There is certainly no shortage of retro inspired titles on all platforms these days. In fact, sometimes it can feel like all other games are pixel art & # 39; s in retro classics. Still, when those games are well done and they do More rather than loving your unhealthy surroundings, the consequences can be overwhelming. Sabotage Studio's first game, The message, did just that, setting expectations for its looks and clues in the first place before passing through the final one in a surprising way. It was a throwback, but one that has more than enough to give a wink of knowing, and a twist that wraps its narrative well.
Sabotage was aiming to present its next project, a large turn-based RPG called Star Sea, at GDC this year with a hands-on ad, but COVID-19 reviewed those plans. Instead, we are invited to view it in a positive light hands-off A video demo hosted by Sabotage CEO and Creative Director Tierry Boulanger afterwards talked about the magic of the internet and kept our distance well within the community. While disappointed that we could not get our hands on this first building, the remote demo gave us a good idea of the direction of Sabotage, and we have to say it looks really promising.
Star Sea exists in a universe similar to The Messenger and it is clearly binding on its core, but it was laid out thousands of years ago. When the first game looked back to similar games Ninja Gaiden for inspiration, Sea of Stars takes on 16-bit RPGs (think Chrono Trigger) as a jumping off point for a new, modern take on the genre.
Built for Unity, Sea Star follows the aspirations of young Valere and Zale who are trained to be Solstice Warriors with the power of the Sun or the Moon to use to fight against the evils of Fleshmancer, the biggest threat to the world even though his team is minutes away from working with the residents & # 39; the whole game.
It's a two-part story and picks one of the two characters as the team leader (there will be six team members in the final game) at the beginning, though according to Boulanger this only affects the flavor text and the characters that stand out throughout the story. The narration results will be the same no matter what you choose, so you won't need all the second playback to get the correct & # 39; Those of you with backlog blues can breathe easily.
we were thinking of a bridge, high peaks and water all the gates that were blocking access to new areas where we would need a power bracelet or other magical magic to swim, jump or climb … but no.
"It won't be a matter of branching either the choices you make whoever is most important in the end, "Boulanger said." There are almost two characters, but you gain control of one. "Your chosen performer takes center stage and may receive an initial response to discussions or receptions from the locals, but the meat of the experience will be the same whether you want to work for the crew, carry the Moon-girl Valere or agile & # 39; blade Dance & # 39; Summer Solstice Sun-boy Zale.
In fact, the focus of this cleverly drawn RPG reduces the fat and the previous fatigue, something that is immediately apparent in the visual display. It takes place on Walker Island, the first of six planned destinations that you will find at sea and at home and the big picture overlooking the island and its inhabitants. After the first short battle on the coast, Thierry moved north along the forest path past a lake with a bridge built from the outskirts. Having played our fair share of RPGs, we thought that the bridge, high lakes and water were all gates to block access to new areas where we would need a power bracelet or something magical to swim, jump or ride to …
But no. Thierry quickly gets into the water and both characters drop off the chairs and practice looking at the beauty. Yes, there will probably be inaccessible areas and strategies for advancing recruitment, but the high barriers seem to not cause a problem with the main characters and our immediate idea (other than what it looks like, more on that later) was like opening and releasing a world track that seems to be compared to a traditional high RPG.
Boulanger raises three C's when asked about this: the camera, the character and the controls. "At least in a few retro headlines, it seems that the controls (…) nobody cares at one point, you know? You're tied up in a grid and nothing was involved in the experiment – it was all about fighting. Well, the fight was good in those games." go to Sea of Stars to "fix some of the tedium" while installing all the development plans and the kind of technology you expect to find, one way or another.
Speaking of mechanics, when you get into the (inevitable) screen enemies, there is no separate screenplay. Battles take place in overcrowded environments, and as you would expect, combat is based on turns. However, active attacks require real-time input from the player, with the press of time buttons (exceptions). depending on the attack) which increases the effectiveness of strikes.
"The input is always important. No matter what action you take, player input can contribute to a better outcome," Boulanger said of the skill-based program. One example from the demo saw Valere playing the & # 39; tennis & # 39; by pressing the time buttons to turn into a Money-boomerang game, reminiscent of the Channel & # 39; s Forest Temple match against Phantom Ganon at Ocarina of Time. At one point the attack required a combination of forces to intensify the fireball. Player input is an important part of the turn-based battle here.
This battle-based approach will be crucial in overcoming the challenging enemies of the Sea of Star and is one of the ways in which Sabotage builds a wide range of deep-game options and outcomes without turning to the kinds of solid rating systems that have crossed the point in the old days. "The goal is to get to the point where your character is moving forward with the story" Boulanger tells us.
The lack of Sea of Stars random encounters means less of a reliance on that old-school approach and more focus on pattern recognition, learning and exploiting weaknesses, as well as improving performance.
Say you put your head on a brick wall of a specific employer in a traditional RPG. You will have to go grinding XP from random experiences to overworld, buy more and equip better gear before heading back through many unstoppable battles to try one more attempt at a boss. The lack of Sea of Stars random encounters means less of a reliance on that old-school approach and more focus on pattern recognition, learning and exploiting weaknesses, as well as improving performance. "You've seen cartoons, patterns," explains Thierry, "so you can better enlarge your vision in the future to better prevent it." It is an engaging way of playing that draws the grind.
