Captain Firebeard and the Bay of Crows

+++ easy 100 % Steam Achievements + okay Story for Fans of this VN Genre with Pirates (- no 5 Trading Cards because not enough POSITIV REVIEWS) Good for Achievement Hunters & VN Genre Fans without to high Quality Story Expectations Thx 4 reading. Hope u enjoy. GL HF <3

[i]* A free key of this title was given to me. Even so that didn’t affected my opinion of the final product.[/i] Summary: this is a kinetic visual novel (there’s no choices, you only read) with a mini game feature between chapters. You have the option of skipping it, but that will affect getting all the achievements. I actually enjoyed the mini game, it’s simple but somewhat fun. If you want something serious, I recommend getting another VN. This title is more of a comedy, there’s some silly details about it that will probably annoy you if you’re not in the mood to play something more “light”. For instance, Captain Firebeard is your stereotypical pirate character together with his crew. He even says “Argh!” a lot. Anyway, the novel has 10 chapters; but some of them are more focused on the mini game. It’s like a game made on RPG Maker: you control a cartoonish version of Firebeard and you have to collect coins, avoid traps and the people wanting to kill you, get power ups, etc. I’ve personally enjoyed since I like to play those sometimes, but if you’re only interested in the visual novel aspect of it… that might annoy you. There’s no way to save your progress during the mini game which means if you commit one mistake you can say bye to getting a specific achievement until you replay the level. Let’s talk about the visuals; the art style is good, it reminds me a lot of another pirate VN series on Steam called “Heileen”. The background songs are alright, they’re not amazing but aren’t annoying to the point of making you want to rip off your ears. The voice acting, however, was atrocious. It was honestly SO BAD that I had to turn off the sound of my computer. I’m sorry if this comes out as being rude. The voices were so exaggerated and I also hated the fake accents regarding the European characters. I know that the story itself is a comedy, but the VA was a bit too much in my opinion. 6/10. If you’re looking for a quick VN with gameplay and you don’t mind reading a simple story, this title can be a good option to buy when it gets on sale. It ain’t no masterpiece, but it’s not [i]that bad[/i]. Hopefully the sequel will be better! Also, I’d like to point out that [i]Captain Firebeard and the Bay of Crows[/i] was made in the TyranoBuilder engine, and there is a [b]huge[/b] improvement on the menu settings. Skipping read text got a lot faster and less buggy than other Sapphire Dragon VNs.

Captain Firebeard And The Bay Of Crows is an adventure visual novel both developed and published by Sapphire Dragon Productions. This title follows the adventures of the swashbuckling Captain Firebeard and his band of pirates as they attempt to pull off one of the biggest heists in all of history. Prepare to set sails for a thrilling escapade ripe with dangerous combat, dubious encounters and bountiful riches to be accquired as you attempt to make Captain Firebeard the king of all pirates...Blackbeard be darned!!! [h1]PRESENTATION[/h1] This visual novel has a fantastic presentation that includes some beautiful artwork on the characters and backgrounds throughout the story. The illustrations are filled with bright eyecatching colors and shading. Also, the characters change facial expressions depending on their current mood so that really helps with immersion although I must admit that there is a lack of ambient sound effects which, on the other hand, hinders immersion. One very noteworthy aspect of this V.N. is the inclusion of a very fun minigame that you play in order to accomplish various goals during the story such as sneaking into an armory to pillage weapons or assaulting a military compound. The minigame itself plays much like "Pac Man" if I had to compare it to anything. By replacing Pac Man with Captain Firebeard and the ghosts with enemy soldiers this is the basic framework of said minigame. Your objective is to collect a certain amount of coins scattered across the map while avoiding death at the hands of the cutlass wielding patrolling soldiers. There are a couple of cutlasses laying about which once accquired by Firebeard gives him the chance to kill the soldiers for a small amount of time. It's a very simple game but still quite entertaining nonetheless and it also adds a nice bit of gameplay to the visual novels narrative which is always a welcome addition in my opinion. The dialogue is also brilliantly voiced as the actors do a fantastic and highly believable job of capturing the spirit of this V.N.. The soundtrack is excellent and fits in well with the story and really kept to the overall pirate and caribbean theme. In summary, this wonderfully stylized novel takes you on quite a fascinating adventure from start to finish. [h1]CONCLUSION[/h1] I'm a big fan of pirates and adventure so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I truly enjoyed this visual novel because at first glance I was expecting it to be merely okay yet it turned out to be a much more enjoyable experience than I had anticipated. The story is engaging, the characters are very memorable, Captain Firebeard is hilarious and the inclusion of the minigame is a fantastic compliment to the wonderful narrative. As options go, there are a small amount of Steam Achievements to hunt down but sadly no Steam Trading Cards to collect. The basic visual novel settings for sound/volume control and text speed are present. Also, there is D.L.C. in the form of an orchestral soundtrack and "The Curse Of The Golden Crab" which tells an extended new story with one of the members of Captain Firebeards crew. In conclusion, Captain Firebeard And The Bay Of Crows was a thrilling adventure that any fan of the visual novel genre would be proud to be a part of so this title is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Sapphire Dragon Productions have released a number of games -a mixture of RPGMaker games and visual novels. Their visual novels tend to include mini-games most of which have been of the "match three" variety. These were at least tolerable. This title however is a kinetic novel (a visual novel withou choices) and as such I don't feel mini-games have any place in it whatsoever. Had they been the same type as featured in the previous visual novels it wouldn't have been as much of an issue but this time they instead chose to opt for a poorly implemented Pac-man knock-off. The only feature the game really has in it's favour are the achievements but as they are buggy I can't even recommend the game in that regard either. If you want a kinetic/visual novel look elsewhere. If you want Pac-man play Pac-man. If you want achievements then wait till the the game is in a bundle or on sale before buying it as you'll play it once and then hopefully forget all about it.

