If not for the art and music, this game would have no redeeming qualities. Though the game does offer a lot of different options to make the gameplay easier/harder it still fails to be enjoyable. A lot of my main problems are fixed by messing around with those options but the fact they are included as the intended experience is my issue.
The game features a lock system in which you need to use specific abilities to remove symbols from an enemy before they use a big attack and this, in theory, is an interesting idea. The issue is that these locks are hidden and you need to experiment to reveal them and often times you only have about 1 to 3 turns which occasionally makes these attacks IMPOSSIBLE to avoid or it just makes it a guessing game as you have to randomly use abilities hoping the locks get removed. Again, this can be fixed in the difficulty settings as you can choose to have all locks revealed which even then doesn't guarantee you'll break the locks because a lot of patterns are impossible unless you are the most prepared you can be (and sometimes are outright impossible to do in the turn limit given). You might need a certain amount of MP or combo points and if you used all of those to remove the locks the turn before, you're completely out of luck because the enemies can just spam these attacks. The main gimmick of the game is completely unbalanced and was so close to being good, which describes a lot of this game.
The characters are some of the most bland I've ever seen in an RPG. The main characters, the ones you spend the entire game with, have absolutely no development or interesting traits. They are the good guys and they have no personal flaws, no interests, nothing that might make you care for them. The main characters are so bland that they feel like self-insert characters but somehow more plain. The childhood friend character, Garl, is this generic happy-go-lucky guy who wants to be friends with everyone and has a heart of gold and that is all. He is as important to the story as the main characters but the plot surrounding him is not moving in any way and is a direct rip off of Chrono Trigger. The other characters are about as simple as the rest and not worth talking about.
The story of this game is a very typical JRPG story with basically nothing of interest. It is predictable, bland, and drawn out. Garl is very present in it and feels more like a main character than the actual main characters which makes him more annoying than likeable. In the latter half of the game you cross the Sea of Stars to go to a new world, more technologically advanced than the world you spent time in during the first half. Normally, I would love this, the shift from fantasy to sci-fi is a trope I adore and always reminds me of games such as Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The difference is in Xenoblade 2 the sci-fi thing completely recontextualises the world of the game and has massive lore relevance while in Sea of Stars it is just another world and nobody thinks anything of it because this game does not allow anyone to express emotion of any sort. Any interesting idea this game has is not expanded upon which makes for a completely forgettable game.
The DLC is free so that's always a good thing but even that doesn't warrant playing it. The DLC is a short additional story that is only accessible after beating the game and doesn't add much. The story is simple which I think is fine for its length but the issue is the antagonists. The main villain creates evil versions of our main characters and these guys are very similar to the Shadows of Persona, representing a side of the heroes that they try to hide. The issue is that, since this DLC is only for people who beat the game, we know everything these characters went through and at no point did any of these negative emotions the evil versions represent come out of them. Zale's doppelganger is a narcissist who wants glory and recognition but the issue is Zale HAS THAT. He is a solstice warrior, known across multiple worlds and recognised as one of the heroes who will save everyone. He has glory, he has fame, he is beloved by many, and at no point in the main story did he ever show any sign of doing what he does for himself. Valerie's doppelganger is feral as opposed to the normal Valerie's very calm and monk-like behaviour. Again, never did she in the main story show she wished to be more angry or feral, she was always proper. These doppelgangers would work if the actual main characters had any flaws or any personality. Once again it is a good idea in theory that did not work in practice.
Teaks is cute though.
