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Sail Forth

Sail Forth is full of naval fun, letting you traipse around the high seas, with plenty of distractions and activities to keep you busy, as well as enemies to fight and a top notch sailing system.
Sail Forth Game Cover
87%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
stability, grinding
92% User Score Based on 546 reviews
Critic Score 65%Based on 7 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchEpic GamesPlaystation 5Playstation 4XboxSteam DeckWindowsPlayStationLinuxXbox Series X|SPCMac OSXbox OneNintendo Switch 2
Sail Forth Game Cover

About

Sail Forth is a single player role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Festive Vector and was released on December 21, 2022. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and very positive reviews from players.

Heave! Fake the bull rope and stay the mizzen royal! Command a fleet of custom-rigged sailing ships on a procedurally crafted adventure over an unending ocean whose ancient depths have swallowed the key to a planet’s mysterious past. The Deepblue calls with the bellow of High Adventure! Sail Forth!

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92%
Audience ScoreBased on 546 reviews
gameplay41 positive mentions
stability12 negative mentions

  • Engaging and intuitive sailing mechanics that balance realism and accessibility, often compared favorably to Wind Waker and Assassin's Creed Black Flag.
  • Charming, whimsical art style and humorous dialogue create a lighthearted and relaxing atmosphere.
  • Deep fleet and ship customization options with a variety of ships, weapons, and crew management add rewarding strategic layers.
  • AI of allied ships during combat is often frustrating and causes collisions, hindering fleet management and combat flow.
  • Some gameplay elements feel repetitive and tedious over time, with side quests losing appeal in late game and uneven difficulty scaling.
  • Technical issues including bugs, occasional crashes, problematic camera and control quirks, and a confusing or absent save system hinder player experience.
  • gameplay
    88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is widely praised for its engaging and well-balanced sailing mechanics that blend realism with accessibility, offering a relaxing and immersive experience. While ship combat and progression receive mixed feedback due to repetitiveness and occasional jankiness, the core loop of exploration, strategic fleet management, and varied activities keeps players invested. Despite some minor frustrations with mechanics and pacing, the game’s charming style, intuitive controls, and satisfying sailing physics make for an enjoyable and unique gameplay experience.

    • “From the first time you catch the wind just right and glide across the waves, it's clear how much care went into the sailing mechanics.”
    • “Sail Forth was clearly a labor of love by the dev; it's a little rough around the edges in places, but the core gameplay is solid enough: sail a boat from island to island (with proper wind and sailing mechanics that are intuitive, but not trivial), handle missions, defeat bosses, and play minigames (ship races, cannon shooting galleries, fishing, photography...).”
    • “The sailing core mechanics are great and there are enough ships, environments, activities, enemies, bosses etc to keep you interested and wanting to play more.”
    • “The gameplay is utterly shallow, combat is bland and unrewarding, ships largely feel and handle the same, and traversal is just a chore.”
    • “Mechanics and controls are janky and need refining, and the content needs expanding to provide some kind of depth and variation.”
    • “That's not even counting the multiple times my ship would just get stuck in weird places, ally ships would sometimes make fights more difficult because they would just bump into me and get me stuck, and the wind mechanic seemed like it was prepared to go against my sailing direction every time.”
  • graphics
    51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's graphics are widely praised for their charming, colorful, and stylized art style, often compared to titles like The Wind Waker and Animal Crossing. The visuals, while simple, create a relaxing and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere with vibrant environments and unique thematic island designs. Some users note occasional graphical glitches and frame drops, but overall, the graphics significantly enhance the immersive, laid-back naval exploration experience.

    • “The art style is beautiful and each section of islands has their own theme to make sure each new major area is refreshing.”
    • “Navigating through the night and watching an ocean of stars glittering in the distance is just one example of how the graphics come to life.”
    • “Absolutely gorgeous visuals and chill atmosphere, with a beautiful soundtrack to back it all up.”
    • “Stripped down Black Flag without the cinematics, graphics, or shanties.”
    • “Played on Steam Deck, some occasional graphical glitches and frame drops but overall a great experience.”
    • “The artstyle and UI design is way too childish for my taste, although I recognize some people like it and it's just a question of taste.”
  • story
    50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of the game is generally lighthearted, enjoyable, and features eccentric characters, offering a relaxed pirate adventure vibe reminiscent of Zelda-like questing. However, many players find the narrative thin, occasionally confusing due to lack of clear guidance or mission logs, and the side quests tend to become repetitive and less rewarding over time. Technical issues and bugs, especially near the endgame, can disrupt story progression, but the core storytelling combined with engaging naval combat maintains player interest.

    • “I really thoroughly enjoyed the story and it really amped up around the final chapters making for a very unique pirate game.”
    • “The story progression is cool and some of the fights have more depth to them than I thought a naval game could have.”
    • “While the story doesn't have the overarching complexities that I'm used to, it is enjoyable and lighthearted, hosting several eccentric characters you'll meet along the journey.”
    • “The problem is the story, in that I don't know what to do. There are no clear mission icons to point where to go or remind you what to do. I would be fine with that if this game was purely a do-your-own-thing, but there are missions in this game.”
    • “Following along quests largely involves remembering what the last guy told you, and the game really doesn't go out of its way to make sure you're on the right path.”
    • “The dialogue is god awful and the story... is there a story?”
  • humor
    28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is consistently praised for its charming, lighthearted, and witty pirate-themed dialogue, filled with puns, silly slang, and endearing characters that make repetitive conversations enjoyable. While some find the humor corny or overly wordy, it generally adds a relaxing and fun atmosphere that enhances the overall cozy sailing experience.