This pirate game (long title, can’t be bothered to write it all down) is a charming kinetic novel with a pac-man style minigame. They really should have just written that on the blurb instead but I understand that such a concise description isn’t great for marketing so you’ll have to get your gospel truths from me! In my usual style I will rattle through my categories: Story, Writing & Characters The plot is interesting and has a splash of real history, which I like a lot. Too many times have I seen things set in the Golden Age of Piracy where certain elements are taken from completely different centuries and then smashed together into one, ignoring historical accuracy. I can tell that everything here is really well researched and correct. The writing was sharp, witty and period accurate. The characters feel realistic and consistent and you do feel that you are on an exciting adventure, which is essential in a pirate tale. I liked the jokes a lot, especially those surrounding the hapless captain and his unlucky crew. My favorite character was probably Lady Wendy; something about powerful, calculating women just does it for me… mmmm Teresa May…. I also enjoyed that a fellow Frenchman was shown as being a bad-ass pirate hunter! That was maybe the best bit for me! Vive La France! Art Style Loved it! Character sprites are bursting with detail and the coloring is really very nice indeed. Great costumes and I really loved how many different expressions each character had. Same goes for the background art, brimming with detail and really does an awesome job of immersing us in the adventure. User Interface As I’ve been playing a lot of Visual Novels as of late I am beginning to realize the importance of UI for a good experience playing it. I think a good IU really does so much in making the reading experience a pleasure in Visual Novels. In the case of this Visual Novel the UI was very smooth and polished. I liked the pirate/nautical theme a lot and it was decorative yet not obtrusive. A very nice balance and maybe the strongest aspect to this game! Voice Acting This Visual Novel has voice acting! So we have an extra category. Now generally I am of the belief that a Visual Novel should only have voice acting if the acting is quite good. No voice acting is better than bad voice acting and personally I do feel perfectly capable of imagining the voices myself. In this case I felt the voice acting was generally good so I give it a pass! The occasional line here and there had poor delivery and I do feel there was a bit of a skill gap between certain actors but in general I felt that the voice acting did feel in line with the story. The actor that played the Lt. Carlos had really good pacing and the actress that played Lady Wendy was awesome! Music & Audio I liked the music a lot. It had a very authentic and pirate-y feel and very much what you’d expect from a pirate game: sea shanties, jigs, fiddle and accordion and a bit of flamenco. There were also a few orchestral tracks for the action scenes. Much like the backgrounds, the music did an awesome job of immersing one in the world of these pirates. Good use of SFX though I felt they could have had a little bit more. Audio leveling for the voice acting was generally good but there were moments where certain lines were very soft and other times certain lines were very loud. Minigame The minigame was cute, but in my opinion, unnecessary. Like it was fun and everything the first time and I can see why having it in the middle might be nice to take a break from reading (or in this case, listening) but all in all it is a bit tedious if you are just wanting to go through the story. Fortunately they put a skip button so yay! It’s just a pacman re-skin really not very hard. The way it was made was nice though, the menu, the items, sfx and controls felt good. It was well crafted but just not my cup of tea. Conclusion I’ve played a few other VN’s by this studio and if I’m honest it’s not necessarily their best one, but it is their most polished and I can definitely see big improvements with how they’re doing things. At six dollars for 3 hours gameplay it is a little pricey but I had a good time playing this and just for the hilarious jokes alone, I think it’s worth buying. Games that are truly funny and do tickle the funny bone are rare to find so do get it if you have 3 hours to kill! TL;DR Pleasant and easygoing Visual Novel with good polish. Not the best in the world given it’s price but still very amusing. Recommended 6.5/10

a good Visual Novel. can recommend it. the price is to high, but in offer for like -70% good.

