Review: Rogue Waters (Nintendo Switch)

I have promised a certain PN staffer that I won’t get into all the pirate-y talk for this review. It will be difficult, but I’ll do my best. So, here it is in English, not Piratese.

Our game of the day is Rogue Waters, a pirate themed roguelite adventure with sailing ships, cannonfire, and cutlasses a-plenty. There are some interesting differences between other rogue-lites and this game, and we’ll get into those details in a bit. For the moment, let’s look at what kind of experience we have with visuals and audio.

The soundscape is a bit of a mixed bag. The music and the sound effects are well done and help to set the scene nicely. The dialogue delivery is a bit over the top and can be a bit cheesy. Still, it is in the ballpark of what you might expect from a bunch of pirates. The gameplay animation is well done and includes some ongoing action which doesn’t affect the player with damage or any changes to the field of play.

When you board an enemy ship there are square grids for movement and combat. When the action starts, your team and the opponents may be engaged in some sword-play, complete with the sound of clashing blades, but it’s a bit like background music; it fills a void, but there are no changes in hit points, position, or anything else until one of the combatants gets their official turn.

At this point, the bleeding starts. Yes, this game comes with some less than G rated dialogue and some blood on the deck during combat, so this one isn’t really for the younger gamers. The game is rated M and it has earned it.

At the start, you are introduced to the story and walked through some tutorial material. The tutorial itself is mostly good, but it could stand some refinement. The biggest gripe I have about the tutorial (and throughout the game) is the text. The typeface is much too small. I played on a respectably sized TV, moved my chair in close, and still had a hard time reading the text.

When it comes to doing battle, you get a bit of variety. When you encounter another sailing vessel, you will come up broadsides and have some fun with the cannon. Take out the enemy cannon, key crew members, etc. to make the boarding party combat a bit easier.

Once the boats have had their turns, it’s time to send your boarding party over to do some close combat. Just for dramatic effect, the game will show your boarding party swinging in on ropes, which sounds like more fun anyway.

Before the swinging starts, you get to choose where your crewmembers will land. Be careful, because fighting on the deck of a sailing ship is a bit cramped. One key point to remember is the ability to shove the enemy back a space during combat. This can help open a path for your crewmates to engage the next enemy. Another point in the game’s favor is that if you back a foe into something—like another character or a mast or a bulkhead—the foe will take extra damage. The game could do a bit better with the indication and selection of your crewman for your turn in combat, but it’s not too hard to get used to it.

As expected, you have a base of operations where you can buy new equipment, upgrade that equipment, and recruit new crew mates from six different classes. You have to replace all the crewmen who died getting all that plunder, you know. You can even summon kraken, mermaids, and giants snails to help you on your adventures. This being a roguelite, items, weapons, and modifiers for your party and your ship are reset between runs. Acquired skills and facility upgrades, however, remain unlocked. I found that trying to select one of the stores was problematic. It was like the selection indicator could see I wanted that location, but it kept jumping away from it. It became a point of frustration, but I got it to cooperate, eventually.

There is a bit more waiting time between action scenes, but the interesting combat mechanics balance this out. As noted, the text is much too small, either on the console screen or on a large TV. The game is fun and is different enough to keep the player engaged, which is important because the beginning is a bit plodding. All things considered, this one is good; it could use some refinements, but an interesting play.