You know, it’s a bit funny, considering I’ve been bugging our lead features editor, Rob, like crazy since June to let mereview Sea of Stars, but truth be told, I had some reservations about diving into it. I mean, I had this fear of being stuck in endless, identical dungeons with nothing exciting except the monsters wandering about, and a reluctance to sift through mountains of boring NPC chatter and convoluted side quests, or basically any annoying ‘nostalgia’ staples that would probably add 20 hours to my review time for no reason.
Thankfully,Sea of Starsgracefully sidesteps all the pitfalls that have worn down my JRPG-hardened back over the years, and as I look back, I remember my time with this game as of the comfiest and easiest I have had with a game review. Every spot you hit in Sea of Stars satisfies the points I’m about to make, but I’d love to give a nod to my favorite location, Autumn Hills, simply for its vibes and that cool Messenger track remix (or maybe it’s just the same track that I’m thinking of, but still cool).
RELATED:Sea Of Stars: The Best Recipes, Ranked
For starters, Autumn Hills is a straightforward jaunt where you won’t get sidetracked unless it’s for a reward that’s right there on the screen screaming at you. See a treasure chest in the distance? Take a little detour that won’t eat up more than a minute of your time, and you’ll be back on the main path in a jiffy. Nobody will also interrupt your game flow by requesting a weird favor like rescuing their dead cat or some other tempo-breaking stuff.
Occasionally, you may spot something cleverly hidden among the trees, concealed behind a bridge, or lurking underwater (I mean, more camouflaged than the average chest). But your curiosity and the attention you give to these secrets will be handsomely and instantly rewarded with items that are eitherdirectly tied to the game’s true endingor a killer combo attack that’s the bread and butter of the game’s combat—nothing more, nothing less.
RELATED:Games To Play If You Love Sea Of Stars
To me, that’s what makes Sea of Stars stand out even among the classics; it respects your time and attention. You’ll never waste a moment wondering if some corner of the game world is even worth your while. You know, sometimes when I playXenoblade Chronicles, I can’t help but wonder what people see in spending hours roaming places that may or may not be worth anything other than one unique monster or material, and not even being sure if they have anything to do with anything in the game (anything that’s equally worth the time that is).
Sea of Stars doesn’t have any time-wasting mazes masquerading as large Google-image biomes—great big areas that rely on aethetics to trick you into thinking they are fun to traverse—and there’s a lovely lack of clutter everywhere you go. The inn that’s relevant to the story in the Town of Lucent is literally right in front of you; you just need to walk in a straight line to reach it. Serai’s home in Rapine (which has the computer you need to figure out the next step) is the one on top of the place. The puzzles in the Clockwork Castle and the Doccari ruins (which are huge places by the game’s standards) are each locked neatly in separate rooms.
ALSO READ:I Really Hope Final Fantasy 16’s DLC Makes Clive Less Of A Bore
Here, even thepuzzles have their solutionsright within the diameter of your LCD screen. And of course, the most fun thing in them is that there are no items that will end up being useless to your immediate journey. There’s no random loot, like in the originalFinal Fantasy 12. There’s no convoluted key items that have no use except in a very particular in-game situation, because Sea of Stars integrates them intomeaningful side quests and boss fights. And there’s absolutely nothing asking you to backtrack the entire game nine times like that one Nero Family quest in Final Fantasy 9. You will always keep moving forward.
I don’t have the faintest clue who exactly was the mastermind behind designing the architecture of these locations and item placements, and it’s probably everyone at Sabotage, but as an old and tired gamer, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
NEXT:Sea Of Stars' True Ending Is Less Ambitious Than Chrono Trigger, But No Less Emotional
