I do not understand why they bothered having two “main characters” when they both basically think, discuss, and have the same opinions on every single thing. The difference is quite honestly extremely surface-level. The two “main characters” have no personality, desires, wants, or anything of the sort of their own. The only thing they talk about is this bizarre obsessive fixation with their friend named Garl. Even after a lengthy years-spanning montage with them growing up from children into young adults becoming solstice warriors under the tutelage of their town’s magic school, the only thing these two talk about and obsess over is their friend Garl. They cannot go two complete sentences without obnoxiously obsessing over their friend and it reads more like suppressed sexual objectification over someone than friendship.

Needless to say, this is not a good story. Regardless of the beautiful graphics and decent gameplay, the story is absolutely awful because the only content in the dialogue is the obnoxious obsession with Garl. Nothing about why the pair of main characters wanted to be Solstice warriors, nothing about any friends or any potential loneliness they experienced with only having each other in a magic battle tower, nothing about their appreciation for learning interesting combat techniques or magic from teachers or the Headmaster, and nothing about growing up in an isolated subculture away from regular town life and the changes they underwent as a result of the differences. The only thing they discuss from beginning to end is . . . Garl, Garl, and Garl. I had thought certain parts of Dragon Quest 7 on PS1, a certain terrible PSP game about “the Gods have forsaken us” being repeated in an intro 3-4 times, and Chrono Cross would have been my most annoying experiences when it comes to dialogue. I stand corrected; Sea of Stars opening is more repugnant than all of them individually, because it does nothing but obsess over how the main characters’ – who should have just been one person after the character selection in the beginning – just want to shove their collective heads-up Garl’s ass.

I apologize if this comes across as mean-spirited, but I remain unconvinced that anyone calling this a “friendship” story or Garl being a good “friend” understands what friendship even is. This is not friendship; this is a one-note, poorly planned obsession with someone from a poorly written “main character” that is split in two. Why exactly do we select between the two “main characters” in the beginning, if we end-up playing as both of them anyway? The design choices don’t make sense for some parts of this game. Why didn’t the game have the player learn the tutorial as the kids were growing up in the training montage, instead of immediately afterwards in a “refresher” course? Why was it only two teachers who occasionally do field duty and the headmaster in a school for children with magical potential? Why did Garl leave a note and confusingly mention the Headmaster spotting him before somehow “hiding” the note? The letter read more like a text message than an actual letter. It didn’t make much sense.

Overall, this is not a good game. The main characters have the same personality, which is a yandere obsession with Garl. The dialogue is atrocious as all they ever do is talk about Garl. The friendship theme of this game is a failure precisely because of the failures in the dialogue. Nice looking graphics and decent combat aren’t enough to compare it to frickin’ Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger had simple characters and a simple plot that didn’t obsess over one party member to the point of obnoxious obsession. I give it a 0 / 10 and will be avoiding it. I’m so glad it was on gamepass, so I didn’t get curious enough to waste my money and buy it like Infinity Strash. Sea of Stars is just terrible.