One of the games I was most excited about in 2023 was the remake of Super Mario RPG for the Switch. I bought it the day it came out and had it beat within a couple of days. The game is a masterpiece from the SNES era, and the remake is visually gorgeous. I was instantly transported back to being a high school kid and loved every minute of it.
But when it was time to do my Game of the Year list, I didn’t even consider it. You know what I did consider? Sea of Stars, which didn’t make it on the list simply because I didn’t finish it in time. I’m hip-deep in it now, and it’s absolutely lovely.
Sea of Stars is a game that would never have existed without Super Mario RPG. Its timed hit mechanic is lifted straight from Mario RPG but improved upon to a remarkable level. While the Mario RPG remake also iterates a bit on the mechanic (timed hits now do splash damage), it’s a very minor change compared to Sea of Stars, which weaves timed hits into charging a combo meter or empowering your next attack.
Mario RPG isn’t the only game Sea of Stars is, let’s be kind, borrowing from. There are jokes lifted right from the old SNES classic Chrono Trigger, as well as musical themes, boss designs, and level assets that sometimes feel like Chrono Trigger with the serial numbers sanded off.
Yes, it’s derivative, but fans have been clamoring for a remake/remaster of Chrono Trigger for decades and gotten only stony silence. The last major re-release was on the Nintendo DS, and it did little but add some optional dungeons that were, frankly, not worth exploring. Sea of Stars basically said, “if you’re not going to get off your asses and do something with Chrono, we’ll do it.”
And it’s better than Chrono Trigger was. Sea of Stars incorporates several generations of game design improvements. It’s not that there’s anything especially wrong with Chrono Trigger. It’s still as fun to play as it was in 1995, but it’s very much of its time.
Sea of Stars feels more epic despite being about as long and containing more or less the same amount of content. Writing has improved, backgrounds have gotten better even within the pseudo-16-bit palette, and enemy encounters have finer polish. It’s a lot of little improvements that are just easier because Sea of Stars is learning from Chrono and Mario RPG without the burden of being them.
I remember being so excited for Metroid Dread. I am a huge Metroidvania junkie, and seeing the series return to its roots after years playing around in other genres was welcome. Then I booted it up and was just kind of bored. It was gorgeous, had some interesting mechanics, and was definitely a 2D Metroid game, but it was also too little too late.
The genre has moved on from its originators. I finished Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the first time in 2023 (I never owned it originally, and have always balked at paying as much as official stores usually charge), and the whole time I thought of how I would rather be playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The latter game is essentially a remake of the former with all the Castlevania bits pulled out to avoid Konami’s copyright wrath, but it’s also just better. There are more questlines, character development, customization of playstyle, and boss variety.
When Metroid Dread came out, it felt like the people who made it ignored everything the Metroidvania genre had done since it invented the concept. Imagine a beloved wrestler from the WWE Attitude era walks into the ring, looking great, but still busting out the same moves and mic skills as if no time had passed.
That’s Metroid Dread. It just wasn’t new anymore, certainly not as good as Bloodstained, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, or (my favorite from last year) Cookie Cutter. What new things it tried, it did rather shoddily. There’s no excuse for a parry mechanic being that bad in 2021.
Maybe it’s time to start appreciating classics as classics instead of something that needs continued high-level resources from major studios. There’s a reason you see comparatively fewer spiritual successors to Super Mario Bros. It’s because Nintendo has spent the last decade and change actually improving the way 2D Mario works. Wonder was amazing in part because it was an evolution of Mario, something new and good, while maintaining what we love in a 2D Mario.
At this point, I’m not sure I even want a Chrono Trigger remake or another Konami-led sidescroller Castlevania. If Dread or Super Mario RPG Remake are any indication, these legacy properties are treated like fragile glass that should be preserved rather than living things to be grown.
I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t buy a HD 2D version of Chrono Tigger or a polished up version of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin the second they came out, but it’s the difference between enjoying a 4K restored version of an old movie and watching a new one.
Really interesting things are being done with classic turned based JRPGs, Metroidvanias, PS1-style horror games, and other sub-genres. They’re being put out by new, forward-thinking game makers who want to mix an appreciation of the past with the continued evolution of game design. Super Mario RPG Remake was a monument, right down to failing to fix things in the original that were crap (getting the Super Suit, anyone?). The monument had a fresh coat of paint, some nice benches and landscaping, but it was still dead.
Sea of Stars is alive. Ultimately, that’s better for gaming and art in the long run.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
