Tired. Just tired.

I want him out my head but he won't leave. How do I kick him out?

Here's the spritesheet for anyone who wants a look.

I made a playlist featuring every (well, almost every) ship in SoS! The playlist is also available as a normal YouTube and Spotify playlist if you prefer those.

It was a struggle coming up with songs for some of these, but here are my reasonings under the cut, even if flimsy:

I actually made this list a while ago and stumbled across them going through my Word docs. While there's a few I've changed overtime, I thought they were interesting and still accurate enough to what I think now to share so here ya go! ^^

Valere: 

Favorite Color: Maroon 

Age: 16 

Bites her nails when stressed. 

Caffeine gives her headaches. 

Hated going to bed as a child. 

Likes physical affection from Zale and Garl. 

Wouldn’t try very hard when she, Zale, and Garl would play soccer. 

Tried to keep Zale from embarrassing himself but stops once she realizes he’s too far gone in that instance. 

Hides behind Garl as her mouthpiece. 

Can’t cook to save her life. 

A bit of a neat freak and tries to keep Zale from being a slob. 

Is a sucker for sweets. 

Zale: 

Favorite Color: Yellow 

Age: 15 or 16 

Gets emotionally attached to people and things easily. 

Was scared of the dark when he was younger. 

Likes physical affection from Valere and Garl. 

Was always super competitive when he, Valere, and Garl would play soccer. 

Tries to flirt with women at every tavern they go to but fails miserably due to his lack of social skills. Valere and Garl have given up on trying to stop him and have resigned to being embarrassed every time. 

Hides behind Garl as his mouthpiece. 

Is bad at cooking but is trying to learn. He’s gotten pretty good with breakfast foods. 

Will use his scrimshaw as a kitchen knife when he loses Garl’s. 

Will create a biohazard in his space if not forced to clean up after himself. 

Prefers savory food and loves spicy things. 

Garl: 

Favorite Color: Orange 

Age: 17 

Loves being physically affectionate with pretty much anyone. 

Played as goalie when he, Valere, and Zale would play soccer. 

Tried many different homemade weapons before realizing he did better with his spoon and pot lid than anything else. 

Acts as Valere and Zale’s mouthpiece due to their lack of social skills. 

Do I really need to mention his cooking prowess? 

Will use Zale’s scrimshaw as a kitchen knife whenever his goes missing, which is almost always when Zale was the last to cook. 

Seraï: 

Favorite Color: Royal purple, but it used to be pink growing up. 

Age: 17 or 18 

Voice is high pitched akin to her dialogue bloops. 

Cybernetics cover her entire torso, legs, and jaw, leaving her arms and the upper half of her head the only fully human parts. 

Can only create portals to places she can see or has a clear enough mental image of. 

Needs something sharp to cut a portal, and the strength of the object determines the stability of the portal. 

Any portal bigger than herself has to be cut manually. If it is her size or smaller, she can create it with a simple slash. 

Teleporting takes a toll on her body depending on the distance traveled and size of whatever passes through. 

Has no idea what periods are or how bra sizing works since she didn’t hit puberty before becoming a cyborg. 

Thinks pads and tampons are bandages and gauze respectively. 

She once used a pad as a bandage for Garl, and while it confused him, he decided not to question it. 

Can cook a few select meals she’s learned but is completely helpless outside of those. 

Enjoys more feminine things than most would think. 

Would 100% wear a dress if one could cover all her cybernetics while still being practical for combat and ship work. (Sadly, none are). 

Won’t admit that she likes Garl’s physical affection. 

Would join her crew’s band if she knew how to play an instrument. 

Her crew is oblivious to her being a cyborg, and doesn’t push anything regarding her covering up, since she lied that she had disfigurations she’s uncomfortable showing. 

Is too young to drink, but since she looks older and is a pirate captain, no place bothers to ask for her age when she orders alcohol. 

Valere, Zale, and Garl frown upon her drinking underage, but she doesn’t care. 

