Before this Metroidvana became a hit, it was laughed off at its director's old workplace: "You aren't a designer, get back to coding"

Before it became a hit Metroidvania, The Messenger was only a pitch in its director's mind - and one that wasn't exactly a big hit with their old employer.

In an Escapist documentary on the making of Sabotage Studio's JRPG prequel to The Messenger, Sea of Stars, director Thierry Boulanger touched on the series' origins. Apparently, he had originally pitched The Messenger at a studio while he was working as a gameplay programmer, well before he started up Sabotage. His pitch was soundly rejected.

"I actually pitched The Messenger to my employer, who said, 'well there you have it, you aren't a designer, get back to coding," Boulanger said. "It was pretty clear that, when someone says 'you can't do something', it just means you can't do it with them."

Of course, The Messenger went on to become one of the best indies of 2018, and it's solely due to its success that we're getting a follow-up in the form of our most-anticipated JRPG of 2023. For reference, it's sitting at 7,157 "very positive" reviews on Steam alone at the time of writing.

Sea of Stars serves as a prequel to The Messenger and ditches its Metroidvania roots for a more traditional JRPG format inspired by some of the best SNES games including Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. The prequel is a day one Game Pass drop, but it's also confirmed to be releasing on Switch, PC, PS4, and PS5 on August 29.

For more games on the horizon, check out our guide to upcoming indie games, and for what to play right now, here's a list of the best RPGs available today.