20 Best Video Games Of 2023 - RANKED

16. Sea Of Stars

Talk about a game that wears its influences on its sleeve. Sea of Stars is a gorgeous RPG directly channeling the 90s JRPG scene in every way. Developer Sabotage Studios even recruited legendary Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda for the score, bringing every fight to life in a way not heard in this capacity in quite some time.

Still, where Sea of Stars drops the ball is in character writing and overall story pace, robbing it of being further up the list, or truly being able to hang with the likes of the Chrono series, or those beloved 2D Final Fantasys (shout out to FF IV).

Instead, what you have here - and it's expertly done - is a "My First JRPG"; something for a whole new generation to get completely lost in. Combat relies on snappy timing-based minigames for maximum damage, with Sea of Stars' wondrous art style and largely blank slate protagonists letting you indulge in whatever's around the next corner.

Perhaps a victim to hype, being in development so long and coming after 2018's The Messenger was such an inventive genre-splicing release, this is an easily recommendable RPG - just don't go in expecting a worthwhile narrative.