Was born out of wedlock and was the flower girl at her parents' wedding. 

Found out she had poison powers when every kid she would play with at kindergarten wound up sick. 

Found out she could make portals in elementary when she filed a nail too sharp and accidentally cut one open. 

Was turned into a cyborg at eleven years old. 

Was a fugitive/vigilante of sorts in her world before crossing the Sea of Stars at 13. 

Seraï fainted from exhaustion shortly after crossing the Sea of Stars, and plummeted into the sea, but was rescued by the pirate crew who saw an unusual splash in the distance. 

The pirates were put off by her secrecy regarding her appearance and identity, but decided to let it go since she made herself helpful around the ship. 

Seraï lied about her identity as a famous captain’s daughter, in hopes that they would let her stay with the crew. She wasn't aware that this was greatly unnecessary. 

Yolande’s father, the pirate’s original captain, taught her how to use a katana. 

Seraï learned how to cook a few dishes from the elderly woman who served as the crew’s chef/house(boat?)keeper. 

About 2 years after Seraï joined, Yolande’s father and the elderly woman were killed in a raid of their ship. 

Keenathan lost his leg in that same raid. 

Seraï supposedly lost her hand there as well, but she secretly used a portal to save it from getting crushed. 

Seraï, Yolande, Keenathan, and Valtraid were the only survivors, washing up on the shore of Brisk. 

Yolande was supposed to take the mantle of captain from her father, but overcome with grief, asked Seraï to do it instead. 

Seraï then donned the captain’s old clothes which were too big for her, but still wearable. 

They plundered, scavenged, and played instruments for a living, and to pay off their medical bills.  

Seraï created her green outfit and secretly became an assassin to help bring in more money. 

Mooncradle/Zenith Academy: 

Valere and Zale call Garl’s Grandma “Gran” as well. 

Valere was upset that she had to sleep in the blue beds since she thought the red ones were prettier. Zale would sometimes secretly swap beds with her or have her sleep with him so she could use the pretty bed. When Moraine became aware of this, he decided to let it go since it wasn’t that big a deal and it brought Zale and Valere closer together. 

Moraine felt awkward having to explain periods and feminine products to Valere growing up, so he sent an emergency call for Erlina to do it. She was not pleased that that was the emergency she woke up in the middle of the night for. 

Zale was always the more mischievous of the two, but it never took much to get Valere on board with his schemes. 

Zale would try to play soccer in the halls, which usually wound up with something being broken. 

Zale and Valere developed a hatred of weaving. 

Despite spending ten years in an academy, Zale and Valere didn’t learn many typical school subjects outside of their Solstice Warrior training. Erlina and Brugaves tried to get Moraine to teach them more traditional school subjects, but he ignored them. Because of this, the two struggle with any subject above an elementary level. 

Part 1 Part 2 This is 3!

Now for the side/minor characters, starting with Teaks!

How did they take Teaks' enjoyment of history!? Why!? Teaks doesn't get much to say outside of her stories, and first impressions are important for how characters are read the rest of the game. Dulling Teaks' introduction so much will make her seem very one note and boring to newcomers, with her spinning examinations of people being the only peppy thing she has left.

Her hesitation before accepting their dinner offer is also really realistic. It's such a small thing I don't know why they felt the need to remove it.

Now for the pirates:

Let Yolande have her fun teasing the group! Hortence also loses her introspective comment showing how tired she is from the years spent stuck with Stormcaller.

Erlina and Brugaves are up next!

They removed the introspective lines from Erlina and Brugaves' runaway scene, giving it a different tone entirely. The new version makes it seem like two kids just being stubborn, while the original gives us better insight into their situation and thoughts on it. They don't want to be Solstice Warriors, but are unable to survive on their own, leaving them stuck under Moraine's care.

The second takes away the kindness they show Zale and Valere when they first join Zenith Academy. The removal of them explaining that they were only there for the day means that in the new one, it could be inferred that they were a constant or at least consistent presence during the kids' training years.

