It may have been a tad unfair, but when Sea of Remnants was revealed recently during the Not-E3 period, I was sceptical and initially saw it as a replica of Sea of Thieves. That may sound prejudicial, but the reveal trailer didn't do a whole lot to convince me otherwise. So, naturally, I took a degree of that prejudice into the preview build of Sea of Remnants, expecting to witness and experience a game that while fine and fundamentally playable, couldn't possibly live up to Rare's great multiplayer effort. Clearly, perhaps unsurprisingly, that prejudice was misplaced, as Joker Studio seems to have an idea in this game that has a spark and which might entertain especially those who find the complete multiplayer focus of Sea of Thieves to be a turn off.
So what is Sea of Remnants? It's a pirating adventure RPG where players are plonked into a massive open world and basically let loose to become pirate lords. The catch is that it's not nearly as free as Sea of Thieves, as there is a story at the heart of this game, something you could loosely describe as Persona-esque, as it revolves exploring, finding new companions, battling in turn-based strategic action, and otherwise helping to grow the pirate haven of Orbtopia while piecing together your lost memory. As you can see, there's a narrative at the centre of this game and it helps give the world, the characters, and the overall whole the lift it needed to separate itself from Rare's alternative.
Also, Sea of Remnants is single-player, even if it does claim to have cooperative and MMO features. It's a massive world that Joker Studio has cooked up here, and eventually it will be populated by pirates of all kinds, but they're not required as you can explore with your own customisable crew, taking to the land to uncover treasure chests and to battle wildlife and such in tactical action, or stick to the seas and fighting in real-time naval warfare that more closely resembles what Skull and Bones delivers. It's a bit of a mash-up of ideas, but after just a few hours, it's abundantly clear that Sea of Remnants has parts that work well and entertain.
From my time with the preview build, some of the core elements that captured my attention included the art direction and the general aesthetic of the game. It's colourful and rich and uses a style that reminds of Sunset Overdrive, except replacing human characters with marionette puppets with larger than life, anime-like personalities. There's charisma and charm here, and that adds depth to the story and character-building, and how you go about choosing your crew and making decisions that will shape the wider world. It's not as deep as Persona's character development, but the agency it presents to the player is welcome. Also, the tactical turn-based action seems to work quite fluidly and well. If you have any experience with this kind of gameplay, perhaps recently in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you'll instantly understand what this game is offering, with a combat suite where you can combine attacks in one turn, boost them with luck-based systems, create status effects, and all in a streamlined and snappy system that doesn't have you racking your brain for the most efficient way to crunch the numbers. It's more forgiving and I think many will appreciate that.
Still, it's certainly no walk in the park, as you will die during missions and expeditions, and that's where the almost roguelike nature steps into play. Essentially, if you fail on land or at sea, you'll wash back up on Orbtopia's shores, except without any loot you didn't already stash, providing a degree of risk to how you go about conquering the world, a feature that is also a tad Sea of Thieves in style.
But beyond this, the gameplay flows quite well, the visual and artistic direction is memorable, the tactical combat is thrilling and intuitive, and the naval warfare is enjoyable. So, where's the catch? From my experience, there are minor elements that could be improved, such as tons of loading screens, even between climbing on or off your ship, but also the fact that a lot of the game seems to revolve around heading to new islands, fighting a few enemies, and otherwise running around foraging for resources that could prove useful and even opening chests. It's not a terrible design philosophy or a deal-breaker, especially considering it ties into food and cooking mechanics and such, but I do start to wonder how this will affect the overall whole after tens of hours of gameplay based on gathering gold or berries, or even gems that have a tiered and coloured loot system... It feels as though it stretches more into the survival style at times than the adventure RPG theme it's clearly attempting to hit.
Yet even with a few quirks, I can't help but feel as though Joker Studio has something of interest on its hands here. There are places to improve in the lead up until launch next year, but as it is, this seems to be quite an interesting and fresh pirating adventure, one that isn't hampered by the sheer lack of creativity and mindless grind of Skull and Bones nor the almost overwhelming cooperative focus of Sea of Thieves. Sea of Remnants could fill a void for many, assuming you can stomach endless resource collection or currency earning and don't find turn-based combat to be a ball-ache.