Summary
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmakerwill hit the market on May 20, Sabotage Studio has announced. The DLC’s release date was shared alongside a new gameplay trailer and a fresh batch of screenshots showcasing the upcomingSea of Starsexpansion.
Sabotage’s fantasy RPG was originally released for PC and consoles in August 2023.Sea of Starswas met with near-universal acclaim, as highlighted by its “Mighty” rating on OpenCritic, based on an average score of 89 and a 97% reviewer recommendation rate—making it one of thetop 25 highest-rated games of 2023. The game has received multiple free updates since its release, with the latest of them being revealed in the form ofThroes of the Watchmaker, a carnival-themed DLC that Sabotage previously said was targeting a spring 2025 release.
The Quebec-based studio has now committed to a concrete release date for the upcoming expansion, revealing thatSea of Stars’Throes of the WatchmakerDLCwill launch on May 20. The announcement was accompanied by a new trailer offering a mixture of cinematic and gameplay footage fromThroes of the Watchmaker. The video serves as a reminder of the DLC’s premise, which will reunite protagonists Zale and Valere for another adventure.
New Sea of Stars DLC Revisits Enigmatic Watchmaker
As its title suggests, the upcoming DLC will revisitone of the most important characters in theSea of Starslore—the enigmatic Watchmaker, creator of the Clockwork Castle. Over the course of the DLC story, players will get a chance to explore Horloge, a miniature clockwork realm threatened by a cursed carnival. Horloge is another of the Watchmaker’s inventions, and its carnival threat is presumably the source of the DLC’s title, with “throes” being a Middle English term for intense struggle or pain.
Throes of the Watchmakerwill feature a standalone story that’s said to be largely unrelated toSea of Stars' retro main quest. Its ’90s JRPG inspirations will still be front and center here, with the DLC introducing two new classes, turning Zale into a juggler, and Valere into an acrobat. The expansion will also feature a new playable character called Artificer.
Sabotage estimates thatThroes of the Watchmakerwill take around eight hours to beat. The upcoming package will feature new, fully voiced cinematics and a soundtrack fromSea of Starscomposer Eric W. Brown, including tracks co-composed with Yasunori Mitsuda ofChrono TriggerandXenogearsfame. Like all priorSea of Starscontent updates,Throes of the Watchmakerwill be released as a free add-on.
