Since re-upping my PS-Plus account I have decided that I am not going to jump from game to game but instead focusing on something I enjoy and seeing it all the way through. I started with Sea of Stars for a couple of reasons that are very specific to me personally.
For starters, I chose Sea of Stars as my first "deep dive" because I had already played it for the obligatory 1-hour that I was doing in my failed experiment that I started last year to play every single PS-Plus Extra game. I enjoyed it and wanted to play more but felt compelled to move on because there were so many other games that I had not yet played.
The other reason is that it is an "old-school" RPG with rather simplistic controls and this is important to me because while I do love videogames, I am far from hardcore and will quickly lose interest in something if it uses all the buttons on the controller and requires super accurate timing of strikes or whatever the game calls for.
This game reminds me a lot of something like Final Fantasy back on the SNES but with much better sound. The graphics are simplistic and aside from a couple of cutscenes of which I have only seen a few, there is nothing graphically intensive about this game.
I like the story even though there is a teensy bit more senseless dialogue than I would prefer. However, they haven't gone full Kingdom Hearts and turned a videogame into a movie that you only take part in every now and then. The dialogue comes in a very formulaic manner and it is kind of predictable when it is going to happen. The story is pretty typical with you being part of an elite jedi-like group that ends up getting betrayed by its own members.
So far I think I am about 75% of the way through the game, which is good because even though I appreciate "throwback" games like this, it is starting to have run its course. They do a lot of things right with this game but there are instances where all the missions start to feel the same after a while. You get additional skills added to your arsenal as things go on but at the end of all that every part of the quest goes like this
- encounter new city / area
- said area has a problem and only YOU can sort it out
- you go to a nearby dungeon and do around 10 battles, solve some puzzles, then face a boss
- defeat said boss and return to the town a hero and then get pushed to the next area
The bosses are done pretty well and they are reasonably challenging so I am not going to complain about that. I like it and the fact that there isn't really a great deal in the way of tactics appeals to casual gamers like me. I have only died twice and I think this is by design. This is a casual game where you don't really need to be all-in in order to complete whatever level of the game that you happen to be on.
One thing that is a little bit annoying is that there really isn't any sort of customization of characters. You have weapon upgrades that come at you every now and then and this is designed to keep pace with the increased difficulty of whatever area you happen to be in at the time. There is some ability to backtrack to access areas that you couldn't get to beforehand but it is such a slog to go that far back in search of something that you can open only to discover that the "prize" for doing so is just some collectable or something you can sell for gold. Gold is given to you as you progress through the game in a manner that is going to be just enough to equip your crew with the latest weapons and armor so honestly, there isn't much reason to bother going back to areas you have already completed.
The game is colorful and interesting enough to keep you captivated for maybe 15 hours or so but for people who require a high degree of challenge this isn't going to be the game for you. I am happy that I decided to play this but honestly, I am hoping that it will be over soon so that I can move on to something else.
After I complete this game I am likely going to move on to an Assassin's Creed game because I have never played one before and there are something like 10 of them in the catalogue that I can play for free. So if you have a suggestion of what you consider the "best" AC game to be, please let me know.