Sea of Stars borrows from a lot of RPGs from yesteryear, but its story has a lot of originality to it. Fabled heroes known as Solstice Warriors appear every once in a while atop this clouded city. They are raised to ward off evil from the land. The newest candidates are Valere, who has moon powers, and Zale, who harnesses the sun.
As is typical in RPGs, they will come across other party members along the way. There are six playable characters in the game, but there are also characters that travel around with the group occasionally but don’t participate in battle. Teaks is the biggest example and she deserves a quick shoutout in Sea of Stars. Shoutouts aside, let’s rank these playable characters with full spoilers turned on.
6 Zale
Zale is the stronger mage of the two main heroes in the game. He can heal, which is a huge deal because there are no items like potions. Players have to instead rely on spells, or food which can be prepared in a cooking mini-game. He also has an attack called Sunball which will launch a huge fireball at a grouping of enemies.
The one downside to Zale is that he doesn’t have a lot of personality. He’s the chosen one meaning that he is strong, has a kind heart, and a sense of duty, but not a lot beyond that. He’s not a bad protagonist but his supporting friends are a lot more charismatic.
5 Valere
Valere has a lot of the same problems that Zale does as a character. It must be hard to have to write not one, but two main heroes in an RPG and have neither outshine the other. Unlike Zale who excels as a mage warrior, Valere has a better overall balance. Her assertiveness gives her an edge over Zale but only slightly.
She has two good attack techniques as well as one heck of a shield spell. Moonerang, for example, can bounce around to all enemies on the battlefield if players get good at their button prompts. Overall, both Valere and Zale are essential to the story and are great in battle, but there are just so many other characters both playable and supportive that run circles around them.
4 B’st
B’st is the last playable character that can be recruited. She is basically a replacement for Garl although it still takes a bit to unlock her post his death. She’s a ghost, or more like a soul, that Aephorul removed from her body ages ago. Her determination to get revenge for her people is strong though which is why Resh’an helps by making her a set of Living Glass.
Living Glass allows B’st to have a solidified form but she can bend it to her will too. This flexibility along with her pink coloring is reminiscent of Nintendo’s Kirby sans the giant appetite. B’st doesn’t have a lot of great skills, but she is strong and makes some valiant sacrifices in the story.
3 Resh’an
Sea of Stars begins with an interesting narrative tactic by introducing a literal narrator reading a book that is the game. Every once and a while the game will cut back to the narrator reading the story of these characters before popping back to the game proper. Eventually, Zale and the others discover this narrator as someone involved in the story. He’s also known as Resh’an, an immortal alchemist who seemingly knows more than he is letting on.
Resh’an and the main villain, Aephorul, are kind of like the two connecting pieces between Sea of Stars and the developer’s last game, The Messenger. Will they, or someone else from Sea of Stars, be involved in whatever project the developers do next? The mysterious nature of Resh’an is why he’s such a fun character to follow in the game.
2 Serai
Serai is another character whose mysterious nature is compelling. Characters first know her as a pirate named Captain Klee'shae who is obsessed with a ghost ship called The Vespertine. Then, Zale and the others meet Serai when Gale falls ill. It turns out that the two characters are the same and she doesn’t explain why she was deceiving everyone. That’s not the big revelation of the game though.
It turns out that Serai came from a completely different dimension and she is a cyborg as well. Her future is a lot like the destroyed one in Chrono Trigger and that’s not where the similarities end. Even though she became a more open character than Resh’an, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about this cybernetic ninja by the time the credits roll.
1 Garl
Garl is everything. Without him, Sea of Stars would not be as magical as it is. He is the glue that binds everything together and the hidden message behind his kindness and optimism is striking. Garl may not have magical powers like Valere or Zale, but he doesn’t care. The message is that you don’t need to have powers to make a difference in someone’s life.
Garl just wants to hang out with his friends and help save the world in any way possible. It doesn’t matter if he loses an eye or loses a life in the process. Garl is the greatest friend anyone could ever hope for. The only other pure-hearted character from an RPG that comes to mind immediately is Sora from Kingdom Hearts. It’s safe to say that Garl and Sora would get along famously.
Sea of Stars was released on August 29, 2023, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.