gameing

At long last, I get to tell you all about one of my favorite games, maybe my favorite turn-based RPG of all time, Indie Game of the Year: Sea of Stars.

Sea of Stars was published in 2023 by Sabotage Studio, an indie dev team based in Quebec. It's a story-driven fantasy RPG featuring rich 2D pixel art and retro-inspired gameplay, immersing you in an incredible world full of magic and wonder. If you think that this game is just like any other turn-based RPG, though, you would be sorely mistaken.

The Story

The game begins with Valere and Zale, who are on their way to becoming true Solstice Warriors. These are people born on a Winter or Summer Solstice who can learn to control Eclipse Magic, a pure form of magic connected to the sun and moon, and the world's only hope of salvation. For generations, the Solstice Warriors have been fighting Dwellers, the grotesque, otherworldly monsters created by a legendary alchemist known as the Fleshmancer. There is only one known Dweller remaining, the Dweller of Woe, and together with their mentors Erlina and Brugaves, Headmaster Moraine, and civillian best friend Garl, Valere and Zale intend on defeating it.

Now, spoiler alert, this is the plot at the very start of the game, so you can probably guess that the Dweller of Woe is not the last Dweller, and that something more is afoot. But, of course, that means there is even more to discover that I haven't even mentioned! So please, I urge you to check this game out for yourself. It's available on Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. You will not regret it!

Please enjoy the Accolades Trailer embedded in the next box!

Alright, now let's talk about the game itself!

The World

Let's start with the visuals. The graphics in this game are absolutely beautiful. The color and lighting of the sprites change dynamically with the time of day and environment, which work perfectly with the sun and moon themes and put you right into the game. There are also so many different biomes to enjoy on your journey, such as snowy mountains, vast deserts, winding jungles, and gloomy swamps. I find the water in particular to be especially gorgeous and well designed. Whether you're rushing down a waterfall, wading through a marsh, or sailing the open ocean, the water looks amazing and feels exactly as it should.

So we have this beautiful world, but how do our heroes interact with it? Our playable characters, including Valere, Zale, and Garl, are able to traverse by climbing up walls and ledges, jumping across gaps, swimming, crossing tightropes, and more! The heroes must use these skills to explore and solve puzzles along their journey. Additionally, they're able to collect ingredients to use for cooking right from their sources, such as by foraging or fishing. (As the number one fishing minigame fan, I really like the fishing minigame in Sea of Stars, haha!)

In addition to the visual and tangible aspects of the world, the sound design and music are stunning. The soundtrack swaps between a day and night version of pretty much every song, including several tracks both in and out of comabat. There's so much gorgeous music, the base game OST is split into three separate albums: Solstice, Eclipse, and Pirate. Speaking of pirates, there's a gang of pirates in this game that also double as a band. You can collect sheet music to give to them, which unlocks more soundtrack tunes for them to play "bardcore" versions of! It's extremely charming and works great for the many taverns you come across :)

The Combat

Arguably the most important aspect of any turn-based RPG is the combat. This game absolutely knocks it out of the park. Just like in most turn-based RPGs (especially retro ones), Sea of Stars battles use health, mana, and items as your resources for success. In a fight, every enemy has a countdown display above them, telling the player how many actions it will be until that enemy acts. For each round, every hero may only act once, so it's important to choose actions and order wisely. And, of course, you win if your enemies lose all their health, and fail if your heroes lose all theirs. However, there are additional aspects to combat that make Sea of Stars especially unique and engaging.

One unique mechanic is timed actions. Every skill used in battle, as well as attacks being sustained, can be timed with a press of a button. If an action is timed successfully, it will grant a bonus effect! For example, timed blocks greatly reduce damage taken, and timing attacks will allow the hero to attack a second or even third time, or could even inflict another type of damage. There is even a game mode toggle that makes timing essential to survival, which I found fun and interesting on my second play-through.

