Game profile
Sea of Stars
A lovingly crafted retro JRPG with turn based combat built around timing and combo attacks. Two young heroes travel through a colorful fantasy world to break a dark curse.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is JRPG / Adventure, set in a fantasy world. Visually it is built on pixel art, and the overall tone stays light and upbeat. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. It rewards long uninterrupted stretches more than quick check-ins.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the mid price bracket.
What stands out
- Timing based combat
- Gorgeous pixel art
- Heartwarming story
This fits you if
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- exploring for its own sake is the point for you
- you can sit down for a proper long stretch without interruptions
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you like a deliberate retro look over photorealism
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you only ever get short bursts of play time
- pixel art puts you off
- you specifically want an open world to roam
How long is Sea of Stars?
About 28 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 5 weeks, or 14 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 89 out of 100, which puts it above 82 percent of the 1276 games here and at rank 206 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, JRPG averages 85 points across the database, so this one sits 4 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 144 collected ratings.
Released in 2023 and 3 years old. Recent enough to look and run modern, old enough to be patched and often discounted.
The facts
- Release year
- 2023
- Genres
- JRPG, Adventure, Puzzle
- Playtime
- approx. 28 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Visual style
- Pixel art
- Price bracket
- Mid price
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Mobile
- Critic rating
- 89 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea of Stars | 2023 | approx. 28 hrs. | 89 | Mid price |
| Chained Echoes | 2022 | approx. 30 hrs. | 91 | Mid price |
| The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD | 2013 | approx. 26 hrs. | 91 | Mid price |
| The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | 2019 | approx. 12 hrs. | 87 | Mid price |
If you liked this, try these
- 91/100 Chained Echoes Shared: JRPG, Adventure, Fantasy, rated higher
- 91/100 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Fantasy, rated higher
- 87/100 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Fantasy, shorter
- 91/100 The Longest Journey Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Fantasy, shorter
- 82/100 Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Fantasy
- 88/100 The Plucky Squire Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Fantasy, shorter