For Moraine:

(While shown in multiple photos, the last three are a single conversation).

Moraine loses his exasperation at Zale and Valere which was really cute :(. He also no longer tells B'st about the Elder Mist. Unless they changed his credit scene, it won't affect the lore, but it will make that part come out of nowhere.

While conversation before giving the Coral Hammer is a mixed bag, but I'd say it has far more bad to earn its spot here. They removed his second line about grieving, and while the first still gets the point across, I like how the second emphasizes it. He no longer tells the player how to use the Coral Hammer, and while it's easy to figure out, it doesn't make sense for Moraine to hand it over with zero explanation for its purpose. He originally gave them a bit more direction as to why they should see the Oracle of Tides - he might know how to remove the barrier on Mesa Island. In the new version, he simply says that he could offer guidance.

Aephorul has a small change:

Bad guys can say "thank you", you know.

Finally, a change in Narcis King's dialogue:

Sabotage really took all Narcis' thought process and boiled it down to "I am perfect". The extra depth he had was taken out for very generic dialogue.

Onto the lore retcons!

Starting with the Lore Grimoire:

Why they would remove the lore about the book that's entire purpose is to give lore exposition is beyond me. It removes the explanation of how they work. Sure, we get to see it in action and can extrapolate based off that, the explanation is short and useful. It also removes the detail of Traveling Historian's passing on their Lore Grimoires to new recruits when retiring. It's not relevant to the plot of Sea of Stars, but it makes it easier to use in future games in the Saboverse. Literally no explanation would be needed for why someone new has Teaks' Lore Grimoire since we already know they get passed down. I don't know what they gain from removing it.

Next, when Seraï is explaining how to save Garl:

It can seem unimportant at first glance, but this dialogue helps explain how Romaya isn't affected by the Dweller of Woe. While it is still implied since one can logically deduce that since she was in possession of stones that can save someone from the Dweller's influence, she was likely using them to protect herself from it, it helps to have a more direct explanation. It's a mere two lines that make the lore clearer and I can't see what Sabotage would get out of cutting them.

A small, probably unimportant detail, but one I still think is worth noting:

The Vespertine was not the ship's original name. While this won't matter unless we get a game that takes place in the past and uses it, I still think it's an interesting detail they cut.

Extremely minor change, but:

It is now unclear how long the party spent building Mirth. It could've been months for all we know now. This change doesn't really affect anything but I wanted to mention it.

Now something actually interesting concerning prophesies:

Details about how the Elder Mist and Oracle of Tides receive their visions are removed. Sabotage might have wanted it more vague so they can have more ways of getting prophecies/seeing the future, but the Elder Mist and the Oracle of Tides already did so differently from each other, so I don't see why they'd have to retcon these to make another.

Now, for by far the biggest lore retcon: Torment Peak.

The curse where everyone who enters loses their memories after was completely removed. You know, the main reason they weren't able to fight the Dweller. It's still deep underground, but if the Solstice Warriors had their memories, they could devise a plan to lure it out or demolish the mountaintop if absolutely necessary. Simply "deep underground" isn't a strong enough reason for the Dweller of Torment to still be alive for so long.

It gives Resh'an a chance to show off his alchemy to the player by giving the Tethered Mind Potion. Valere and Zale's sorrow and guilt over the situation was removed, making them feel flatter as most of their dialogue changes do.

Also, lore implications aside, the memory was just plain cool. There was zero reason to remove something that made the place far more memorable.

The last piece of lore to go over:

The explanation as to why the Summoners at the end of Aephorul's castle are nice to the player was removed. Screw being kind let's kill the merchant now!

Part 1 This is 2! Part 3

(More Valere and Zale dialogue changes).

Now onto Garl!

