Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story
- September 30, 2015
- Epic Devs LLC
- 1h median play time
Get on SteamIn Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story, players become Captain Mary, navigating treacherous seas, battling rival pirates, and solving puzzles to uncover a mysterious treasure. With colorful graphics and a humorous tone, players will enjoy upgrading their ship, recruiting new crew members, and managing resources as they progress through the game. The ultimate goal is to become the most notorious pirate of all time.
Reviews
- Charming characters and witty writing that adds humor and warmth to the gameplay.
- The combination of tactical RPG combat and town management mechanics provides a unique and engaging experience.
- The pixel art style and retro feel evoke nostalgia, making the game visually appealing for fans of classic games.
- Frequent crashes and glitches, especially during battles, can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustration.
- The user interface is clunky and designed more for mobile devices, resulting in a cumbersome experience on PC.
- Combat can feel repetitive and slow, with too many clicks required for basic actions, making it tedious over time.
- story18 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The story of "Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story" is engaging and quirky, following a new pirate captain on a quest to defeat the evil Duke A, with a mix of island management and turn-based combat. While the narrative is interesting and features unique characters, it suffers from grammatical errors and a somewhat linear progression tied closely to story missions. Players appreciate the charm and humor of the story, despite some repetitive side quests and resource management challenges.
“I've spent over two days playing this game, purely to find out how the story ended.”
“Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story is a turn-based strategy, base building RPG that follows your character, the brand new pirate captain, on their quest to take down the evil duke.”
“Still, even with all the complaints I had about the game, it has a fair amount of charm and is pretty interesting. It combines tactical RPG with town management, and its story is quirky and amusing, with party characters that have a lot of personality.”
“I've spent over two days playing this game (which it turns out is probably five times as long as most people have played it) and it was purely to find out how the story ended.”
“Even though you can explore and fight as much as you want, your progress and objectives are still ultimately pretty tightly woven to the game's story missions.”
“You can look around but generally you'll only be getting quests on a specific island and if the quest isn't there, there's not a reason to be there.”
- music10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many players finding it repetitive and annoying, leading them to turn it off in favor of other audio options. However, a few players appreciate the music, considering it one of their favorite aspects. Overall, the consensus leans towards the music being a detractor rather than an enhancement to the gaming experience.
“Unlike some people on here, I actually like the music.”
“The music is actually one of my favorite parts.”
“- the music, oh god.”
“The music isn't that great either, especially when it loops around so much.”
“So why am I giving a positive review for an RPG that has mediocre combat, annoying music, and upgrades that are way too easy to get?”
“Music and sound: I turned both off after 1 hour of gameplay, so you know what to expect...”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is generally light-hearted and features charming characters and witty writing, with some players finding it genuinely funny at times. However, it struggles to consistently deliver comedic moments, often falling short of its ambitions. While there are elements of meta humor and a nostalgic retro feel, the overall comedic impact is mixed, with some players appreciating the attempts while others find them lacking.
“There's only a handful of SRPGs that have tried to be funny - the subgenre tends to be rather serious in tone by default, and games that try to be comedic are usually more Sunset Overdrive than Hitchhiker's Guide.”
“+ charming characters and witty writing that actually made me laugh once or twice.”
“It's light-hearted, not stressful, actually kinda funny.”
- gameplay4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The gameplay features solid townbuilding mechanics that allow for creative expression, such as creating unique environments, but can become repetitive after extended play. While both major gameplay aspects are executed competently, they do not stand out individually, leading to a mixed overall experience. The game is easy to pick up, with enjoyable dialogue and mostly reliable mechanics.
“The town-building mechanics have enough weight to them that I ended up basically making half the island into a weird nature preserve with lots of monkeys, each with a tree to climb.”
“Pros: the gameplay is easy to get into, the dialogue is fun, and the mechanics are solid (for the most part).”
“The simplistic mechanics, on the other hand, make this game repetitive after 5+ hours.”
“Both of the major gameplay aspects are done competently; neither is done to an exceptional level, but the sum of the parts does make a greater whole in this situation.”
- graphics4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The graphics are considered somewhat outdated, reminiscent of several generations past, yet they maintain a charming quality that appeals to some players. The art design and writing are praised for their fun elements, and the graphics scale well on PC. Overall, opinions are mixed, with a neutral stance towards the visual style.
“The writing and art design are fun, and the graphics look fine scaled up for the PC.”
“The graphics are charming as well.”
“Graphics are several generations old.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be quite tedious, as it requires significant time investment to build up the town and recruit various non-combatant NPCs for different professions. The limited combat skills and high costs for new gear lead to repetitive gameplay, with players often engaging in the same side missions to gather essential resources. However, the introduction of a speed-up feature helps alleviate some of the monotony by allowing faster resource generation.
“Tended to be very grindy and take a long time to build up the town.”
“Now I'll simply say beyond that, the combat is not the strongest element of this game. As I mentioned earlier, the limited skills available and the high cost of new gear mean you'll play your characters mostly one way with very little in terms of effective variations. You'll also do the same side missions over and over for the sake of grinding those few precious resources, at least early on, and I expect this to continue later as well.”
“Also, they added a 'speed' feature so that time on the map can be sped up, allowing you to generate resources faster. This should be fairly helpful in avoiding some of the tedious waiting for those basic resources to build up.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is enjoyable but suffers from notable bugs, which is somewhat anticipated given its transition from mobile to Steam. Players have reported issues with targeting due to pseudo-height mechanics, making gameplay occasionally frustrating.
“It's fun, but buggy is the short answer, which is, in my opinion, expected for a game that came from mobile devices and made its way to Steam.”
“Clicking on targets can be quite difficult due to the pseudo-height, which makes it feel buggy at times.”
