Sea of Stars News

"A beautifully made retro-inspired RPG that will instantly transport you back to the 16-bit golden years, for better or worse," was how Katherine Castle (RPS in peace) summarised Sea Of Stars, a Chrono Trigger-style pixelart sojourn down memory lane from Sabotage Studios, creators of The Messenger. I imagine it's better rather than worse for the addition of some sizeable, circus-themed free DLC, Throes Of The Watchmaker.

Out 20th May, the expansion adds a new playable character, Arty, together with an estimated eight hours of new areas, music, dungeons, minigames, enemies, bosses, puzzles, and playable classes for original protagonists Valere and Zale. Run your rose-tinted retinas over this trailer.

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Hello everyone,

The day is set: Throes of the Watchmaker — the free DLC for Sea of Stars — is coming to all platforms on May 20th, 2025!

The announcement was made this morning, accompanied by a whole new trailer showcasing the scope, narrative, and tone of this wacky post-game bonus adventure. We hope you're as excited as we are, because the playtest results are in and it clocks over 8 hours of completely new content!

The scope of this DLC went way beyond what we initially envisioned, which was only made possible through the warm and overwhelming response we have been blessed with.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you want to help in bringing more eyeballs to this circus-themed romp, the best way is always to leave a comment on the video on YouTube, and share our posts on social media.

[h2]THROES OF THE WATCHMAKER DEV STREAM, TODAY AT 2PM ET![/h2]

The trailer is here, and the release date is set — it’s time to celebrate! Join us live later today as we showcase Throes of the Watchmaker. We’ll take you inside the miniature clockwork world of Horloge to explore the DLC’s unique mechanics.



Come on and join us at 2PM ET, it should be a lot of fun: twitch.tv/sabotagestudio


[h2]MALEVOLENT SPECTACLE AWAITS[/h2]

Since it’s been a long time since our latest update on the DLC, here’s a recap of what you can expect from Throes of the Watchmaker.

[h3]Over 8 hours of completely new Areas, Music, Dungeons, Mini-Games, Enemies, Bosses, and Puzzles[/h3]

Journey into a magical miniature clockwork world where a plethora of oddities and wonders await. The world of Horloge is filled with unique environments, NPCs, enemies and dungeons. This thing is packed, with Throes of the Watchmaker boasting the same budget for cinematics that the main game had, allowing us to richly realize key narrative moments and deliver this new tale with even more density and production value.

And of course, Sabotage’s composer Eric W. Brown returns alongside guest composer Yasunori Mitsuda to bring a completely fresh set of tracks!







[h3]New Playable Classes for Valere and Zale[/h3]

The world of Horloge plays by different rules, and for their magic to manifest, the Solstice Warriors will need to adapt. Zale will tap into his agility to become a Juggler, while Valere will harness her balance to dazzle as an Acrobat. Playing to the circus-themed curse, they will unlock a completely new set of attacks, damage types, skills and combos.





[h3]New Playable Character: Arty[/h3]

Artificer joins the party! The friendly engineer robot will finally unlock the laser-shooting capabilities of his construct, and join Valere and Zale in the fight to save Horloge.



[h3]Couch Co-Op With Up To 3 Players[/h3]

The couch co-op mode that was added to Sea of Stars via the Dawn of Equinox update in November 2024 is also available for Throes of the Watchmaker. It allows up to three players to engage in traversal and combat with a “Co-Op timed hits” mechanic!

[h2]THAT’S IT FOR NOW[/h2]

We’d love for you to join us for the Throes of the Watchmaker DLC dev stream later today! If you can’t make it, no worries — the VOD will be available tomorrow, and we’ll see you on May 20th when the DLC launches for free, everywhere.

We hope that this farewell letter to our dream project will bring you joy, and that you will allow it to tell you one last time, from all of us: THANK YOU!

All the love,
-SaboTeam

- Fixed a rare crash in Wind Mines Tunnels when teleporting while using a ladder in co-op play.

- Fixed a rare crash that could occur in the quiz when requesting help.

- Fixed a rare crash that could occur while browsing the Game Menu.

- Fixed a softlock that could occur in the Yellow Room of Wizard’s Lab.

- Fixed an issue affecting audio after multiple Game Over screens in the same level.

- Fixed an issue missing dialogs on characters in camping while in co-op play.

- Fixed an issue where the player wouldn't be K.O.'d when blocking an attack during the K.O. State tutorial with the Artful Gambit.

- Fixed an issue that allowed players to move a locked block in Wind Mines Tunnels.

- Fixed an issue where the cauldron in Yomara’s house was missing in some cases.

- Fixed an issue causing three pixels to appear at the bottom left of the combo meter.

- Fixed an issue that could cause a party member to be missing when skipping the prologue.

- Fixed a potential softlock that could occur when starting the game with Artful Gambit.

- Fixed an issue that could cause the camera to become locked in Lucent’s Inn.

- Fixed an issue that allowed players to camp during the prologue.

- Fixed an issue where Sequent Flare would not work properly with Sunball.

- Fixed an issue that could cause the player to go out of bounds on the world map while in a boat.

- Fixed an issue that caused the camera to teleport to an incorrect location after the Molekin bath cutscene.

- Fixed an issue that sometime prevented the achievement “I’m walking here!” to unlock.

- Fixed an issue that could cause a follower to become inactive after the player used a geyser in co-op mode.

- Fixed an issue that could lead to a softlock in the Wizard’s Lab.

- Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock when B’st unlocked Sacrosanct Spires.

- Fixed various localization errors.