Another unique mechanic is live mana. In the game, you get to learn along with the heroes what live mana is and how to use it. Essentially, like in many RPGs before this one, basic actions do basic damage, while skills that cost mana grant you access to new types of damage, such as magic. However, Solstice Warriors are capable of utilizing the live mana that is dropped as particles when enemies sustain basic damage. This mana, when absorbed by Solstice Warriors, allows them to apply magic to basic attacks, or power up special skills, for their subsequent action.p>

The last aspect I'll discuss here is the locks system. Throughout a battle, your opponents will have short timers leading to basic attacks. However, they have special skills at their disposal, just like the heroes. When an enemy's next move is going to be a special skill, a bar of symbols called "locks" appear above them. Locks must be broken before the action countdown runs out. Successfully breaking all locks will stop the enemy from acting that turn, while breaking some will lessen the skill's power.

By the way, there are only six damage types in this game, and strengths and weakenesses to certain damage types are unique to each enemy. At the start of the game, you have access to two physical damage types (Slash and Blunt) and two magic types (Sun and Moon).

On top of all of this, there was a huge update released in November of 2024 called Dawn of Equinox. The most notable change was... couch co-op! If you love playing games with friends, you can enjoy Sea of Stars with up to three players, creating new opportunities while exploring the game. You can solve puzzles in new ways, run around as party members previously unavailable (originally, you could only be Valere or Zale), and even enjoy little things like handshakes and new animations :)!

The time is now. It's time for me to tell you about the REAL game. The one thing that matters the most above all else.

Wheels.

Wheels is a two-player tabletop game that exists in the Sea of Stars universe. It was invented by a legendary Watchmaker who built a table with all the internal gears necessary to play a game of both strategy and chance. Pretty much anywhere the pirates play their bardcore music, there is a Wheels table to play, each with its own sitting Champion. In order to play, you need a wheel, the material of which boasts your level of skill. The player's wheel is inserted into the slot along with the four wheels built into the table, allowing the game to be played.

Let's start with the basic rules: each player has a Crown. The Crown has 10 health points to start. The first to deplete their opponent's Crown to 0 wins the game, although it's possible to end in a draw if both fall to 0 in the same round. Your Crown is unprotected, but you can protect it by building your Bulwark, or wall. So how do you damage your opponent's Crown? With your Heroes, of course! Your Heroes are represented by figurines, and when they gain enough energy, they automatically perform their actions, which could involve attacking, healing, granting your other Hero energy, or building up your Bulwark.

To start, both players choose their two Heroes for the game. Players can only use one of a kind of Hero, of which there are six to choose from. The first figurines you get, along with your copper wheel, are the Warrior and the Mage. You earn more figurines, as well as higher rank wheels, by defeating Wheels Champions. Once both players are ready, the game begins.

Each round, the players simultaneously spin their wheels up to three times, with their wheels hidden from the other. Between spins, they may lock any of the symbols that they wanna keep, spinning only the unlocked wheels. Each wheel is 8-sided with symbols on each side. The three symbols are Squares, Diamonds, and Hammers, and some sides could have two or three of a single symbol. Some sides also have a sparkly background. More on that later.

Each symbol pertains to a structure on the table. Squares and Diamonds represent the figurines on the left and right, respectively, while Hammers represent the Bulwark. By earning points from the wheels, the figurines gain energy and the Bulwark is built up around your Crown. The player needs to roll a minimum of 3 of a symbol in order to gain its benefit. Crucially, each additional symbol counts towards that benefit (so 3 is worth 1 point, but 4 is 2 points, etc.).

Heroes also earn experience. Sparkly symbols are worth one experience point, and every Hero action adds two experience points. Every six experience points, the figurine levels up, going from Bronze to Silver, then to Gold. If a Gold Hero earns six experience points, they send a bomb to the opponent, dealing two damage directly to their Crown.

Each Hero has different stats and abilities. The Warrior deals high damage, but can only attack once at ground level. This makes the Bulwark an easy counter to the Warrior. The Mage, on the other hand, attacks twice with fireballs, with one hitting at ground level and the second soaring over the Bulwark. The other Heroes include the Archer, Engineer, Assassin, and Priest, but I won't go into what they all do. My favorites to use are the Assassin and the Priest :)

That's pretty much all you need to know! The game does a great job of explaining Wheels, so long as you're willing to learn :) If you'd like to learn more about the specific details and strategy for Wheels, check out the Sea of Stars wiki (unfortunately hosted on Fandom, but I have linked the BreezeWiki version of the page).

