Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, the sequel to the first Uncharted Waters. One of the most influential games of my childhood and a top 10 for sure. Such an incredible sense of exploration and discovery, with a sinister undertone of danger to make that exploration tense thanks to the constant threat of deadly storms, pirates, and even semi-random supernatural calamities.
Set in 1522, the age of exploration, you choose one of six unique protagonists from six different countries with intertwining different stories and can trade goods between ports, attack any ship you see while out at sea, or fill out the map. And the world map of this game is a map of the entire actual world!
It also has a nice open world take on progression where as your fame stat rises in a certain genre of fame--whether piracy, adventuring, or trading--depending on the character, you will unlock story events. So if you explore the map, your adventuring fame rises; if you attack ships, your piracy; invest in ports, your trading. So basically, play the game how you want, and when the appropriate stat for that character increases, you get another story event.
You can recruit vagabond sailors in cafes to create your own crew, including recruiting defeated captains of fleets you recently smashed, find and build various kinds of ships with different stats, and visit black markets at 2:00 AM for the best items in certain harbors. And if that port is owned by an enemy power, you will have to visit at night to sneak in and take a chance that each building you visit might result in your arrest and the confiscation of most of your gold.
Long trips are harrowing thanks to supply shortages, rat infestations, deserting crew, and scurvy, but on the flip side, the longer you sail without taking a break, the more experience your crew will gain. There are also items in the game you can find and use to mitigate these problems like Lime Juice or Rat Poison or the rare Cat item. There are many interesting immersive elements that incorporate game mechanics in a similar fashion. For example, you can haggle over prices in the game, and if you go to a shipyard and offer to buy a ship for 0 gold, the conversation with the seller will end with him politely declining. However, if you offer an amount of gold which is just under the amount of gold he will accept, he will take great offense to your undervaluing it, tell you you don't know the price of a ship to save your life, and refuse to sell anything to you for the next 24 hours. It's a completely unnecessary addition, but it's also a wonderful little touch that brings the world to life.
Released on PC with some interesting changes to the hand-to-hand duel combat for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console ports, it also has an amazing fifth gen remake which is unfortunately untranslated.
Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack was composed by Yoko Kanno? If you're into 16-bit RPGs and enjoy open exploration of the seven seas with some RPG mechanics, I highly recommend checking out this one. Very wonderful, unique, highly replayable, open-world sailing historical Koei JRPG.
Set in 1522, the age of exploration, you choose one of six unique protagonists from six different countries with intertwining different stories and can trade goods between ports, attack any ship you see while out at sea, or fill out the map. And the world map of this game is a map of the entire actual world!
It also has a nice open world take on progression where as your fame stat rises in a certain genre of fame--whether piracy, adventuring, or trading--depending on the character, you will unlock story events. So if you explore the map, your adventuring fame rises; if you attack ships, your piracy; invest in ports, your trading. So basically, play the game how you want, and when the appropriate stat for that character increases, you get another story event.
You can recruit vagabond sailors in cafes to create your own crew, including recruiting defeated captains of fleets you recently smashed, find and build various kinds of ships with different stats, and visit black markets at 2:00 AM for the best items in certain harbors. And if that port is owned by an enemy power, you will have to visit at night to sneak in and take a chance that each building you visit might result in your arrest and the confiscation of most of your gold.
Long trips are harrowing thanks to supply shortages, rat infestations, deserting crew, and scurvy, but on the flip side, the longer you sail without taking a break, the more experience your crew will gain. There are also items in the game you can find and use to mitigate these problems like Lime Juice or Rat Poison or the rare Cat item. There are many interesting immersive elements that incorporate game mechanics in a similar fashion. For example, you can haggle over prices in the game, and if you go to a shipyard and offer to buy a ship for 0 gold, the conversation with the seller will end with him politely declining. However, if you offer an amount of gold which is just under the amount of gold he will accept, he will take great offense to your undervaluing it, tell you you don't know the price of a ship to save your life, and refuse to sell anything to you for the next 24 hours. It's a completely unnecessary addition, but it's also a wonderful little touch that brings the world to life.
Released on PC with some interesting changes to the hand-to-hand duel combat for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console ports, it also has an amazing fifth gen remake which is unfortunately untranslated.
Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack was composed by Yoko Kanno? If you're into 16-bit RPGs and enjoy open exploration of the seven seas with some RPG mechanics, I highly recommend checking out this one. Very wonderful, unique, highly replayable, open-world sailing historical Koei JRPG.