Seablip Early Access has potential, no question about it. Now that this pixel art pirate journey has set sail in Early Access, I managed to blag a schooner and set course on the… nah, I’m not even going to entertain that cliche. Let’s say that I got my feet wet.
From its humble character creation to some pretty epic sea battles, Jardar Solli’s game already packs a punch, even in this early phase. The goal? Become a fearsome pirate and rule the seven seas. Dammit, I said it. To become a mighty pirate, you need the right look.
My initial character creation was going the way of Guybrush Threepwood; then it was my doppelganger, and then… a straw hat? Of course! I’m going to make Monkey D. Luffy. There wasn’t a simple red shirt, but enough of a look that would pass as the King of the Pirates.
Upon heading out, Luffy’s grandpa says to hire a crew for their ship and recruit other members to hold the fort back home, manning the cannons. Sounds good. Let’s explore the island first and then head out on the ship—all of which is within the first few minutes.
Seablip Early Access will appeal to lovers of cute, chunky little sprites. It’s like that Stardew game. Have you heard of it? It’s a little indie thing about farming or something. Anyway, the island is pretty damn small, and much like Passing By – A Tailwind Journey, it’s best to head out and discover new islands via a vast, populated map.
A bit like King of Seas, you’ll note the numerous pirate frigates moving about in real time. For the reckless, this is an ideal opportunity to test out your cannons, and unfortunately, everyone else has to tag along as it’s all part of the introduction. As cute and cheery as Seablip Early Access may be, it’s not so friendly on the tutorial aspect.
Whether it was the hypnotic scent of a coffee that lured me away for less than a minute or whether it was in the game’s design, my ship was sunk almost immediately. Damn, we’re going to have to return to that poxy island and repeat the same thing – even if it only took a few minutes. Wrong: we meet the underworld, a wardrobe, and instead of a lion – a whale.
Yes, Seablip Early Access is more One Piece than Sid Meier’s Pirates! and it’s wacky. After being given several contracts and missions to fulfil, including a wanted monkey (guaranteed to pique my interest), it soon becomes apparent that one may be spending more time in this world than in the ‘real’ one. If only it weren’t for poor intuition and those meddling kids.
Raising the flag of ownership, I’ll say it’s my lack of intuition to work out how to play the game, but I have noted a couple of other comments saying similar things. Upon returning to the seas and taking my revenge for being sunk, I’d managed to sink my first enemy ship, watch naively as the shipwrecked crew floated towards my ship, climb aboard and attack, and then admire the horizon. That’s not for the feels but because I couldn’t move my ship.
With only three ports of call on said ship, the only advice was to click ‘sail’ or press ‘F’. Neither worked, and all that was said was about needing a crew. Perhaps I was missing something, but going through the menus proved fruitless, and it wasn’t as if I could dive overboard and swim to shore. After some grumbling, I restarted, little realising that it was an easy fix.
The ‘issue’ with Seablip Early Access is the management of your crew, as you have to select them to do a task manually, but they’ll typically semi-automatically fulfil them. This means you need to engage in some tasks, where if you interact in quick succession, you’ll undo an action as I did. It’s all relatively simple. Once you get the hang of the controls, it’s a simple case of resource management and hiring and firing of crew.
When I say ‘simple’, I mean as an explanation. As for time, I can see myself getting borderline obsessed with this as and when new content (such as quests) gets released. Surprisingly, I haven’t tried Seablip Early Access on the Steam Deck, but if it’s any comparison to my time on Stardew Valley on the Switch, my wife would best be looking for a new companion.
