Sea of Stars, a prequel to The Messenger, gets a 2023 release date

Nintendo and Sabotage Studio have released new information about Sea of Stars, the prequel to the retro video game The Messenger. Sabotage Studio announced that the highly anticipated prequel will now release in 2023. The game was announced in 2020 and was set to launch earlier but was subject to some delays. Sabotage Studio has been keeping fans updated with a constant stream of videos released on its YouTube channel, with the promise that more about the title will be coming.

Sabotage Studio shared a new video of Sea of Stars during Nintendo’s Inside the House of Indies Holiday Event streams. The video showed new footage of the game, including a message from infamous video game composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Mitsuda is most famous for working on classic games for the Super Nintendo like Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and The Secret of Mana. Mitsuda was a fan of The Messenger and was contacted by Sabotage Studio to work on a few tracks for Sea of Stars alongside the lead composer.

Related: Sea of Stars is an entirely different throwback from The Messenger studio – Preview

Since Sea of Stars is meant to be a throwback to old-school SNES games, Mitsuda is trying to make the game sound as if it was coming from a SNES. Mitsuda’s message is overlayed with new gameplay footage of Sea of Stars, showing off a new river area. The gameplay footage highlights the detailed and polished pixelated art style, with the water effects in the video looking especially impressive. More of the game’s combat was shown in the footage, emphasizing that the game is an old-school RPG with a similar gameplay style as Chrono Trigger.

The story of Sea of Stars is about two Children of the Solistice who combine their powers of the sun and moon to create Eclipse Magic. With their newfound powers, the Children of the Solistice intend to stop an alchemist known as The Fleshmancer from ruining the planet. Players can put Sea of Stars on their Steam wishlist, and the game is set to launch on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.