Gothic-Punk, Sea Exploration, and a Mermaid

Sea of Remnants is a free-to-play turn-based RPG set in an ocean-based open world developed by Joker Studio and published by NetEase Games.

View Full-size

Meet the mysterious mascot of Sea of Remnants.

Exploring the Island

At Gamescom, I didn’t have much time to play, but I was placed in a new section on a small island, where the goal was to defeat the “Mermaid” boss. One thing that immediately stood out was the game’s unique art style. It blended gothic-punk with puppet fantasy, and it looked great, especially with the game’s cast. In this demo, I controlled a party of three: R.S., Molly, and Hatchet, each with their own specialized kit. R.S. favors hitting all enemies with multiple hits; Molly focuses on single-target damage and support using her music-based abilities, and Hatchet can mark enemies, which lets her deal serious single-target damage, almost like a rogue-type class in other games.

The party I was given came armed to the teeth and was max level for the area (level 20). I was set on a random island, and the goal, as was mentioned earlier, was to reach the Mermaid Boss and defeat it, but before I set off, I played around a bit to see what the island had to offer. The main thing I noticed was that there were numerous hidden treasures, reachable by solving riddles, creeping up on unsuspecting creatures, or hiding in some obscure place.

One final thing I did before heading off was to check the menu and map for anything else I could glean. In the menu, I noticed that each character had four unique skins, but they were locked to me. I had no idea how to unlock them, but I suspect it might be tied to the game’s Gacha system, though that is just a hunch at the time of writing.

I checked the character pages and learned that you can choose from three classes after every five levels, but I couldn’t see which ones. This is most likely where the buildcrafting comes into play. When I checked the map, I noticed several islands, but they were all locked. I’m not sure if this is just for the demo or whether you need to unlock them in-game, but it seemed like there would be plenty to do in the full game.

Morian, the Mermaid Boss

After I had played around a little, I made my way to the Mermaid Boss, who was on the north side of the island, in a cavern, where I learned that the boss is called “Morian”. The Boss fight was fascinating. It wasn’t a simple encounter where you just dish out attacks and heal when needed; there were lots of mechanics involved. At the start of the battle, I couldn’t even target the main boss; instead, I had to defeat two Mermaid statues first.

While taking them out, I was bombarded by area-of-effect attacks in the form of a wave. Fortunately, some of the characters had healing abilities so that I could top myself up. Once I took care of the statues, I could target the boss.

I noticed that after I attacked, my other party members followed up with their own attacks. At one point, it ended up with six attacks, one after the other. I’m sure I probably missed something, but I wasn’t sure what caused this; perhaps one of my abilities had an assist passive on it? Another interesting part of the battle system was that I could multiply the damage my attacks could do by using a resource before said attack. This felt a little like the system in Bravely Default, where you boost your attack using the Brave resource; however, this version didn’t seem to have any downsides.

Once I depleted the boss’ health bar, another phase began, which happened a few times before I eventually defeated her. After the cutscene, I could finish off the mermaid or spare her, and apparently, this choice can affect the story, but for the demo, I chose to send her to her watery grave. Defeating the boss gave me a key item, and I could use it to enter an area in the northwest called “Shadow of the Deep”. I didn’t get much time here due to the limited time I had with the demo, but it appeared to be a challenge area where I could fight bosses for loot.

Sea of Remnants is shaping up to be a unique take on turn-based RPGs, merging it with an open world full of hidden surprises that previous NetEase games are known for. I liked what I played, and I’m definitely interested in seeing more.