The Messenger developer Sabotage Studio’s promising throwback RPG effort Sea of Stars will launch in Summer 2023, according to a new dev diary featuring co-composer (and Chrono Trigger legend) Yasunori Mitsuda. You can listen to a glimpse of one of his contributed songs, Coral Cascades, in the background of the video.
Much like the team’s previous efforts, this game is clearly wearing its inspiration on its sleeve, and harkens back to a golden era of turn-based RPGs, ushered in by 16-bit systems like the SNES. The studio wants to make some adjustments to the tried-and-trusted formula, however: there’ll be no grinding, for example, as it’s tuned character progression to flow in parallel with the story.
This is looking really good: it’s definitely got that retro look, but it’s clearly extending far beyond what would have been possible on 90s hardware. And with Mitsuda collaborating on the soundtrack, you can guarantee it’s going to sound just as sumptuous as it looks.
