I loved every moment of my time in the original Sea of Stars. I was ecstatic when I heard that it was getting a brand new DLC in the form of a free update. It felt like an amazing time to restart my time in the game. And now the update is finally here! Sea of Stars Throes of the Watchmaker has officially been released everywhere.
Game Name: Sea of Stars: Throes Of The Watchmaker
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Sabotage Studio
Publisher(s): Sabotage Studio
Release Date: May 20th, 2025
Price: Free with Purchase of the Game ($34.99)
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker has you once again in the shoes of the solstice warriors, Zale and Valere as you go back to the Watchmaker and learn more about her history. She transports our heroes inside a dimension where she has housed an evil version of the Watchmaker just looking to get out. Zale and Valere have to learn a different way to fight in this clockwork world, as strength is utilized differently in this carnival house of fun.
The Good
Zale and Valere get some help in Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker with the aid of Arty. Arty is a machine that is going to help Zale and Valere navigate this special clockwork world. Arty learns pretty early on how the system works here and how to best help Zale and Valere get situated while having the rest of the pirate crew backing them up. At first, I was a bit disappointed in having to leave Garl behind, but getting the backup pirate crew and Arty is a pretty decent replacement cast to back you up. Especially since we get some fun moments with everybody.
Combat has shifted, but it isn’t so different that you will lose yourself. The staff of Valere has been replaced with a vault staff, where she has to perform different combos to attack enemies. Zale loses his sword to become a fire juggler. It still has the same premise of making sure you hit the correct buttons at appropriate times and timing the beat of multi-hit moves, but there is one big change with the combo moves and Arty. Arty will pull out a trampoline, and you will need to make sure you can get to the landing spot of the solstice warriors before they crash. This trampoline combo move actually can do a significant amount of damage if you are quick enough at getting them in the air as much as possible.
Even though this is an eight-hour-long update, there are a lot of goodies in those eight hours. There was actually a lot of new animated cutscenes and music to enjoy in that time period. We also get to dive deep into the dark sides and tendencies of Zale and Valere. After they lose their first initial fight to the clockwork world, copies of both of them are created and put in charge of the world. Zale and Valere have to defeat both of them before they can meet with the dark side of the Watchmaker. Even though it is DLC, it is still impactful for our main heroes.
The Bad
The world design, for the most part, is great, though some of the ways the art is designed in the train hubs can be confusing. They want you to explore areas you can’t even see on screen to get the most value out of finding the treasure. This made me go backwards and try to go in the railroad track areas to try and see if I could find anything. A lot of the time, it was fruitless, but the few times it paid off made me paranoid, which continued my cycle.
Even though it is a post-game adventure for the main crew, we only get to have the party as Zale, Valere, and Arty. At times, we get the backup pirate crew to help out, but the other main cast characters like Garl and Seraï have to stay away from the action. If you were attached to any of those characters, you will have to wait to see them again.
The Verdict
Sea of Stars was already a masterpiece of a gem I would recommend to everyone to try out. This DLC does give you some more bang for your buck and is a pretty good time. I don’t think you will get the same highs as the main campaign, but for being an extra eight hours in this world, I think it is worth the time to try out a new game plus to get yourself back into this beautiful world! The game still performs amazingly, and I played it on my Steam Deck OLED at a locked 90 FPS.
Sea of Stars is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Review Disclosure Statement: Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker was provided to us by Sabatoge Studio for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Sea of Stars proves to still be an amazing purchase with constant updates, and it now gets an update of a DLC post-game adventure.
Pros
- Free post-game adventure
- Awesome music with added nostalgic references to pay tribute to some of the best JRPGs of old
- Arty makes for a fun character to have combos around
Cons
- Reduced Garl time
- Map design can be confusing