I also have excellent news: if you were around for my blog posts in 2024, you may recall me begging and pleading anyone who would listen to let me play PVP Wheels. Well, you'll never guess what they added in the Dawn of Equinox update! That's right!! You can now play Wheels with a friend in Sea of Stars :)! I highly highly recommend this, especially because I myself don't have any friends to play with LOL so go forth! For me!

So, you know that Sea of Stars is awesome, but what if i told you there was more :)?

In 2025, Sabotage Studio announced and released a free DLC, not long after the Dawn of Equinox update, called Throes of the Watchmaker. After rolling credits at least once in a base game save file, an entirely new side story, with new characters, enemies, mechanics, and secrets, becomes accessible

Upon unlocking the DLC, the heroes are summoned to meet with the pirates, who need a favor from an Ovate. They are told to meet with the Watchmaker, a woman who lives high in a tower in Clockwork Castle, whom they had met with before on their journey (she invented Wheels!). Once there, they ask her for her help, but won't do it for free.

The Watchmaker reveals to the heroes her masterpiece: a giant clock so perfect that it sustains its own ecosystem of little clockwork people, plants, and animals. She named the miniature world Horloge. However, while she was making the clock, the Fleshmancer had secretly cursed one of her cogs, knowing that she would use it in her creation. One day, when something went wrong inside, she entered her little world to see what was the matter. Just as the Fleshmancer planned, the cog sapped some of the Watchmaker's essence, creating an evil clone of her which would become the Dweller of Scourge. The Watchmaker managed to escape with her life, but her realm of clockwork has fallen to chaos ever since.

If the heroes want her to help their pirate friends, she needs the Solstice Warriors to cleanse the Dweller and return peace to Horloge. She won't allow anyone else with strong auras (aka playable characters lol) to enter, due to the cursed cog's power, but she sends them with Arty, the robotic Genius Engineer who lives and works in Clockwork Castle. And so, the Solstice Warriors and the pirates venture into Horloge.

The world of Horloge offers new opportunities and challenges. For starters, the Heroes can shrink down to enter the clockwork world, but they can shrink even smaller to enter smaller devices within, allowing them to solve complex puzzles with many moving parts. As for challenges, though, they're pretty steep! Soon after the heroes enter, the Puppeteer's evil henchmen defeat them and sap their essences. The Solstice Warriors can't use their full power in this world, and they pay for it immediately.

Sent to the Oubliettes, the pirates and Arty help break everyone out of their jail cells. There, the heroes meet Fardush, another prisoner, and he teaches the Solstice Warriors how to play by Horloge's rules. Going along with the circus theme of the curse, our heroes need to use their skills in new ways. With Valere's balance and poise, she converts her skills into those of an Acrobat, and with Zale's speed and agility, he becomes a Juggler. They trade their usual damage types for Fire, Bonk, and Magic, while Arty holds the unique power of Laser.

The heroes know what they're up against: the Dweller of Scourge, which is disguised as a Puppeteer, and whatever it throws at them, including evil minions and corruptions of Valere and Zale themselves. What could go wrong?

Please enjoy the Launch Trailer in the box below!

The Messenger is a sidescroller action-platformer developed by Sabotage Studio and released in 2018. It was the first game by the studio, and it actually exists in the same universe as Sea of Stars! I've been meaning to play it, but it's a genre of game that I'm not used to playing. However, there are many Messenger easter eggs in Sea of Stars, and there was even an ARG (alternate reality game) involving characters from both games leading up to Sea of Stars' release.

To say that the games are connected would be a huge understatement, but I haven't really gotten into the nitty gritty. All I know is this: the very very end of Sea of Stars directly references the beginning of The Messenger. Their events happen in sequence, and I think that's awesome :) If I manage to get further in the game, I'll write about it here!