• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Fika Productions
• Publisher: Team17
• Release Date: November 22, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Team17 on behalf of Fika Productions. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Ship of Fools, a 2-player co-op roguelite game, opens with a story about seafaring warriors who captured an “entity of light,” which was then used to light up the waters surrounding the Archipelago. This decreased the number of sea creature attacks against sailors. But now, your character – one of the “Fools” – has awakened on a beach and is pressured into helping to hold off a “Crabster” monster and keep it away from that lighthouse.

You’ll start out with two of the ten “Fool” character options unlocked; each one has their own benefit to using them. One Fool requires you to not use your cannons for one battle round in order to unlock them, while another will be unlocked by using every type of ammo in one category. I thought the character designs were kind of oddly cute. I wasn’t always sure which one to use – and it doesn’t seem like there’s an option to switch characters between each section of the sea in case one would work better there. But I did appreciate the variety in abilities and the quirky characters such as “Krilstoph,” who wears a bow tie that enhances his paddle attacks.

Once you’ve decided on the Fool you want to play as, you will start out in the swampy “Forgotten Waters,” which contain repulsive mosquitoes and spiders and frogs. The map in each section will be randomized for each run. I liked how each section had a different “biome,” with the swampy section, a stormy sea, and an area covered in ice. The hexagons on each area’s map will have symbols that will tell you what you’ll face there. Some of them will provide you with sand dollar currency, shields, harpoons, planks, or important “tendrils” used for ship upgrades. Other spaces consist of a regular small shop, a shop that lets you pay to open treasure chests there, or an area that just has one chest for you to open for free.

Besides the ones you run into as you progress through the map, there are also shopkeepers for you to rescue in each section of the sea. Once you’ve found them they will return to home base on the lighthouse island and open up shop there. The blacksmith will upgrade your cannons, and there are other characters that will sell you different ammunition or other perks for your next run. You start the game with limited pedestals on your ship to place additional types of ammo or planks for repairs, but you can pay to add more to your ship. (If all of the pedestals are occupied, you’ll have to make a choice and any items not on a pedestal are sent overboard when you leave an area.)

Not every space will bring you something good like those shopkeepers; one store out in the field only allows you to pay for perks using some planks (HP) from your ship. Another kind of space has an item that you can choose to take and place on your ship for an advantage that comes at a price – like losing access to one of your cannons for the rest of that run! 😱 Regardless of whether a space gives you an advantage or disadvantage, they’re generally pretty clearly labeled on the map, although I found the ones with pink icons a bit unclear at first.

Most of the time, an area will keep you busy defending your ship from sea monsters. Fools have a paddle to use against monsters that get too close to the ship, harpoons to stab them with from afar, or the ship’s cannons. I played this in single player mode, and the top cannon would shoot at enemies automatically, which helped me a lot considering the number of enemies.

As long as you keep that cannon loaded with ammo, it will automatically attack enemies for you while you’re busy with the other cannon. I liked that there was some assistance provided for single players, but I will say that the top cannon seemed to have longer times in between shooting each time. I liked the bottom cannon better because it seemed like it shot much faster and I didn’t have to wait as long to shoot again. You can unlock more cannons as you progress through the game, but the unlock conditions were unclear – and there wasn’t an explanation of what each upgrade does, either. There were icons for trinkets or other items that often lacked descriptions as well, so some labels/details would have been nice.

The cannons had some awkward angles for me sometimes because it was hard to reach enemies that were closer to the stern/bow of the boat. Harpoons had a similar problem due to my issues with aiming properly. There is a trinket you can get that will help you line up shots better, though, so I liked that. I also liked having multiple weapon options to use against the sea monsters. They could have simply made it a cannon-focused game, but instead they chose to add some variety by including weapons suitable for close and distant combat – and there are also different elemental affinities for ammunition.

Even the sea monsters have a decent amount of variety in their attack types and patterns. Some enemies will shoot smaller enemies onto your ship to sabotage you by piercing holes into the deck. Other monsters will explode after enough hits, so you have to make sure that you shoot or smack them away from your ship before they self destruct. You just have to learn how each kind of monster works through trial and error; I was defeated many times due to a lack of knowledge on an enemy (or a simple and clumsy mistake).

The ship has a limited amount of hits that it can take (represented in plank form on the top left of the screen). The game unfortunately doesn’t display the enemies’ HP to help you decide which one to go after first. But for your ship’s health, you can pick up shields here and there, which will absorb one hit per shield to prevent the ship from being damaged. Occasionally you can find some planks to fix and patch any damage, but there’s no guarantee. If your ship takes on too much damage, it will capsize and you will wash ashore on the lighthouse island once more. When you are defeated, you will always start from the very beginning of the map again, and you can’t choose to start from a different section.

I was pretty slow on the uptake at first when it came to recognizing enemy attack patterns and aiming my cannons. So I found myself back on the island over and over again. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the co-op mode with someone, so I was flying sailing solo. It appears that you can only play co-op mode with one other person, and it has to be someone on your Switch’s friends list. I think that people may want to have the option to play with more than two players. However, adding more players may decrease the challenge of the game. I wish there was at least an online partnering system for people to use if they don’t know anyone with the game.

Playing alone meant that I had to figure out how to make some more strategic decisions, like reloading my cannons before going to the next space on the map. Or placing the ammo I use more often on the center pedestal. 😅 I am capable of learning from my mistakes, so I eventually managed to defeat most of the bosses – with the exception of what seemed to be the final boss (the “Eye of the Storm”). Your odds of success depend on your skill level when by yourself/with another player, the items you get, or simply making a mistake when distracted. Like hitting main menu on the pause screen when distracted during a boss battle. 😢

As a solo player, I naturally had a more difficult time with keeping all of my cannons loaded and making sure that the more dangerous enemies were defeated before they could destroy my boat. It can be difficult without another player, but it is possible. It just took me longer to make progress. There were also some minor issues, like the small font size and longer load times in between each section of the sea. But I think the game’s performance is pretty decent overall, and I had fun with it even as a solo player.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Ship of Fools is a clever, cute, and chaotic co-op roguelite that really makes you think fast about your next moves across the treacherous seas. The experience may have been smoother with a partner (and if we could connect with random players online). I also wanted more information on the icons’ meanings and certain mechanics like cannon upgrades. But even without those explanations, I was still able to understand the basics and steer myself through the troubled waters. It was fun to experiment with each Fool and their bonus abilities, and to try out different combinations of trinkets and artifacts in each run. I liked the character designs, and the soundtrack worked well with the environment. If you enjoy co-op games, you may want to “sea” for yourself how much fun you can have with Ship of Fools. 8/10