We would all like to take off and sail the seas, wouldn’t we? To relax, see the sights, and be a pirate, without all the killing and looting… Well, I got as close as I’m going to get with King of Seas – and I really did feel like a King.
King of Seas is an action-RPG game that seas (sorry) you sailing around a procedurally generated world, completing various tasks whilst travelling from port to port. There is a bunch of stuff to do outside of these tasks, too: fishing, trading, customising your ship, hiring crewmates and even side quests, among other things.
The story in King of Seas is an interesting one, and it certainly kept me entertained throughout. The basic premise is this: your father is killed, and you take the brunt of the blame. You’re charged with treason and basically banished and left for dead. Now it’s time to rebuild and get your revenge. Not before you build up your empire, though. It’s a story that is easy to follow, and it’s not too full-on.
In terms of gameplay, King of Seas is extremely chilled. It’s a game I often enjoyed playing in bed after a long day of work, helping me to relax. There’s a lot of things to focus your attention on and it’s not difficult to learn the ropes. The ship controls feel quite weighty and precise whilst also being simple to master. There is a variety of factors that can affect your ship moving, the wind being the biggest. If you’re travelling in the same direction as the wind, for instance, your ship will move a lot faster. There are also a bunch of things to look out for whilst on your travels: enemy ships, storms, and even hidden treasure. What more could you want?
The ship combat is brilliant, and perhaps one of the best features of King of Seas. Dodging enemy attacks whilst also trying to line up your shot with the ship’s cannon is exciting, to say the least. There are also skills you are able to unlock as you progress through, and three different branches to suit your play style. The skills are extremely fun to use and play around with, including explosives barrels, fireworks that explode and damage anything in their vicinity, and even trained sharks you can fire to attack your enemies. Brilliant.
Defeating enemies, completing quests, and looting will net you some experience, helping to level up your ship and unlock more skills. This gives you a better chance at defeating those pesky ships. Winning a battle will also net you some shiny new loot, so that’s always good. You can also come across different components for your ship, such as sails and hulls.
As relaxing and peaceful as King of Seas is, it isn’t without its faults. It seems to have a lot of glitches on Switch currently, some of which are easy to deal with and some that can be a little more frustrating. Sometimes the battle music will play randomly when you have been out of a battle for long enough. The framerate also dips a lot, causing the game to stutter quite frequently. More seriously, I encountered a glitch that caused me to have to restart my game as one of the main quests would not register as completed.
It would have been nice to have had some form of voice-acting in King of Seas to give the characters a little more depth and personality, and the on-screen text is a little on the smaller side – especially in handheld mode. So, voice-acting would have been helpful. I would have also preferred a mini-map on screen so I didn’t have to keep stopping and opening up a map as I go. I guess that’s just a pirate’s life. Nonetheless, in spite of these issues, King of Seas is a fantastic game.
King of Seas £19.99
Summary
King of Seas is an ambitious and peaceful game. It’s perfect for pick up and play gameplay, let down only by numerous glitches and lack of voice acting. If you want to be a pirate on Switch, this is the game.