Discovering 'Sea of Stars' – A Turn-Based Odyssey on PS5

Step back in time with us as we navigate the retro-inspired universe of 'Sea of Stars' on the PS5. Let me take you by the hand and recount my journey through this turn-based RPG that pays homage to classics like Golden Sun, while infusing its own unique brand of charm. As the first game to grace my new console, it left an indelible mark with its clever battle mechanics and the delightful ease of command switching. You won't want to miss our discussion on how a live gameplay experience streamed on Twitch and shared through YouTube VODs is revolutionizing our game reviews, focusing solely on the gameplay with no distracting commentary.

Are you swayed by stunning graphics or is it the gameplay that tugs at your heartstrings? We unravel this age-old debate in our latest outing, highlighting how 'Sea of Stars' conjures up a sweet sense of nostalgia while delivering a thoroughly modern twist. I'll take you through the nuances of its replayability, from secret endings to the allure of a 'new game plus' mode, and touch on the vibrant community of speedrunners that bring an extra layer of excitement to the gaming experience. Plus, discover the unexpected link to another game by the same developer, showcasing the rewards of diving into a developer's portfolio. Concluding with a glowing endorsement, I wholeheartedly encourage all RPG fans to unearth the magic of this pixelated gem.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Discussion
• 17:23 Video Game Review and Recommendation

Transcript

  📍 Welcome to Second Emulation, the podcast that explores all things pop culture, from movies and TV shows to the latest anime releases. Join us as we dive into the world of entertainment, sharing our thoughts, opinions, and insights on the latest trends and releases. With a focus on what's hot and what's not, we're your go-to source for all things pop culture. So sit back, relax, and let's get started 

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 I want to thank Emily for that great intro and I want to welcome everyone back to the episode new and old and  hello there, my name is Shawn and this is second emulation podcast, which you've already heard in the intro. Today's episode is another game review. Now, I'm going to be slowly start doing these game reviews.

For those who don't know, I've done one previously about Spider Man 2 for the PS5, and here's a little more  Information about that is that with these game reviews, I'm actually going to be playing the games going forward. This game in particular I have already played so the game review is kind of late.

And Spider Man 2 is a game I've already played. But going forward with game reviews in the future, I will be playing the games. On our gaming Twitch channel, or my personal Twitch channel, which you can find in the podcast detailed footer.  So just to let you know,  the games that will be reviewed will be streamed live on the Twitch channel, and then the VODs will be on the YouTube channel for you to watch. 

Now, not saying that every game  that comes out will be reviewed, just games that I find interesting enough that I'm, you know, going to buy and play. Again, I do this as a hobby,  and what I'll end up doing with those  game reviews or the videos is I'll try to Do a  a companion piece for that. So,  in the YouTube videos, I'll try to do a you know, what level my character is, where I'm at, things like a document or a guide, so to speak, so that What build I have  things to kind of company, you know for those who want to like play along  and with those type of streams There will be no talking no camera.

I'm the type of person who kind of believes like let the game  Play speak for itself  And that's kind of how I grew up playing games. We're just no talking, you know Just let the game play speak for itself. So again going forward  Any game review that I do in the future, I will be streaming it on Twitch and the VOD will be on the YouTube channel, both links can be found in the podcast description, alright? 

So let's get on with the episode.  Now,  the game  that I'll be talking about will be Sea of Stars. Now this is actually my first game that I played.  When I got my PS5 now, I had originally played the demo for the Nintendo switch And I was going to buy it for the Nintendo switch Now what stopped me from actually purchasing it for the switch was when I got My ps5  and got my playstation plus subscription saw that it was free for the console  And that prompted me to get the game now if it had not been free for this For the ps5.

I wouldn't have just bought it for the switch instead  Because it was actually a little bit cheaper  Now, the description reads for the Sea of Stars is a turn based RPG inspired classic. It tells the story of two children of the Solstice Soul who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform eclipse magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as the Fleshmancer. 

Now,  when I saw the official trailer for this game, and I got to play the demo, I got a lot of nostalgia for this game because it was a lot of callbacks to me, like, so many RPGs from my childhood were like,  I felt like we're part of this game. Now, the release date for this game came out on August 29th, 2023.

