Sea of Stars is clearly an homage to past RPGs from the height of the genre in the 80s and 90s. The turn-based sub-genre is slowly dying off year by year but smaller indie studios have been keeping things alive. Just take a look at the state of Final Fantasy regarding the last two games which went in an action-oriented direction.
What franchise is next? Dragon Quest? Persona? The fate of the turn-based RPG is unknown, but for now, let’s both look ahead at Sea of Stars and the past to see where the inspiration for it could have come from.
These aren’t confirmed sources of inspiration, but the similarities are striking.
6 Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is without a doubt the biggest influence on the game. The battle system involving running into enemies on the map is there. Now, the actual combat may have a lot more in common with another SNES RPG, but there is one direct connection.
Combos in Sea of Stars are a lot like the Double Techs in Chrono Trigger. Two characters can combine to create devastation strikes which can end an encounter quickly. Besides some very obvious story elements that won’t get spoiled, the overworld featuring miniature versions of the characters is a nod worth mentioning too.
5 Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is the other aforementioned SNES classic and it is all over Sea of Stars. Characters in battle can time their attacks to do more damage or they even block enemies from harming them fully. It was a way for Square Enix, Squaresoft at the time, to combine the active Mario platforming of the main games with the turn-based combat of RPGs like Final Fantasy.
It was an interesting tactic for a battle system that some other companies latched onto but there weren’t as many as you’d think. The developers behind Sea of Stars must have seen the potential in combining Chrono Trigger with this bizarre Mario spinoff. There are some other potential nods to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars such as the mole people and the level-up bonus system.
4 Golden Sun
The plot of Sea of Stars revolves around Valere and Zale who are destined heroes known as Solstice Warriors. Valere controls the moon while Zale controls the sun. Both of these outer planetary entities give them power far beyond a living mortal to help protect the world from a growing evil.
While that’s not exactly the plot of the Golden Sun games, the sun indeed plays a large role in that franchise. There are other things that the Sea of Stars developers could have used from Golden Sun as well. The puzzle-filled dungeons, for example, can be explored and solved via new powers and gear collected. Also, the different voice murmurs for each character could be a reference.
3 Tales Of Phantasia
Tales of Phantasia is the first game in the series that not of lot of Western fans probably played. That’s because it didn’t come out over here until it got a Game Boy Advance port in 2006, well after the series had been established on other consoles. This GBA port would follow its SNES original from 1995.
Speaking of release dates, the original version did not have the franchise’s staple cooking mechanic yet. That was first established in a PS1 port in 1998, also a Japan exclusive. Now, many RPGs have featured cooking that Sea of Stars could have borrowed from. Tales of Phantasia’s influence seems like a safe bet though. The anime cutscenes are a staple of the Tales series as well, which do appear in Sea of Stars although they are not as lavishly animated.
2 Breath OF Fire
Breath of Fire used to be a classic Capcom RPG but the series has been reduced to mere memories. Thankfully, games like Sea of Stars can help keep it alive with small influences in its design. For example, players will go to an underwater kingdom known as Docarria.
The Docarria people look similar to the Manillo fish people in the Breath of Fire series. A quest to breathe underwater is also a shared trait between the two RPGs. The only thing missing from Sea of Stars is someone having the ability to turn into a dragon which is a big staple in the Breath of Fire games.
1 Final Fantasy 6
Squaresoft ruled the RPG market on the SNES thanks to the aforementioned classics of Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. There is a missing piece to the puzzle though and that would be Final Fantasy 6. Its influences in RPGs beyond the 90s are immeasurable and even Sea of Stars couldn’t escape its gravity.
There are multiple times in that game where the party splits up for separate adventures. That happens in Sea of Stars too, when Garl gives everyone separate tasks to help bake a giant piece of bread. There is also the World Eater boss which is a towering serpent of pustules. The design is reminiscent of Kefka’s final form in Final Fantasy 6.
Sea of Stars was released on August 29, 2023, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.