| Sea of Remnants | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Register and Pre-Order | Review |
Sea of Remnants is turn-based action adventure game that centers around the daily life of pirates and a protagonist with missing memories. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the playtest, and more.
Everything We Know About Sea of Remnants
Sea of Remnants Plot
In Sea of Remnants, you play as an amnesiac sailor embarking on a perilous voyage with a mysterious girl, both drawn to the infamous, cursed Sea of Remnants—a place rumored to offer immense riches at the cost of one's very identity each time one fails. The sea itself leading there is formed from the memories of lost sailors, shaping its eerie magenta currents, dangerous islands, and monstrous lairs.
Sea of Remnants Gameplay
Sea of Remnants is an action RPG where players explore the oceans in search of the titular Sea of Remnants
to regain their lost memories. The ocean of Sea of Remnants will have players discovering lost islands and tribes, navigating treacherous weather systems, and fight other ships in naval combat.
It mixes exploring the seas with exploring Orbtopia, the game's central hub and main city which transforms as the game progresses. Players can also interact with NPCs, take on sidequests, and find random battle encounters. Along the way, players will also sail into different caves and dungeons full of puzzles to solve and treasure to find while exploring the area.
Sea of Remnants Release Date
Sea of Remnants has no specific release date yet. However, it is a set to release within 2026 for PC, PS5, Android, and iOS.
Sea of Remnants Review (Wanderer Test)
Massive in More Ways Than One
Honestly speaking, I wasn’t expecting Sea of Remnants to be a mobile game back when the trailer was first released last year. Judging purely by its visuals, I thought it was going to be a PC or Console title, despite the rather simple-looking gameplay.
Although that may just be stubbornness talking. I mean, look at how crazy gorgeous Endfield is…
Anyway! As an avid enjoyer of losing all of my hard-earned money rolling for characters in a gacha system that's prevalently used in mobile games, I wasn't going to let this opportunity to check Sea of Remnants for myself slip by. And after several days of playing, I must say...
I am cautiously optimistic about everything.
What Even is Sea of Remnants, Anyway?
I would totally understand if you haven’t heard of Sea of Remnants in any major capacity since its announcement. After all, the conversation regarding upcoming mobile games recently has been largely dominated by much-awaited titles such as the recently released Arknights Endfield (the factory must grow), Dragon Traveler (for some strange reason), Ananta, Silver Palace, and Neverness to Everness.
Maybe its non-anime stylization is partly to blame?
Gameplay-wise, it feels like a weird mix of Honkai: Star Rail and, I guess, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, where you sneak around stabbing stuff and looking for loot every time you make a stop on your adventures in the Astral Expre—I mean, high seas. It’s all very dynamic thanks to the openness of the maps and the abundance of chests and drops around every area.
The game’s brisk pacing is complemented by the bounciness and exaggerated nature of its character animations, a clear expression of the game’s liveliness that works hand in hand with the vibrant colors of the overworld and even the underground. Like, it’s not rare for them to jump and defy gravity for a good few moments just so they can spin in a way that would remind you of old cartoons like Looney Tunes.
In a way, it also serves as an endearing contrast to the story’s rather heavy themes surrounding existential crisis and death. I mean, it’s kind of hard to put your head down and wallow in the emptiness of the main character’s lack of memories and persistent supernatural visions completely when the people around you regularly engage in fisticuffs that kick up dirt comically, right?
It’s Also a Roguelike
On top of having the seas as your oyster, a very familiar turn-based combat system (if you’ve played a lot of mobile games), and a rudimentary action stealth experience, Sea of Remnants also has basic roguelike mechanics stuffed into the exploration sections without making the whole thing overwhelming.
…Yes, there’s a sneak mechanic in this game, complete with a basic ARPG staple combo system stapled haphazardly onto it—which, strangely enough, is mostly followed by turn-based combat if you don’t outright delete your target from existence after the first few stab wounds. At that point, it’s impossible not to question the importance of the mechanic, but I digress.
Anyway, the roguelike mechanics manifest themselves in the game’s equipment system, where you can gear your characters with the bloodied clothes and carcasses of enemies after defeating them, as well as a minor feature where you can lose all the booty you’ve gained if your party gets wiped before you get the opportunity to send it all back via courier or finish the stage.
