[230919]Sea of Stars Does One Thing Better Than Marvel, Starfield

https://gamerant.com/sea-stars-marvel-loki-starfield-stories-multiverse-good/
There seems to be little reason to compare Sea of Stars, Starfield, and the MCU, but Sea of Stars dominates the one genuine connection they share.


NOTE: This Article Contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Sea of Stars and Starfield.
On the surface, there is hardly anything connecting Sea of Stars, Starfield, and the MCU. The latter, of course, is a massive and interwoven collection of superhero stories, Starfield is an open-world Bethesda RPG, and Sea of Stars is an indie turn-based RPG. However, there is one massive storytelling component that they all share, something that has become increasingly common in stories across mediums, and perhaps the most shocking part is that Sea of Stars does it better than the much bigger machines behind Marvel and Starfield.

That is the Multiverse. Marvel ended the Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame and thrust new and returning heroes into the now-dubbed Multiverse Saga. Starfield's New Game Plus mode revolves around the idea of the Multiverse, and Sea of Stars introduces its own take on the concept as well. There's something to be said about how popular multiverses are becoming and how, quite frankly, they can be a bit overplayed, but Sea of Stars is successfully able to dodge these criticisms by keeping it simple and surprising.

Marvel and Starfield Multiverses Are Problematic for Different Reasons


The truth is, the MCU and Starfield's take on the Multiverses are problematic to some degree. For Marvel, it's becoming an issue of oversaturating across various mediums, trying to set up Kang the Conqueror, and dealing with the fallout of the Avengers undoing the Blip. It's hard to keep up with everything across what's on Disney Plus, what's hitting theaters, and how they each so differently present facets of the Multiverse. Ant-Man and the Wasp, for example, explore the Quantum Realm and its implications on the Multiverse, while the TV show Loki is at the heart of it somehow, and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness takes it in a horror direction. The multiverse exists, there are other versions of all these characters, and it's a bit overwhelming overall.

Starfield's problem is perhaps on the opposite spectrum: the multiverse of Starfield is much easier to comprehend. At the core of the galaxy is the Unity, and anyone traveling through the Unity passes into another Universe. Elements of that universe will differ from the original one, which is quite hilarious when seeing all the possible outcomes and variants for Starfield's Constellation. However, first learning about the Starborn, getting to the Unity, and collecting all the artifacts feels like one long fetch quest, with its twists never really peeking out over the mountains. It's not the worst and it's not overwhelming, but the surprise doesn't quite land effectively and it has a "just another multiverse" feel to it.

Sea of Stars' Multiverse is Simple


Unlike the MCU or Starfield, Sea of Stars effectively introduces a multiverse that is both simple to understand and equally surprising. Most of this is done through the character development of Serai. Players first see her ominously overlooking players before they meet Captain Klee'Shae (with players quickly realizing her name is cliche), and they'll quickly realize Serai is Klee'Shae. There are some antics that lead to Serai revealing herself becoming a laugh among Sea of Stars' main characters, Zale and Valere, and they don't push because she obviously wants to keep some things to herself. The entire time, players are likely thinking that she is connected to the Fleshmancer, maybe being his daughter or one of his high ranking minions, due to this obvious double-hidden identity. The connection is teased, but what it actually reveals is shocking.

Once players make it across the titular Sea of Stars, they'll find themselves in another universe. It is a multiverse because it's clear how similar, but different, elements of the world are. The four statues sit at the center of the ocean, the presence (but extinction) of the Solstice Warriors is there, and so forth. This is just a dark timeline where the Fleshmancer took control of the world. Players can understand this as they prepare to cross the Sea of Stars, but luckily, the full-blown reveal doesn't take the wind out of their sails. After defeating a robotic enemy, which also introduces new gameplay elements, Serai reveals that she has been a Cyborg this whole time and that the Fleshmancer did all of this to her world. The connection players expected was there, but not the way they may have anticipated. Anyone looking at Serai's outfit would just assume it's because she's an Assassin, not that it hides her mechanical components.

So, the result is Serai introduces the surprises necessary to make this multiverse stand out from all the other multiverses in gaming and beyond, but the resulting multiverse is also simple to comprehend. There is no MCU madness involved in how it works, and it supports an effective story with twists and turns unlike Starfield. Sea of Stars has seen massive success with its Game Pass launch and platform sales as a whole, and easily, Sea of Stars earns all of its rave reviews. Not just because of all this, but everything that comes before and after. It will be the personal Game of the Year for many fans, which in a year dominated by Starfield, Baldur's Gate, and so many other massive games is saying something for this indie title.