It's a single player, and it was produced by Sabotage.  Now, when I mentioned, this was the first game that I played. I didn't have any money for any other video games for the PS5. I was mainly, I had just paid for my Playstation Plus subscription. And I  only had enough like to pick up a game. And let me tell you,  this was the game.

When I saw the trailer, I played the demo on the switch. This was the game I was going to get, and I picked it up and I was instantly hooked because of a lot of different categories. It like, it just hit me in the nostalgia factor  one  was gameplay mechanics,  like it's.  It was true to form for its turn based battle mechanics. 

It did something very unique for turn based, something that was different than, you know,  other J,  I think Japanese RPG games and any turn based style games that I've played.  Very unique in the style,  which  Took a while to get used to  But once you got used to it, it was seamless  And I think that's what had me hooked was the battle system  It was you were able to you know Place your commands, switch a character within the like Instantly, it was always adjusting.

It wasn't like you were stuck. Your battle was always ebb and flow. It was very fluid.  Throughout the bat throughout the combat  and that's what I liked. I didn't like where you know  Battle was like a stop and go stop and go Yeah, there are cases for turn based where it is like that But this you know, you didn't have to wait too long I mean, yeah when it came to your turn you could plan your attacks, but it was very fluid  the battle system  Also the mechanics, not just with battle, but just what you had to do.

It felt like it pulled a lot of inspiration from like Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2 just for like what you The references to the Solstice characters and like the elements and like what they had to do. There were certain points in the game where you had to like press this to perform an action when you were in combat and that was very reminiscent of like Golden Sun.

So I felt like when I came across those points, I was like, Oh shit, this is very, you know, inspirational. I  And I liked it and it had me hooked, you know, like from day one, I was hooked 

a very unique component  on it. On the game was that very early on, you could choose your difficulty. You had these tomes or artifacts that you could apply to your characters that would, you know, grant you buffs in the game or, you know, increase your HP,  make it difficulty, you know,  increase the difficulty of the game, you know,  high risk, high reward.

So these artifacts placed, you know, they could be switched on and off. They weren't, you know, any moment you could change having switched on and off and it would dramatically changed your game play. BASED ON IT, and 1 of them that I had, was that instantly after battle, my characters would get healed. 

Instead of expending resources, because in this game, resources was very scarce.  There were no potions.  Like, you had to  cook to create your potion. So, meals and desserts were your were your So there was no, you know potions and elix and elixers in this game. Everything was done, we had to cook it and make it.

So, and you can only hold 10  of these items. So,  beyond having someone who could, you know, cure,  Besides the two main characters and someone who was a healer the your resources were very scarce. So This was an artifact that I utilized after battle. My My team would be  instantly to full health.  Some might say, oh, that's cheating, and I'm just working within the confines of the system, because those who've played any RPG, you stack up on potions, ethers, and elixirs as much as possible, because you don't know When the next fight's going to be, when there's going to be a save point to heal all your party.

And if you know the next battle is a boss battle and your team gets taken out, you want to be stockpiled,  because you don't know if you'll get taken out. So it's always to be well Well prepared for any battle and what I say is true for those who've ever played any You know RPG game you want to be prepared, you know  You want to make sure your healer is healed to you know To heal your tanks your attackers like you want to make sure you're everyone's taking care of in your team  because Once it's done, it's done.

You don't have, you do not want to replay it over again. So yeah,  in this game, resources were very limited.  Now, how was the storyline?  The storyline for this game,  I want to say, was very,  it was unique in a sense, like it, it pooled.  Oh, let me correct it. The storyline was different, different for sabotage studio to do.

Cause I know they've done a previous game called messenger and messenger. This game, sea of star was actually a prequel to messenger from what I've,  from what I understand. Now, the story that  CFstars is I wouldn't say it's unique or particularly new, I feel like it did too a lot of inspiration from different games, but  for it to be done together,  you know,  seamlessly I would say very great. 

Because,  I can tell you,  like, the story from the beginning of the story to the end of the story, I was fully engaged. And the character development,  I don't think I had invested in fictional characters  this much since  Final Fantasy 7. The original Final Fantasy 7.  Back on the PS1.  This had me invested in the main characters.

