2023 was a year packed full of spectacular games regardless of your taste. Baldur’s Gate 3 took the world by storm with its incredible characters, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom managed to surpass Breath of the Wild for many, and Alan Wake II set a new high bar for audio and visuals in video games. Despite all this though it was Sabotage Studio’s Sea of Stars that was my game of the year, taking everything I love about classic JRPGs and also taking my heart. Now two years later there’s new free content coming to the game, in the form of an all new post game campaign. Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker is just as delightful as the base game, and also just as ambitious.
After the party finished saving the day in 2023, it felt like their adventure was over. It turns out though that one of their friends is in need of help: member of the pirate crew Keenathan. He’s found out that his name isn’t actually Keenathan according to the council of Sky Giants, and is pretty broken up about it. After a discussion with the gang it’s decided the only person who can help him with this is The Watchmaker, who can make Keenathan’s name official with some sort of bureaucratic magic.
We didn’t learn much about the mysterious Watchmaker in the base game, but she’s really fleshed out here as she needs your help. A tiny clockwork world she has created is in peril, because the evil Fleshnancer added a cursed cog to it that’s flooding it with some real bad vibes. The only way to save it is by shrinking our two main heroes and sending them on a circus themed adventure, where they’ll have to confront the darkest parts of their psyche. The story of this mini campaign is as charming as ever, and adds some extra layers to Zale and Valere that fans will appreciate.
When jumping back into Sea of Stars I was delighted by the battles all over again. The turn-based combat with timing elements is as magical now as it was two years ago, and using your various elemental skills to break locks when enemies are charging a special attack is still so damn clever. I was worried about remembering everything I needed to succeed in Throes of the Watchmaker, but that’s not an issue because Zale and Valere get all new classes in this clockwork kingdom. Your third party member is the newly added Artificer, who you’ll likely remember from the main story as the NPC robot containing the souls of a gang of children.
Since you essentially have an all new team of heroes, you’ll get to level up with them all over again and unlock various special attacks. These are better than ever in Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker, requiring all sorts of entertaining interaction. The Artificer can summon multiple cannonballs that you’ll need bouch towards the enemy by running around with a trampoline. Zale is a juggler now, and his attacks include juggling multiple flaming clubs directly at a foe which causes massive damage if you time the button presses to keep this going. My favourite attack of all though belongs to Valere, who’s new Acrobat class makes her a force to be reckoned with. Her best new move involves doing the limbo under deadly lasers to send them at enemies, while standing upright to hit healing lasers which restore HP to the party. It’s so creative and incredibly effective, and I used it at every opportunity.
Outside of battle the mini circus of Throes of the Watchmaker is full of fun puzzles to solve. A lot of these involve a new ability you’ll obtain, which allows you to pick up and place various bits of the environment in new locations. Moving blocks, ladders and grapple points will help you access all sorts of secret chests, full of awesome gear. Some puzzles are more traditional too, like the various tile puzzles you’ll find in hidden shrines. Because of the clockwork theme of this new Sea of Stars location these brain teasing elements always fit in so naturally too, which I really appreciated.
As well as having a main mission to accomplish, Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker features a whole lot of side content to indulge in. All the usual suspects return here, like the ever enjoyable slot machine game Wheels and the over the top fishing. There are also a selection of circus performing mini games which are an absolute blast, and grant you some great gear for mastering them. This free additional campaign even has some sort of secret optional ending to unlock by collecting a whole bunch of hidden doodads, which is just wild. I spent eight hours beating the main story of Throes of the Watchmaker, but there’s easily ten hours of content here that I’d have happily paid for: and somehow we all get it for free.
It probably goes without saying when talking about Sea of Stars in any capacity, but The Throes of the Watchmaker is beautiful to look at and has a sensational soundtrack. The clockwork circus theme helps with this, ensuring that various carnival vibe songs and colourful environments get to feature throughout the experience.
It was incredibly difficult to think of anything I didn’t adore about this new update to the 2023 game of the year. The only thing that some might not appreciate is that a lot of your favourite characters likely won’t be featured in it. This is a story about Zale and Valere predominantly, and as such fan faves are left outside of the miniature world it takes place in. It makes total sense from a story standpoint though, and the characters you spend time with here are more than good enough replacements for this bonus campaign.
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker is easily as incredible an experience as the base game, and in some ways actually surpasses it. This free update adds a fully fleshed out bonus campaign to one of the best RPGs of all time, which stands on its own as some of the best content within the game in totale. The fact this is a free update will never cease to baffle me, but this does mean that nobody has an excuse to miss out on this magical adventure that’s as close to perfection as gaming can get.
