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March 19, 2020 2 min read
Sabotage Studio's second game shares roots with the developer's debut, but they could not be more different. The Messenger was undeniably excellent, a faithful homage to the retro action-platformer genre. But if the The Messenger was a love letter to the likes of Ninja Gaiden, Sabotage's followup, titled Sea of Stars, is an adoring nod to the likes of Chrono Trigger.
It's a change of direction drastic enough to give you whiplash. Sabotage co-founder and creative director Thierry Boulanger tells Destructoid that an old-school SNES-era RPG was always what the studio wanted to do first, but it was too tough of a sell from an unproven team. Boulanger mocks a theoretical pitch meeting for a narrative-driven RPG, saying "Hey, look at us! We can tell a story and we have zero proof of that, but please invest in this game." Turns out The Messenger was a lot easier for people to put their faith (and money) into. "You jump over the pitfall, you do front flips, you kill demons, here's a ninja, there you go."
Now that Sabotage has some credibility to its name, it's time for that ambitious retro RPG. Sea of Stars is a turn-based role-playing game about Zale and Valere (colloquially called SunBoy and MoonGirl) who are the Children of the Solstice. Zale was born in the summer and harnesses the power of the sun; Valere was born in the the winter and has the power of the moon. Combined, they have eclipse magic. (And, in case the timing is lost on you, the game's announcement coincides with the vernal equinox.) It's also a prequel to The Messenger, as the events of Sea of Stars evidently segue into the state of the world in The Messenger.
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