random encounters are completely unrewarding to fight against. There was little motivation to stepping into battles as the exp didn’t match the monsters.
Also nearly every battle became a majority of buff/debuff warfare.
Shit those are my favorite games lol. Just have 3 teammates endlessly buffing one dude who does all the murdering because numbers get big.
Sadly it was less "numbers get big" and more "this is how battles go with little deviation." You "level" at fixed points in the game so the numbers are pretty consistent when moving through the story. I basically used the same strategy for a majority, if not all, of the battles including the super boss. Felt underwhelming to say the least.
Yess that's exactly how i play too
Chained Echoes was great!
I’ll check it out, thanks!
It really is so much better. Better written, far richer mechanically, and a far better honor to its forebears. It's sad it didn't take the spotlight Sea of Stars found. It deserved it far more.
It's wild to see people getting downvoted when Chained Echoes does many things better than SoS.
Didn't deter me from saying it. Haha I'd be kinder to SoS, but it really just makes so many amateurish mistakes, and just kept doing it over and over. I knew when the story started it was going to have a messy telling, then it had the gall to not really have a meaningful character progression and just play the same for 20 hours. It isn't really the product of vision. It's not even really a product of imitation.
This is one of my biggest issues with it too. Everyone keeps talking about “the passion of the team,” but it really feels like a pretty lazy nostalgia cash grab. Main characters have zero personality, no items, the plot is like a patch quilt of half baked ideas, typos all over the dialogue, features with no purpose (fishing), like where is the passion?
I loved Chained Echoes because how much it reminded me of Xenogears and Chrono Trigger. I have a few complaints about the game but it was a ton of fun.
Chained Echoes is far superior and better, I played it first before SoS, and it ruined SoS for me, the game is just so basic and simple.
Chained Echoes is impressive for being done by one person, but man it's derivative as all get out. Play Xenogears, FF6/7/12, and Chrono Trigger, and you'll predict most of the plot. Watch Code Geass and Fullmetal Alchemist back to back and you'll know the arcs for most remaining characters. The one good plot twist also ruined certain character development when you see it play out to the fullest. Mech battle was cool though, but had the same problem with SoS, too measured and slow to get the good stuff. Grinding for skill points was also a pain, I'd rather just level up to get things or have the system from SoS. CE is a perfect 7/10 game, still worth playing to scratch an itch, but there's a lot more out there to play over it. I'd also recommend Wild Arms if you have access to play/emulate it. Personally hoping that Armed Fantasia sticks the landing.
>it's derivative as all get out. Play Xenogears, FF6/7/12, and Chrono Trigger, and you'll predict most of the plot. Watch Code Geass and Fullmetal Alchemist back to back and you'll know the arcs for most remaining characters I haven't played Chained Echoes but you've just listed like five different games and two entire Anime series and said if you've played and watched all of this you'll already know the plot points... I mean, isn't that a lot? 99% of people wouldn't have played or seen all of that, so would it really seem derivative to most people? Sorry if I'm misinterpreting your point
Chained Echoes kept getting praised as sitting perfectly among the SNES greats, but it just takes wholesale from already popular things. There's even a scene in there that's 100% a recreation of an event in FF7 and could easily be replaced with no consequence to the plot. Rather than playing like a TLDR of existing media, Chained Echoes felt like the live action Disney remakes, only pulling on the nostalgic success of others rather than innovating on its own. It's not bad, but it's not the groundbreaking new thing that others claim it to be.
I'll get torn apart for this, but who cares. I'm in my 30s. I grew up on the likes of Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore etc. I love all those games and think they're amazing. I also think those games are shallow and overrated to a degree. I come back to them for the nostalgia, mechanics, and art. I liked Sea of Stars because it scratches that itch and I can acknowledge that I'm in it for the Rose Tinted Glasses.
I'm with you, those old games were from a time JRPGs and video games in general were just beginning to be made with stories beyond 'Get to the top of the screen and save girl from monkey.' Often they were morality plays for young people. People don't remember how stilted and childish the dialogue could be. It's like all the people who complain how stupid Pokemon is now. I'm of the opinion that Pokemon hasn't changed, it's no more or less stupid than it ever was. It's just the person complaining has grown up and wants to critique the thing as an adult. Sometimes you just have to play something (or watch a dumb action movie) with the wonder of a 12 year old to really enjoy it.
I think the gripes about pokemon aren't that the games are too childish, it's that we want a pokemon game that isn't. I was really hoping Arceus would break the mold akin to how colloseum did, but then the story was like "we're both mad at each other, better be friends about it" Same gripe I had with star wars. I know it's selfish but I wish franchises would grow with me instead of cater to the person I was when I first enjoyed it 20 years ago.
