Now, though, almost two years after its initial release, there’s never been a better time to play Sea of Stars. It’s available on a wide variety of modern platforms, including PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, and Switch. It’s also available on Game Pass, and happens to be on sale on all of those platforms through June 9, 2025. And, perhaps most importantly, Sea of Stars just got a brand-new DLC that you can download alongside the base game and play absolutely free. If you’re at all interested in the genre, here’s why you need to give Sea of Stars a shot.
Sea Of Stars Is One Of The Best RPGs Of All Time
At Least Of The Modern Era
Sea of Stars is an instant classic, a love letter to RPGs of the past – although it takes a very different approach from games like Clair Obscur. If Clair Obscur is a modern take on classic turn-based RPGs, with a specific focus on Final Fantasy‘s story-heavy structure, Sea of Stars is more like a modern Chrono Trigger. It uses retro-styled graphics and emotional, evocative music to build a memorable adventure through a beautiful world.
Combat is simple, flexible, but fun: each character has a handful of unique abilities to select from in a series of turn-based encounters. You can switch party members freely mid-battle, and can power up your abilities with real-time inputs. You can also charge up special abilities as you fight, building towards bigger and bigger attacks throughout the battle.
You’ll rarely encounter enemies that seem insurmountable, as Sea of Stars is built to be approachable even to genre newcomers. If you’re interested in some of the other games coming out as part of the current turn-based renaissance, but can’t seem to get into the genre, Sea of Stars is an excellent first venture.
Sea Of Stars Got Lost In 2023
Good Game, Bad Release Date
Sea of Stars is a good game that normally would’ve gotten a lot more attention. However, it released at the busiest time of year for RPG fans, cozying right up alongside some of the year’s biggest releases. Baldur’s Gate 3 came to PC a few weeks before; the PS5 release followed just a week after, on the same day as Starfield. Lies of P came out a couple of weeks after.
Even if you weren’t an RPG fan, you probably added several games to your backlog in the late summer of 2023. Pikmin 4, Armored Core 6, Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, and many, many others came out around the same time, and kind of buried Sea of Stars beneath their triple-A name recognition.
New – And Free – DLC Means There’s Never Been A Better Time To Play
Throes Of The Watchmaker Explained
But it’s better late than never, and now is a great time to play Sea of Stars. Besides its sale price and Game Pass availability, Sea of Stars now has a brand-new DLC, Throes of the Watchmaker. It’s a little side story in which the protagonists venture into the clockwork city of Horloge, where they attempt to stop the Puppeteer and her mad carnival from destroying the world. Throes of the Watchmaker brings some new story chapters, combat challenges, playable classes, and midway mini-games to Sea of Stars. And the best part is that it’s one hundred percent free on all platforms.
You must own the base game of Sea of Stars (or have access to it through Game Pass) to play Throes of the Watchmaker.
So, if any of the above sounds good to you, you should add Sea of Stars to the top of your backlog. It’s a great little game for turn-based RPG newcomers and fans of the genre alike, with lots of callbacks to its inspirations and more than a few unique ideas of its own. Since it’s available on Game Pass and the DLC is free, you have next to nothing to lose – you’ll almost certainly find something to love about Sea of Stars.
