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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • It’s heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger…heavily. It’s got dual-techs, the writing feels very similar at times, the equipment has predictable scaling as the story progresses, and lots more. The dialog is a bit saccharine for my taste; I’ve far preferred Chrono Trigger’s. Chrono Trigger has pleasant and supportive characters, but it hasn’t ever felt over the top. Sea of Stars also has some modern niceties, like timed presses for defense and offense, some interesting spell-boosting mechanics, it’s very pretty at times, etc. And it plays on jrpg tropes at times in a fun way, and didn’t feel like it overstayed its welcome. Since you love Chrono Trigger, my best guess is that I think you’d have fun with Sea of Stars. It won’t blow your mind by any means, but I don’t think you’d regret spending time with it.


  • I’ve started and stopped it a number of times over the past 20 years or so, and I’m finally playing it all the way through right now. At least one of those times was because I thought I HAD to fight Lavos through the bucket and thought I was expected to grind until I could defeat it lol. This time, I’ve found it really remarkable how tight it is and how well it still holds up today. Even though Sea of Stars came out last year, it feels like Chrono Trigger could have been released alongside it and it would only feel a bit more dated in some respects.



  • Props to you for using strikethrough instead of deleting in your edit so the context still makes sense. I think you bring up an interesting point about competitive fps games. I imagine companies structure their development similar to games-as-a-service because they are essentially two flavors of the same thing, right? I had never really considered whether the growth of the competitive scene was part of the drive towards GaaS and away from tight single player experiences.

    I think underlying all of this is that publishers want a guaranteed profit margin. That doesn’t exist in art, of course, but they still want it. And if that means choosing what they think is a safe bet, they’ll choose it. I think Bungie made GaaS look way easier than it actually is, and maybe the competitive scene contributed to that too. “Look at all the money these hero shooters are making, let’s get a piece of that pie.” Formulas just never quite work out that simply in real life.