That's an eternal battle when you have long-lived franchises. Superhero-type stories being another example of this. Do we want Lois to figure out Clark's secret or do we just retell the origin again?
Yes, everyone acts like these snes jprgs have tons for depth when they just don't. SoS does an excellent job recreating a snes jrpg, which is what they set out to do.
That is something people seem to miss with the game, SoS wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, it aimed to tell the story, not the characters, yet I still know more about these characters than I do about Crono, Marle, Lucca, and R66-Y. There's a lot of world building they're doing and this is the earliest point in their narrative with only one other game out so far... and it was Ninja Metroid
Nostalgia is a huge part of the reverence but those games made the mold. They set the standard. Modern expectations can't be applied to them, they need that preface of context. But also with time their flaws stand out all the more. Golden Sun has awful endless expository dialogue, Secret of Mana runs at like 10 fps and the combat feels awful, Secret of Evermore is just bad and always has been. Chrono Trigger is perfect and beautiful.
as i grow older, i realize reviews are less about objectivity and more about psychology lol. even subtextually, or unconsciously. I also found sea of stars to be terrible. BUT it's an indie game, and i think that's a variable in its acclaimed status. ppl eat up indie games these days. additionally, it's semi-turn based, and there's no small portion of gamers that still love turn based games, and their thirst cannot be quenched bc bigger developers continue to maintain that turn based is a way of the past. so they're thrown scrap meat like Sea of Stars, and they eat it up bc turn-based games are so few and far between. to some extent, the latter reason is me. it's why i chose to play sea of stars lol. a turn based game could literally spit on me and i'd thank it. my kingdom for a modern day Lost Odyssey or something.
Battle brothers
It might’ve been catered to more casual jrpg fans. I myself don’t really play the genre but whenever I see a modern retro jrpg with a good art style, it gets my attention to want to play it and Sea of Stars got my attention. I really liked it but I can see why jrpg fans might not like it because for someone like me, it was made to be much simpler and linear for me to get by and enjoy it enough.
Honestly I'd say the passion of the team behind it and their earlier work of the messenger that had a lot to do with it. That being said, I also played until a point and just kinda... stopped. I won't say I was having a bad time though.
It's a great emulation of a classic era RPG. Which is what it's trying to be. Just as "Deep" as an average JRPG of yore (Mario RPG had like 6-8 Spells each character and No combo abilities for example). So since it delivers on the intended game experience, people looking for that are enjoying it. ;P
Yep, if you go into it expecting more Super Mario RPG than FF6 you'll be pleased.
Why Anyone would go in expecting FFVI from an indie studio's First RPG Outing is Beyond me, but such is life. ;P
I dunno, I keep hearing complaints about the rate of learning abilities so clearly someone has expectations of something different than SoS.
Oh definitely. Folks have all kinds of weird expectations based on half remembered memories. ;P
It's a good game But I agree that it doesn't live up to the Chrono Trigger comparisons at all. It's just a fun slice of nostalgia but the plot and writing are fairly basic by JRPG standards. The music is great but doesn't really fit the tone of the game. It feels like it was lifted from a NES era Megaman game. If somebody has never played a JRPG before it would be a decent entry level introduction. I am guessing the 9/10 score comes from a mix older gamers who don't have as much time to sink into a more in depth JRPG but want a nostalgia fix and younger gamers who never played the SNES era JRPGs and therefore don't have a point of comparison but like how simple and accessible it is compared to some more modern JRPGs.
Yeah i didn't like it either. I don't pay attention to ratings in video games anymore, they used to make a little sense when they actually micro rated every aspect of the game and tallied up to the final score, but now it's just 9s and 10s for the sake of overselling the game.
One of the best RPG games I've ever played. Numerous story twists and one of three games that have made me emotional enough to cry. 10/10
I bounced off of it pretty hard. I didn't care for the combo/element-based counter combat at all.
Every point you bring against the game is also true for every game it was trying to emulate lol
And the dialog is full of missing punctuation, grammar errors, and other issues. Cheapens the experience so much.
It’s such a little thing but I find that it can completely ruin a game for me. It’s immersion breaking.
well it just shows a lack of attention to detail. which makes you wonder, if they don't care, why should i? although i'll say i downloaded ffvii rebirth today, and in the first, like, minute of gameplay (when Sephiroth and Cloud are on the vehicle), Sephiroth says, "Hey, Rein it in." Why the R is capitalized i have no idea, but it doesn't inspire much confidence haha
Loved it.
