Sea of Remnants: SGF Play Days Impression

Sea of Remnants is a bizarre game, offbeat and unusual in the best possible way. It’s akin to a very talented chef creating an impressive but unfamiliar fusion dish.

At Summer Game Fest, NetEase was on the Play Days HQ floor to show off free-to-play, ocean adventure RPG Sea of Remnants. When going into the appointment, I admittedly didn’t quite know what to expect. I’d heard rumblings that it was turn-based, that it had real-time overseas battles, and I’d seen its odd, pirate-punk-inspired art style briefly enough to be compelled into trying the demo. I got all of this, and a little more, and while it’s certainly not perfect and seems to need quite a bit of fine-tuning before it’s ready, I found myself extremely captivated by its art style and charmed by its gusto.

The Sea of Remnants demo opened with a really beautiful intro: a hooded puppet rows a boat on an open, azure sea, and some interesting quotes about seafaring and adventure flash on the screen as some really pretty music plays. It’s quite atmospheric and sets the tone of the game very well. Once the boat approaches the indicated goal, a vast wall of ocean rises as far as the eye can see, and the game transitions to a scene in which the puppet commands a ship swirling around a whirlpool, with a giant crimson octopus monster at the center attacking the ship. It’s quite the insane spectacle, with rain pouring violently and all hands on deck. This is the first gameplay present in the demo, featuring a real-time battle against the behemoth octopus boss, with players able to aim the cannons and fire at specific body parts. It was exciting, but everything happened too fast to absorb too much about the sea battle, and, alas, it is a battle that is meant to be lost. Once players fall, they black out.

Real-time sea battles have players blasting at massive sea creatures.

Once players awaken, they find themselves in a room with a puppet doctor, who explains that their memories have been lost or otherwise altered, and they are then given the chance to create their own custom character. The customization is quite fun and varied, with many different, vibrant styles. While the atmosphere and lore of memory loss here were interesting, the game strangely began to decouple its spoken and written dialogue, with completely different voice lines and on-screen text, leading to some serious confusion about what was going on. Nevertheless, once the compelling but confusing scene ended, the player character was given a compass, told to seek adventure at the nearby tavern, and then allowed to exit into the town, part of the grander world of Orbtopia.

On the way to the tavern, the player character’s compass is stolen by a rooster, and they have to retrieve it in a frantic, stylish chase scene before they’re finally guided to the tavern. Inside the pub, one of the primary characters, a blonde-haired female puppet known as RS, engages in some flirtatious slapstick hijinks, stealing treasure and causing chaos in the bar as she swings from ropes, parkours across chairs and counters, and antagonizes one of the local pirates. The scene is incredibly chaotic, wacky, and full of style, and it’s indicative of what was present in the opening, the sea battle, and the game so far: Sea of Remnants is absolutely chock-full of distinct style, being fascinating, in-your-face, and aggressive. It’s equally befuddling and entertaining; animations are fluid, characters have some serious punk attitude, and it’s just an all-around good time.

RS, the plucky and mischievous treasure-hunting troublemaker.

Once RS thoroughly pisses off the local pirate lord, she joins the player character in a turn-based battle against him and his stooges. Unfortunately, this is, again, where issues with the dialogue and translation crept in, with the in-game explanations of the mechanics completely faltering just as the appointment time was due to expire. From what could be gathered, there’s an on-screen turn order, and both RS and the player character have both single and multi-target abilities, some of which can alter the turn order. From the few rounds of combat I was able to experience, I was only able to gather that the combat was just as stylish as the cutscenes, and it seemed to be at least foundationally solid, even if the rough translation and time constraints prevented a full understanding of the battle mechanics.

Sea of Remnants is a bizarre game, offbeat and unusual in the best possible way. It’s akin to a very talented chef creating an impressive but unfamiliar fusion dish. It combines ingredients that don’t necessarily seem to go together, but once bitten into, there’s definitely something really piquant and compelling to its taste, even if it needs a bit of presentational refinement to fully communicate its array of flavors. With a bit more time, refinement, and especially a better and more thorough translation, Sea of Remnants has the chance to stand out as a truly special RPG.