Enemies dissipate energy drops when you hit a target so you can re-activate a power meter for each character attack. Enemies can charge spells that are made up of many variants but can be reduced by hitting a specific attack. Read the signals, manage your mana successfully and hit on time to reduce incoming spelling power or cancel completely; fail to do so and even small enemies can create great problems for your party, not to mention the occasional snooping elders or great bosses you'll find.
Given the efficient installation system and the broader objective of stripping the tedium and filler, there is no need for an & # 39; auto-war & # 39; here. Indeed, Boulanger says the party is considering the permadeath of the enemy, though he emphasizes that it may have just happened at this early date. "We have only a few months left and two years have gone by … () We have tried to break it down as it is trying to be. The process – there is a lot to come from, but nothing goes wrong.
"Do things that 2D Sprite games should not do with lighting"
Though the game has only been a few months into production, Sea Star is already a real spectator. A little 16-hearted, though not really. The light feature is a flexible lighting system that reflects the time of day (which you will be able to control later in the game). We have witnessed the time passed in the agreement. The shadows were stretched and the moon came out, from which began the process of making the moon's metal carved on the rock and revealing the secret.
Playing with powered shadows and managing the sun and moon is just the beginning, though. "Doing things that shouldn't be done in 2D sprite games shouldn't have to turn on the lights," Boulanger said excitedly, and comparing side-by-side 16 technical topics need not see that. The bio-luminescence light of the underwater plants reaches the surface with great explosive effects, the characteristic particles (also strongly illuminated) reflected in the holes, and the glittering stones in the black holes serve as important light sources. It is beautiful a visual game even at this stage and without the obvious kind of touch that brought to Square Enix's mind An Octopath traveler in a way that captures the vintage look but transforms everything up to 11 using the power of modern hardware. In fact, Sabotage breaks the knot right clicking here.
The GDC-mounted top-facing piece is impressive and can easily give the impression that the Star Sea is passing where it is. With the release date of 2022 being released, we will all right in the next round of pointers during its exit with Sabotage (it is understandable) that it is less understandable when asked about targeted platforms. Many things are still up in the air in this era of change, but Boulanger assures us that the team is confident in its ability to scale the game on the right platforms and take advantage of the platform's other features (he talks about the HD rumble as the most fun to play). The PC build we've seen looked great on the screen, even though holding the Switch to the top of the screen the text can be a little mite in portable mode, so it's nice to know that the team knows when these things are.
"We're planting everything we did from our first game"
Remember the visual highlight of The Messenger (robbers, by the way) which saw the game jump from an 8 to 16 level presentation and became Metroidsian, we wondered if we would expect the same thing in the Sky Sea. "Our main driver is news," Thierry said. "The 8 and 16-bit in The Messenger was a great way to tell the story of a future ninja. Hey, let's skip one console generation! (…) That was a great idea for a story and it comes with the best way to use our creativity to deliver that story. "
Boulanger is hoping Sea Stars takes things up a gear from the previous game. "It's a good story, with a lot of twins and a lot of unexpectedness." Sabotage is looking forward to creating a shared atmosphere among all its games, and we are assured that there will be plenty of storylines for fans of the past game to use on this side, though we might not have anticipated that there would be a major creative moment to this. "Creation in RPG is already such a big deal I don't think we can do it twice!" she is funny.
Looking at this time and the dating game even in this first installment – and it provided Messenger success – begged the question of why Sabotage turned to funding the masses and the Sea of Stars. "The short term is that we invested in everything we did from our first game," Boulanger explains. "We believe in the conference, we believe in our next vision, but there are still two years ahead of us and those 16 people, in full, have not been paid for the market value." In other words, games – good games – stamped is very expensive to make.
Sabotage seems committed to respecting not only the 16 classic RPG traditions but also the era of modern players.
The team is well aware that Kickstarter is actually not able to provide the amount needed to support the scale game they have in mind, so while providing a viable cash injection Kickstarter will act primarily as a barometer for public opinion; confirmation, of sorts, to make sure the audience is on board with the studio. "We want people to tell us in a bright way yes, I want to play this, I'll be there eventually if you guys take this home. We're really committed to the project, which is exactly what we want to do, but that's a big risk. "
The demo gave us a pretty good idea of how Sabotage wants to capture its audience and Star of the Sea, yet we know a lot it did not happen express – sailing between islands, for example. The concept is complete but it was obviously still worth pointing out, although Boulanger says "time and effort aboard the ship will be as big as the passing of the world in your character" and will include "waves of dialogue, and building momentum". It sounds interesting and we can't wait to see it done given how beautiful the water looks in the pool. Maybe we just found some unhealthy food with water for a video game, but powerful 16-bit style waves and a Sabotage resistance system? Yes please.
From what we've seen so far, Sea Star has begun well and fans of The Messenger will certainly not be disappointed with the latest studio service. As an entirely scripted RPG character that takes on the best features of retro titles and combines them with new 21st-century programming, we'd like Sea of Stars to be able to hit a much larger audience. Sabotage seems committed to respecting not only the 16 classic RPG traditions but also the era of modern players. It looks like a true and fun crowd of past and present; waiting for two years will feel really long.
The Kickstarter of the Sea of the Sky live as of the time of publication, Sabotage is gearing up for the 2022 release on platforms that are determined to be clear. We have to say that it looks very promising, and based on the quality the team has achieved with The Messenger, we have high hopes for this success.
Many thanks to Thierry and Philip Barclay, Executive producer of the game, and apologies to both of us in our pronunciation of the word & # 39; Ninja Gaiden & # 39; – it was hot now and we know better, to be honest!
