Info about Rogue Waters: Official game description: BECOME THE PIRATE CAPTAIN ------------------------- Set sail as **_Captain Cutter_**, a pirate caught in a deadly struggle for power and vengeance. Navigate dangerous waters, unleash mythical sea creatures, and outwit enemies as you chase legendary treasure and confront dark secrets. * Embark on a journey of loyalty, betrayal, and revenge, as you unravel the mysteries of the _Sea Shepherd prophecy_ and face the immortal **_Captain Blackbone_**. * Use your **Pirate Cave** _(HUB)_ to **equip ship upgrades & crew members** before each run. * Each run generates new encounters, requiring careful navigation as you work your way toward Captain Blackbone. * Enjoy a rich, story-driven adventure across 3 acts, with endless replayability. ASSEMBLE YOUR CREW ------------------ Recruit and grow your pirate crew, discovering their hidden potential as you lead them into battle. It's your responsibility to mold them into the legendary pirates they were destined to be. * Recruit from **6 unique classes**, each with distinct abilities and playstyles for your ship’s crew. * After each run, **upgrade your crew’s skills** to increase their effectiveness. * **Damage persists across runs**, requiring you to swap out crew members to allow them time to heal. EVER-CHANGING LAND AND SEA -------------------------- Face new challenges as the game world shifts procedurally with each run, offering fresh secrets, combat scenarios, and treasures to discover. * Encounters feature diverse pirate factions and enemy types—_choose your battles wisely_. * Your crew will engage enemies on **ships and land** alike. * **Visit shops** to heal, upgrade crew, buy cannons, and repair your ship. * You can **extort shops for loot**, but it’ll lead to a fight. TURN THE TIDES -------------- Customize your naval encounters with cannons and ship artillery. Unleash powerful shots during naval combat to destroy enemy ship modules and gain the upper hand in boarding fights. * Encounters begin with Sea Battles where you can use cannons to target key areas of enemy ships. * Both your ship and the enemy's have distinct buffs that can be destroyed. * Crew members can be targeted and killed during battle, so defend your ship and crew before boarding. THOUGHT-PROVOKING TACTICS ------------------------- Experience a fresh take on turn-based tactical combat that replicates the visceral intensity of cloak-and-dagger duels. Use the environment to gain the upper hand like never before. * The **boarding phase** involves hand-to-hand combat where your crew faces off against enemies. * Use your crew's unique abilities to **maneuver and pin enemies against obstacles** for fatal damage. * **Leverage the environment** by pushing enemies into spikes, grabbing one-time weapons, or swinging into position with ropes. SUMMON CREATURES FROM THE DEEP ------------------------------ Legendary sea creatures, once thought to be myths, roam the oceans of _Rogue Waters_. Free them from captivity and gain their trust to summon them in battle. Summon 3 sea monsters to assist in the boarding phase: * **The Kraken** crushes nearby enemies. * **The Mermaid** disrupts and pushes enemies in any direction. * **The Giant Snail** drops a deadly spiked obstacle on the deck. A ROGUE-LITE PIRATE ADVENTURE ----------------------------- Each run resets your equipment and items, but unlocks permanent upgrades for your crew, ship, and Captain Cutter, allowing you to grow stronger with every battle. * Items and upgrades reset between each run: * **Personal items** (character equipment): additional weapons, attack modifiers, and side upgrades for abilities. * **Shipboard weapons** (cannons and similar items): each new run begins with a usable, basic starter set. * **Ship modules** reset as well. * Each run permanently increases your progress: * **Unlock skill trees** for crew members and Captain Cutter. * Acquire **ship and port facility upgrades** in the Pirate Cave (HUB). Release date: 30 Sep, 2024 Categories: Roguelike, Turn-based Combat, Tactical Combat, Ship Combat, Crew Management, Character Progression, Base Building, Meta-Progression - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Addictive, engaging tactical gameplay (weight 0.96): The game offers a compelling and addictive gameplay loop, blending tactical combat with roguelike elements. Players enjoy the strategic depth, diverse mechanics, and satisfying progression systems that keep them engaged for extended periods. The game's balance of challenge and accessibility makes it enjoyable for both newcomers and experienced players. - Great pirate theme, presentation (weight 0.34): The game features a well-executed pirate theme, complemented by appealing graphics, immersive sound design, and excellent voice acting. The overall presentation creates a captivating atmosphere that enhances the player's experience. The art style and audio elements contribute significantly to the game's charm and polish. - Well-integrated roguelike elements (weight 0.27): The game successfully integrates roguelike elements, providing high replayability and a sense of progression. Players appreciate the persistent upgrades, varied encounters, and engaging story that are uncommon in the genre. The roguelite mechanics add depth and encourage players to keep returning for more runs. - Immersive pirate world (weight 0.17): The game captures the essence of the pirate theme, immersing players in a world of swashbuckling adventure and treasure hunting. The humorous dialogue, engaging characters, and mythical sea creatures contribute