Mixing in the pirate theme with magic lore is PQube and Petoons Studio with their new Metroidvania title Curse of the Sea Rats. Starting off with a premise that is something you’d expect to see in a children’s animation movie and leading into a difficult game is a bold way to claim a young adult audience. Growing up with stories like this one and playing games in this style, it was easy to see why this game caught my attention. But now it is time to answer, did it live up to being an interesting game?

Story

As a group of prisoners on your final journey back to the mainland where you will pay for your crimes, likely with your lives, you come across a bit of misfortunate luck. On this boat, the evil pirate witch Flora Burn has turned everybody on board into a rat! Kidnapping an important child, the captain offers the prisoners a deal - save the child and take down Flora Burn so that, hopefully, they can return to being human again. In return, they will be pardoned and granted a second chance.

I like how straightforward the story is and that it is easy to describe. The amount of fantasy that goes into this type of story while keeping it simplistic is exactly what makes it so kid-friendly. Easy to follow, understandable and obvious goal, reward clearly a motivational aspect, and a concise evil boss to take down.

Gameplay

When you start the game, following the initial cutscene, you will be given the option to choose which character you want to play with. This game offers cooperative play, so if you are playing with a friend then here is where you both pick your character. Each character has a slightly different fighting style and a distinctly different power attack. This choice isn’t an end-all moment as you can change characters later on in the game, so don’t hesitate to give any of them a chance.

The game has control options for dashing, basic combo attacks, a powerful attack, parrying, and standard movement including jumping and ducking. These are the same for all characters, but as I mentioned their power attacks are different. You have to let the power attack charge up after use, but you can give it a try once you reach a character-changing area to see which one you like most.

Just like most Metroidvania’s, this game is basically one huge map that has to be uncovered slowly and they use locked gates to block off areas that are for after a specific accomplishment. As you traverse the map, you will run into multiple enemies, hidden rooms, treasures, boss fights, and more. Unfortunately, memory plays an important role with the map as it isn’t really properly color-coded, but it does at least highlight where boss fights are. But it is good to note, while all enemies respawn, bosses do not.

Along the journey, you’ll find multiple ways to improve your character. As you defeat enemies and find treasures, you will earn in-game currency that can be used at shops to get improvement items (often temporary) and other currency used as points in the skill tree to improve your abilities and attacks permanently. Shops, like all other aspects of the game, must be found on the map but can be accessed anytime once found.

One big thing they did right was making fast travel in the game simple. All you have to do is find the section of the map that connects to the other fast travel spots on the map and then you can travel between these spots anytime. Quick ways around the map is always a great choice!

Audio and Visuals

I’m personally a fan of the art style in the game as it is fitting to the lore type and general concept of the game. Given it is hand-drawn, it is easy to see why the game has the aesthetic of a classic animated movie that could have fit with the collection released back in the late 80s and early 90s. It is visually pleasing and a great art style choice to go with.

As for the music and sound effects in the game, they did a good job of having it all be fitting although not too exciting. I wasn’t particularly impressed by the game’s music style, but I can say that it is nice to listen to while venturing through the map.

Replayability

There are a lot of areas on the map to uncover and multiple different characters to play as, so there is a bit of reason to play the game thoroughly. They do have some side stuff to do that makes the game fun as side objectives are a good way to break up the monotony, but the reward isn’t always… well, rewarding.

What It Could Have Done Better

The general map style should be crisp and clear to players when they open it and look around. Finding pathways was harder than it needed to be as some pathways were not noticeable being on the edge of the map. Plus, the color coding areas aspect was lost on this title and that is a majorly helpful aspect to general Metroidvania maps.

As for the combat, it could have used some more variety. Sure, you can unlock a few things in the skill tree, but that takes time and sometimes it’s nice to just unlock techniques more quickly. This could have been fixed by having a third tree that features combat techniques separate from the combat tree which had a lot of focus on damage.

Verdict

Curse of the Sea Rats is a fun ‘Ratroidvania’ that could just use a few tweaks to be a great title! Perhaps with a few updates, the game will live up better to the genre it is made for, but as it is now, it is a fairly decent game that does offer what it was designed to. While I enjoyed the game pretty well, it is one I recommend getting after a few updates or while it is on sale.

Curse of the Sea Rats brings is out now on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.