History VideoGame / SeaOfStars

* BraggingRightsReward: [[spoiler: Garl's Ultimate]] is a multi-hit attack that strikes every elemental weakness, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including defeating multiple {{Superboss}}es without this move, and basically getting OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding all of the treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is fight the TrueFinalBoss. It doesn't carry over to NewGamePlus, either. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss just to see it and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.

* BraggingRightsReward: [[Garl's Ultimate]] is a multi-hit attack that strikes every elemental weakness, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including defeating multiple {{Superboss}}es without this move, and basically getting OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding all of the treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is fight the TrueFinalBoss. It doesn't carry over to NewGamePlus, either. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss just to see it and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.

* BraggingRightsReward: Garl's Ultimate is a multi-hit attack that strikes every elemental weakness, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including defeating multiple {{Superboss}}es without this move, and basically getting OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding all of the treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is fight the TrueFinalBoss. It doesn't carry over to NewGamePlus, either. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss just to see it and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.

A chronological {{Prequel}}, ''Sea of Stars'' is set in the same world as ''The Messenger'', but billions of years in the past. The player takes control of Zale and Valere, a pair of Solstice Warriors -- members of an AncientOrderOfProtectors empowered by the sun and moon to keep a horrible evil at bay, confronting their latest and greatest threat.

** Very early in the game Zale and Valere recall how their childhood recklessness led to Garl losing an eye and lament the fact that he didn't show up to see them off. We're then treated to a scene with several mysterious ObviouslyEvil figures discussing Zale and Valere setting out on their journey. A savvy first time player may assume that Garl has grown to resent them over his lost eye and become a villain, but as soon as the flashback is over he jumps out of a nearby bush to give the heroes freshly made jam before joining the party.

** The game has several design cues out of the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' series. Valere wears her special garment as a half-cape in the exact same fashion as Felix's own, even down to the same side, Zale's character portraits make him look like a darker-skinned Isaac, and climable walls share the same imprint as those found in ''The Lost Age'', and even the character sprites fit pretty closely to what an HD remaster would likely do for the ''Golden Sun'' cast.

* BeyondTheImpossible: This trope is actually the CentralTheme of the story. At multiple points the playable characters are given updates on their destiny that establishes a course of action they are going for is impossible to see through; they can't [[spoiler:beat the Dweller of Strife, they have no hope against the Dweller of Torment, and Garl will put into place the potential for everyone's salvation too late for it to mean anything.]] Despite every setback and destiny itself trying to interfere with their quest, the Solstice Warriors continually try to accomplish their goals anyway because they know those goals are righteous and that a task supposedly being impossible doesn't mean they should give in to apathy when they can at least ''try'' to change things for the better. Because of their dogged determination to buck the odds, other factors become interested in the heroes and assist them, or the heroes themselves find some other means of coming as close to accomplishing their goals as possible, continually invoking this trope and overcoming what should be impossible odds in their quest to save the world. Meanwhile, the apathy and nihilism [[spoiler:Brugaves and Erlina respectively]] assign to this trope and their unwillingness to ''try'' to still overcome the odds are painted entirely as poor choices on their part. The primary villains in the story aren't evil out a sense of ambition or moral righteousness, but because they're just too lazy and convinced of their failure to try to buck the odds - [[spoiler:Erlina causes most of the game's conflict because she's told by the Acolytes the Solstice Warriors cannot overcome the Dweller of Torment, and instead of trying to find some alternate means of victory she just decides to give up to satisfy Brugaves' cowardice and her desire to protect Brugaves and nothing else.]]

* CombatPragmatist: Despite each being an AnimalisticAbomination that the Fleshmancer implies lack a conscience, all the Dwellers fought in the game are shown to understand the rules that make them vulnerable and go out of their way to avoid a fair fight where they could conceivably lose;

** The one that takes the cake is the [[spoiler:Dweller of Torment. First, the island it's on has a curse on the mountain of Torment Peak that causes anyone who enters to instantly forget anything they learned when they exit the region. This already stymies any attempt by the Solstice Warriors to form a posse to overcome it, since they can't fight it individually and can't remember to bring in more people to defeat the Dweller. However, the true beauty of this is that the Dweller of Torment has a baby gorilla birthing program that gives it a self-sufficient supply of food it can use to become a World Eater '''in secret,''' meaning there's no possible way anyone can learn of its actions without outside assistance. If ''everything else'' fails, it's located in the heart of a mountain, meaning the light of an eclipse cannot reach it. It takes divine intervention from Resh'an for the party to learn of the Dweller of Torment's existence and Seraï's portal technology to open a 'window' to the outside for the eclipse to stream in from to dispatch the Dweller of Torment.]]