I'm not going to do any spoilers, but like, there are events that happen in the game that  essentially, you know,  got, punched me in the gut,  tugged on my, my heart strings a bit, you know, got me a little bit emotional. And so,  if a video game that you play,  you know, Can Do That For You  Then That Video Game Is Something Else And I Feel Like This Game Seeing All The Reviews Of You Know Done By It By Articles And  This Game  Deserves All Those Accolades They Deserved That And Also This Reviews Gonna Be Adding To That This Game Was I Wanna Save Chef Kiss You Know  There's a lot of nostalgia behind it.

Me personally, I felt like there was inspiration when I played it. It felt like I was playing Golden, Golden Son and a little bit of Final Fantasy 7, a little bit of Final Fantasy 8, a little bit of Final Fantasy 9. The music  just added to that. Like, it was just, it took all these best parts of different video games and this is what you got and the care  It was awesome.

If I could just get like the soundtrack or vinyl record of the music here,  it'd be awesome.  It just, the character development was great  for each character. They, each character  was not wasted. You know, they, they served a purpose. They helped progress the story along and  At certain times, you know  You you were left wondering okay, you know what's going on and you got to learn more, you know, and me personally  I Was like, are we getting anyone else?

You know levelling up was awesome and this game me personally I the grinding and  I was,  as you can tell, like over gushing. I'm a RPG fan, so I like to, you know, play RPGs. I'm a, you know, I like to complete games and things of that nature. But it takes, for me, a  really good game to get me invested.  And this was that game that kind of pulled me back into, like, playing games again.

Because I hadn't played any video games between the Switch and my  PS4. I think the last was The Forbidden West. So I had taken a long, long break between that. And just wasn't anything that caught my eye and this just brought me back.  Now,  the graphics and the visual.  This, and I keep,  for those who don't know, I'm going to keep referencing Golden Sun  because it's my only point of reference.

But the art style is going to be pixel and 8 bit.  So for those who don't know, like, pixel art and then maybe 8 bit. 8 bit is like Nintendo. Those are like the graphics of the game.  The game is going to be very aesthetically pleasing  and  I liked it.  There might be some individuals like, aw man, you know, it's not, it's not my type of game, you know, that's fine.

I grew up on the Nintendo, the Super Nintendo, the N64, you know, there's individuals like, I need to see the game in 8K, 4K, I need the game to be so realistic that it slaps me in the face, and I need to like, I need to, the game character needs to be so real like a person.  No, I, I don't care about the graphics.

I grew up on, The Super Nintendo and then and the Nintendo and the N64 and the Sega.  I don't care about graphics as long as the game looks cool and it's playable and it works.  That's all that matters to me.  This game. Ecstatically pleasing Pixel and eight bit and you know, it just kept remind, reminding me about Golden Sun one, two, I think  weather games had eight bit  kind of losing,  I can't think of it right now.

Final Fantasy, seven, maybe a little bit of final Fantasy eight games that had, that were in their earlier.  90s to 2000 and that genre were probably 8 bit. Yeah, so it was a very good callback and it looked good.  Now,  does this game have replay value and longevity? Yeah, I believe so. Me personally,  I played the game and, you know, not even close to maxing out my characters.

I,  Ioft got  everyone's, you know, special weapon,  Iam not even at their max level. And I ended up finding out that there's a, a secret ending you can get. And I had already beat the game.  And there's other things you could do. So I finished the main story only to find out there's an extra, you know, things you could do on the game and there's a new game plus.

So I feel like the game does have You know replay value, you know For that if you want to be able to play it over and over again I believe it does if you're a fan of the series and of sabotage This made me a fan of a video game  developer that I have never heard of. And so after I played this game, I had to look and see what other games they made and found out they made another game prior to this only to find out there was, you know, this is somehow connected to the other game.

So  I'm looking to play that game as well.  And so, yeah, I, this game does have. Replay value. I'm actually looking to probably play the game again. Probably see if I can, you know,  find that secret ending. 

And it also does have like speed runs. I've noticed people who've been doing speed runs on Twitch, you know, for this game. So I believe that this game, you know, does have longevity and very much has  Replay value and should be part of anyone's collection, who is a fan of RPGs like myself. This, I would say would go up next to, you know, go and send one and two.

