29.08.2023

Physical release in west announced for May 2024. UPDATE: 10.05.2024 available on Nintendo Switch, Sony Playstation 4 and 5, Microsoft Xbox One and Series X

Tried ordering the japanese physical a while back... Now it shows new shipment @ 07.02.2024

Got it. The case(s) are covered with moonrunes. Also came with 2CD soundtrack + a couple stickers. // Moby ID: 216133

You do NOT get exp from ''summoned'' enemies... I wasted like twenty bruiser ants and got NOTHING in return.

The game is kinda hard, kinda. AND there are bullsheet moments like in the previous comment. I've probably made some noob mistakes with the level up choices too (you get to choose bonus stats like in super mario rpg). EDIT: You seem to need both MP and HP the most (!)

The game pays homage to various titles including Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Breath of Fire, Super Mario RPG, Phantasy Star among others. With a hint of Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider.

I probably should take some notes.

... no, too lazy ha ha EDIT: Actually HAD to take some notes lol

Close to getting a ship i believe. Currently 12h in. EDIT: Yes, got the boat.

Level up bonus priority order:

1. Mana/Magic Points (Very much needed)

2. Hit/Health Points (Much needed too)

3. Magic Attack (if neither above are available)

4. ??? (Maybe Defense or something then)

Often times when a boss fight is just starting to get good, the boss dies lol

They do have fair amounts of HP, but could use even more imho

10 Food items limit i can deal with... BUT you can only hold 999 Gold !? Also battles do not give gold. Gold is acquired by finding directly in chests, by selling gems or by selling food. The last is the only ''grindable'' way, so instead of fighting you need to collect food/ingredients by repeating areas or something...

Also the level system is different (''unique'' even). Levels are shared instead of having individual levels per character. This can be a good thing too, because being knocked out by the end of a battle doesn't make you lose/not get exp. Everybody gets it as long as you win, even with one character at 1HP left.

Grinding is best done near a Campfire and a Save Point. Fight a few battles, camp/rest, save, pause and select return to title, in main menu hit continue, fight the battles again and repeat.

31h in and i still have NOT gotten the ability to fly on the map(s). EDIT: Got it, was one boss fight away from the ability to fly,

Clear

Did not even get half of the conches etc. Did unlock New Game + too

End credits take forever because they list kickstarter backers. EDIT: There's speed up and ultra speed up.

Watched some reviews on Youtube and they pointed out the same stuff too, especially the similarities with Golden Sun.

Also you don't actually need that much gold in the end. There is a point where something cost like 800 gold though. I also used food items very rarely because i thought i needed them all for selling.

My review:

Game version: Nintendo Switch
Difficulty: Moderate to High
Graphics: 8.9/10
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Audio: 8.5/10
Story: 8.8/10
Length: Around 30 hours
Replay value: Low (New Game + exists)

Reminder; i mentioned that if i give 9 or higher to anything it pretty much means 10/10 on average person's reviews... I'm far stricter than an average Joe.

Also the audio lacks solid ''bangers''. It is very good, but not enough... For example the game they take after like Chrono Trigger has noticeably higher count of GOOD tracks. Sea of Stars does not reach that level of audio quality. Even WITH a guest composer that has had a nice catalogue of compositions in the past.

Battle system is fairly tight and does not favor spamming attack button alone. The battle difficulty most certainly is higher than what one could call Medium difficulty and Super Mario RPG-like timed attacks and defenses are fairly necessary.

Spoiler (i guess) : You get the flight ability at the end of the game which means you mainly travel on boat once you get it.

The game length includes a few hours of grinding so it is somewhere between 25 to 35 hours of solid gameplay. I only grinded to 3 levels higher than average person because grinding isn't that necessary in this game. PROTIP: Always Invest in MP first and HP second when leveling up.

The game does seem to have a some amount of post-game content, but the replay value is low because once seems to be enough to see everything. There is probably a true or a better ending in the game (i got a ''The End?'')

Also not a dealbreaker, but there were noticeable loading times at least in the Nintendo Switch version. I do not recall seeing much slowdowns, stuttering or frame dropping etc. (because the game loaded more stuff at once? hence the loading times?)

The graphics do their job and there are lots of nice little touches here and there. In fact they put more effort into them than one would even notice.

Also the overall positivity of the Warrior Cook is pretty positive. I will not talk more of the story.

Review was written on a NEW NINTENDO 2DS XL and in random order so it may seem a bit dis-jointed.

Actually some of the battle/boss BGMs are good + memorable.