Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story

About

In 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.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story screenshot

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 50 reviews

story7 positive mentions

gameplay4 negative mentions

Charming characters and witty writing that provides humor and entertainment.
The tactical combat system is engaging, allowing for strategic gameplay with unique character abilities.
The game offers a mix of city-building and exploration elements, providing a variety of gameplay experiences.

The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, requiring excessive clicks for basic actions.
Frequent crashes and bugs significantly hinder the gameplay experience.
The game suffers from repetitive music and a lack of volume settings, making it less enjoyable over time.

story
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
62%
12%
The story of "Swords & Crossbones: An Epic Pirate Story" is characterized by a comedic and quirky narrative that engages players, encouraging them to explore and complete side quests to uncover its conclusion. While the writing shows effort, it suffers from grammatical errors, and the plot, though entertaining, is relatively straightforward and linear, focusing on a pirate captain's quest for revenge against an evil duke. Overall, the game combines elements of tactical RPG, city management, and exploration, creating a charming experience despite its narrative limitations.
- “On the story front, the writing really seems like they put a lot of effort into it, and they went for a comedic approach.”
- “The story is cheesy and fun, an epic rescue and pursuit of revenge.”
- “Still, even with all the complaining I did about the game, it has a fair amount of charm and is pretty interesting. It combines tactical RPG with town management; its story is quirky and amusing, and our party characters seem to be novel and have a lot of personality, albeit in a sort of caricatural/parodical fashion.”
- “I won't say much else because anything else will pretty much spoil what little of the story there is.”
- “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.”
- “Now I'll simply say beyond that, that the combat is not the strongest element of this game, as I said earlier limited skills available, getting new gear is difficult since it costs so much per item, it means you'll play your characters mostly one way with very little in terms of effective variations.”
music
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it repetitive and annoying, leading them to turn it off in favor of other audio options. Some users appreciate the music, considering it a highlight, but overall, the lack of volume settings and the inability to easily adjust or mute the music detracts from the experience for most players.
- “Unlike some people on here, I actually like the music.”
- “The music is actually one of my favorite parts.”
- “- the music, oh god.”
- “No volume settings, only toggles, repetitive music.”
- “Can't access settings (what settings?) anywhere outside the main menu, can't even turn off music if it's getting on your nerves, and it will long before the intro is over.”
- “The music isn't that great either, especially when it loops around so much.”
graphics
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
45%
27%
The graphics received mixed reviews, with some players finding the pixel art charming and well-suited to the game's character design, while others criticized the visuals as outdated and obtrusive to gameplay. Overall, the art style is seen as cute and pleasant, but many users expressed a desire for more modern graphics and improved gameplay mechanics.
- “The pixel aesthetic is easy on the eyes and works, and the character design is unique, if somewhat unusual.”
- “The visuals are pleasant, the writing was actually good (I was laughing at the start of the game! and I rarely appreciate the writing in video games), and the various systems had incredible potential.”
- “The graphics are charming as well.”
- “The pixel graphics are painful to look at (it's 2018 now).”
- “Graphics are several generations old.”
- “Perhaps they'll do a remake with real graphics and polished gameplay.”
gameplay
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
36%
36%
The gameplay is generally competent but marred by a clunky and unintuitive user interface, leading to frustrating interactions. While the town-building mechanics offer some depth, the overall experience can become monotonous and repetitive, particularly due to the grindy nature of combat and exploration. Despite these issues, the game is easy to pick up, and some players appreciate the fun dialogue and solid 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.”
- “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.”
- “Pros: the gameplay is easy to get into, the dialogue is fun, and the mechanics are solid (for the most part).”
- “The gameplay is needlessly clunky and unintuitive.”
- “Alas, their efforts to make something 'original' turned into very boring and repetitive grind (which goes for gameplay here) and anything but friendly UI.”
- “The simplistic mechanic, on the other hand, makes this game repetitive after 5+ hours.”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag; while some players find it charming and funny, with witty writing and light-hearted jokes, others feel it falls short of its comedic potential. The game attempts to blend humor with its serious subgenre, resulting in a few standout moments but also some misses. Overall, it offers a nostalgic and enjoyable experience for those who appreciate its comedic style, though it may not resonate with everyone.
- “The jokes are constant and mostly pretty funny.”
- “It's light-hearted, not stressful, actually kinda funny.”
- “Has a nice humor to it, and a retro feel that brings back my nostalgia for turn-based games.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be quite pronounced, often requiring repetitive tasks to gather resources and build up their towns. The need to recruit and manage various NPCs for different professions adds to the grind, as does the slow progression in combat and gear acquisition. However, the introduction of a speed-up feature helps alleviate some of the tedium associated with resource gathering.
- “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 mostly play your characters in one way with very little effective variation. You'll also repeat 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.”
- “A little on the grindy side, just waiting for items that you can then sell for gold.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The stability of the game has been criticized for being buggy, particularly when using ships for navigation and targeting, which can be challenging due to pseudo-height issues. Players note that while the gameplay can be enjoyable, the bugs are a common expectation given its transition from mobile to Steam.
- “Using ships to sail around is buggy as hell.”
- “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 and buggy due to the pseudo-height mechanics.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
300%
The character development is noted for its unique and somewhat unconventional design, complemented by a visually appealing pixel aesthetic that enhances the overall experience.
- “The pixel aesthetic is easy on the eyes and works well, and the character design is unique, if somewhat unusual.”
- “The character development feels shallow and lacks depth, making it hard to connect with the protagonists.”
- “I was disappointed by the lack of meaningful choices that impact character growth throughout the game.”
- “The characters seem to follow predictable arcs, leaving little room for surprise or genuine evolution.”