The main hit Garl takes is to his excitement. I know some people found him grating, so maybe this was done to lessen that, but I think it dulls him too much. "You're right... That's probably best..." is one of the few times Garl truly admits he can't do something. Admitting that shows a change in his thinking from when he took Aephorul's blast for Valere and Zale. The start to his Golden Pelican speech, while unimportant, helps to show him as a normal person despite being resurrected by showing him coming up with his speech on the spot. The more casual feel of the awkward interaction emphasizes that it's just a group of friends having a nice dinner rather than a fully formal event.

Garl is probably the least affected overall, but it is still a noticeable downgrade.

Next is Seraï!

The first two remove dialogue showing softness. Two may not seem like a lot, but there aren't many in the first place, and trust me, I'm saving the most egregious. Here, she thanks Hortence for keeping her cyborg identity a secret and tells Garl that she won't kill Hydralion. Seraï cares about those around her, but we don't get to see that very often. Removing the instances where we get this softer side makes her seem colder as a character.

"What a waste of time" is typical Seraï sarcasm, plus it reflects what the player is likely thinking. Don't know why they removed it when they added the exact same line from her to the scene with AI Core. Maybe they felt twice was too much and it better fit with AI Core. Either way, I still see it as a pointless removal of some of her charm.

The last one just makes the scene of everyone but Seraï going into the time portal awkward. Everyone else is going, but she stays behind. While I thought it was pointless for her do to so originally, now it's just extra weird with no mention of it. You just watch everyone else file in leaving her behind.

Resh'an is the next one up!

They took his whimsy! :( Resh'an has such a fun and cute introduction, but a lot of his charm was taken out.

Now for B'st:

"The lunar monk" is too formal. Just let B'st use Valere's name. There was already a time skip so it's easily inferred that he learned her name already if that was the concern.

They removed his determination to fight. It worked really well with his later goal of conquering the arena, so it's removal is baffling. B'st already has so little screentime - don't take what little he has!

Finally, the two most egregious changes:

Yes, having that specific an explanation can seem awkward and hand-holdy, but removing it has a butterfly effect, because it makes Garl uncharacteristically come across as a jerk.

Garl spouting off his explanation reads like he just noticed something and is trying to immediately tell everyone about it because he thinks it's important. It's how Seraï got talked over and it seeming to be a way forward is why she decided to not share that she's a cyborg. Cutting it short makes it sound less important and like Garl interrupted for no good reason. It's also such a small interruption that it doesn't really make sense for Seraï to just drop what she was saying altogether instead of resuming. Her response of just "right" doesn't make sense anymore as well.

This change, rather than just diminishing a character, completely flips it while also making itself nonsensical.

Now this just makes my blood boil. There is zero reason to remove this other than severely cutting Seraï's character. The best one I can come up with is the fact Seraï technically can't smile but I think we can all agree that's still stupid.

Seraï just saved her world - a goal she's strived for for presumably years. This is the most impactful thing for her, and now she's not allowed to have any emotional reaction.

It also cuts out Zale's compassionate "Do you need a moment?" - a question that both implies a physical change brought by emotions in Seraï, and shows Zale's understanding of her current emotional state and how important this was to her. While Valere's cheerful end wasn't particularly necessary, it was still nice that she was excited about Seraï feeling happy.

I don't think I need to elaborate further on how this is a pure downgrade, and an insult to anyone who likes Seraï.

In case you missed it, here is Part 1 on the positive and neutral changes, as well as the discussion on Zale and Valere's dialogue changes.

Having finished reading the log of all the text changes made (for anyone unaware, Sea of Stars was recently updated with a plethora of dialogue changes. Here is a pdf that compares the original with the changed script), I have some thoughts.

Some of it is fine, and even good imo, but there are a lot of issues and downgrades that come with it. Mainly a removal of most of the dialogue showing the characters different personalities, such as Resh'an's thoughts on and knowledge of Aephorul, Seraï's softer side, some of Garl's enthusiasm and Zale and Valere's appreciation of it, the list goes on. The game was already barebones in the character department, but they really had to grind it down into dust.