* ExactWords: The Oracle of Tides determines that [[spoiler: no matter what outside help the Solstice Warriors get, whether it be Resh'an, the genius children, or Seraï, they will go into battle with but will not defeat the Dweller of Strife. As it turns out, this is technically correct - just as the Dweller of Strife begins to weaken, it wisely decides to destroy the laser beam doing actual damage to it and takes the fight out of the Clockwork Castle and over to Mesa Island's hills, where Valere and Zale can only deal ScratchDamage to it. ''However,'' that doesn't mean that the Solstice Warriors will necessarily ''lose,'' either - the Oracle of Tides never says the Dweller of Strife will go on to destroy the world, and when Seraï fudges the fight by indirectly involving Resh'an, thus calling in Aephorul, Resh'an's counterpart takes the Dweller and the Acolytes away to refine them, setting up the events of ''VideoGame/TheMessenger''.]] So, really, the fight can conservatively end up being called [[spoiler:a tie.]]

* CombatPragmatist: Despite each being an AnimalisticAbomination that the Fleshmancer implies lack a conscience, all the Dwellers fought in the game is shown to understand the rules that make them vulnerable and go out of their way to avoid a fair fight where they could conceivably loase;

* ExactWords: The Oracle of Tides determines that [[spoiler: no matter what outside help the Solstice Warriors get, whether it be Resh'an, the genius children, or Seraï, they will go into battle with but will not defeat the Dweller of Strife. As it turns out, this is technically correct - just as the Dweller of Strife begins to weaken, it wisely decides to destroy the laser beam doing actual damage to it and takes the fight out of the Clockwork Castle and over to Mesa Island's hills, where Valere and Zale can only deal ScratchDamage to it. ''However,'' that doesn't mean that the Solstice Warriors will necessairly ''lose,'' either - the Oracle of Tides never says the Dweller of Strife will go on to destroy the world, and when Seraï fudges the fight by indirectly involving Resh'an, thus calling in Aephorul, Resh'an's counterpart takes the Dweller and the Acolytes away to refine them, setting up the events of ''VideoGame/TheMessenger''.]] So, really, the fight can conservatively end up being called [[spoiler:a tie.]]

* GuestStarPartyMember: {{Exaggerated|Trope}} in a really neat way. The original mission, charged to Zale and Valere by Headmaster Moraine, is to help defeat the last Dweller; he musters the entire Solstice Warriors corps -- consisting of himself, the two {{Player Character}}s, and {{Mentor}}s Erlina and Brugaves -- for this battle. When you finally confront the boss, Headmaster Moraine is a party member, ''and'' Erlina and Brugaves are present as AI-driven combatants who nonetheless contribute to the battle.

* MultipleEndings: Defeating the final boss unlocks the option to resume playing from right before then, but with a hint about finding the GoldenEnding. [[spoiler:In the Moorlands, one of the first levels of the game, there's a ring of standing stones that can be visited; checking each one gives you a single image idea of what sidequests you need to complete to make it light up. Complete them all and the ring of stones turns out to be the Cronophage, allowing Zale and Valere to save Garl from death. Garl rejoins the party, and with his presence, the TrueFinalBoss becomes accessible.]]

* BraggingRightsReward: Garl's Ultimate move hits every elemental weakness at once, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including defeating multiple {{Superboss}}es without this move, and basically getting OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding all of the treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is fight the TrueFinalBoss. It doesn't carry over to NewGamePlus, either. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss just to see it and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.

* BraggingRightsReward: Garl's Ultimate move hits every elemental weakness at once, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including fighting multiple {{Superboss}}es without this move, and going for OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is fight the TrueFinalBoss. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.

* NewGamePlus: Defeating the final boss unlocks the option to start a new run while carrying over items from the previous run, including the endgame relics that allow self-imposed challenge modes, one of which is required for HundredPercentCompletion.

* BraggingRightsReward: Garl's Ultimate is a move [[spoiler:that hits every elemental weakness at once, which is extremely useful for lock-breaking. But in order to get it, you have to be well on your way to the GoldenEnding, including fighting multiple {{Optional Boss}}es and going for OneHundredPercentCompletion in finding treasures and Rainbow Conch shells. The only thing left to do once you get this attack is go through one more dungeon and fight the TrueFinalBoss. Since using an Ultimate attack is limited in nature, you might use it once against the last boss and then never use it again, especially since other Ultimate moves have more utility and it's possible to break locks perfectly fine without it.]]

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: The level cap in this game is 30. In compensation, all point values are reduced and significantly more important; each character starts with about 10 MagicPoints, when the average spell costs 5, and it's going to take a while before a basic attack does even 100 damage. Additionally, you can take on the FinalBoss at around level 20, though the TrueFinalBoss is a different story. It is unknown if the level cap will be raised in the upcoming "Throes of the Watchmaker" DLC.