Any good Pirate RPGs?

[Old One]

If we're going for really old games, I used to play one called Swashbuckler on the Apple IIc. It's mostly fighting as I recall, but I liked it when I was a kid.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Maybe not quite a RPG, but Skull & Bones coming out early next year.

 

[Covenant]

There's a mod for the original XCOM called 'X-Piratez', where instead of defending Earth from the alien invasion, you command a bunch of amazonian mutants who escape from a testing facility and decide to become pirates, complete with muskets, parrots, cutlasses, etc.

It's not particularly nautical (you're more likely to be raiding an aircar or a cult's temple than a boat), but the pirate 'theme' is top-notch.

Spoiler

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

All RPGs are good for pirating yes.

 

[Dadd]

The only fantasy game interpretation of pirates that I enjoyed was in HoMM3 Horn of the Abyss mod, Cove faction. You get to use cannons, guns, sea witches and so on. They look like pirates and you hunt treasure with them.

 

[Sad He-Man]

Swashbucklers: Blue vs. Grey

2007 bloom-overloaded russkie steampunk pirate jank with complementary pipboy ripoffs in the menu. What's there not to like?

Screenshots

It's fun but not very good. It has English version.

 

[Serus]

All RPGs are good for pirating yes.

I strongly resent that. I'm not a pirate but a privateer*! I work for all gamers in the world, trying to free games from slavery and oppression.

*

Spoiler

Nah, in reality i bought most of my games in the past ~15 years - even if a few not outright

Some people mentioned Sid Meier's Pirates. Firstly, obviously, it isn't a CRPG no matter how you slice it. And secondly, try to look at the original game from mid 80s. Apart from graphics and sound (though graphics are MUCH better when it comes to style) it is a slightly different, and better, imo game. Amiga version from ~1990 is probably the best looking and sounding port but has annoying controls iirc.
Not saying that the remake from early 2000s is bad, far from it, but it is less replayable.

 

[toro]

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I found Risen 2 & Risen 3 to actually be pretty fun but they get shit on a lot here. ymmv, I guess.
--
I've been wanting to try this for a while but haven't gotten around to it

this is made by a codexer


On the list of games that definitely didn't make me feel like a pirate, Deadfire would be at the top.

Trailer for that first one looks like the literal definition of a walking simulator. Heard good things about Horizon's Gate though.

Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships might be a good one for the OP to check out.

Also, Pirates of the Carribean should probably be avoided, even with the big New Horizons mod. There were so many things I hated about it.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Trailer for that first one looks like the literal definition of a walking simulator.

Sea Dogs is anything but a walking simulator, so the trailer is not representative in that respect. There is real-time sailing, though, and you will occasionally have to engage with it because travelling on the world map is slower, and there are some strict time limits for missions. There's space-sim style time dilation to deal with this, though.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Trailer for that first one looks like the literal definition of a walking simulator.

Sea Dogs is anything but a walking simulator, so the trailer is not representative in that respect. There is real-time sailing, though, and you will occasionally have to engage with it because travelling on the world map is slower, and there are some strict time limits for missions. There's space-sim style time dilation to deal with this, though.

They might be good games but man do they make their games look boring with that straight-on 3rd person walking sim perspective. It's not just with the Sea Dogs trailer either. Even CoAS looks dull.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Probably controversial because it's not an RPG and it's from a hated in the codex nation studio, but wow, did I have fun with Black Flag. Boarding those big ships with your entire crew and taking over their entire crew was an absolute blast. In the Sea Dogs games, usually it's just you and the fat slob of their captain going mano a mano.

 

[luj1]

Pirates are cringe

There has never been a mature pirate game done well

It's always goofy crap

 

[Lord_Potato]

Pirates are cringe

There has never been a mature pirate game done well

It's always goofy crap

You must be fun at parties

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Pirates are cringe

There has never been a mature pirate game done well

It's always goofy crap

Vendetta: curse of the raven's cry

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Mount & Blade: Viking Conquest. It has sea battles where if longships can close enough together, they will stick together and become one platform, enabling the NPCs to board the other ship. Otherwise plays like Mount & Blade, with you being able to raid and loot. Beware that the VC can be pretty hard.

 

[TheSecondRanger]

Risen 2 is a decent pirate game and not as bad as people make it. It has certain Gothic like qualities but with pirates instead of european medival fantasy. But it will turn boring after the first half and the final boss is a bit disappointing. The first half and the exploration is fine though. You have a pirate ship and a crew and can travel to different islands. The combat system is surprisingly fun and the progress is motivating.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Risen 2 is a decent pirate game and not as bad as people make it. It has certain Gothic like qualities but with pirates instead of european medival fantasy. But it will turn boring after the first half and the final boss is a bit disappointing. The first half and the exploration is fine though. You have a pirate ship and a crew and can travel to different islands. The combat system is surprisingly fun and the progress is motivating.

There's nothing to the sailing aspect of the game though. No broadsides, no boarding, no crew mutiny et cetera.
Really, Sea Dogs : City of Abandoned Ships is the best there is.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Gahbreeil]

The best video game about pirates. Not exactly an RPG but you won't find better.

 

[Victor1234]

Mount & Blade: Viking Conquest. It has sea battles where if longships can close enough together, they will stick together and become one platform, enabling the NPCs to board the other ship. Otherwise plays like Mount & Blade, with you being able to raid and loot. Beware that the VC can be pretty hard.

That began life as a mod IIRC, and there was another 17th century Caribbean mod that was about the actual Golden Age of Piracy pirates, that got spun off as a standalone game too. Blood & Gold Caribbean in 2015. Not highly rated by Steam it seems.

For me it doesn't get any better than Pirates of the Caribbean with New Horizons mod. One of the dudes making it is a navigation officer on some Caribbean cruise line ship, so it's got lots of locale specific and nautical stuff that gets into simulator territory (with optional settings to make it easier too..)

Honorable mention to Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas. It's like the opposite of Sid M Pirates above but similar idea. Do you know what careening is? It's fixing your ship's hull on a beach and you can do it in this game! Take a landing party ashore in launch boats, get letters of marque, literally burn down a town, and the most complicated ship flag minigame I've seen anywhere.

Instead of fighting everyone you come across, you can do things like offer to trade, ask them for information or food, offer to escort them, etc. All by raising different flags. Or you just run up the jolly roger and pirate. Never a success because it was buggy and super detailed. Loading up your goods on dock to ship was a particular UI pain. My particular favorite was the ability to take your ship cannon to the beach in a launchboat and using it on land with your dudes pushing it along, to wipe out enemy forts.

 

[Modron]

Blood & Gold Caribbean in 2015. Not highly rated by Steam it seems.

Original release was quite buggy and remained so until a lot of patching fixed it up; I played years after release and had a good time. Give it a shot if reviews were the only thing stopping you.

 

[jebsmoker]

lol tortuga is an egs exclusive for a year

fuck

 

[Victor1234]

Blood & Gold Caribbean in 2015. Not highly rated by Steam it seems.

Original release was quite buggy and remained so until a lot of patching fixed it up; I played years after release and had a good time. Give it a shot if reviews were the only thing stopping you.

Thanks! I played the mod back in the day but the reviews were indeed keeping me away from the standalone.

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

You can play all the port royale games as decent pirate games. Or sid meier's colonization