There's also some pretty major lore changes made. I'll get into them later, but it really feels like a retcon - something that should never be needed in a fully released and "complete" game. Maybe Sabotage ran into problems building their larger universe with this lore, but such a blatant retcon hurts the credibility of anything said. Who knows when they'll do another and flip things on their heads?

I planned to keep this brief and only talk about the ones that stuck out the most to me, but after taking screenshots of what I found interesting I realized I was not concise in my pickings whatsoever. Due to the image limit, I have to divide this into multiple posts, making this Part 1. Part 2 covers the main cast's dialogue changes and Part 3 covers the side/minor characters and lore changes. This part is going to cover the good, neutral/conflicted, and Zale and Valere's bad changes since they have too many to fit everything with the other party members.

Starting with the positive, here's a change that I find nothing but an improvement: Yolande's fourth wall break after Erlina and Brugave's betrayal.

While I typically don't mind Yolande's fourth wall breaks, I have no idea what the devs were thinking with this one. It completely kills the emotion built up and mocks it. I wholeheartedly agree with this change and hope it stays.

Next, something small that I quite like:

Changing "quite the prize" to "the ultimate prize" raises the stakes and I enjoy the more specific language. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day though since there was nothing wrong initially - I just like it. :)

Brugaves has a small yet impactful change in his dialogue before fighting Zale and Valere:

Simply saying "I'm sorry" feels more natural and emotional that "it brings me no joy". It makes Brugaves feel more human and down-to-earth which is good for stirring the emotions of the players.

Resh'an's conversation with Aephorul in the time loop also has a nice tweak:

"I believe in them" carries a lot more emotional weight than "I am certain", showing Resh'an's genuine care for Zale and Valere.

When entering Cloud Kingdom:

It takes away a line from Garl, but I prefer the added specificity since it was kind of unclear what he meant by that

Garl gets a small change here:

"Plan this whole thing" gives an air of incompetence and like Garl was only talking with zero planning and strategy behind his words. "Put this whole thing together" makes his work-in-progress plan sound more concrete.

There is some added dialogue for Zale in Valere as Garl gets the Vial of Borrowed Time:

Having them protesting Garl's death does far more showing the emotional toll this is taking on them. They are quiet more often than not, so having nothing to say is typical, while their talking here stands out giving the scene more weight.

Seraï has some added lines in her dialogue that really suit her:

"Repine..." and "Finally, after so many scars" add so much emotion to her journey of saving her world. "Then you're of no use to us!" also shows her frustrations in fixing things. She deeply cares about her world, hometown, and people, so it's only fitting for her dialogue to show more emotion when discussing them.

Sadly, that is it for my purely positives. Now, onto the neutral/conflicted, starting with one that might be a change of emotion:

The removal of "Awesome" could've been made to tone down Garl's excitement (they do this a lot as you'll see later, so it's not strange to assume that) or change it to just surprise. While excitement still comes across, it feels like a strange change to make, and leaves me questioning the intent behind it. Nothing's wrong on the surface, but it doesn't site quite right with me, though I'm probably reading too much into it.

From after saving the Molekin Village:

Should've kept the molekin's first attempt at arguing back. It helps showing that they are genuinely going to change by the contrast, and it feels more human to want to deny any wrongdoing at first.

"We might not be here to save you if this happens again" has always been an awkward line to me. It can be interpreted as anything from an gentle warning to a threat. I don't know why it would've been removed, but I guess it could be seen as out of character with the harsher interpretations. I personally see it as gentle and would prefer if it stayed.

Another line of debatable tone:

Able to be read as something genuine or guilt-trippy, this line is also a bit weird. It can be seen as out of character with latter, but the dialogue feels lacking without it, so I'm not sure if I like its removal. I think leaving it at "It's good to see you finally trust us" would work better.

From the attack on Brisk:

On one hand, "All those innocent people..." is more impactful than "there are still survivors out there". On the other hand, the latter feels more realistic for people as duty-focused as Zale and Valere. Not sure which I prefer.

