Sabotage sets up a whole expanded universe with Messenger follow-up, Sea of Stars

Source: Sabotage

Thierry Boulanger has been thinking about a shared game universe for around 25 years, he says, starting in unproblematic school. He's been putting this long-ruminating fantasy into game grade.

The CEO and creative director at Demolition, the indie studio behind 2022'due south The Messenger, said in an interview with Windows Key that for the follow-up, the developers are, of course, going to get deeper into that universe, which goes far beyond the time travel and ninjas introduced in that first game.

On Th, Sabotage appear that its follow-upwardly volition exist Bounding main of Stars, a turn-based RPG that focuses on characters and a concept introduced in The Messenger. If you remember the 2 spirits that you run across — one of the sun and 1 of the moon — then you'll likely be familiar with what Ocean of Stars has in shop. It'll exist a self-contained story in a completely separate genre and information technology'll exist a much larger game, just more importantly, it'll be how Sabotage truly kicks off its potential shared game universe.

"It has many books, if you will — not concrete books, but in my heed, there are these important story arcs and of import characters," Boulanger said. "The Messenger, the story of the ninja, was i of them. Sea of Stars with the Children of the Solstice is another one, and in that location are many others."

The Messenger was a disquisitional hitting when it was released in 2022 (it currently has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on Steam with over 3,200 reviews) thanks to its innovative accept on the retro platformer. In example you haven't played it, the title starts off as a typical but challenging 8-bit platformer but around halfway through, turns into a 16-flake Metroidvania. This modify was met with a mixed reception among critics, merely it at least kept the actor on their toes. More importantly, it worked into the story, which saw the titular messenger — a ninja — go back in time 500 years. This opened the door to a much larger story behind the one island depicted in The Messenger.

This continues in Sea of Stars, which takes place thousands of years before The Messenger. In a 30-infinitesimal hands-off demo shown to press, we got a peek at i isle, but there will be many to explore. The game starts letting the player cull between six characters. Here Boulanger picks Valere, a heavy hitter with a staff, but is joined by Zale, a bract dancer that emphasizes agility. Players can cull between i of these Children of the Solstice — people born on either the summer or winter solstice that tin can perform Eclipse Magic. This is a dual-protagonist story, however, so you'll have both, but merely i will lead the party.

Source: Sabotage

The point of the game is to fight the Fleshmancer, an evil alchemist that creates odd, unnatural creatures that wreak havoc across the mural. Y'all fight these creatures in a series of turn-based battles that force you to utilize your concrete skills and magic to work towards victory. What will alter the gameplay upwardly is a semblance of role player command. Body of water of Stars works to keep the role player active during combat despite the turn-based system. For example, you might have to brew a button to charge up an attack or utilize strategy to counter an enemy spell's different parts (which currently announced in boxes to a higher place their head). This goes back to one of Sea of Stars' prime number retro influences: Super Mario RPG, or every bit Boulanger calls information technology, "the RPG that ruined all other RPGs."

"What that did for me is that in all other RPGs afterward, I was like, 'the animation is playing, simply there's no real reason.' We could just see the number because there's null I can do to affect the outcome," Boulanger explained. "Then this idea that information technology's constantly engaging and the thespian is constantly doing something to bear upon the outcome. That fabricated for a more compelling experience."

Source: Sabotage

Another odd inspiration for Bounding main of Stars is something less retro: Uncharted. Simply like that AAA championship from Naughty Dog, Sea of Stars rewards exploration and replayability. In the demo, for instance, Boulanger used Valere to unlock an optional dungeon backside a giant caput. The exploration elements are all over the place, from how you tin move from place to place to what you can uncover. This creates a sense of the histrion being in a earth that's bigger than themselves, which is something Sabotage began in The Messenger and adds to the size of the universe.

But how big is everything? It's hard to tell at this betoken since the game is all the same in early on development and won't exist out until at to the lowest degree 2022, merely the idea is that it'll exist bigger and more expansive than The Messenger. The squad is undoubtedly larger — up to 16 total-time employees from just a handful on the previous title — so there are more resources. Instead of getting simply 1 island to explore, there will be multiple ones. The full sense of what surprises you can find wasn't conveyed in the demo, but Boulanger likened what players tin expect in Sea of Stars to the "sense of wonder exploration" in something similar Uncharted or Tomb Raider.

"It's this sense of adventure and discovery and mystery and similar, old things that you go moving over again, and you realize that you're in a earth where in that location used to be bigger things going on and you're just actually, really insignificant compared to that," he said.

Source: Sabotage

The terminal piece of the proverbial puzzle then is how big is Sea of Stars compared to The Messenger and how much it will add together to the overall picture. Boulanger didn't specify how Sea of Stars would tie into the Messenger or how much it'll add together to the world. He did mention that information technology'll exist like to how Sabotage introduced some ideas in the previous title; by having familiar environments and some recurring characters, similar the two spirits.

On a larger scale, though, he did hint that Sea of Stars volition exist adding to the world began in the Messenger and will create more building blocks for that expansive universe he started thinking about when he was a child. Boulanger hopes that Sabotage can continue to brand more games, which will build the universe even greater and create a sense of purpose for players. If The Messenger posited a mail service-apocalyptic earth and forced the ninja to travel 500 years into the past, then in that location are centuries upon centuries to explore.

"Everything is tied together and it will be increasingly more than and more tied together as we progress and somewhen it comes to a point where the things converge. The reason why you had to play all these games is kind of revealed or explained. Just that's years ahead of us."

Sea of Stars is fix to hit PC and consoles in 2022.

While you await...

The Messenger

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/sabotage-sets-whole-expanded-universe-messenger-follow-sea-stars

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