Rogue-likes are always a bit hit or miss; I find. Too often I’ve started a new game only to find myself quickly disenchanted by a high-difficulty curve with no way to lower, or at least smooth it out. Hades, often considered the best in the genre, was able to straddle this line by providing numerous earnable abilities and upgrades which strengthened your base character – but few have been able to actually recreate this in their own titles.
Ship of Fools – a cute, piratey roguelike with optional co-op – instantly appealed to me despite my worries about the rogue-like gameplay. But did it find that golden balance or did it leave me feeling without a paddle?
The game begins on a beach following a shipwreck. You play as one of many “fools” who arrived in this fashion and are quickly asked by “Clarity,” – a mysterious Captain – to set out and repel the “everlasting storm,” which has been plaguing the area. You’re also tasked with rebuilding the Great Lighthouse, which will end the everlasting storm completely. It’s a simple set-up and one which gets you straight into the action, but it isn’t anything to write home about. The further narrative of the game is very much a framing device above all else and I wasn’t very invested in it, unfortunately. You’ll build your own emerging narrative as you play though, so I wasn’t too upset by the fact it was a little lacklustre. The world is interesting despite this and as you progress and unlock more characters to inhabit your island home you start to gain a better insight into its history of it. There’s a very distinct aesthetic to Ship of Fools which fills everything with heaps of character and I’d be interested in learning more about the characters and lore of this strange swashbuckling world.
What you’re really here for is the gameplay. During each run, you’ll need to sail your ship – manned only by yourself and optionally your co-op partner – into the storm and reach the right-hand side of the map. You move a hexagon at a time with each tile representing an encounter. It could be a combat section, a shop or a chance to find a new item/upgrade for your character or ship. Equally, you could find a boss fight, a new character for your island, a bunch of resources or be pushed by the wind closer to your objective. Thankfully certain types of encounters are labelled on the map, so you can make educated decisions as to how you proceed. It starts pretty easy, with uncorrupted tiles having much weaker enemies and resources seeming plentiful, but don’t be fooled! Every 3 moves the storm will corrupt more tiles to the right of the map, making encounters much more difficult as you approach the end of the area. I liked the risk-reward aspect of this, as it forced me to focus on getting across as quickly as possible whilst also giving me choices and opportunities to instead improve my chances of surviving once I got there.
Most tiles involve a short travel sequence, and usually, these are combat-heavy. Combat is a bit like playing a tower defence game, as you simply need to repel enemies and stop them from destroying your ship. Characters themselves don’t actually suffer too much from being hit, with the penalty being simply that you’re unable to contribute to the defence. Enemies come at you from all angles, but you have four important starting tools with which you can fight back – a turret, a cannon, planks and a paddle.
- The paddle is used to swing at enemies either near to or on-board the ship, can be used at any time and deals minor damage.
- The cannon can be moved between four firing positions and can be fired by a player at enemies. It can also be used to fire harpoons and grab useful flotsam and jetsam from the water. It requires ammo, however, which must be loaded manually once placed.
- The turret acts as a cannon but fires automatically at enemies on that side of the ship. It also requires ammo.
- Planks are used to repair the ship, but also take up space on the ship and must be manually applied.
Fighting off the horde requires careful management of the cannons – reloading when necessary by carrying balls from the ammo store, moving them around and perhaps even firing them – and it quickly becomes hectic. If you thought Overcooked was hectic you’ll be in for a shock. There are always a bunch of creatures after you and no time to think. Thankfully most incoming damage to the ship is well signposted by enemy animations, but many a time I found myself thinking “well, I can’t get across there right now, so I’ll just have to take that hit.” For the most part, it’s manageable, and early on there are plenty of opportunities to heal back up, but once you hit the corrupted areas it quickly becomes overwhelming. Once you can find a flow the battle loop is really enjoyable and quite unique, but I do worry that as a single-player experience, there might be some balance issues. At times there was simply too much happening for me to cope with and not even the best players are capable of being in two places at once.
Whilst you can play alone, the game has clearly been designed with co-op in mind. Each player chooses a fool and off you go! Playing in co-op was an absolute blast, turning the overwhelming odds into a fairer fight. Communication plays a significant role here and it reminded me a lot of Guns of Icarus or Overcooked in terms of the player dynamics. Whilst Ship of Fools is enjoyable as a single-player game, it escalates to a whole other level with an ally and I’d definitely recommend playing it primarily in this way.
Thankfully, Ship of Fools does have progression between runs, and this is what helped me to keep coming back. Permanent progression – meaning upgrades which persist in future runs – is done through a number of services on your island. The one I used the most was in the form of eating soup – earned by handing in tentacles – given to the player for defeating enemies, landing on particular islands or for how many points you’ve earnt by the end of a run. This allowed me to increase my ship’s health, improve my cannons, start with more money etc. It’s a fun way of granting that progression, and it made every run feel worthwhile even when I inevitably lost it. You also unlock new fools to play through the runs, with each starting with a unique ability. These serve as good starting points for builds and specialisation within the co-op, and each character was just as interesting as the last. Personally, I like the posh prawn Krilstoph for his ridiculous paddle power.
One gripe I have with Ship of Fools is the lack of enemy variety. There are only three levels to the game, and so I found myself repeating encounters again and again on consecutive runs. There are tons of trinkets to find and ways to build but the combat still became stale a few hours in simply due to the few enemy types I encountered. It would have been great if new enemies, bosses and items appeared in subsequent runs, but instead, it simply became a case of going through the motions to reach the next area again and again.
I love how Ship of Fools is presented; you simply wouldn’t know it was Fika Productions’ debut title by looking at it. It is beautifully illustrated in a style reminiscent of the Cartoon Network shows I grew up watching – mixing cuteness and creepiness in the best way. Comparisons will inevitably be made to Cult of the Lamb, but personally, I think Fools does the style more justice. The soundtrack is also excellent with various well-constructed and arranged musical tracks complementing the action. I want to specifically point out one of the final pieces you’ll hear – “The Eye of the Storm, Pt.3” – as a fantastic example of just how to raise a player’s excitement and motivation during a boss. It’s already in my “get pumped/work” playlist alongside the works of Nobuo Uematsu and Jeremy Soule. I can’t overstate how great a job Philippe Grant did with the soundtrack, and the same can be said about all those on the art team.
Ship of Fools is an excellent debut piece for any studio to have made and has proven beyond any doubt that Fika Productions mean business. It’s well-constructed and designed, with tight controls and a gameplay loop which keeps you invested. It’s absolutely gorgeous and everything in it works well, even if I feel the single-player experience could have been improved with either an AI team-mate or variable difficulty. My biggest gripes are that the earlier areas could and should have been spiced up with more content as you progressed through the game and that I would have liked more areas overall; though it could be argued that a game leaving you wanting more must be good, right? In short – it’s a charming, frantic title with plenty of styles that’s a blast to play with friends. I’d highly recommend this to fans of rogue-likes and people looking for a fun co-op experience with a patient partner.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Engine: Unity
Publishers: Team17 Digital Limited, Team17
Reviewed on Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, Grab your copy here https://www.shipoffoolsgame.com/en/
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