Sea of Stars Dawn of Equinox update released, adds co-op
While it may not be the next big content drop (coming 2025), the Sea of Stars Dawn of Equinox update has been released, adding new features.
Thierry Boulanger (Creative Director, Sabotage Studio) took to the Official PlayStation Blog to say: “Along with countless bug fixes and micro adjustments, we added a bonus pre-rendered cinematic cutscene and finally got to revamp the game’s first hour by adding combat animations for the kid versions of our heroes. This allowed us to ditch the flashback structure by having action directly in the intro, something we sadly had to give up on during production.”
The main updates are the 2.0 upgrade of combat, which adds the following:
Sticky Combo Points: The gist of it here is that Combo Points now remain after battle, giving combo moves a lot more use overall, whether to open more aggressively on a regular fight, or providing more options to deal damage of the different types when dealing with locks.
Mystery Locks: This is another one that should always have been there. In short, Mystery Locks bring a new gameplay loop around revealing how to break enemies’ spells whenever they are first encountered. Instead of displaying the damage types required for each lock, they are hidden, requiring the player to try different attacks to see what will break each lock. Note that this is on a per enemy type, per spell basis, meaning that progression toward revealing Mystery Locks is saved in real-time.
Local co-op has also been implemented, with three-players able to share control a character in the party, and play together. The Creative Director says: “In combat: Combat initiates when any player touches an enemy or projectile. In this mode, it doesn’t matter who controls which character in the overworld; players take turns at random picking the next action from the character of their choice”, adding: “Whenever an action occurs, all players can chime in to perform Team Blocks and Team Hits for even more bonus effects. For example, whenever all three players time a block properly, the damage is always zero.”
The prologue to the game has also been changed, with a new cinematic, and the first hour being revamped with combat animations for the child-versions of the heroes. Boulanger says: “This allowed us to ditch the flashback structure by having action directly in the intro, something we sadly had to give up on during production.”
Sea of Stars is out now for PC and consoles.
