Sabotage Studio, the same developer behind the great The Messenger, announced last month that they were currently working on a brand-new role-playing game called Sea of Stars; aiming to capture the essence of classic RPG titles like the Final Fantasy series and other great games from the 8 and 16-bit era.
Featuring some jaw-dropping 16-bit graphics, the developers at Sabotage Studio have already manged to make Sea of Stars look like one of the RPG titles it is drawing inspiration from. On top of that, the developer has also announced that composer Yasunori Mitsuda — known for his work on games like Chrono Trigger and Xenogears — was also joining the team.
It isn't just Yasunori Mitsuda who will be producing the music for Sea of Stars, as The Messenger composer Eric W. Brown has also been revealed to be composing the game's soundtrack, and today Sabotage Studio has released a brand-new music track that has some serious Chrono Trigger vibes; sounding particularly similar to Primitive Mountain by Yasunori Mitsuda.
"I wanted a very percussive, rhythmic soundtrack, because you don’t really get that in an RPG. Especially a retro RPG, you might have a tambourine, and a bongo, that’s about it. There are literal hundreds of thousands of percussion instruments in the real world, and each region of our world has unique instruments and rhythms, I think it’s only right that the game world feels similar in that respect," Brown revealed in the latest entry on the game's official Kickstarter website.
"We had several discussions about finding a “signature instrument” for the music, and I kept coming back to various types of Bells. Not only is there a large enough variety to never run out of options, they do sound rather “starry” which is theoretically appropriate for a game called Sea Of Stars. And they’re a percussion instrument."
"SNES soundfonts. It is my correct opinion that nothing makes a true retro gamer’s ears perk up more than the identifiably sultry sounds of the S-SMP audio subsystem. Given that the SoS art style has a lot more depth than The Messenger, 8 bit chiptunes would not be appropriate here. But it’s still supposed to feel retro, and the best way to make that happen is to use actual sounds from actual SNES games."
"So this tune came about from exploring many different possibilities, and I’m reasonably pleased with the result. The drums in this song are a little more deliberate than some other areas of the game, but it’s the jungle level, so more tribal beats were necessary," Brown concluded.
I fyou want to listen to Eric W. Brown's newly released soundtrack, and you really should if you're into classic RPG games, be sure to visit Sea of Star's official Kickstarter website by clicking right here, or simply listen to it down below:
Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics. A prequel story set in The Messenger’s universe, it tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.
Sea of Stars is expected to release for home consoles and PC in 2022.