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Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker DLC Review – Worth The Time
Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
Genre: JRPG, 2D, Pixel Art, Retro
2023’s Sea of Stars wowed many, many Japanese role-playing game fans with its art style and gameplay. While its story starts off simplistic and its leads two-dimensional at times, it gets better and more epic as more layers unfold, leading to one of the better reasons to get the true ending for the title. It was an indie marvel and a crowdfunded success.
Years later, the developers at Sabotage Studios decide to create an encore DLC, this time focused on the game’s major character the Watchmaker, who only got a good amount of screentime but never a backstory. Now, you have it in the form of Throes of the Watchmaker, featuring new dungeons, new bosses, and a circus theme that adds a lot of variety for the eight hours-or-so it entails.
The main plot of this encore DLC has your troupe of Zale, Valere, and Artificer – the former who was an NPC now made a playable character here- exploring the Watchmaker’s Clockwork Castle. See, the pocket universe she created was tainted by the Fleshmancer in the past, so our trio of heroes enter to fix that issue. Problem is, the Clockwork Castle is ruled by the Watchmaker’s evil clone, the Puppeteer, and she has tons of magic at her disposal. This includes commanding a bunch of circus-themed minions, creating clones of our humanoid heroes, and also prepping up another Dweller boss monster for our team to eventually square off against. One could even say that the Puppeteer has twisted the castle into a Dark Carnival.
Of course, you’re not going into this all fully-powered up from the base game. You’re now back to square one, and given new abilities. Arty/Artificer has laser cannons for his base attack and has a slew of specials like a cannonball special that requires him to use a trampoline to keep his launched projectiles going for max damage. Zale is a Juggler, being able to single-target kill enemies with the power of timed juggling, healing people by throwing pies in their faces, and balancing on a giant sunball that explodes for big damage if you collect the stars on screen on time. Valere can do a limbo pole exercise that harms all enemies and heals her team, and also do a flying trapeze act to dish out continuous magic damage. The latter is similar to her Moonerang special, but with harder timing since you’re dealing with swing timings instead of back-and-forth ping pong timed presses.
Just like the base game, you need to time your button presses to get the most damage and effects out of them, as well as be quick with your movement for some of them. The character’s team-up attacks are extensions of these minigames and quick-time events, so it’s good practice to use your abilities so that you can master the high-tier moves. They’re all fun to use, though you are going to find your favourite special move to spam. Personally, I lean towards Valere’s all-targeting limbo pole move and Zale’s juggling pyro act, as the latter is easier to break locks on enemies.
Speaking of which, enemy special attacks are now enforced by mystery locks. Previously, the game shows you what locks are on enemy’s special moves so you know what to use to break them. Due to the carnival setting, sometimes these become guessing games for you and your party to figure out, for the sake of ramping up the challenge. Given the fact that this is an encore DLC, this is fair since by this point you should already know how enemy locks, attack inputs, and defense inputs work. The new tools while different are effective with what’s dished out here combat-wise, and the game’s new bosses do test your patience and endurance, really making sure you stock up with curatives beforehand because any mistake with them is incredibly punishing.
The dungeons and puzzles too are creative yet don’t strain your brain too much. True, some of the optional areas use the much-maligned mosaic puzzle, but the majority of this DLC offer simple logic conundrums that tie in well with the game’s theme. For example, the Ivory Tower has obstacles involving Zale’s evil twin and his narcissism, so all solutions to his puzzles involve knowing how his portraits look like and how his numerous poses should be ranked on a makeshift podium. Cute stuff, really.
This and the Wolf Rock dungeon which features Valere’s feral clone also fleshes out our aforementioned 2D heroes a bit more, along with much-needed resolution to their short character arc. This was needed in the base game for us to care about, so I’m glad Sabotage added that even if it’s a “better late than never” situation.
It’s always good to see indie developers like Sabotage continue making meaningful content for its magnum opus JRPG, and the Throes of the Watchmaker DLC adds more value to an already stellar title. The fact that it’s free is also surprising, considering most of us would be fine paying a small sum for this addition. Still, one shouldn’t look in the mouth of a gift horse and just roll with it like how a posse of insane clowns would deal with Faygo and fat chicks.
With fun new mechanics & classes and challenging gameplay, this DLC is certainly worth your time.
Review copy provided by publisher.
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