Under the Jolly Roger is the first of its kind pirate-sim on Nintendo Switch that promises to bring open-seas and smooth sailing in a pirate setting on Nintendo’s flagship console. While it may tackle a genre that has not been too common on the console before, it is still important to see how well the game actually manages to deliver on all of the promises. Before starting with the review, Under the Jolly Roger is a rename for the earlier release of the pirate-sim game Tempest for PS4 and Xbox One. This is our review of Under the Jolly Roger on Nintendo Switch in which we take down the mighty Kraken and explore some pirate-infested waters in a quest for some booty.
The game begins with a brief tutorial where you destroy a pirate ship but the pirate captain summons a sea creature that destroys your ship as well and you are left with nothing. However, you start afresh with a brand new vessel and a brand new crew. You are free to explore the three huge maps right from the start of the game however to actually introduce to all of the game mechanics, there are plenty of tutorial quests and normal quests as well that also serve as the main story of the game. While you can follow the story of the game, the real fun lies in the exploration of the game and the freedom that it offers to you for sailing around the maps fighting pirates, completing quests, and even just sailing around without any purpose.
While you are free to move around, your battles might not be successful right from the start since you will need to purchase ship upgrades and better ammo. For this, you will need gold and for that, you can either go for the DLC that allows you to land and find treasures or you can simply complete the many quests found on every island found on the maps. The more gold you have, the more lucrative target you become yourself as well however while you are moving around the map instead of the sea, you will get notifications of any ongoing conflicts going on around you but you can choose to skip them if you do not want to engage them. However, if you are navigating the ship around yourself, you will have a slim chance of avoiding any of the confrontations.
You will need to manage your crew and their needs as well. Crew morale plays a big role in the game and the more you fight better, the higher the morale of your crew becomes. If you die a lot in the game, your crew’s morale will decline and you will be left with a crew that is extremely inefficient and unhappy. A crew with no morale will not be of much help during your battles or any other tasks which is why it is important that you be as good as possible in the game so that the morale of your crew stays high. You can also hire new crew members from cities and towns because you will lose members in battles if they go sideways. Every member is important because each member mans a specific post on the ship. You will also find crew members from exploration, completing quests, or random activities in the game.
Under the Jolly Roger is not just about pirate sailing. It also includes the Treasure Island DLC for the game which allows you to land on cursed islands, fight monsters and unlock special treasures. These sections while still lack in polish and the combat is pretty weak as you fight your way through monsters with your sword, can offer a decent. You can however also use your ship’s cannons to bombard the land and make the combat much easier. You do have the traditional block and you fight like a pirate dancing around with a sword but still, it lacks polish and refinement and most of your attacks will simply go through thin air. I only managed to complete these sections while running around waiting for the cannons to charge and then bombarding the monsters with the canons to defeat them.
While the gameplay and combat might be weak, they do offer a little change from the sea and give you a chance to flex your legs on the land and look for some treasures. These small islands are also filled with different traps so you will need to watch out for them as well. You have a certain amount of health for these islands so if you die, you spawn back at your ship and have to land again to look for the treasures. Each time you land on an island, it will be different as they are procedurally generated. It will have a different layout and different monsters for you to fight. These island excursions could have been extremely fun with good combat mechanics but sadly that is not the case here. You are better off on the sea waging battles against the mythical Kraken or the Leviathan.
Under the Jolly Roger brings the pirate-sim game to Nintendo Switch under a brand new game with all of the DLC content digitally however it is simply a port of Tempest to the console. This means that while most of the game-breaking bugs from Tempest are gone, the clunky gameplay is still present in the game and that is something that the developer has not really worked upon. For my PS4 playthrough, I was stuck at the tutorial mission where I was unable to load my goods into the ship but thankfully that glitch is not present in the game on Switch. This marks some sort of improvement for the game but still, the gameplay requires plenty more work before it can be fun again.
It runs pretty well as well however I was hoping that it would incorporate Nintendo Switch’s touch mechanism for controls since there are many commands sitting right on the screen while you are docked. There were no frame dips no matter how much action there was going on the screen but then again, the game is not very heavy when it comes to visuals. The game looks basic and nothing is really demanding even when there is plenty of action going on the screen. If you are expecting it to be amazing when it comes to visuals, do not have your hopes too high as the game looks pretty basic with nothing too flashy.
Final Verdict:
Under The Jolly Roger is simply a brand new name for Herocraft’s Tempest. While it may be the same game, this time around Herocraft has released a more stable release. My last experience with Tempest was a glitchy and buggy one when I reviewed the PS4 version of the game but this time around, I actually had fun sailing around the waters with my pirate crew, battling other factions and pirates and eventually taking on the fearsome sea creatures. While the release is bug-free, sadly the gameplay is still pretty weak especially when it comes to the land combat. If you avoid the land and stick to the sea, it will offer you much more fun as you battle other pirates, complete missions, and upgrade your crew and ship. It still qualifies as a decent, no-brainer pirate game for the Nintendo Switch console. If you would like a pirate-ship sim where you can explore vast seas, battle sea monsters, and other ships, this can be a good addition to your library but just stay away from the land.
Final Score: 6.5/10
