THE NEXT DEBUG THING


Richie Shoemaker flicks through the first issue of Debug, a new games magazine edited by veteran mag-ician Dean Mortlock that aims to be a champion for indie titles, studios and publishers


G Dean Mortlock, Debug editor


aming magazines are in strange and uncharted territory. Despite established titles continuing to post


copy sales that 15 years ago would have seen them closed in the turn of a page, there’s been a steady increase in the number of boutique titles filling the shelves. There are now in the UK, for example, just as many magazines for the Commodore Amiga – a machine that stopped being produced 30 years ago – as there are for PC gamers. On the console front, there are more titles that support Sega hardware (the last of which rolled off the production lines more than 20 years ago) than for the still-very- much-in-the-game Xbox. Perhaps the most striking newcomer to the newsstands has been the resurrected Crash magazine, which along


24 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2023


THE HUB SEA OF STARS


became masked by flat perspectives, albeit infrequently. Get to the port town of Brisk, and


RELEASED 29 AUG


there’s much to discover, including the obligatory company of NPCs, many sporting speech-bubble titbits. A line or two each makes for sufficient economy (Tales of Arise, are you listening?) where flavour text is concerned. Once you’ve completed your first tasks, you’ll get to the first dungeon proper, a suitably subterranean level governed by puzzles built on coloured crystals. Trial-and-error opens up new areas and a safe path, which eventually leading to boss central.


SHINY COMBAT And c


TURN BACK S y and v


And combat is wher Sea of Star really shines, its turn-based foundation pimped-out with a clutch of tricks that add variety, strategy and value. Example? Struck enemies drop small icons, littering


Struck enemie ons, litt


TIME


SAILING SEA OF STARS BACK TO A CLASSIC RPG ERA


o if you thought Sabotage Studio’s latest effort fell out of the 1990s, we wouldn’t be surprised. We wouldn’t be upset either, given the decade’s status as the golden age of console role-playing games.


But if there’s one 16-bit adventure Sea of Stars is channelling to the max, it’s Chrono Trigger, something abundantly clear to fans of the Japanese subset of the genre. And, as if to hammer the point home, the addition of guest composer Yasunori Mitsuda (he of the aforementioned Chrono Trigger, plus Chrono Cross and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 scores) only lends further weight to an already hefty-looking title. Make no mistake, Sea of Stars could easily be the equal of modern retro beasts like Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default II. But enough smoke blowing. Put


simply, Sabotage Studio aims to rekindle the very best of the oeuvre, while adding


the sensibilities players expect from modern gaming. Let’s start at the beginning. Sea of Stars is a prequel set in the world of the


INFO


Developer Sabotage Studio


Publisher Sabotage Studio


On


PC, PS4/5, Switch


Demo Switch


of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.’ Or, in other (naff) words, ‘young kids save the world from bad guy’. So far, so corny. Fortunately, the graphics speak a


“ Sabotage Studio ”


aims to rekindle the very best of the oeuvre


devco’s previous hit, The Messenger. As a trad JRPG, the story is suitably epic: ‘two Children of the Solstice combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable


more developed language. An isometric perspective is instantly recognisable as a staple of the genre, but is infinitely more detailed here. With a wider colour gamut, Sabotage boasts of real-time lighting, something that adds a contemporary flair. Really, the whole thing is a stunner, and particularly reminiscent of Chrono Cross in the shoreline setting of the current Switch demo. Hands-on, it’s all good news – mostly


– where exploration splits between an overworld map, and various locales and dungeons. Movement lets you hop, climb and swim about, all mercifully free from the old-school shackles of NSEW, tile- based travel. Indeed, it’s worth checking outside the obvious, as hidden tracks or items often reveal themselves. On occasion, this hinders progress, where what should have been an obvious path


THE BACK CATALOGUE


The people who made this also made…


The Messenger More pixel-stylee, platform action rocking that 16-bit feel. Top ratings, too.


14


with its old 8-bit stablemates Zzap! and Amtix, can be found in select branches of WH Smith almost 40 years after it launched and more than 30 since it folded. Quite remarkable, to borrow a catchphrase of the time.


t is wt is where Sea of Stars s, its turn-bas


the battlefield. In turn, they can be utilised in the following attack, boosting its power. Elsewhere, timed blows allow certain weapons to bounce off multiple enemies, while a combo gauge fills on successive hits, until the associated special move becomes available. These include dual-character assaults, greatly increasing dealt damage.


One of the neatest inclusions is a fruit-machine wheel that sporadically spins above enemy heads, indicating not only how long until their own special, but what types of counterattacks will negate the charge. We rarely felt we had enough moves to grey-out the entire whe ,p yqel, especially when the required member of our three strong party was in cooldown, thus unavailable. It takes some real strategising, but adds immeasurable breadth to the battle system.


er of our thr -str eal str Rounded out with a fishing


subgame, plus a campsite cooking mechanic for crafting consumable items, Sea ofems,


subgame, plus a campsit chanic for cr


Stars suddenly feels like it could easily become our most


e it c


anticipated game of the year. Aug 29 – HTFU.


Neil Randall y was


#1 APR-JUN 2023


YOUR COMPLETE INDIE GAMING GUIDE


DEVELOPER FOCUS


In-depth develope feature, including one of the most original


In-depth developer feature, including one of the most original games we've ever seen


OPE eloper


O ER er


games we've ever seen


features and interviews covering the whole indie market


Previews, reviews,


INDIE GAMING COVER ED Previews, reviews,


INDIE GAMING VERED


features and interviews covering the whole indie market


ISSUE 01 £7 .50


pure indie 100%


5 065009 558223 #1 Viewfinder // Lowtek Games // Tchia // The Last Worker // Horace // Sea of Stars // Cocoon // Bomb Rush Cyberfunk // Planet of Lana // Atomic Heart


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