Nintendo just held its last Indie World showcase for 2021 to show off some of the great indie titles that'll soon hit the Switch. One of those just so happens to be a classic turn-based RPG that seems heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger's combat.
Sea of Stars is the prequel to The Messenger, a game that was more of a Metroidvania than a classic JRPG. Studio Sabotage has decided to switch genres to continue the story of the Children of the Solstice. In Sea of Stars, you play as Valere and Zale, a lunar monk and a solar blade dancer, who combine their sun and moon magic to defeat an evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.
If the top-down camera and pixel art weren't already reminding you of Chrono Trigger, then the combat system certainly will. Your party of six playable characters can combine their attacks to create powerful combos that'll exploit weaknesses in enemy defenses. There's also timed hits, surprise attacks, and a "locks" system to stay on target.
And if that wasn't enough, Sabotage also got original Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 composer Yasunori Mitsuda to provide original works for the game.
Other features include grind-less gameplay where there are no random encounters and each battle is specifically tuned to the player's level. Traversal also departs from classic RPGs in that you can swim, climb, jump, vault, and hoist up ledges like a platformer. There's also sailing, cooking, fishing, and minigames to enjoy at the local pub.
Sea of Stars arrives Holiday 2022 for the Nintendo Switch. Stay tuned next spring for more platform announcements.
There were a bunch of other games given release windows during Nintendo's Indie World, including Loco Motive, a new point-and-click murder mystery from Chucklefish, and After Love EP, a visual novel that takes place in Jakarta. Both of those are coming in the summer of 2022.