Final Fantasy seven, the original. Legends of Dragoon. Like, this deserves its place up there amongst those games because this game was definitely done well  for an RPG. Not to say, like, every RPG, you know, gets this many awards and so critically acclaimed because, you know, there are some that just, you know,  are misses,  but this one every now and again, we get,  you know, we get a five course meal. 

Essentially, we get a chef's kiss. You know, there are, there are, you know, game developers out there who produce a game or like, man, this is, they just hit a home run. How can they do this? So this is just one of their games that I feel like should be part of your rotation. If you're looking for a new game to play, it's on, you know, the PlayStation.

It's on the switch. It may be on Xbox.  And if you can play for free,  You know, play! If you wanna buy it, buy it. This game, I feel like you should not sleep on. It is an enjoyable game to play and I think You would have a good time  playing it. 

Overall, This game, I would give it a 5  out of 5. Yes, I would give it a five out of five,  you know. First time me giving it a 5 out of 5 or hell a 10 out of 10, you know,  I believe yes, it is. It hits those marks, you know, a 10 out of 10 rating because the game is that good.  Me personally. Now, other peoples might not agree with me and that's perfectly fine.

You are allowed to have a difference in opinion.  All I ask is that if you have the opportunity to try the demo, play the demo. And if you like it, Cool. Play the full game. If you played the demo and decide you don't like it, it's not for you. No harm, no foul.  But give the game a shot.  What I like now is that games, before you try and buy or buy the game, You're able to try a demo and I think that's perfectly, you know, awesome now because back in my day you were able to try a game before you bought it and then that way there was never any remorse  remorse or remorse buying or regret that you bought a game you're never going to play again. 

So now, on the Switch and  Playstation, maybe on Xbox, if they have a demo for a game that you like, or a game you're not too sure on, play the demo, and if you like it, then you can commit to it.  But as I mentioned earlier,  this game gets a a 10 out of 10. I'm glad that this was the first game that I ended up playing,  you know, getting my, getting my PS5 and it was free.

Now, I want to emphasize this, this was free with my PlayStation Plus subscription. Mind you,  if I didn't get that subscription, I was going to pay full price for the game on my Switch. I was fully committed to that, doing so.  I only happened to stumble onto the game on my PS5 by accident.  So  If I didn't, I would have paid for this game on the Switch.

Let that be known that I only played the game on my PS5 because it was free with my subscription. I would have gladly paid the full price for the game on the Switch if I didn't stumble onto it.  on my PS5 so  Again, I'm like giving this game all the praise in the world because it's it's deserving is deserving all that praise. 

Yeah. So again  That's what I want. I want to rate. This game is that 10 out of 10 and If you guys want to play it  You know, try the demo if it's if it's on Switch,  PS5 or Xbox and, you know, try it out for yourself.  And 

going forward a little bit of housecleaning that  with when I do reviews of games, I will be streaming them on my personal Twitch channel.  The VODs will be on my YouTube channel Now those won't be as frequent. But when a game that does come out I will be streaming that now  Here's a little news the first game that I will be  Streaming  will be Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth  on my Twitch channel.

I have been testing out  the streaming features and the YouTube VODs with Jedi Survivor.  on both, but the first game review. That will be part of the podcast going forward. The part of the podcast will be final fantasy seven rebirth, which I will be streaming on. Twitch,  which you can find in the link description below, in the podcast description, and  the YouTube channel for the VOD that I will be streaming.

So if you want to watch it live or in the streams,  I will be, hopefully, posting on what day they'll be streaming it on the,  on our socials, on both the personal and the podcast socials, and going live. So if you want to watch it  Me play it live. That's where you'll be able to watch it. If not, you can then watch the VODs on the YouTube channel, which you can find in the podcast description. 

All right? Well, that's all I have for you today. And Thank you for listening and I'll catch you next one. Bye



 📍 Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Second Emulation, where we explored the latest in pop culture, movies, TV shows, and anime. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review to help us reach more listeners. And don't forget to follow us on social media for even more pop culture content and to stay up-to-date on all the latest news and releases. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for future episodes. So until next time, keep on Emulating and stay tuned for more exciting content.