to the overall pirate experience. The game successfully evokes the spirit of classic pirate games, satisfying players' desire for a well-crafted pirate-themed title. - Combines elements from other games (weight 0.07): The game effectively combines elements from various popular titles like XCOM, Slay the Spire, and Darkest Dungeon. This fusion of mechanics creates a unique and engaging gameplay experience that sets it apart from other games in the genre. The game successfully blends familiar elements with its own innovations. - Unique combat mechanics (weight 0.07): The game incorporates unique combat mechanics, such as pushing enemies into objects or off the edge of the map. This emphasis on positioning and environmental interaction adds tactical depth and dynamism to the battles. The push mechanic and battlefield interactions create a more engaging and strategic combat experience. - Forgiving, rewarding failures (weight 0.05): The game is forgiving, with no harsh penalties for failure. Players retain items and earn currency even when they lose, which they can use to upgrade their crew and ship. This structure reduces stress and encourages experimentation. - Helpful undo feature (weight 0.05): The game includes an undo feature that allows players to rewind their moves, encouraging experimentation and strategic planning. This feature is particularly helpful for learning the game's mechanics and optimizing combat tactics. The undo button provides a safety net and enhances the overall gameplay experience. - Positive general impressions (weight 0.04): These points express general positive sentiment and acknowledge the developers' efforts. While positive, they lack specific details about gameplay or mechanics. Importance reduced due to lack of specificity. - Engaging, varied raids (weight 0.04): The game features procedurally generated raids that add variety and replayability to the gameplay. These raids offer rewards and encourage players to engage with the game's mechanics. The quick and engaging nature of the raids creates a desire to immediately start another one after completion. - Good for short or long sessions (weight 0.04): The game is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for both short breaks and longer play sessions. Its light, turn-based nature and adjustable difficulty make it suitable for players of all types. The game respects the player's time and offers a customizable experience. - Enjoyable story (weight 0.03): These points express general enjoyment of the story. While positive, they lack specific details about the narrative or characters. Importance reduced due to lack of specificity. - Similar to other games (weight 0.03): The game is developed by the studio behind Hard West II and shares similarities with other titles like Hades and FTL. Players manage a pirate cove, recruit crew members, and upgrade their ship. The game allows you to control Cutter and his crew, pirates trying to survive in the ocean and discover the secrets of the seas. Common complaints: - Lacks content, repetitive, grindy (weight 0.88): The game suffers from a severe lack of content, variety, and depth, leading to a repetitive and grindy gameplay loop. This is a consistent complaint across many reviews, with players expressing boredom and a lack of long-term engagement. The limited content also makes the game feel incomplete and overpriced. - Poor difficulty, grindy progression (weight 0.18): The game's difficulty balance and progression system are poorly executed, with an initial difficulty spike followed by the game becoming too easy after upgrades. The progression system relies heavily on grinding, where overcoming challenges requires repetitive farming rather than skill or strategy. This point is specific and actionable. - Inconsistent difficulty balance (weight 0.16): The game's difficulty balance is inconsistent, with some reviewers finding it too easy while others find it too hard, especially at the beginning. Some difficulty feels artificial. This point is less specific and actionable. - Mediocre story, voice acting (weight 0.15): The game's story, writing, and voice acting are generally considered mediocre, with some reviewers finding them unengaging or even distracting. The story is often described as basic, short, and lacking depth, while the voice acting is criticized for its inconsistent quality and reliance on AI. This point is specific and actionable. - RNG-heavy, unbalanced naval combat (weight 0.13): Naval combat is criticized for its heavy reliance on RNG, particularly with cannon damage, leading to frustrating and unbalanced encounters. The AI's target selection and the wide damage ranges of cannons undermine player agency and strategic decision-making. This point is specific and consistently mentioned. - Limited character/crew variety (weight 0.09): The game suffers from a lack of variety and depth in its character classes and crew customization options. This limits replayability and makes it difficult for players to form meaningful attachments to their crew members. This point is specific and actionable. - Limited build/tactical variety (weight 0.09): The game lacks meaningful build variety and tactical options, with limited item synergies and a tendency for players to stick to the same strategies. Ship upgrades are uninteresting, and the impact of item randomization is minimal, leading to a lack of unique and memorable runs. This point is specific and actionable. - Crashes and save data loss (weight 0.06): Several reviewers have reported experiencing crashes and save data loss, sometimes after