Sea of Stars is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

机翻：
似乎没有什么理由将《星海》、《Starfield》和 MCU 进行比较，但《星海》在它们之间有着真正的联系。


注意：本文包含《星海》和《星空》的大量剧透。
从表面上看，《星海》、《星域》和MCU几乎没有任何联系。 当然，后者是一个庞大且相互交织的超级英雄故事集合，Starfield 是一款开放世界的 Bethesda RPG，而 Sea of Stars 是一款独立的回合制 RPG。 然而，它们都有一个共同的巨大的讲故事成分，这一点在跨媒体的故事中变得越来越常见，也许最令人震惊的部分是，《星海》比漫威和《星域》背后的更大机器做得更好。

那就是多元宇宙。 漫威以《复仇者联盟：终局之战》结束了《无限传奇》，并将新的和回归的英雄推入了现在被称为的《多元宇宙传奇》。 Starfield 的 New Game Plus 模式围绕多元宇宙的理念展开，而 Sea of Stars 也引入了自己对这一概念的看法。 关于多元宇宙的流行程度，以及坦率地说，它们可能有点被夸大了，有一些话要说，但《星海》通过保持简单和令人惊讶，成功地避开了这些批评。

漫威和星际多元宇宙因不同原因而存在问题


事实是，MCU 和 Starfield 对多元宇宙的看法在某种程度上是有问题的。 对于漫威来说，它正在成为一个跨媒体过度饱和的问题，试图建立征服者康，并处理复仇者联盟消除Blip的后果。 很难跟上迪士尼+上的所有内容、正在上映的内容以及它们如何以如此不同的方式呈现多元宇宙的各个方面。 例如，《蚁人与黄蜂女》探索了量子领域及其对多元宇宙的影响，而电视剧《洛基》在某种程度上是其核心，而《奇异博士与疯狂的多元宇宙》则将其带向了恐怖的方向。 多元宇宙是存在的，所有这些角色都有其他版本，总体来说有点让人不知所措。

《Starfield》的问题或许正好相反：《Starfield》的多元宇宙更容易理解。 银河系的核心是统一体，任何穿越统一体的人都会进入另一个宇宙。 该宇宙的元素将与原始宇宙不同，当看到星空星座所有可能的结果和变体时，这是非常搞笑的。 然而，第一次了解星裔、到达统一体并收集所有文物感觉就像是一项漫长的任务，其曲折从来没有真正从山上窥见。 这不是最糟糕的，也不是压倒性的，但惊喜并没有完全有效地落地，它有一种“只是另一个多元宇宙”的感觉。

星辰之海的多元宇宙很简单


与 MCU 或 Starfield 不同，《星海》有效地引入了一个既易于理解又同样令人惊讶的多元宇宙。 这大部分是通过瑟莱的性格发展来完成的。 玩家在遇到克利谢船长之前首先会看到她不祥地俯视着玩家（玩家很快意识到她的名字很陈词滥调），并且他们很快就会意识到塞莱就是克利谢伊。 有一些滑稽的举动导致塞莱在《星海》的主角扎尔和瓦莱尔中成为笑柄，但他们并没有逼迫她，因为她显然想把一些事情留给自己。 一直以来，由于这种明显的双重隐藏身份，玩家可能会认为她与血肉法师有联系，可能是他的女儿或他的高级爪牙之一。 这种联系被戏弄了，但它实际揭示的内容却令人震惊。

一旦玩家穿越了所谓的星海，他们就会发现自己身处另一个宇宙。 它是一个多元宇宙，因为很明显，世界的元素是多么相似，但又不同。 四个雕像坐落在海洋的中心，至日勇士的存在（但已经灭绝）就在那里，等等。 这只是血肉法师控制世界的黑暗时间线。 准备穿越星海的玩家可以理解这一点，但幸运的是，全面的揭露并没有让他们失去信心。 在击败机器人敌人（这也引入了新的游戏元素）后，塞莱透露她一直是一个机器人，而血肉师对她的世界做了这一切。 玩家所期望的连接已经存在，但不是他们预期的方式。 任何人看到瑟莱的服装都会认为这是因为她是一名刺客，而不是因为它隐藏了她的机械部件。

因此，结果是 Serai 引入了必要的惊喜，使这个多元宇宙从游戏及其他领域的所有其他多元宇宙中脱颖而出，但由此产生的多元宇宙也很容易理解。 它的运作方式并不涉及漫威宇宙的疯狂，而且它支持一个与《Starfield》不同的、曲折的、有效的故事。 《星辰之海》在 Game Pass 推出和平台销售方面取得了巨大成功，轻松赢得了好评如潮。 不仅因为这一切，还因为之前和之后发生的一切。 对于许多粉丝来说，这将是年度最佳个人游戏，在这一年里，《星域》、《博德之门》和许多其他大型游戏占据主导地位，这为这款独立游戏奠定了基础。

《星海》现已登陆 PC、PS4、PS5、Switch、Xbox One 和 Xbox Series X/S。