    • “Humorous dialogue: the creator could have left it stale, but chose to put a lot of humor that makes otherwise boring repetitive dialogue fun.”
    • “Everything about this game in one way or another is utterly adorable or hilarious, whether it's dialogue, character names, the sea life roaming around the open waters, or the character designs.”
    • “Great relaxing gameplay, and funny writing to boot; the sheer amount of puns is astounding.”
  • music
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is widely praised for its chill, soothing, and atmospheric qualities, seamlessly enhancing the relaxing and immersive pirate-themed experience. While some find it repetitive or bland, most appreciate its harmonious integration with visuals and gameplay, making it a standout and memorable aspect of the game.

    • “The music, sound design, level design, water and ships work together to make a beautiful game.”
    • “Epic boss battles, amazing soundtrack and mood to each biome, lots of collectibles and side activities to find, semi-realistic ships and sailing mechanics, and a somewhat deep system of weapons and mods with tiers and stats.”
    • “Absolutely gorgeous visuals and chill atmosphere, with a beautiful soundtrack to back it all up.”
    • “The soundtrack is bland and your crew means nothing.”
    • “Past a certain point my game will not stop playing the main menu music and sound loop, and then it stopped recognizing when fights ended.”
    • “The music is mellow and inoffensive, providing a great backdrop.”
  • stability
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game experiences various bugs and glitches, especially in late-game content and the DLC's maelstroms, with occasional freezes on Steam Deck when firing cannons. Despite these issues, performance is generally stable on older systems and Steam Deck, and the developers actively address problems through patches. Overall, while bugs can affect progression, the core gameplay remains enjoyable and runs smoothly for most players.

    • “Runs great on older systems and still looks great on newer ones.”
    • “A beautiful and relaxing sailing game, with a cute design, enjoyable gameplay and seems to be bug free.”
    • “Runs great on my Steam Deck too!”
    • “One problem: the DLC's "maelstroms" are buggy.”
    • “Seems to be a bug on Steam Deck that freezes the game whenever a cannon is fired.”
    • “The game does have some bugs and glitches that can affect your progression in adventure saves.”
  • atmosphere
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its chill, relaxing vibe complemented by gorgeous visuals and a beautiful soundtrack. Users highlight the fun, immersive environment filled with engaging pirate-themed elements, creating a thrilling yet soothing experience reminiscent of classic sailing adventures. Overall, the atmosphere significantly enhances the game's appeal and enjoyment.

    • “Absolutely gorgeous visuals and chill atmosphere, with a beautiful soundtrack to back it all up.”
    • “Well, that was AC Black Flag, but this game is one of the very few over the years that successfully creates that same thrilling sailing atmosphere that Black Flag did.”
    • “I think it deserves a lot of credit, and I would personally nominate it for some indie awards just off the music, atmosphere, and variety of things to do in such a bite-sized formula!”
  • grinding
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in this game is often described as tedious and frustrating, especially during ship battles and certain missions where managing multiple ships or tasks becomes cumbersome. Interactions like fishing can halt your progress, adding to the annoyance, and the lack of clear instructions exacerbates the difficulty. However, some players appreciate the absence of traditional grinding elements like leveling up, allowing for a more relaxed single-player experience.

    • “At first, the ship battles are fun, but eventually turn into a tedious cluster, especially after you add a few ships to your fleet and are fighting multiple enemy ships at once.”
    • “Also, shooting stuff with cannons feels really clunky and tedious, which isn't great, and having extra ships in your fleet feels pointless when they will never keep pace with you.”
    • “I have even bought Sea of Thieves hoping it would be like the naval portion of Black Flag, but I found the way that ships are handled to be tedious in Sea of Thieves, especially if you are a single player.”
  • optimization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers generally stable and smooth performance, enhancing the enjoyable exploration experience, with the only notable optimization issue being a severe frame rate drop during the final boss fight. Overall, users report minimal performance problems.

    • “I basically had zero performance issues.”
    • “Same arcadey performance but a more enjoyable exploration on the seas taking inspiration from Zelda Wind Waker.”
    • “Performance was stable for the majority of the time, and the only time I saw a severe drop in framerate was during the final boss, which added to the frustration of the fight.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users appreciate the game's replayability, which is enhanced by elements of randomness that keep each playthrough fresh and engaging.

    • “On the plus side, this enables replayability with the element of randomness.”
  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users find the emotional aspect of the game to be charming and wholesome, praising its cute art direction and writing. The experience evokes a heartfelt, indie vibe reminiscent of Black Flag, enhanced by engaging sailing mechanics.

    • “Imagine Black Flag but indie and wholesome!”
    • “The art direction and writing is cute and wholesome and the sailing mechanics are fantastic.”
  • character development
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game is charming and entertaining, with adorable and humorous dialogue, creative character names, and engaging designs that add to the overall delightful experience.

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31h Median play time
31h Average play time
31-31h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Sail Forth is a role playing game with fantasy theme.

Sail Forth is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam Deck and others.

On average players spend around 31 hours playing Sail Forth.

Sail Forth was released on December 21, 2022.

Sail Forth was developed by Festive Vector.

Sail Forth has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its stability.

Sail Forth is a single player game.

Similar games include Abandon Ship, DAVE THE DIVER, Seablip, Abandon Ship, Len's Island and others.