Preview of Sea of Remnants: Blending Sea of Thieves Piracy with Persona 5’s Style—Is There Substance Beneath?

After a bunch of hours fumbling around with Sea of Remnants, the latest pirate RPG craze (or potential craze?), I’m left scratching my head. And not in a bad way. Or maybe it is? I dunno. Anyway, picture this: you’re battling through a clunky maze of what feels like an MMO’s vendor alley, turn-based combat that’s, let’s say gently, a work in progress, and a storyline that’s like trying to read subtitles while your cat’s blocking the TV. But you know what? Despite all this chaos, the game oozes this wild, in-your-face style that you can’t help but peek over your shoulder at. Think Persona 5 kind of cool. The cartoonish crew, with their exaggerated moves, just had me grinning like a goofball.

This version I messed around with is so early in development it might still need potty training. Crashes, bugs—oh my. Not to mention the English subtitles were MIA. So, yeah, predicting how this will actually play in 2026 feels like betting on which way the wind’ll blow tomorrow, but I’m sticking my nose in the air anyway.

Sea of Remnants hangs out in the same sandbox as Sea of Thieves: pirates, endless oceans, islands with shiny stuff to nab. But this one throws in turn-based combat just to mix things up. And oh boy, mix it does. The RPG/MMO bits are there too, just swimming around. Honestly, I’d get a new surprise every 30 minutes, like chocolates in an assorted box, except wait, what was that flavor? Late in the demo, I stumbled upon this whole thing about recruiting companions for the trip. Hundreds of them. Yeah, my jaw did a thing.

A lot of the stuff Sea of Remnants tossed my way felt like whispering secrets with marbles in your mouth. Like I said, the combat scenes—crossing swords with a kooky crew and using blunderbusses on local critters? It looked fab but felt incomplete. Would love to see it reach the brilliance of something like Clair Obscur, but for now, it’s more like, I dunno, Persona Lite.

But, messy as it was, there’s something kinda charming about it. Wooden puppet characters—don’t ask me why they’re wooden—brimming with personality, animations so over the top they’d probably fly right over you. And the plot twists were like, what? Seriously, like one time, after I thought I’d sent a big ape boss packing, here it comes again, captain of its own ship with cannons roaring. I mean, really? Even though I took it down again, my boat went under in a slapstick scene seconds later. Still no clue what the final act looks like, with all the frantic menu juggling and baffling dialogue, but man, it’s a ride.

And I have to give a nod to the setting. While, sure, there’s typical piracy fun going on, the game throws the unexpected at you, like finding the freakin’ moon under the sea or puppet folks losing their memory, but always climbing back to the start like some demented Groundhog Day. It’s got this rebellious streak, punk graffiti scrawled everywhere, characters acting like pirates out of a teen flick.

The real teaser, though, is whether this cool style and the mishmash of ideas will somehow come together into something that makes sense. I’m holding onto my plank and waiting, though. Need more pirate antics in my gaming life, honestly. The art style? Love it. Ship combat? Keen. Turn-based battles? They could work. Online multiplayer with friends tagging along? I mean… if it works, heck yeah. If not? Well, it’ll still be a quirky one-off.

So yeah, that’s where my sea legs stand. Let the salty wait begin. 🌊