significant playtime. This is a critical issue that can severely impact the player experience and discourage continued play. This point is very specific and actionable. - Simplistic turn-based combat (weight 0.04): The game avoids excessive strategizing and move optimization often found in turn-based games. The reliance on randomness is annoying for a turn-based game. This point is less specific and actionable. Gameplay feedback: - Two-phase tactical combat system (weight 0.37): The game features a two-phase combat system: ship-to-ship battles followed by boarding actions. Ship combat involves turn-based cannon fire, targeting enemy cannons, modules, or crew. Boarding actions then transition to turn-based tactical combat with unique mechanics like pushing enemies and environmental interactions. - Roguelike tactical pirate adventure (weight 0.26): The game blends roguelike elements with turn-based tactical gameplay in a pirate setting. Runs consist of navigating a node-based map with random encounters, upgrading ships and crew, and facing a final boss. Many reviewers compare the game's structure and progression to titles like Slay the Spire, FTL, and Darkest Dungeon. - Ship and crew meta-progression (weight 0.19): Players upgrade their ship, recruit crew members, and unlock new abilities using resources earned from raids. This meta-progression system allows for permanent buffs and increased power after each run. The core gameplay loop involves repeating raids to gather resources and strengthen the pirate crew. - Tactical gameplay with adaptable difficulty (weight 0.11): The game features tactical gameplay with the ability to plan moves and undo them to maximize results. The difficulty is adaptable, with simple mechanics at the start becoming more complex as the game progresses. - Positioning and environmental tactics (weight 0.1): Tactical combat emphasizes strategic positioning and environmental interactions. Attacks often have knockback, allowing players to push enemies into hazards for bonus damage. The game also features ropes for swinging and a rewind option to experiment with different moves. - Diverse enemies with ship buffs (weight 0.04): The game features diverse enemy factions with unique abilities and ship modules that buff their crew. Players must prioritize targeting enemy cannons and buff-granting components in naval battles to weaken them before boarding. - Procedurally generated maps (weight 0.04): The game features procedurally generated maps with branching paths, offering different encounters and loot on each run. This randomness adds replayability and encourages players to adapt their strategies based on the available choices. - Summon mythical sea monsters (weight 0.03): Players can rescue and summon mythical sea monsters like the Kraken during combat. These sea monsters offer unique tactical options and powerful abilities, but their usage is limited per encounter, adding a strategic layer to their deployment. - FTL-inspired elements (weight 0.03): The game incorporates elements reminiscent of FTL, such as random movement mechanics and ship management. Players manage a pirate cove, recruit crew members, upgrade their ship, and choose who to take on raids. - Into the Breach-style boarding combat (weight 0.02): The boarding combat is similar to Into the Breach, focusing on movement and knocking enemies into hazards for extra damage. This creates a spatial tactical game where players must strategically position their characters to exploit environmental advantages. - Fast-paced, short battles (weight 0.02): Battles are short and intense, often decided within the first few turns due to the small arena size and the fencing mechanic. This fast-paced combat requires quick thinking and strategic decision-making. - Strategic resource preservation in raids (weight 0.02): Raids involve attacking ships, forts, or escaping enemies, requiring players to make strategic decisions about resource preservation. Players must choose between different paths with fights or safe areas, balancing risk and reward. Performance notes: - Generally stable, well-optimized performance (weight 0.07): Many reviewers praised the game's optimization, noting smooth performance and a lack of significant bugs or crashes on various platforms, including Steam Deck and Macbook. This indicates a stable and polished initial experience for many players. - Various minor, inconvenient bugs (weight 0.04): Some players have encountered bugs, including enemies getting stuck, character models disappearing, and save file corruption. While some are minor and fixable by reloading, others require more involved workarounds or waiting for updates. - Steam Deck battery drain (weight 0.01): The game runs smoothly on Steam Deck, but it drains the battery quickly. One reviewer also had to manually set the display resolution on the Steam Deck. - Text caption mismatches (weight 0.01): Some reviewers noted discrepancies between spoken dialogue and displayed text captions. This can detract from the overall presentation and immersion. - Graphics are adequate, unexceptional (weight 0.01): The graphics are functional and easy to understand, but they are not particularly impressive or visually striking. This suggests a focus on clarity over visual fidelity. - Lag after extended play (weight 0.01): One reviewer experienced lag after playing for 1.5 hours. This could indicate performance degradation over time or specific triggers for lag spikes. - Small file size (weight 0.01): The game has a small file size. This is a minor positive point. Recommendations: - Needs