Sea of Stars DLC rears its head with an intro cutscene that seemingly connects the RPG to the developer's beloved Metroidvania even further

Developer Sabotage Studios has been largely tight-lipped about Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker, a free expansion to its massive throwback RPG, since last summer. But Sea of Stars' DLC now looks closer than ever as the indie hitmaker has quietly released the project's introductory cutscene.

The intro lays out what we already knew about the relationship between big baddie The Fleshmancer and reluctant ally The Watchmaker, who can be found in the base game and is most notably the mastermind behind the awesome Wheels mini-game.

This time, we learn that the Watchmaker also created a magical miniature clockwork world called Horloge in her spare time (on top of creating a huge castle and moreish board game), which eventually became self-sufficient until The Fleshmancer infected it with some kind of evil that might just turn into a Dweller (a world-ending, world-eating monster in the Sea of Star universe.) So, the expansion has protags Zale and Valere shrinking into the world to save it from ruin.

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Gorgeous retro visuals aside, the cutscene is also notable for how it deepens the connections between Sea of Stars and Sabotage Studio's The Messenger, the team's previous throwback Metroidvania. We already knew the two shared a world separated by 500 years or so, but this intro raises more questions about how Sea of Stars' Clockwork Castle might relate to The Messenger's Tower of Time, as well as how this new shrinking tech connects to the latter's Music Box, if it does at all.

Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker is due to come out sometime in Spring 2025 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch for free.

For now, check out our new games 2024 guide for every major release on the horizon.