I wouldn't exactly agree with the store description that claims this games has me 'holding my sides', but it was decent enough. I also wasn't 'at the edge of my seat' over the minigame... or at least not for any other reason than frustration when [spoiler]trying to go for a no-kill run for an achievement. I recommend saving often unless you wanna replay those parts. Because once you accidentally killed a dude, even if you game-over yourself to restart the level, it locks you out of the achievement for that playthrough.[/spoiler] This visual novel is kinetic. There's no choices or any sort of influence you have on the story. The sprites are relatively static, but occasionally there is a slight change in expression or the one or other arm position change, namely for the female pirate. There are no cutscenes, nor CGs, but all the character lines are voiced, so technically you could treat the VN like an audio book too if you felt ever so inclined. At least until the mini game is sprung on you. (5 times á 2 levels, so 10 times total.) It's not a bad game. I didn't notice any bugs or anything of the like. The story might even be more memorable than many others of the VNs in this price range. I'd give a neutral thumb if I could. Maybe if there was a different minigame or if the minigame itself was a bit different I'd be a bit more inclined to recommend. As it stands though, I'd say to only get this as part of a bundle or a decent sale percentage.

The art is good, the characters look really nice. The music is pleasant and passable. That's really all I can say that's positive though, sadly. Its no more than an hour's worth of reading content, with a dull and out of place minigame to pad out the play time (its pirate themed pac-man, with Firebeard collecting coins while avoiding officers and while it aesthetically makes sense, it has no connection to the story at all) between very short chapters. The voice acting was so unpleasant I turned it off before hearing more than 3 characters speak, and the option to do so is a blessing. The game ends in what I can only call the middle of the story at best, as absolutely *none* of the plot threads are resolved. Not the main set up, not the subplots, not the breadcrumbs dropped that could lead somewhere, nothing. There is no conclusion. There's build up to something but absolutely no resolution. Its like the author wrote an hour's worth and once the timer went off they hit publish right then and there and called it a day, finished or not. Also the paid DLC doesn't work, has never worked, and has still not been addressed to this day. I used a work around someone figured out in the forums and its a very short, silly few paragraphs involving a new character that resolves what happens to Dechamps. The rest of the cast is left in limbo. Cliffhangers work when leaving the reader a little room to decide what potential outcomes they like best. But regardless there is still a point to the story. Most things are resolved, there's some character growth, etc. There's none of that here. There's a small introduction that leads towards a plot, followed by a set up, a catastrophe, an improbable solution and then a literal "THE END" screen. I got this in a bundle at some point. Glad I didn't buy it on its own because its absolutely not worth the 10 (11 if you add in the dlc) dollars it costs. It wouldn't even be worth it on sale because there's just nothing here. Most of this dev's games I have played have been totally forgettable after completing, at best. But this is the worst offender yet because its not even its own contained story. Its a nothing more than a prologue for a story that was never written. I was hoping for something like a bite sized, dollar store version of the Heileen trilogy to pass the time for an evening or two while I take a small break from more physically demanding games but I'd have been much better off choosing just about anything else in my library.

Captain Firebeard and the Bay of Crows is a kinetic novel about some of the dumbest pirates in the world in search of treasure, interwoven with a Pac-Man But With Pirates minigame with ten stages. It also features full voice acting, ranging from kind of bad (Captain Firebeard and the Spanish officer) to okay but with microphone issues (Marianne, Ned) to actually okay. (the British woman and Capitaine Deschamps) Unfortunately, the actually okay ones are also the ones who show up closest to the end of the story. The Pac-Man elements are... well, they're playable, at least. I wouldn't really say they actually added much, but they were mostly not terrible, even if the controls sometimes felt unresponsive in a way that I just tried to avoid the floor spikes rather than dealing with my controls as far as trying to cross them. Unfortunately, the main part of a visual novel is the story. I'm not generally a fan of stories of a bunch of idiots doing stupid things, but beyond that, right after a climactic event where you may be getting invested in the story's outcome... that's the end, leaving everyone's fates rather open-ended and on a cliffhanger. (Except for Deschamps', I guess, if you buy the DLC. Except the DLC doesn't work, so you shouldn't do that.) Not recommended in most cases. It might be good for a laugh if you really want to read something about comically dumb pirates, but in that case, could I just recommend the Monkey Island remasters? ( On a side note, while the DLC's technical issues were far worse, I also had technical issues with this one, which is why I don't have any of the achievements. Greenworks not working and forcing me to launch the game manually instead of through Steam is sadly a recurring problem I've had, not just with this, but with several RPGMaker games which use it. )

I got this game as part of a promotion for free, but it's kind of great actually. The game is a fully voiced (english) kinetic novel with a funny minigame inside. The story is sometimes hilariously, sometimes stupid and full of sarcasm. It's all about piracy, companionship, treachery and the worst imaginable pirate captain of all times. I wouldn't buy it at full price, but it was definitely entertaining for an hour.