more content, replayability (weight 0.48): Several reviewers express concerns about the game's limited content, replayability, and depth, especially considering its price. They feel the game has potential but needs more content, quality items, and engaging mechanics to justify a full-price purchase and maintain long-term interest. Some reviewers specifically mention the need for DLC or future updates to address these shortcomings. - Wait for sale, needs content (weight 0.41): Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game on sale due to concerns about content depth, replayability, and overall value for the full price. Some feel the game is shallow or repetitive, more akin to a mobile game experience, and not worth the current price tag without a significant discount. Others suggest waiting for updates or DLC before considering a purchase. - Fun, enjoyable, recommended overall (weight 0.34): Many reviewers recommend the game, highlighting its enjoyable gameplay, unique blend of genres, and overall positive experience. Some specifically praise its pirate theme, tactical combat, and roguelite elements, while others appreciate its lightheartedness and accessibility. Several reviewers give the game high scores and express excitement for future updates or DLC. - Good for genre fans (weight 0.18): The game is frequently recommended for fans of turn-based tactics, roguelites, and pirate-themed games, often drawing comparisons to XCOM, Darkest Dungeon, and Slay the Spire. Reviewers appreciate its unique combination of genres and challenging gameplay, making it a good fit for players who enjoy strategic combat and meta-progression. Some suggest it's also suitable for portable devices. - Try the demo first (weight 0.06): The demo is recommended as a good representation of the full game, allowing players to experience the gameplay and retain progress. However, some reviewers caution about potential issues, such as late-game balance problems or save issues, which may impact the overall experience. One reviewer mentions the game might appeal to board game enthusiasts. - Adjust difficulty for best experience (weight 0.06): Reviewers suggest adjusting the difficulty level to enhance the gameplay experience. Starting on a higher difficulty can reduce grind and force tactical adaptation, while others recommend increasing difficulty as the game progresses and becomes easier through meta-progression. Some suggest focusing on the main story to avoid repetition. - Hopes for future content/sequel (weight 0.05): Reviewers express hope for future content updates, DLC, or a sequel to expand upon the game's existing framework. They suggest adding more enemy factions, classes, ship upgrades, and storyline content to enhance the game's depth and replayability. Some reviewers are particularly interested in seeing the main camp expanded upon. - Overpriced for content offered (weight 0.02): Some reviewers feel the game's price is too high for the content offered and suggest a lower price point. They believe the game is worth less than its current price, with some suggesting specific amounts that would be more reasonable. This sentiment reflects concerns about the game's value proposition. - Desire for more classes/ships (weight 0.02): Reviewers express interest in DLC with additional classes, ships, and storyline content, indicating a positive overall experience and desire for more content. One reviewer rates the level design/progression as 11/20, suggesting room for improvement in this area. - Praise for development team (weight 0.01): Reviewers praise the small development team for their work on the game and express a desire for them to be recognized. This sentiment reflects appreciation for the developers' efforts and a wish for their success. Other player notes: - Base management is central (weight 0.03): Players establish and manage a pirate bay base with facilities like a workshop (tech tree), dormitory (team configuration), and tavern (crew recruitment). Upgrading these facilities using raid rewards is key to progression. - Adjustable difficulty levels (weight 0.03): The game offers multiple difficulty levels, including ascensions, that can be selected or changed. This allows players to customize the challenge to their preference. - Roguelite pirate strategy hybrid (weight 0.02): The game blends roguelite, turn-based strategy, and pirate themes, drawing comparisons to Slay the Spire and XCOM. This combination creates a unique gameplay experience. - Varied enemy types exist (weight 0.01): The game features a diverse array of enemy factions and units, exceeding the number of playable classes. This suggests potential future content updates focused on expanding playable character options. - Strategic workshop unlocks advised (weight 0.01): The reviewer advises players to strategically unlock recruitment options in the workshop. Focusing on existing classes before diluting the character pool is recommended. - Video tutorials explain enemies (weight 0.01): The game incorporates video tutorials to explain new enemy abilities. This helps players understand enemy mechanics and strategize effectively. - Translation inconsistencies exist (weight 0.01): The game's translation contains inconsistencies, such as using 'Mates' for basic soldiers and 'Own Crew' for all members. This can cause confusion for players. - Meaningful choices impact story (weight 0.01): The story progresses through quests, where player choices influence outcomes, rewards, and consequences. This system adds depth and replayability to the narrative. Emotions: No emotions}