Sea of Stars, from The Messenger developer Sabotage Studio, follows up on its action-platformer predecessor by pivoting to a different genre entirely. Set in the world of The Messenger, Sea of Stars takes inspiration from JRPG classics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG to tell a new story with old-school roots. Although this transition might seem like an unusual approach to a prequel, The Messenger also acted as a natural stepping stone to expanding on certain concepts in Sea of Stars.
Screen Rant spoke to Thierry Boulanger, the creative director behind Sea of Stars who wrote and directed The Messenger. The universe that these games take place in is one that Thierry first imagined in grade school, now polished and presented to the world through the stories that Sabotage Studio is creating. Thierry spoke about transitioning to a game where the narrative would have to be a central part of the experience and how The Messenger paved the way for that leap.
Screen Rant: [The Messenger] has a surprising amount of story in a genre where people don’t tend to expect much beyond the pure game play. This is moving to a genre where a lot of people are going to be coming in with the expectation and the interest in the story first and foremost.
Thierry Boulanger: For sure. I don’t want to say it’s a trick I played, but I’m not a writer either. I just felt like writing a game, and I just did it the way I thought made sense. The Messenger was kind of a test for me. It’s like, I’ll write this; it doesn’t stand or fall on the writing. So if I’m terrible at this, the game can still work. But seeing the response on the writing from people who went out of their way to care about it when it’s not the core of it at all gave me the validation.
Thierry elaborates on the “validation” that he gained from The Messenger‘s reception as thinking “I suppose maybe I can write,” a reasonably modest takeaway from the game’s success. That takeaway, however, is what gave Sabotage Studio the confidence to leap into a story with a greater scope. Although Sea of Stars focuses on refreshing classic RPG gameplay in the same manner as The Messenger‘s reinvention of retro action titles like Ninja Gaiden, telling a tale that resonates with audiences is now a linchpin critical for the game’s success.
Set to release on August 29, Sea of Stars is right on the threshold of unveiling the full breadth of its narrative to the world. Thierry’s comments make it clear that this venture isn’t something that Sabotage Studio embarked upon lightly, with The Messenger serving as a crucial litmus test to determine the viability of a more involved story. Just how successful Sabotage is at evoking the love that games like Chrono Trigger still hold while striking out on its own won’t be certain until audiences get their hands on Sea of Stars.
