The demo for Sea of Stars that came after the latest Nintendo Direct only gives a short idea of what to expect from the full game expected to launch later this year. However, a secret challenge from within the Sea of Stars demo could be the key for players to fully grasp the depth of the mechanics and features that make the classic JRPG-styled combat unique among the genre.
Across the short demo, players can find two relics that can fundamentally alter the challenge of Sea of Stars, both to increase the difficulty and make the game more accessible to a variety of playstyles and levels of skill. These two relics, and possibly some new ones made available in the final release, are able to expand the skill window in ways that highlight exactly how intricately Sabotage Studio has balanced the game's combat.
Amulet of Storytelling Eases Conflict Without Trivializing Combat
As the game stands in the demo, keeping the controllable party alive isn't exactly as simple as just making sure to kill the current group of enemies. Keeping each character's health up normally extends outside each fight, putting players in a tense war of attrition against the dungeon as each new encounter threatens to dwindle the party's health down bit by bit. While this is nothing new for JRPG titles like Sea of Stars, the first relic available in the new demo can go a long way toward mitigating the stress caused by this continuing health pool from fight to fight.
The specific effect of the Amulet of Stortelling is that it gives each member of the party and additional 100 HP and recovers three quarters of their total health at the end of each fight. This makes the party extremely difficult for standard enemies to kill, while also mitigating the attrition that comes from maintaining health from one intense fight to the next. It is an impressive idea for an easy mode that still allows players to engage with classic JRPG systems in Sea of Stars.
Artful Gambit Rewards Mastering Timing with More Effective Combat
On the other side of the Amulet of Storytelling is the Artful Gambit relic, which reduces the party's HP by 95% while also adding bonuses to timing blocks and hits properly through a mechanic similar to the Mario and Luigi RPG series. Additionally, whenever an enemy prepares a powerful attack, these can normally be countered by striking with the correct type of damage from across the entire party. However, with the Artful Gambit relic in effect, enemies can't be damaged without first completing these counters and stopping the oncoming attacks.
For both of these major changes to the combat, the improved challenge provided by Artful Gambit forces players to make the most out of the attack and block timing. Managing to time a block correctly reduces incoming damage to a single point, turning every enemy's attacks from being immediately lethal to survivable with even the tiny amount of health allowed. Likewise, timing the input on an attack will result in doubling the damage players dish out to each enemy. It puts the rhythm of combat front and center, keeping the gameplay of Sea of Stars from being too derivative of titles like Chrono Trigger or Legend of Dragoon.
The change with the counters also goes a long way towards making sure that players understand and properly engage with this strategic aspect of gameplay. Considering that each attack an enemy gets can be an instant kill with the Artful Gambit active, learning how to make the most out of countering and stopping incoming damage can be key to keeping the party alive. When brought all together, these relics go a long way toward making sure the Sea of Stars wears its JRPG inspirations on its sleeves without simply being a clone of these older titles.
Sea of Stars is set to release August 29th, for PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch.