Both features are unintrusive to the overall experience, but they absolutely do their job of adding a bit of suspense to your gameplay the moment you start seeing your characters’ health drop low while you’re carrying high-value goodies in your bag.
The Combat is More Complex Than It Seems
But what I truly enjoy about Sea of Remnants is its core combat system. At first glance, it may seem straightforward, especially for those who’ve played Honkai: Star Rail or Etheria Restart for any significant amount of time. After all, it features many familiar mobile game staples, such as elemental weaknesses, skills, and ultimates.
What sets it apart, though, is an entirely new layer that utilizes dice in various ways. For example, if you fail to unalive an enemy with your sneak attack, you’re thrown into a turn-based battle where initiative is decided by a dice roll. If you manage to roll above a specific number assigned to the enemy, you enter the fight with all of your characters at the ready after dealing a powerful cheap shot against every unfortunate target facing you. If you fail, however, you only gain the turn order advantage, not the initial burst of damage.
Dice also play an active role in direct combat beyond deciding chance-based effects. Basic attacks can be empowered by expending dice earned as the fight progresses, for example, allowing you to chain multiple attacks after strings of good rolls.
Two-stage skills and ultimates, along with the various effects from gear, earned skills, and classes (yes, this game has class progression for every character), further expand your combat options. These systems allow characters to specialize or function as general-use units, all with an added touch of randomness.
While they’re definitely not genre-redefining, it’s more than enough to give the combat a distinct identity among its peers.
Massive File Size, Tiny Performance Optimizations
Unfortunately, that’s about where all of my major praises for the game end. Sure, there are other noteworthy positives in Sea of Remnants, such as its surprisingly deep character customization and engaging ship battles, but these are the kinds of things you only experience occasionally in the grand scheme of things.
Compared to that, there’s one issue that will perpetually plague you—or rather, your system—throughout the entire time the game sits on your drive: its file size.
For reference, Arknights Endfield, a semi-open-world mobile game, clocks in at 45 GB. Meanwhile, Wuthering Waves, a large open-world title, takes up 125 GB after almost two years of updates. Genshin Impact, on the other hand, has just passed 100 GB.
So how big is Sea of Remnants? Well… it’s almost as large as Genshin Impact at 92 GB. Yes, this game, in its closed playtest version, is already hitting the same kind of file size as a massive open-world title that has been running for several years. Pure insanity. Imagine how big it will be on mobile, then.
Now, I don’t know where all those bytes are going, especially considering that one of my issues with the game involves the random lack of voice acting here and there, but that’s frankly unforgivable given the resources of the developer. I do have a guess, though.
One of the major issues I kept running into while playing was the sheer number of bugs caused by the heavy visual load. These range from minor hiccups, like characters T-posing before fully loading into the world, to outright game-breaking problems, such as quest-essential interactables phasing in and out of existence or the game refusing to load while background assets sit half-awake on the screen. Mind you, I did install this game on an SSD after the HDD didn't fare well, but it was still there.
Is this the full extent of Sea of Remnants’ current issues? Definitely not. There are also visual inconsistencies, such as entire ship sails manifesting out of nowhere between gameplay and cutscenes, numerous typos, grammatical and translation errors (do not hire a localizer, by the way. Just get a translator), cutscenes dropping frames like hot potatoes, and more. Controller play is insanely clunky, too, because for some reason the game only detects eight directions on the analog stick.
Oh, and the way you obtain character progression materials, and even the simple act of resting, is also a massive pain in the behind. Like, why do I need to play through an entire cooking minigame just to restore my characters’ HP without feeling like I’m wasting resources? And why do I have to go out of my way to engage in a 20-odd-minute run just to farm a single material to unlock a class for one character?
But really, you won’t even be able to experience most of these problems if you don’t have the storage space to install the game in the first place. Hopefully, this is simply a case of redundant files bloating an early build. The game is shaping up to be a strong competitor on the platform, after all. And if it does release with all of its admittedly minor yet strangely overwhelming issues resolved, I genuinely think it could become a juggernaut in the mobile space.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||||
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 Steam |
 PlayStation |
 Google Play |
 App Store |
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| Price | TBA | ||||||||
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Sea of Remnants Product Information
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| Title | SEA OF REMNANTS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Developer | Joker Studio |
| Publisher | NetEase Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Mobile, PS5 |
| Genre | Action, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Sea of Remnants Official Website |