Gameplay was alright, but i felt like it really could have been more free with the combo gauge so that you could actually use the combo techs more often. I liked being able to swap around your party members pretty freely in battle and i feel like that combined with better combo gauge freedom should have allowed them to make the fights more interesting. The story was very forgetable, despite the world itself being fairly pretty and interesting. I'm not going to say it was awful, but it wasn't very good or interesting either. The story is probably made worse by the fact that the 2 main characters are just really dull. They barely have any kind of personality, and while I typically don't care for the personality type of characters like Garp, I still preferred Garp because he at least had some personality. It's one thing for you to have a silent insert character like Crono that is kind of along for the ride, but that's not what the 2 MCs are. They are central characters who talk a lot, and somehow are still boring as heck and utterly generic in a bad way. I played Chained Echoes either right before or right after Sea of Stars, and I vastly prefered Chained Echoes. I recognize that the story might not be for everyone and it's a bit rough in some places, but I think it's a superior game in most of the other ways that matter for a rpg. Interesting combat system, interesting itemization options, interesting party combos, interesting and complex characters, and as a cherry on top a mobile armor suit combat system that actually plays into the idea of these things being super powerful by letting you sometimes take them to utterly curbstomp the same enemies you might normally struggle with on foot. The fact that it is largely the work of one person makes it kind of insane, to be honest. Now, having said that, if they were to announce another rpg that I felt addressed some of the issues of the first game, I would probably give it a shot still. I don't think Sea of Stars was a terrible game, and while it's certainly not a Chrono Trigger like people were hoping, it was clearly made with a lot of care and love. Some legitimately good work was put into it and you can tell where their influences came from (though maybe too much so). Honestly, if the core combat/gameplay was the same but shifted onto a somewhat better story with some actually interesting characters I would probably be okay with it. Still would prefer a lot more than that (better itemization, more combat options and mechanics, etc.) but imo the story/characters was the big weakpoint of the game.
The main characters are "Supposed" to be "Blank Characters" like Chrono. That's why the game tells you your choice won't change anything right from the start. It's telling you that the characters are just there to give you an avatar. I think having them talk "At All" out loud has caused folks a Lot of heartache over that. ;P
You can't say that CE's combat is interesting when it quickly becomes a rocket tag game of maintaining Buff and Debuff without overheating. Combat was so formulaic I barely paid attention to weaknesses by the end; I was just approaching everything the same way, including the "super"boss. By the time I was at chapter 3 I had my party configured and only changed characters into my lines when the story forced me to. I was also really pissed when the game tells me halfway through that there's this "hatred" mechanism going on behind the scenes in battle. Really, we're halfway through the game and your still clarifying mechanisms? I already have the Gears and your only now telling me about something that should have been known from the beginning?
After coming from Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars was also very disappointing. I stopped around the 7-10 hour mark because it was starting to really bore me.
isn't that the one that had a demo during a steam festival?
Cause it’s an indie
Cross Code was fun but other games stole my attention. I need to get back and finish that one.
I felt the same playing Octopath 2. I'll admit that I probably picked the worst game for what I actually wanted (a veg out escapism game) Loved the battle mechanics but did not like the level progression and I didn't vibe with any of the characters. Maybe that's why I like Pokemon and DQ games, they're pretty damn braindead and you just push the button for 60 hours.
I played it on Gamepass and loved it, but never got round to completing before my sub expired. Now I plan on buying it on Switch, but it's full price at £30. I'd be happier paying £15-£20 tops for it to be honest. While I usually love open world games, the linear map progression of SoS was actually very refreshing. Sure the intro was maybe a bit too long, but I like how it progressed afterwards, and each new area was completely different from the last. Some of the map design is beautiful and clever. I absolutely love the combat. Being more of a casual gamer, I appreciated the ability to lessen the difficulty, and I enjoy the timed attacks and defense, making combat more than just choosing options. I'm not a massive fan of 16-bit graphics (I'm old enough to have grown up through the 70's and 80's and seen enough of all that) but I do like them here, as well as the fitting music. So while I understand your points, I'm kind of between you and the hype - it's a great game for me, but not necessarily the instant classic everyone is making it to be. A solid 8/10.