Jumping quite a bit ahead storywise, from Resh'an's departure:

Assuming this removes the Resh'an puppet's dialogue boxes all together, I think their removal does a poor job of showing the lack of his presence. Seeing the eyes completely missing from Resh'an's portrait hammers in his absence, so not using it diminishes the impact. However, I haven't seen this dialogue in game, so if his puppet's portrait is still used in this scene, I think this change is fine.

Back to interpretable lines:

Depending on the tone of "Right", similar to the earlier "We agreed to let you keep your secret", it can be good or bad. Either way, its removal entirely makes the dialogue feel like it's lacking. I'm not sure what I would put in its place though.

That's it for the neutral/conflicted, and now, a whole, and I mean whole lot of bad. I would normally keep it chronological, but I'm going to go by character for brevity's sake while saving what I find most egregious for the end. I might accidentally match a few lines to the wrong character, in which case, please correct me. I'm mostly going off of memory here since the speakers aren't specified in the dialogue dump.

Starting with, Zale and Valere! I combined them since they have some of the same lines depending on who you're playing as, and they tend to have the same issues.

A lot of lines casually talking to or about other characters have been removed. Why they would remove any lines from Zale and Valere when so many people have complained about their silence beats me. These little characterizations are all we get for these two, so they shouldn't be removed. Really, more should be added.

(Also, a few more examples will be at the top of the next post due to the image limit. Everything here applies to those as well so I won't repeat myself there).

I remember Ralsei saying something about the more love/kindness you have/give, the stronger healing magic is but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. Do any of y'all know what I'm talking about and can you tell me where it is or am I just tripping?

Felt like trying to adjust her sprites to make them closer to how I headcanon her cyborg bits. Made two versions because I wasn't sure about the chest placement initially but I've grown far more fond of the first version.

Still not fond of the jaw but there's hardly any real estate to work with. The chest is also a struggle I think I should make it another pixel taller on the far side even if it cuts her arm off a bit more. I also need to slim her right leg it looks so much bigger than her left lol. Maybe I should darken her arms more they look noticeably lighter than her face. All of the metal might be considered too light but I think it's a closer match to her cinematic design. Oh well I might work on these again later tell me what you think.

Felt like measuring all the characters out of curiosity. I doubt it's perfect but feel free to check my work or just headcanon whatever you want.

The measurements are based off Shopkeeper since she's listed as approx. 196 cm on the messenger wiki. Using her SoS sprite I was able to measure a bunch of SoS characters. Some of these are old so I don't remember the exact methodology for them, but most have notes for special measurements. Also I'm pretty confident that these heights were not intended or I just suck at doing this because some are insane (a decent chunk are absurdly tall).

Valere: 45 pix; 166 cm; 5’4” 

Zale: 47 pix; 174 cm; 5’7” 

Garl: 52 pix; 192 cm; 6’3” 

Seraï: 47 pix; 174 cm; 5’7” 

Resh’an: 51 pix (Front of turban not included); 189 cm; 6’2” 

B’st: 47 pix (Smoke not included); 174 cm; 5’7” 

Teaks: 46 pix; 170 cm; 5’6” 

Shopkeeper: 53 pix; 196 cm; 6’4” 

Yolande: 50 pix; 185 cm; 6’ 

Keenathan: 60 pix; 222 cm; 7’3” 

Valtraid: 53 pix (Hair tuft not included); 196 cm; 6’4” 

Hortence: 43 pix (Glow, hair, and hat not included; headband is); 159 cm; 5’2” 

Aephorul: 54 (Back tentacles not included); 200 cm; 6’6” 

Erlina: 55 pix (Back bun/ponytail not included); 203 cm; 6’7” 

Brugaves: 56 pix (Bandana past back hairspike not included); 207 cm; 6’8” 

Moraine: 59 pix; 218 cm; 7’2” 

Romaya: 54 pix (Bigger hair tuft not included); 200 cm; 6’6” 

It doesn't like apostrophe's but hopefully this chart is still somewhat legible.