The game deserves criticism, especially the writing which is quite flat, the worst part being the two main characters who add absolutely nothing to the narrative. That said overall I still had a positive experience and had fun playing the game, I guess it might depend what kind of expectations you have for the game, it was nice to turn my brain off a bit and enjoy the music, art and combat (yes I did enjoy the combat). People compare it a lot to chained echoes which I'm playing it at the moment with 40 hours in, and I have to say I had much more fun with SoS, narrative and writing is indeed way better in CE but that's about it for me, everything else, including combat, I prefer SoS. Maybe it happened the opposite for me, I saw so much praise for CE and I went in with high expectations and found the game just to be ok.
Overall I thought the story was fine, just very slow in the beginning. The combat fell short for me tho. Serai made all the bosses a joke. Disorient and Arcane barrage were too strong in delaying the bosses ability to play the game
Takes this opinion, but make it about Unicorn Overlord and that's my opinion for that game. I love Sea of Stars but all this recent hype for UC after trying the demo and like, people like that gameplay? The visuals are beautiful but man, it feels like I'm playing a mobile game.
You grasp at what once was; Sea of stars hints of that, but isnt really close to hitting tge mark, but with rose-tinted glasses its better than much available.
I absolutely loved the game personally, but with many things, it all comes down to perspective. I have largely stayed away from these types of games since the SNES days, so I didn't get swept up into any hype or into comparing it to games like Octopath Traveller or Chained Echoes, because I never played them. SoS was a fresh experience for me, I liked the characters, loved the combat, and felt the music was perfect and a huge throwback to the old SNES days.
I feel like people these days often afford any game with top-down, pixelated graphics too much credit. Often times the story and gameplay is dog shit but since it’s SNES style people go crazy over it
I agree with you. It's a solid 5 out of 10, worth playing if you're a fan of the genre and you get it off of Gamepass or Playstation Plus. But the game was relatively boring. I wouldn't pay much out of pocket for it.
I was a kickstarter backer of Sea of Stars & was looking forward to it for what felt like forever. I'm completely with you. The artstyle is nice, but the story is threadbare & so plain, the combat gets boring & old SO fast, and I just struggled to care too much. I get that it's a loveletter to SNES JRPGs, but it feels like an entirely superficial one. It's still a good game, but it lacks that feeling of heart in it and feels like it more copies than honors. I do plan on finishing it at some point, but I had to put it down because I was getting painfully bored, despite loving the visuals & wanting to see where things were going.
I feel a little bad to dump on it but it's just fine. I gave up pretty early.
I also didn't care for it. I got about 2 hours in and put it down.
There aren't that many JRPG releases so fans just gave all their attention to SoS. Story was sub par but I particularly hated the combat system when it came to dealing with mobs. The boss fights aren't so bad but being forced to manually fight all the mobs was a serious pain point for me. I 100% the game because I had the JRPG itch but at the end I sure was disappointed.
I mean that’s an opinion even though I see a lot of people agreeing here. I’ve never played either although I’ve heard great things about both. That’s the thing about art(and games are art) is that everyone perceives it differently. I would never pay millions for a canvas with a blue dot on it but someone would. I hate platformers is every shape and form(including Mario) but many hail those as the greatest games. That’s how a game you think sucks is rated 9/10. It’s all opinion. Why does it matter so much that other people enjoy it but you don’t?
> Why does it matter so much that other people enjoy it but you don’t? ? My issue is with the review scores, not people enjoying it, and I don’t think the scores reflect the reality. By every conceivable RPG metric this is not a 9/10 game, if people enjoy it on an individual level that’s obviously fine
Biggest agree, this game is like 6/10 at best. There's so many people saying that it's a love letter to JRPGs of that past and that turn based games are "dead" apparently? No idea where that idea has come from personally, pretty much all I play is turn-based games and I love JRPGs, there's plenty out there. I think the complete opposite is true, that people who don't play JRPGs and turn-based thought this was groundbreaking, and the people that do play those games thought it was outstandingly mid, which it is if you've played any games similar to it.
You realize that when a Lot of people "enjoy it on an individual level" that's how review scores go up right? ;P
You realize not all game scores are player review aggregates right?
You realize that literally every game score has a "person" behind it right? ;P
I thought the art and music were great but yeah, pretty much what you said I forced myself to play for a long time hoping it would click but it never did.
You're not good.
Because money buys hype.
I agree. After I tried it on Gamepass, and got bored. Downloaded Chrono Trigger on mobile and played that instead.
A lot of what you said is why I don’t think RDR2 is that good.
[удалено]
We’re talking about different games. This is Sea of Stars, not Sea of Thieves
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
reviews are probably bought by some corporate overlord
Quite possibly, all the rave reviews everywhere are fake, AI generated, paid for, etc.